'
"Notwithstanding this stern decree, Suaby expects to turn him out cured
in a few months.
"Miss Wieland, a very pretty girl, put her arm in mine, and drew me
mysteriously apart. 'So you are collecting the villainies,' said she,
sotto voce. 'It will take you all your time. I'll tell you mine.
There's a hideous old man wants me to marry him; and I won't. And he
has put me in here, and keeps me prisoner till I will. They are all on
his side, especially that sanctified old guy, Suaby. They drug my wine,
they stupefy me, they give me things to make me naughty and tipsy; but
it is no use; I never will marry that old goat--that for his money and
him--I'll die first.'
"Of course my blood boiled; but I asked my nurse, Sally, and she
assured me there was not one atom of truth in any part of the story.
'The young lady was put in here by her mother; none too soon, neither.'
I asked her what she meant. 'Why, she came here with her throat cut,
and strapping on it. She is a suicidal.'"
This correspondence led eventually to some unexpected results; but I am
obliged to interrupt it for a time, while I deal with a distinct series
of events which began about five weeks after Lady Bassett's visit to
Mr. Rolfe, and will carry the reader forward beyond the date we have
now arrived at.
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