ting. Send out to the messenger, and say there's no
answer."

The short course thus suggested was a course which Allan positively
declined to take. "It's treating her brutally," he said; "I can't and
won't do it."

Once more the pertinacity of Pedgift the elder found its limits, and
once more that wise man yielded gracefully to a compromise. On receiving
his client's promise not to see Miss Gwilt, he consented to Allan's
committing himself in writing under his lawyer's dictation. The letter
thus produced was modeled in Allan's own style; it began and ended in
one sentence. "Mr. Armadale presents his compliments to Miss Gwilt,
and regrets that he cannot have the pleasure of seeing her at Thorpe
Ambrose." Allan had pleaded hard for a second sentence, explaining
that he only declined Miss Gwilt's request from a conviction that an
interview would be needlessly distressing on both sides. But his legal
adviser firmly rejected the proposed addition to the letter. "When you
say No to a woman, sir," remarked Pedgift Senior, "always say it in one
word. If you give her your reasons, she invariably believes that you
mean Yes."

Producing that little gem of wisdom from the rich mine of his
professional experience, Mr. Pedgift the elder sent out the answer to
Miss Gwilt's messenger, and recommended the servant to "see the fellow,
whoever he was, well clear of the house."

"Now, sir," said the lawyer, "we will come back, if you like, to my
opinion of Miss Gwilt. It doesn't at all agree with yours, I'm afraid.
You think her an object of pity--quite natural at your age. I think her
an object for the inside of a prison--quite natural at mine. You shall
hear the grounds on which I have formed my opinion directly. Let me show
you that I am in earnest by putting the opinion itself, in the first
place, to a practical test. Do you think Miss Gwilt is likely to persist
in paying you a visit, Mr. Armadale, after the answer you have just sent
to her?"

"Quite impossible!" cried Allan, warmly. "Miss Gwilt is a lady; after
the letter I have sent to her, she will never come near me again."

"There we join issue, sir," cried Pedgift Senior. "I say she will snap
her fingers at your letter (which was one of the reasons why I objected
to your writing it). I say, she is in all probability waiting her
messenger's return, in or near your grounds at this moment. I say, she
will try to force her way in here, before four-and-twenty hours more
are ove