Produced by Darleen Dove, Shannon Barker, Cathy Maxam, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) [Illustration: THEY WERE AS OBLIVIOUS OF THEIR PERIL AS TRISTAN AND ISOLDE [See page 405]] WHAT WILL PEOPLE SAY? A NOVEL BY RUPERT HUGHES ILLUSTRATED [Illustration] HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON MCMXIV COPYRIGHT, 1914. BY HARPER & BROTHERS PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PUBLISHED APRIL, 1914 ILLUSTRATIONS THEY WERE AS OBLIVIOUS OF THEIR PERIL AS TRISTAN AND ISOLDE _Frontispiece_ AND NOW DESIGN EMERGED, A WOMAN STOOD REVEALED _Facing p. 18_ "THERE'S THAT OTHER ME DOWN IN THE POOL, WATCHING THIS ME" _Facing p. 252_ HER OBSTINATE PLUCK BEWILDERED HIM _Facing p. 480_ WHAT WILL PEOPLE SAY? CHAPTER I Fifth Avenue at flood-tide was a boiling surf of automobiles. But at nearly every corner a policeman succeeded where King Canute had failed, and checked the sea or let it pass with a nod or a jerk of thumb. The young army officer just home-come from the Philippines felt that he was in a sense a policeman himself, for he had spent his last few years keeping savage tribes in outward peace. When he was away or asleep the Moros rioted at will. And so the traffic-officer of this other extreme of civilization kept these motor-Moros in orderly array only so long as he kept them in sight. One glare from under his vizor brought the millionaire's limousine to a sharp stop, or sent it shivering back into position. But once the vista ahead was free of uniforms all the clutches leaped to the high; life and limb were gaily jeopardized, and the most appalling risks run with ecstasy. The law of New York streets and roads forbids a car to commit at any time a higher speed than thirty miles an hour; and never a man that owns one but would blush to confess it incapable of breaking that law. As Lieutenant Forbes watched the surge of automobiles from the superior height of a motor-bus it amused him to see how little people lose of the childhood spirit of truancy and adventure. All this grown-up, sophisticated world seemed to be run like a school, with joyous deviltry whenever and wherever the teacher's back was turned, but woe to whoso was caught; every one winking at guilt till authority detected it, then every one solemnly approving the punishment.