THE narrative leaves Julian and Mercy for a while, and, ascendingto the upper regions of the house, follows the march of events inLady Janet's room.

The maid had delivered her mistress's note to Mercy, and had goneaway again on her second errand to Grace Roseberry in herboudoir. Lady Janet was seated at her writing-table, waiting forthe appearance of the woman whom she had summoned to herpresence. A single lamp difused its mild light over the books,pictures, and busts round her, leaving the further end of theroom, in which the bed was placed, almost lost in obscurity. Theworks of art were all portraits; the books were all presentationcopies from the authors. It was Lady Janet's fancy to associateher bedroom with memorials of the various persons whom she hadknown in the long course of her life--all of them more or lessdistinguished, most of them, by this time, gathered with thedead.

She sat near her writing-table, lying back in her easy-chair--theliving realization of the picture which Julian's description haddrawn. Her eyes were fixed on a photographic likeness of Mercy,which was so raised upon a little gilt easel as to enable her tocontemplate it under the full light of the lamp. The bright,mobile old face was strangely and sadly changed. The brow wasfixed; the mouth was rigid; the whole face would have been like amask, molded in the hardest forms of passive resistance andsurpressed rage, but for the light and life still thrown over itby the eyes. There was something unutterably touching in the keenhungering tenderness of the look which they fixed on theportrait, intensified by an underlying expression of fond andpatient reproach. The danger which Julian so wisely dreaded wasin the rest of the face; the love which he had so truly describedwas in the eyes alone. _They_ still spoke of the cruelly profanedaffection which had been the one immeasurable joy, the oneinexhaustible hope of Lady Janet's closing life. The browexpressed nothing but her obstinate determination to stand by thewreck of that joy, to rekindle the dead ashes of that hope. Thelips were only eloquent of her unflinching resolution to ignorethe hateful present and to save the sacred past. "My idol may beshattered, but none of you shall know it. I stop the march ofdiscovery; I extinguish the light of truth. I am deaf to yourwords; am blind to your proofs. At seventy years old, my idol ismy life. It shall be my idol still."

The silence in the bedroom was broken by a murmuring of women'svoices outside the door.

Lady Janet instantly raised herself in the chair and snatched thephotograph off the easel. She laid the portrait face downward,among some papers on the table, then abruptly changed her mind,and hid it among the thick folds of lace which clothed her neckand bosom. There was a world of love in the action itself, and inthe sudden softening of the eyes which accompanied it. The nextmoment Lady Janet's mask was on. Any superficial observer who hadseen her now would have said, "This is a hard woman!"

The door was opened by the maid. Grace Roseberry entered theroom.

She advanced rapidly, with a defiant assurance in her manner, anda lofty carriage of her head. She sat down in the chair, to whichLady Janet silently pointed, with a thump; she returned LadyJanet's grave bow with a nod and a smile. Every movement andevery look of the little, worn, white-faced, shabbily dressedwoman expressed insolent triumph, and said, as if in words, "Myturn has come!"

"I am glad to wait on your ladyship," she began, without givingLady Janet an opportunity of speaking first. "Indeed, I shouldhave felt it my duty to request an interview, if you had not sentyour maid to invite me up here."

"You would have felt it your duty to request an interview?" LadyJanet repeated, very quietly. "Why?"

The tone in which that one last word was spoken embarrassed Graceat the outset. It established as great a distance between LadyJanet and herself as if she had been lifted in her chair andconveyed bodily to the other end of the room.

"I am surprised that your ladyship should not understand me," shesaid, struggling to conceal her confusion. "Especially after yourkind offer of your own boudoir."

Lady Janet remained perfectly unmoved. "I do _not_ understandyou," she answered, just as quietly as ever.

Grace's temper came to her assistance. She recovered theassurance which had marked her first appearance on the scene.

"In that case," she resumed, "I must enter into particulars, injustice to myself. I can place but one interpretation on theextraordinary change in your ladyship's behavior to medownstairs. The conduct of that abominable woman has at lastopened your eyes to the deception that has been practiced on you.For some reason of your own, however, you have not yet chosen torecognize me openly. In this painful position something is due tomy own self-respect. I cannot, and will not, permit Mercy Merrickto claim the merit of restoring me to my proper place in thishouse. After what I have suffered it is quite impossible for meto endu re that. I should have requested an interview (if you hadnot sent for me) for the express purpose of claiming thisperson's immediate expulsion from the house. I claim it now as aproper concession to Me. Whatever you or Mr. Julian Gray may do,_I_ will not tamely permit her to exhibit herself as aninteresting penitent. It is really a little too much to hear thisbrazen adventuress appoint her own time for explaining herself.It is too deliberately insulting to see her sail out of theroom--with a clergyman of the Church of England opening the doorfor her--as if she was laying me under an obligation! I canforgive much, Lady Janet--including the terms in which youthought it decent to order me out of your house. I am quitewilling to accept the offer of your boudoir, as the expression onyour part of a better frame of mind. But even Christian Charityhas its limits. The continued presence of that wretch under yourroof is, you will permit me to remark, not only a monument ofyour own weakness, but a perfectly insufferable insult to Me."

There she stopped abruptly--not for want of words, but for wantof a listener.

Lady Janet was not even pretending to attend to her. Lady Janet,with a deliberate rudeness entirely foreign to her usual habits,was composedly busying herself in arranging the various papersscattered about the table. Some she tied together with littlemorsels of string; some she placed under paper-weights; some shedeposited in the fantastic pigeon-holes of a little Japanesecabinet--working with a placid enjoyment of her own orderlyoccupation, and perfectly unaware, to all outward appearance,that any second person was in the room. She looked up, with herpapers in both hands, when Grace stopped, and said, quietly,

"Have you done?"

"Is your ladyship's purpose in sending for me to treat me withstudied rudeness?" Grace retorted, angrily.

"My purpose in sending for you is to say something as soon as youwill allow me the opportunity."

The impenetrable composure of that reply took Grace completely bysurprise. She had no retort ready. In sheer astonishment shewaited silently with her eyes riveted on the mistress of thehouse.

Lady Janet put down her papers, and settled herself comfortablyin the easy-chair, preparatory to opening the interview on herside.

"The little that I have to say to you," she began, "may be saidin a question. Am I right in supposing that you have no presentemployment, and that a little advance in money (delicatelyoffered) would be very acceptable to you?"

"Do you mean to insult me, Lady Janet?"

"Certainly not. I mean to ask you a question."

"Your question is an insult."

"My question is a kindness, if you will only understand it as itis intended. I don't complain of your not understanding it. Idon't even hold you responsible for any one of the many breachesof good manners which you have committed since you have been inthis room. I was honestly anxious to be of some service to you,and you have repelled my advances. I am sorry. Let us drop thesubject."

Expressing herself in the most perfect temper in those terms,Lady Janet resumed the arrangement of her papers, and becameunconscious once more of the presence of any second person in theroom.

Grace opened her lips to reply with the utmost intemperance of anangry woman, and thinking better of it, controlled herself. Itwas plainly useless to take the violent way with Lady Janet Roy.Her age and her social position were enough of themselves torepel any violence. She evidently knew that, and trusted to it.Grace resolved to meet the enemy on the neutral ground ofpoliteness, as the most promising ground that she could occupyunder present circumstances.

"If I have said anything hasty, I beg to apologize to yourladyship," she began. "May I ask if your only object in sendingfor me was to inquire into my pecuniary affairs, with a view toassisting me?"

"That," said Lady Janet, "was my only object."

"You had nothing to say to me on the subject of Mercy Merrick?"

"Nothing whatever. I am weary of hearing of Mercy Merrick. Haveyou any more questions to ask me?"

"I have one more."

"Yes?"

"I wish to ask your ladyship whether you propose to recognize mein the presence of your household as the late Colonel Roseberry'sdaughter?"

"I have already recognized you as a lady in embarrassedcircumstances, who has peculiar claims on my consideration andforbearance. If you wish me to repeat those words in the presenceof the servants (absurd as it is), I am ready to comply with yourrequest."

Grace's temper began to get the better of her prudentresolutions.

"Lady Janet!" she said; "this won't do. I must request you toexpress yourself plainly. You talk of my peculiar claims on yourforbearance. What claims do you mean?"

"It will be painful to both of us if we enter into details,"replied Lady Janet. "Pray don't let us enter into details."

"I insist on it, madam."

"Pray don't insist on it."

Grace was deaf to remonstrance.

"I ask you in plain words," she went on, "do you acknowledge thatyou have been deceived by an adventuress who has personated me?Do you mean to restore me to my proper place in this house?"

Lady Janet returned to the arrangement of her papers.

"Does your ladyship refuse to listen to me?"

Lady Janet looked up from her papers as blandly as ever.

"If _you_ persist in returning to your delusion," she said, "youwill oblige _me_ to persist in returning to my papers."

"What is my delusion, if you please?"

"Your delusion is expressed in the questions you have just put tome. Your delusion constitutes your peculiar claim on myforbearance. Nothing you can say or do will shake my forbearance.When I first found you in the dining-room, I acted mostimproperly; I lost my temper. I did worse; I was foolish enoughand imprudent enough to send for a police officer. I owe youevery possible atonement (afflicted as you are) for treating youin that cruel manner. I offered you the use of my boudoir, aspart of my atonement. I sent for you, in the hope that you wouldallow me to assist you, as part of my atonement. You may behaverudely to me, you may speak in the most abusive terms of myadopted daughter; I will submit to anything, as part of myatonement. So long as you abstain from speaking on one painfulsubject, I will listen to you with the greatest pleasure.Whenever you return to that subject I shall return to my papers."

Grace looked at Lady Janet with an evil smile.

"I begin to understand your ladyship," she said. "You are ashamedto acknowledge that you have been grossly imposed upon. Your onlyalternative, of course, is to ignore everything that hashappened. Pray count on _my_ forbearance. I am not at alloffended--I am merely amused. It is not every day that a lady ofhigh rank exhibits herself in such a position as yours to anobscure woman like me. Your humane consideration for me dates, Ipresume, from the time when your adopted daughter set you theexample, by ordering the police officer out of the room?"

Lady Janet's composure was proof even against this assault on it.She gravely accepted Grace's inquiry as a question addressed toher in perfect good faith.

"I am not at all surprised," she replied, "to find that myadopted daughter's interference has exposed her tomisrepresentation. She ought to have remonstrated with meprivately before she interfered. But she has one fault--she istoo impulsive. I have never, in all my experience, met with sucha warm-hearted person as she is. Always too considerate ofothers; always too forgetful of herself! The mere appearance ofthe police officer placed you in a situation to appeal to hercompassion, and her impulses carried her away as usual. My fault!All my fault!"

Grace changed her tone once more. She was quick enough to discernthat Lady Janet was a match for her with her own weapons.

"We have had enough of this," she said. "It is time to beserious. Your adopted daughter (as you call her) is MercyMerrick, and you know it."

Lady Janet returned to her papers.

"I am Grace Roseberry, whose name she has stolen, and you know_that_."

Lady Janet went o n with her papers.

Grace got up from her chair.

"I accept your silence, Lady Janet," she said, "as anacknowledgment of your deliberate resolution to suppress thetruth. You are evidently determined to receive the adventuress asthe true woman; and you don't scruple to face the consequences ofthat proceeding, by pretending to my face to believe that I ammad. I will not allow myself to be impudently cheated out of myrights in this way. You will hear from me again madam, when theCanadian mail arrives in England."

She walked toward the door. This time Lady Janet answered, asreadily and as explicitly as it was possible to desire.

"I shall refuse to receive your letters," she said.

Grace returned a few steps, threateningly.

"My letters shall be followed by my witnesses," she proceeded.

"I shall refuse to receive your witnesses."

"Refuse at your peril. I will appeal to the law."

Lady Janet smiled.

"I don't pretend to much knowledge of the subject," she said;"but I should be surprised indeed if I discovered that you hadany claim on me which the law could enforce. However, let ussuppose that you _can_ set the law in action. You know as well asI do that the only motive power which can do that is--money. I amrich; fees, costs, and all the rest of it are matters of no sortof consequence to me. May I ask if you are in the same position?"

The question silenced Grace. So far as money was concerned, shewas literally at the end of her resources. Her only friends werefriends in Canada. After what she had said to him in the boudoir,it would be quite useless to appeal to the sympathies of JulianGray. In the pecuniary sense, and in one word, she was absolutelyincapable of gratifying her own vindictive longings. And theresat the mistress of Mablethorpe House, perfectly well aware ofit.

Lady Janet pointed to the empty chair.

"Suppose you sit down again?" she suggested. "The course of ourinterview seems to have brought us back to the question that Iasked you when you came into my room. Instead of threatening mewith the law, suppose you consider the propriety of permitting meto be of some use to you. I am in the habit of assisting ladiesin embarrassed circumstances, and nobody knows of it but mysteward--who keeps the accounts--and myself. Once more, let meinquire if a little advance of the pecuniary sort (delicatelyoffered) would be acceptable to you?"

Grace returned slowly to the chair that she had left. She stoodby it, with one hand grasping the top rail, and with her eyesfixed in mocking scrutiny on Lady Janet's face.

"At last your ladyship shows your hand," she said. "Hush-money!"

"You _will_ send me back to my papers," rejoined Lady Janet. "Howobstinate you are!"

Grace's hand closed tighter and tighter round the rail of thechair. Without witnesses, without means, without so much as arefuge--thanks to her own coarse cruelties of language andconduct-- in the sympathies of others, the sense of her isolationand her helplessness was almost maddening at that final moment. Awoman of finer sensibilities would have instantly left the room.Grace's impenetrably hard and narrow mind impelled her to meetthe emergency in a very different way. A last base vengeance, towhich Lady Janet had voluntarily exposed herself, was stillwithin her reach. "For the present," she thought, "there is butone way of being even with your ladyship. I can cost you as muchas possible."

"Pray make some allowances for me," she said. "I am notobstinate--I am only a little awkward at matching the audacity ofa lady of high rank. I shall improve with practice. My ownlanguage is, as I am painfully aware, only plain English. Permitme to withdraw it, and to substitute yours. What advance is yourladyship (delicately) prepared to offer me?"

Lady Janet opened a drawer, and took out her check-book.

The moment of relief had come at last! The only question now leftto discuss was evidently the question of amount. Lady Janetconsidered a little. The question of amount was (to her mind) insome sort a question of conscience as well. Her love for Mercyand her loathing for Grace, her horror of seeing her darlingdegraded and her affection profaned by a public exposure, hadhurried her--there was no disputing it--into treating an injuredwoman harshly. Hateful as Grace Roseberry might be, her fatherhad left her, in his last moments, with Lady Janet's fullconcurrence, to Lady Janet's care. But for Mercy she would havebeen received at Mablethorpe House as Lady Janet's companion,with a salary of one hundred pounds a year. On the other hand,how long (with such a temper as she had revealed) would Gracehave remained in the service of her protectress? She wouldprobably have been dismissed in a few weeks, with a year's salaryto compensate her, and with a recommendation to some suitableemployment. What would be a fair compensation now? Lady Janetdecided that five years' salary immediately given, and futureassistance rendered if necessary, would represent a fitremembrance of the late Colonel Roseberry's claims, and a liberalpecuniary acknowledgment of any harshness of treatment whichGrace might have sustained at her hands. At the same time, andfor the further satisfying of her own conscience, she determinedto discover the sum which Grace herself would consider sufficientby the simple process of making Grace herself propose the terms.

"It is impossible for me to make you an offer," she said, "forthis reason--your need of money will depend greatly on yourfuture plans. I am quite ignorant of your future plans.''

"Perhaps your ladyship will kindly advise me?" said Grace,satirically.

"I cannot altogether undertake to advise you," Lady Janetreplied. "I can only suppose that you will scarcely remain inEngland, where you have no friends. Whether you go to law with meor not, you will surely feel the necessity of communicatingpersonally with your friends in Canada. Am I right?"

Grace was quite quick enough to understand this as it was meant.Properly interpreted, the answer signified--"If you take yourcompensation in money, it is understood, as part of the bargainthat you don't remain in England to annoy me."

"Your ladyship is quite right," she said. "I shall certainly notremain in England. I shall consult my friends--and," she added,mentally, "go to law with you afterward, if I possibly can, withyour own money!"

"You will return to Canada," Lady Janet proceeded; "and yourprospects there will be, probably, a little uncertain at first.Taking this into consideration, at what amount do you estimate,in your own mind, the pecuniary assistance which you willrequire?"

"May I count on your ladyship's, kindness to correct me if my ownignorant calculations turn out to be wrong?" Grace asked,innocently.

Here again the words, properly interpreted, had a specialsignification of their own: "It is stipulated, on my part, that Iput myself up to auction, and that my estimate shall be regulatedby your ladyship's highest bid." Thoroughly understanding thestipulation, Lady Janet bowed, and waited gravely.

Gravely, on her side, Grace began.

"I am afraid I should want more than a hundred pounds," she said.

Lady Janet made her first bid. "I think so too."

"More, perhaps, than two hundred?"

Lady Janet made her second bid. "Probably."

"More than three hundred? Four hundred? Five hundred?"

Lady Janet made her highest bid. "Five hundred pounds will do,"she said.

In spite of herself, Grace's rising color betrayed herungovernable excitement. From her earliest childhood she had beenaccustomed to see shillings and sixpences carefully consideredbefore they were parted with. She had never known her father topossess so much as five golden sovereigns at his own disposal(unencumbered by debt) in all her experience of him. Theatmosphere in which she had lived and breathed was theall-stifling one of genteel poverty. There was something horriblein the greedy eagerness of her eyes as they watched Lady Janet,to see if she was really sufficiently in earnest to give awayfive hundred pounds sterling with a stroke of her pen.

Lady Janet wrote t he check in a few seconds, and pushed itacross the table.

Grace's hungry eyes devoured the golden line, "Pay to myself orbearer five hundred pounds," and verified the signature beneath,"Janet Roy." Once sure of the money whenever she chose to takeit, the native meanness of her nature instantly asserted itself.She tossed her head, and let the check lie on the table, with anoveracted appearance of caring very little whether she took it ornot.

"Your ladyship is not to suppose that I snap at your check," shesaid.

Lady Janet leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. The verysight of Grace Roseberry sickened her. Her mind filled suddenlywith the image of Mercy. She longed to feast her eyes again onthat grand beauty, to fill her ears again with the melody of thatgentle voice.

"I require time to consider--in justice to my own self-respect,"Grace went on.

Lady Janet wearily made a sign, granting time to consider.

"Your ladyship's boudoir is, I presume, still at my disposal?"

Lady Janet silently granted the boudoir.

"And your ladyship's servants are at my orders, if I haveoccasion to employ them?"

Lady Janet suddenly opened her eyes. "The whole household is atyour orders," she cried, furiously. "Leave me!"

Grace was far from being offended. If anything, she wasgratified-- there was a certain triumph in having stung LadyJanet into an open outbreak of temper. She insisted forthwith onanother condition.

"In the event of my deciding to receive the check," she said, "Icannot, consistently with my own self-respect, permit it to bedelivered to me otherwise than inclosed. Your ladyship will (ifnecessary) be so kind as to inclose it. Good-evening."

She sauntered to the door, looking from side to side, with an airof supreme disparagement, at the priceless treasures of art whichadorned the walls. Her eyes dropped superciliously on the carpet(the design of a famous French painter), as if her feetcondescended in walking over it. The audacity with which she hadentered the room had been marked enough; it shrank to nothingbefore the infinitely superior proportions of the insolence withwhich she left it.

The instant the door was closed Lady Janet rose from her chair.Reckless of the wintry chill in the outer air, she threw open oneof the windows. "Pah!" she exclaimed, with a shudder of disgust,"the very air of the room is tainted by her!"

She returned to her chair. Her mood changed as she sat downagain--her heart was with Mercy once more. "Oh, my love!" shemurmured "how low I have stooped, how miserably I have degradedmyself--and all for You!" The bitterness of the retrospect wasunendurable. The inbred force of the woman's nature took refugefrom it in an outburst of defiance and despair. "Whatever she hasdone, that wretch deserves it! Not a living creature in thishouse shall say she has deceived me. She has _not_ deceivedme--she loves me! What do I care whether she has given me hertrue name or not! She has given me her true heart. What right hadJulian to play upon her feelings and pry into her secrets? Mypoor, tempted, tortured child! I won't hear her confession. Notanother word shall she say to any living creature. I ammistress--I will forbid it at once!" She snatched a sheet ofnotepaper from the case; hesitated, and threw it from her on thetable. "Why not send for my darling?" she thought. "Why write?"She hesitated once more, and resigned the idea. "No! I can'ttrust myself! I daren't see her yet!"

She took up the sheet of paper again, and wrote her secondmessage to Mercy. This time the note began fondly with a familiarform of address.

"MY DEAR CHILD--I have had time to think and compose myself alittle, since I last wrote, requesting you to defer theexplanation which you had promised me. I already understand (andappreciate) the motives which led you to interfere as you diddownstairs, and I now ask you to entirely abandon theexplanation. It will, I am sure, be painful to you (for reasonsof your own into which I have no wish to inquire) to produce theperson of whom you spoke, and as you know already, I myself amweary of hearing of her. Besides, there is really no need now foryou to explain anything. The stranger whose visits here havecaused us so much pain and anxiety will trouble us no more. Sheleaves England of her own free will, after a conversation with mewhich has perfectly succeeded in composing and satisfying her.Not a word more, my dear, to me, or to my nephew, or to any otherhuman creature, of what has happened in the dining-room to-day.When we next meet, let it be understood between us that the pastis henceforth and forever _buried to oblivion_. This is not onlythe earnest request--it is, if necessary, the positive command,of your mother and friend,JANET ROY.

"P.S.--I shall find opportunities (before you leave your room) ofspeaking separately to my nephew and to Horace Holmcroft. Youneed dread no embarrassment, when you next meet them. I will notask you to answer my note in writing. Say yes to the maid whowill bring it to you, and I shall know we understand each other."

After sealing the envelope which inclosed these lines, Lady Janetaddressed it, as usual, to "Miss Grace Roseberry." She was justrising to ring the bell, when the maid appeared with a messagefrom the boudoir. The woman's tones and looks showed plainly thatshe had been made the object of Grace's insolent self-assertionas well as her mistress.

"If you please, my lady, the person downstairs wishes--"

Lady Janet, frowning contemptuously, interrupted the message atthe outset . "I know what the person downstairs wishes. She hassent you for a letter from me?"

"Yes, my lady."

"Anything more?"

" She has sent one of the men-servants, my lady, for a cab. Ifyour ladyship had only heard how she spoke to him!"

Lady Janet intimated by a sign that she would rather not hear.She at once inclosed the check in an undirected envelope.

"Take that to her," she said, "and then come back to me."

Dismissing Grace Roseberry from all further consideration, LadyJanet sat, with her letter to Mercy in her hand, reflecting onher position, and on the efforts which it might still demand fromher. Pursuing this train of thought, it now occurred to her thataccident might bring Horace and Mercy together at any moment, andthat, in Horace's present frame of mind, he would certainlyinsist on the very explanation which it was the foremost interestof her life to suppress. The dread of this disaster was in fullpossession of her when the maid returned.

"Where is Mr. Holmcroft?" she asked, the moment the woman enteredthe room.

"I saw him open the library door, my lady, just now, on my wayupstairs."

"Was he alone?"

"Yes, my lady."

"Go to him, and say I want to see him here immediately."

The maid withdrew on her second errand. Lady Janet roserestlessly, and closed the open window. Her impatient desire tomake sure of Horace so completely mastered her that she left herroom, and met the woman in the corridor on her return. ReceivingHorace's message of excuse, she instantly sent back theperemptory rejoinder, "Say that he will oblige me to go to him,if be persists in refusing to come to me. And, stay!" she added,remembering the undelivered letter. "Send Miss Roseberry's maidhere; I want her."

Left alone again, Lady Janet paced once or twice up and down thecorridor--then grew suddenly weary of the sight of it, and wentback to her room. The two maids returned together. One of them,having announced Horace's submission, was dismissed. The otherwas sent to Mercy's room with Lady Janet's letter. In a minute ortwo the messenger appeared again, with the news that she hadfound the room empty.

"Have you any idea where Miss Roseberry is?"

"No, my lady."

Lady Janet reflected for a moment. If Horace presented himselfwithout any needless delay, the plain inference would he that shehad succeeded in separating him from Mercy. If his appearance wassuspiciously deferred, she decided on personally searching forMercy in the reception rooms on the lower floor of the house.

"What have you done withthe letter?" she asked.

"I left it on Miss Roseberry's table, my lady."

"Very well. Keep within hearing of the bell, in case I want youagain."

Another minute brought Lady Janet's suspense to an end. She heardthe welcome sound of a knock at her door from a man's hand.Horace hurriedly entered the room.

"What is it you want with me, Lady Janet?" he inquired, not verygraciously.

"Sit down, Horace, and you shall hear."

Horace did not accept the invitation. "Excuse me," he said, "if Imention that I am rather in a hurry."

"Why are you in a hurry?"

"I have reasons for wishing to see Grace as soon as possible."

"And _I_ have reasons," Lady Janet rejoined, "for wishing tospeak to you about Grace before you see her; serious reasons. Sitdown."

Horace started. "Serious reasons?" he repeated. "You surpriseme."

"I shall surprise you still more before I have done "

Their eyes met as Lady Janet answered in those terms. Horaceobserved signs of agitation in her, which he now noticed for thefirst time. His face darkened with an expression of sullendistrust--and he took the chair in silence.