The Dark Star

Nor did the evening papers add anything material to the account,

except to say that Brandes had been interviewed in his office at the

Silhouette Theatre and that he stated that he had not engaged in any

personal encounter with anybody, had not seen Max Venem in months, had

not been near the Hotel Knickerbocker, and knew nothing about the

affair in question.

He also permitted a dark hint or two to escape him concerning possible

suits for defamation of character against irresponsible newspapers.

The accounts in the various evening editions agreed, however, that

when interviewed, Mr. Brandes was nursing a black eye and a badly

swollen lip, which, according to him, he had acquired in a playful

sparring encounter with his business manager, Mr. Benjamin Stull.

And that was all; the big town had neither time nor inclination to

notice either Brandes or Venem any further; Broadway completed the

story for its own edification, and, by degrees, arrived at its own

conclusions. Only nobody could discover who was the young girl

concerned, or where she came from or what might be her name. And,

after a few days, Broadway, also, forgot the matter amid the tarnished

tinsel and raucous noises of its own mean and multifarious

preoccupations.