and of bribery.

The discovery for a moment almost overwhelmed her once more; but the
presence of another forced her to put a restraint upon her feelings. She
tried to look unconcerned, and turning away her eyes, she sat in the
same position for some time longer. But beneath the calm which her
pride forced her to assume her heart throbbed painfully, and her
thoughts dwelt with something almost like despair upon her present
situation.

But Edith had a strong and resolute soul in spite of her slender and
fragile frame; she had also an elastic disposition, which rose up
swiftly from any prostration, and refused to be cast down utterly. So
now this strength of her nature asserted itself; and triumphing over her
momentary weakness, she resolved to go at once and see Wiggins himself.
With these subordinates she had nothing to do. Her business was with
Wiggins, and with Wiggins alone.

Yet the thought of an interview had something in it which was strangely
repugnant to Edith. The aspect of her two jailers seemed to her to be
repellent in the extreme. That white old man, with the solemn mystery
of his eyes, that weird old woman, with her keen, vigilant
outlook--these were the ones who now held her in restraint, and with
these she had to come in conflict. In both of them there seemed
something uncanny, and Edith could not help feeling that in the lives of
both of these there was some mystery that passed her comprehension.

Still, uncanny or not, whatever might be the mystery of her jailers,
they remained her jailers and nothing less. It was against this thought
that the proud soul of Edith chafed and fretted. It was a thought which