“I?” said Edith. “I allow him? Let me be free, and then you will see how long I allow him.”
“But I mean here—in Dalton Hall.”
“I do not allow him any thing. I am simply a prisoner. He is my jailer, and keeps me here.”
“You need not be so.”
“Pray how can I escape?”
“By siding with me.”
“With you?” asked Edith—“and what then?”
“Well, if you side with me I will drive him out.”
“You seem incapable of understanding,” said Edith, “that of the two, you yourself, both by nature and by position, are by far the more abhorrent to me. Side with you! And is this the proposal you have to make?”
“I tell you that you are in no danger from me, and that you are from him.”