"Oh yes; I am not interfered with. As long as I stay inside the Hall I am left to myself--only I am watched, of course, as I told you."
"Of course; but, at any rate, it seems a sort of honorable captivity. You are not like a captive in a dungeon, for instance."
"Would you rather be here, as you are, or at Miss Plympton's school as a sort of dependent?"
"Here, of course. I could not go back there, and face them all."
"Would you rather live here or in some mean lodging, without money to pay your board?"
"There are worse situations in the world than this, then?"
"By leaving this just now you would be doing worse, then?"
"Well, then, may it not be better for you to remain here, for the present at least, until you hear something from Sir Lionel Dudleigh?"
"Certainly the first thing for you to do is to see a lawyer."
"Of course. I shall be most happy. Only answer me this: If a lawyer takes up your case, shall you be willing to live here, or shall you insist on leaving?"
"I should prefer leaving," said Edith; "but at the same time, if a lawyer has my case, and I can feel that something is being done, I can be content here, at least for a time, until I hear from Sir Lionel--or Miss Plympton."
"Well, then, for the present at least, you give up the idea of fighting your way out?"
"Then all that I have to do is to get a lawyer for you, and write to Sir Lionel, wherever he is."
"You will not let Wiggins keep my lawyer away?" said Edith, in an imploring voice.
"Oh, I fancy he has such a wholesome dread of lawyers that he won't try to keep one out. At any rate, these lawyers have all kinds of ways, you know, of getting places."
"And of getting people out of places, too, I hope."
So Edith found herself compelled to face the difficulties of her present situation a little longer, and endure as best she could the restraint of her imprisonment.
The barriers which Wiggins had raised between Edith and the outer world had thus been surmounted by two persons--first, Mowbray, and second, Little Dudleigh. Mowbray had come and gone without any sign of objection or remonstrance from her jailer; and now Edith could not help wondering at the facility with which the new-comer, Dudleigh, passed and repassed those jealously guarded limits. Dudleigh's power arose from some knowledge of the past history of Wiggins, but the knowledge did not seem very definite, and she could not help wondering how long his visits would be tolerated.