JAILER AND CAPTIVE.
On the following day Edith felt stronger, and calling Mrs. Dunbar, she
sent her to Wiggins with a request that the latter should meet her in
the drawing-room. She then walked through the long hall on her way down
stairs. Every thing looked as it did before her illness, except that one
change had taken place which arrested her attention the moment she
entered the drawing-room.
Over the chimney-piece a portrait had been hung--a portrait in a large
gilt frame, which looked as though it had been painted but recently. It
was a portrait of Leon Dudleigh. On catching sight of this she felt as
if she had been rooted to the spot. She looked at it for a short time
with compressed lips, frowning brow, and clinched hands after which she
walked away and flung herself into a chair.
Wiggins was evidently in no hurry, for it was more than half an hour
before he made his appearance. Edith sat in her chair, waiting for his
approach. The traces of her recent illness were very visible in the
pallor of her face, and in her thin, transparent hands. Her large eyes
seemed larger than ever, as they glowed luminously from their cavernous
depths, with a darker hue around each, as is often seen in cases of
sickness or debility, while upon her face there was an expression of
profound sadness that seemed fixed and unalterable.
But in the tone with which she addressed Wiggins there was nothing like
sadness. It was proud, cold, stern, and full of bitterest hostility.
“I have sent for you,” she began, “because you, Wiggins, are concerned
as much as I myself am in the issue of this business about which I am
going to speak. I have suffered a very gross outrage, but I still have
confidence both in a just Heaven and in the laws of the land. This
ruffian, who now it seems calls himself Leon Dudleigh--your
confederate--has, with your assistance, cheated me into taking part in a
ceremony which he calls a marriage. What you propose to gain for
yourself by this I can not imagine; for it seems to me that it would
have been rather for your advantage to remain the sole master of your
ward than to help some one else to share your authority. But for your
purposes I care nothing--the evil is done. Yet if this Leon Dudleigh or
you think that I will sit tamely down under such an intolerable wrong,
you are miserably mistaken. Sooner or later I shall be avenged. Sooner
or later I shall gain my freedom, and then my turn shall come. I wish
you to see that there is danger before you; and I wish you also to
understand that it is for your interest to be my sole master, as you
were before. I have sent for you, then, to ask you, Wiggins, to expel
this man Leon Dudleigh from the house. Be my guardian again, and I will
be your ward. More: I agree to remain here in a state of passive
endurance for a reasonable time--one or two years, for instance; and I
promise during that time to make no complaint. Do this--drive this man
away--and you shall have no reason to regret it. On the other hand;
remember there is an alternative. Villain though this man is, I may come
to terms with him, and buy my liberty from him by giving him half of the
estate, or even the whole of it. In that case it seems to me that you
would lose every thing, for Leon Dudleigh is as great a villain as
yourself.”
As Edith spoke, Wiggins listened most attentively. He had seated
himself not far from her, and after one look at her had fixed his eyes
on the floor. He waited patiently until she had said all she wished to
say. Edith herself had not hoped to gain much by this interview, but
she hoped at least to be able to discover something concerning the
nature of the partnership which she supposed to exist among her enemies,
and something perhaps about their plans. The averted face of Wiggins
seemed to her the attitude of conscious guilt; but she felt a little
puzzled at signs of emotion which he exhibited, and which seemed hardly
the result of conscious guilt. Once or twice a perceptible shudder
passed through his frame; his bent head bowed lower; he covered his face
with his hands; and at her last words there came from him a low moan
that seemed to indicate suffering.
“It's his acting,” she thought. “I wonder what his next pretense will
be?”
Wiggins sat for some minutes without saying a word. When at length he
raised his head he did not look at Edith, but fastened his eyes on
vacancy, and went on to speak in a low voice.
“Your remarks,” said he, “are all based on a misconception. This man is
no confederate of mine. I have no confederate. I--I work out my
purpose--by myself.”
“I'm sure I wish that I could believe this,” said Edith; “but
unfortunately Mrs. Dunbar espouses his cause with so much warmth and
enthusiasm that I am forced to conclude that this Leon Dudleigh must be
a very highly valued or very valuable friend to both of you.”
“In this case,” said Wiggins, “Mrs. Dunbar and I have different
feelings.”
Instead of feeling gratified at this disclaimer of any connection with
Leon Dudleigh, Edith felt dissatisfied, and somewhat disconcerted. It
seemed to her that Wiggins was trying to baffle her and throw her off
the right track. She had hoped that by speaking out frankly her whole
mind she might induce him to come to some agreement with her; but by his
answers she saw that he was not in the least degree affected by her
warnings, or her threats, or her offers.
“This Leon Dudleigh,” said she, “has all along acted sufficiently like a
confederate of yours to make me think that he is one.”
“How?”
“By coming into these grounds at all times; by having privileges equal
in all respects to your own; by handing over those privileges to his spy
and emissary--the one who took the name of Lieutenant Dudleigh. Surely
all this is enough to make me think that he must be your confederate.”
“You are altogether mistaken,” said Wiggins, quietly.
“He told some idle story once,” said Edith, anxious to draw more out of
Wiggins than these short answers, “about some power which he had over
you. He asserted that you were afraid of him. He said that you dared not
keep him out of the park. He said that his power over you arose from his
knowledge of certain past crimes of yours.”
“When he said that,” remarked Wiggins, “he said what was false.”
“Why, then, did you allow him to come here?”
“I did so for reasons that I do not feel at liberty to explain--just
now. I will only say that the reasons were altogether different from
those which he stated.”
Of this Edith did not believe a word; yet she felt completely baffled,
and did not know what to say to this man, who thus met all her
assertions with denials, and spoke in the calm, lofty tone of conscious
truth. But this, she thought, was only his “acting.”
“I only hope that this is so,” said she; “but supposing that it is so, I
should like very much to know what you feel disposed to do. The claim
that this man asserts over me is utterly false. It is a mockery. If he
is really not your confederate, you will see, I am sure, that it is not
for your own interest to sustain him in his attempt to maintain his
claim. I wish, therefore, to know exactly what it is that you feel
willing to do.”
“Your situation,” said Wiggins, “is a most unhappy one. I will do all
that I can to prevent it from becoming more so. If this man annoys you,
I will defend you against him, whatever it may cost.”
This sounded well; yet still Edith was not satisfied. It seemed to her
too much like an empty promise which he had no idea of fulfilling.
“How will you defend me?” she asked. “This man lives here now. He
asserts that he has the right to do so. He has published what he calls
my marriage to him in the newspapers. He calls himself my husband. All
this is a wrong and an insult to me. His presence here is a perpetual
menace. When he is absent he leaves a reminder of himself,” she
continued, in a more bitter tone, glancing toward the portrait. “Now I
wish to know what you will do. Will you prevent him from coming here?
Will you send him away, either in your name or in mine? You are easily
able to keep out my friends; will you keep out my enemies?”
“This man,” said Wiggins, “shall soon give you no more trouble.”
“Soon--what do you mean by soon?” asked Edith, impatiently.
“As soon as my plans will allow me to proceed to extremities with him.”
“Your plans!” repeated Edith. “You are always bringing up your plans.
Whatever is concerned, you plead your plans. They form a sufficient
excuse for you to refuse the commonest justice. And yet what I ask is
certainly for your own interests.”
“If you knew me better,” said Wiggins, “you would not appeal to my
interests. I have not generally fashioned my life with regard to my own
advantage. Some day you will see this. You, at least, should be the last
one to complain of my plans, since they refer exclusively to the
vindication of your injured father.”
“So you have said before,” said Edith, coldly. “Those plans must be very
convenient, since you use them to excuse every possible act of yours.”
“You will not have to wait long now,” said Wiggins, in a weary voice, as
though this interview was too much for his endurance--“not very long. I
have heard to-day of something which is very favorable. Since the trial
certain documents and other articles have been kept by the authorities,
and an application has been made for these, with a view to the
establishment of your father's innocence. I have recently heard that the
application is about to be granted.”
“You always answer my appeals for common justice,” said Edith, with
unchanged coldness, “by some reference to my father. It seems to me
that if you had wished to vindicate his innocence, it would have been
better to do so while he was alive. If you had done so, it might have
been better for yourself in the end. But now these allusions are idle
and worse than useless. They have no effect on me whatever. I value them
at what they are worth.”
With these words Edith rose and left the room. She returned to her own
apartments with a feeling of profound dejection and disappointment. Of
Wiggins she could make nothing. He promised, but his promises were too
vague to afford satisfaction.
Leon Dudleigh was away now, but would probably be back before long. As
she had failed with Wiggins, only one thing remained, and that was to
see Leon. She was resolved to meet him at once on his arrival, and
fight out once for all that battle which was inevitable between herself
and him.
* * * * *