up short; Mr. Pedgift seemed to be nettled on his side.

"'If that is the light in which you see my advice, sir,' he said, 'the
less you have of it for the future, the better. Your character and
position are publicly involved in this matter between yourself and Miss
Gwilt; and you persist, at a most critical moment, in taking a course of
your own, which I believe will end badly. After what I have already said
and done in this very serious case, I can't consent to go on with it
with both my hands tied, and I can't drop it with credit to myself while
I remain publicly known as your solicitor. You leave me no alternative,
sir, but to resign the honor of acting as your legal adviser.' 'I
am sorry to hear it,' says Mr. Armadale, 'but I have suffered enough
already through interfering with Miss Gwilt. I can't and won't stir any
further in the matter.' '_You_ may not stir any further in it, sir,'
says Mr. Pedgift, 'and _I_ shall not stir any further in it, for it
has ceased to be a question of professional interest to me. But mark my
words, Mr. Armadale, you are not at the end of this business yet. Some
other person's curiosity may go on from the point where you (and I) have
stopped; and some other person's hand may let the broad daylight in yet
on Miss Gwilt.'

"I report their language, dear madam, almost word for word, I believe,
as I heard it. It produced an indescribable impression on me; it filled
me, I hardly know why, with quite a panic of alarm. I don't at all
understand it, and I understand still less what happened immediately
afterward.

"Mr. Pedgift's voice, when he said those last words, sounded dreadfully
close to me. He must have been speaking at the open window, and he must,
I fear, have seen me under it. I had time, before he left the house,
to get out quietly from among the laurels, but not to get back to the
office. Accordingly I walked away along the drive toward the lodge, as
if I was going on some errand connected with the steward's business.

"Before long, Mr. Pedgift overtook me in his gig, and stopped. 'So _you_
feel some curiosity about Miss Gwilt, do you?' he said. 'Gratify your
curiosity by all means; _I_ don't object to it.' I felt naturally
nervous, but I managed to ask him what he meant. He didn't answer; he
only looked down at me from the gig in a very odd manner, and laughed.
'I have known stranger things happen even than _that_!' he said to
himself suddenly, and drove off.

"I have ventur