Leonie did not answer.
"Don't you hear me?" he screamed.
She lifted her eyes coldly to his face.
"Yes, I heard you," she answered, bravely. "But I did not think it necessary to reply. Your daughter has told you, and I thought it useless to corroborate her words. But since it seems that you require it, I may as well tell you that I do not approve of her marriage to Mr. Pyne, and it is my determination that if such a thing is in the range of possibility, I will prevent it!"
For a moment Ben Mauprat was stupid from astonishment.
He stood with eyes and mouth both open, gazing at the girl as if her audacity must be the result of lunacy. Then he sprung forward again.
She was too quick for him, however, and before he could reach her, she had put the rickety table between them.
"Wait a minute!" cried Miss Chandler, interrupting the chase that she saw was imminent "I have not time to wait for gymnastics of that kind. Listen to me, and let us decide what is to be done. It is dangerous to allow lunatics their liberty, and that is what I think Leonie Cuyler must be. No one else would attempt the role that she has essayed. I think therefore, that for the benefit of the public she should be restrained! I suggest that you keep her in confinement until after this wedding shall have taken place, then—presupposing of course that her physicians pronounce her cured—she can be released. What do you think of my plan? It seems to me to be the only safe one!"
"We should be doing a public benefit!" exclaimed Mauprat, his rage turned to mirth. "I tell you, Evelyn, you are a chip of the old block. It is a capital idea. I think while she remains here as my patient that I may be able to compensate her for the trouble she took to sell me some information."
Leonie was aghast.