The Living Link Part 39

"Come," said Leon, stooping and lifting him up; "you understand all this. Don't you go on blubbering in this fas.h.i.+on. I don't mind her and _you_ mustn't. Come, you tell her, for she'll keep yelling after you all night till you do."

Lieutenant Dudleigh rose at this, and leaned heavily upon Leon's arm.

"You were not--married--to--to--me," said he at last.

"What! Then you too were false all along!" said Edith, in a voice that seemed to come from a broken heart.

The false friend made no reply.

"Well, Mrs. Dudleigh," said Leon, coolly, "for your information I will simply state that the--ahem--lieutenant here is my very particular friend--in fact, my most intimate and most valued friend--and in his tender affection for me he undertook this little affair at my instigation. It's all my act, all through, every bit of it, but the carrying out of the details was--ahem--his. The marriage, however, is perfectly valid. The banns were published all right. So you may feel quite at ease."

"Oh," cried Edith, "how basely, how terribly, I have been deceived! And it is all lies! It was all lies, lies, lies from the beginning!"

Suddenly a fierce thrill of indignation flashed through her. She started to her feet.

"It is all a lie from beginning to end!" she exclaimed, in a voice which was totally changed from that wail of despair which had been heard once before. It was a firm, proud, stern voice. She had fallen back upon her own lofty soul, and had sought refuge in that resolute nature of hers which had sustained her before this in other dire emergencies. "Yes,"

she said, sternly, "a lie; and this mock-marriage is a lie. Villains, stand off. I am going home."

"Not without me," said Leon, who for a moment stood silent, amazed at the change in Edith's voice and manner. "You must not leave your husband."

"You shall not come to Dalton Hall," said Edith.

"I shall not? Who can keep me out?"

"Wiggins," said Edith. "I will ask his protection against you."

"Wiggins!" sneered Leon. "Let him try it if he dares."

"Do not interfere with me," said Edith, "nor touch me."

"You shall not go without me."

"I shall go, and alone."

"You shall not."

Edith at once walked to the door. Just as she reached it Leon seized her arm. She struggled for a moment to get free, but in vain.

"I know," said she, bitterly, "what a coward you are. This is not the first time that you have laid hands on me. Let me go now, or you shall repent."

"Not the first time, and it won't be the last time!" cried Leon, with an oath.

"Let me go," cried Edith, in a fierce voice, "or I will stab you to the heart!"

As she said this she raised her right hand swiftly and menacingly, and by the dim light of the doorway Leon plainly saw a long keen dagger. In an instant he recoiled from the sight, and dropping her arm, he started back.

"Curse you!" he cried, in an excited voice; "who wants to touch you! It isn't you I've married, but the Hall!"

"Leon," cried Lieutenant Dudleigh, "I will allow no violence. If there is any more, I will betray you."

"You!" cried Leon, with a bitter sneer. "Pooh, you dare not."

"I dare."

"You will betray yourself, then."

"I don't care. After what I've suffered for you these two days past, and especially this night, I have but little care left about myself."

"But won't you get your reward, curse it all!"

"There can be no reward for me now, after this," said the other, in a mournful voice.

"Is that the way you talk to _me_!" said Leon, in a tone of surprise.

"Miss Dalton has been wronged enough," said the other. "If you dare to annoy her further, or to harm a hair of her head, I solemnly declare that I will turn against you."

"You!" exclaimed Leon.

"Yes, I."

"Why, you're as bad as I am--in fact, worse."

"Well, at any rate, it shall go no further. That I am resolved on."

"Look out," cried Leon; "don't tempt me too far. I'll remember this, by Heaven! I'll not forget that you have threatened to betray me."

"I don't care. You are a coward, Leon, and you know it. You are afraid of that brave girl. Miss Dalton can take care of herself."

"Miss Dalton! Pooh!--Mrs. Dudleigh, you mean."

"Leon, you drive me to frenzy," cried Lieutenant Dudleigh, in a wild, impatient voice.

"And you--what are you!" cried Leon, morosely. "Are you not always tormenting me? Do you think that I'm going to stand you and your whims forever? Look out! This is more of a marriage than you think."

"Marriage!" cried the other, in a voice of scorn.

"Never mind. I'll go with my wife," said Leon.

Edith had waited a few moments as this altercation arose, half hoping that in the quarrel between these two something might escape them which could give her some ray of hope, but she heard nothing of that kind.

Yet as she listened to the voices of the two, contrasting so strangely in their tones, and to their language, which was so very peculiar, a strange suspicion came to her mind.

Then she hurried away back to the Hall.

"I'll go with my wife," said Leon.

"Coward and villain!" cried his companion. "Miss Dalton has a dagger.

You're afraid of her. I'll go too, so that you may not annoy her."

Edith hurried away, and the others followed for a short distance, but she soon left them behind. She reached the little door at the east end.