Mrs. Dunbar.

"You have all mistaken me," said she, with bitter hostility; "you have
imagined that you had to deal with some silly child. But this shall do
none of you any good. You may kill me among you, but I am not afraid to
die. Death itself will be welcome rather than submission to that foul
miscreant, that vulgar coward, who takes advantage of a contemptible
trick, and pretends that there was a marriage. I say this to you--that I
defy him and all of you, and will defy you all--yes, to the bitter end;
and you may go and tell this to your wretched confederates."

As Edith said this, Mrs. Dunbar looked at her; and if there could have
appeared upon that face the signs of a wounded heart--a heart cut and
stung to its inmost fibre--the face that confronted Edith showed all
this at that moment.

"Confederates!" she repeated.

"Yes, you and Wiggins and this villain who, you say, is now living
here."

"What, Leon!"

"Leon! Is that his name! Leon Dudleigh! Well, whatever name he chooses
to bear, it is all the same; though it seems strange that he should
adopt a stainless name like that of Dudleigh."

"Yes, that is his name," said Mrs. Dunbar, wearily.

"Till he assumes some other," said Edith. "But they are all assumed