If I
found your spies following me in the street, and if I chose to claim
protection from them, the law would acknowledge my claim. You forget
what wonders my wickedness has done for me. It has made Nobody's Child
Somebody's Wife.
"If you will give these considerations their due weight; if you will
exert your excellent common sense, I have no fear of being obliged to
appeal to my newly-found friend and protector--the law. You will feel,
by this time, that you have meddled with me at last to some purpose. I
am estranged from Norah--I am discovered by my husband--I am defeated
by Mrs. Lecount. You have driven me to the last extremity; you have
strengthened me to fight the battle of my life with the resolution which
only a lost and friendless woman can feel. Badly as your schemes have
prospered, they have not proved totally useless after all!
"I have no more to say. If you ever speak about me to Norah, tell her
that a day may come when she will see me again--the day when we two
sisters have recovered our natural rights; the day when I put Norah's
fortune into Norah's hand.
"Those are my last words. Remember them the next time you feel tempted
to meddle with me again.
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