"I have no plot against you, aunt. If you wish to know the truth, let me tell you that your mind is not just what it should be. For a long while you have imagined that I was your enemy, while all your friends know that I have been your best friend."
"Indeed! Were you my friend when you forged my name to that check for six hundred dollars?"
Frederic Vernon winced, but quickly recovered.
"You do me a great injustice when you say I forged your name. I was never guilty of any such baseness."
"I know better."
"That is only another proof of your hallucination, aunt. But the doctor says if you will submit to his treatment you will be quite cured in a few months."
"I need no treatment, for my mind is as clear as yours, perhaps clearer. I want you and those wicked men who helped place me here to let me go."
"Such a course is impossible, and you must make yourself content with your surroundings. The room is not furnished as nicely as you may wish, but I will have all that changed in a day or two, as soon as I can get my other affairs straightened out."
"You will profit nothing by your high-handed course, Frederic. In the past I have been very indulgent toward you, but if you insist upon keeping me here against my will, when once I do get free I will let the law take its course."
The lady spoke so sharply and positively that Frederic Vernon was made to feel decidedly uncomfortable. He had carried matters with a high hand, and he realized that should the game go against him, the reckoning would be a bitter one.