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