own feelings toward Dudleigh. She felt confident of his love toward her,
and in the abhorrence with which she recoiled from the terrible future
which Wiggins was planning for her she was able to contemplate
Dudleigh's passion with complacency. She did not love the little man,
but if he could save her from the horror that rose before her, she
resolved to shrink from no sacrifice of feeling, but grant him whatever
reward he might claim.

Time passed. Six weeks were over, but there were no signs of Dudleigh.
The suspense of Edith now became terrible. She began to fear that
Wiggins had shut him out, and had refused to allow him to enter again.
If this were so, and if Dudleigh had submitted to such exclusion, then
all was indeed lost. But Edith would not yet believe it. She clung to
hope, and since he had said "six or eight weeks," she thought that she
might wait the extreme limit mentioned by him before yielding to
despair.

Eight weeks passed.

On the day when those weeks had expired Edith found herself in a fever
of suspense, devoured by the most intolerable impatience, with all her
thoughts and feelings now centred upon Dudleigh, and her last hope fixed
upon him only.

* * * * *




CHAPTER XXVII.