"I understand. In the meantime, I am not to be allowed to communicate at all with any one outside?"
"That might depend upon the circumstances."
He gazed at the telephone instrument on the desk. "Miss Santoine, a moment ago I tried to telephone, when I—" He described the incident to her. The color on her cheeks heightened. "Some one was appointed to listen on the wire?" he challenged.
"Yes." She hesitated, and then she added, in the manner in which she had directed him to the guard outside the house: "And besides, I believe there are—or will be—the new phonographic devices on every line, which record both sides of a conversation. Subject to that, you may use the telephone."
"Thank you," said Eaton grimly. "I suppose if I were to write a letter, it would be taken from me and opened and read."
She colored ruddier and made no comment.
"And if I wished to go to the city, I would be prevented or followed?"
"Prevented, for the present," she replied.
"Thank you."
"That is all?"
The interview had become more difficult for her; he saw that she was anxious to have it over.
"Just one moment more, Miss Santoine. Suppose I resist this?"
"Yes?"
"Your father is having me held here in what I might describe as a free sort of confinement, but still in confinement, without any legal charge against me. Suppose I refuse to submit to that—suppose I demand right to consult, to communicate with some one in order, let us
