ashamed
to report what Mr. Pedgift said on his side. He has behaved kindly to
me, I know. But if he was my own brother, I could never forgive him the
tone in which he spoke of you, and the obstinacy with which he tried to
make Mr. Armadale change his mind.

"He began by attacking Mr. Midwinter. He declared that Mr. Midwinter's
opinion was the very worst opinion that could be taken; for it was quite
plain that you, dear madam, had twisted him round your finger. Producing
no effect by this coarse suggestion (which nobody who knows you could
for a moment believe), Mr. Pedgift next referred to Miss Milroy, and
asked Mr. Armadale if he had given up all idea of protecting her. What
this meant I cannot imagine. I can only report it for your private
consideration. Mr. Armadale briefly answered that he had his own plan
for protecting Miss Milroy, and that the circumstances were altered in
that quarter, or words to a similar effect. Still Mr. Pedgift persisted.
He went on (I blush to mention) from bad to worse. He tried to persuade
Mr. Armadale next to bring an action at law against one or other of
the persons who had been most strongly condemning his conduct in the
neighborhood, for the purpose--I really hardly know how to write it--of
getting you into the witness-box. And worse yet: when Mr. Armadale still
said No, Mr. Pedgift, after having, as I suspected by the sound of his
voice, been on the point of leaving the room, artfully came back, and
proposed sending for a detective officer from London, simply to look at
you. 'The whole of this mystery about Miss Gwilt's true character,' he
said, 'may turn on a question of identity. It won't cost much to have
a man down from London; and it's worth trying whether her face is or is
not known at headquarters to the police.' I again and again assure you,
dearest lady, that I only repeat those abominable words from a sense of
duty toward yourself. I shook--I declare I shook from head to foot when
I heard them.

"To resume, for there is more to tell you.

"Mr. Armadale (to his credit--I don't deny it, though I don't like him)
still said No. He appeared to be getting irritated under Mr. Pedgift's
persistence, and he spoke in a somewhat hasty way. 'You persuaded me on
the last occasion when we talked about this,' he said, 'to do something
that I have been since heartily ashamed of. You won't succeed in
persuading me, Mr. Pedgift, a second time.' Those were his words. Mr.
Pedgift took him