h exposure--exposure of some kind, there
can be no doubt, after what you discovered in London--she turns your
honorable silence to the best possible account, and leaves the major's
service in the character of a martyr. Once out of the house, what does
she do next? She boldly stops in the neighborhood, and serves three
excellent purposes by doing so. In the first place, she shows everybody
that she is not afraid of facing another attack on her reputation. In
the second place, she is close at hand to twist you round her little
finger, and to become Mrs. Armadale in spite of circumstances, if you
(and I) allow her the opportunity. In the third place, if you (and I)
are wise enough to distrust her, she is equally wise on her side, and
doesn't give us the first great chance of following her to London, and
associating her with her accomplices. Is this the conduct of an unhappy
woman who has lost her character in a moment of weakness, and who has
been driven unwillingly into a deception to get it back again?"

"You put it cleverly," said Allan, answering with marked reluctance; "I
can't deny that you put it cleverly."

"Your own common sense, Mr. Armadale, is beginning to tell you that I
put it justly," said Pedgift Senior. "I don't presume to say yet what
this woman's connection may be with those people at Pimlico. All I
assert is that it is not the connection you suppose. Having stated the
facts so far, I have only to add my own personal impression of Miss
Gwilt. I won't shock you, if I can help it; I'll try if I can't put it
cleverly again. She came to my office (as I told you in my letter), no
doubt to make friends with your lawyer, if she could; she came to tell
me, in the most forgiving and Christian manner, that she didn't blame
_you_."

"Do you ever believe in anybody, Mr. Pedgift?" interposed Allan.

"Sometimes, Mr. Armadale," returned Pedgift the elder, as unabashed as
ever. "I believe as often as a lawyer can. To proceed, sir. When I
was in the criminal branch of practice, it fell to my lot to take
instructions for the defense of women committed for trial from the
women's own lips. Whatever other difference there might be among them,
I got, in time, to notice, among those who were particularly wicked and
unquestionably guilty, one point in which they all resembled each other.
Tall and short, old and young, handsome and ugly, they all had a secret
self-possession that nothing could shake. On the surface they were