Another surprise! Grace Roseberry invited to an interview with Lady
Janet! It would have been impossible to believe it, if Julian had not
heard the invitation given with his own ears.
"She instantly rose," Julian proceeded. "'I won't keep her ladyship
waiting a moment,' she said; 'show me the way.' She signed to the maid
to go out of the room first, and then turned round and spoke to me from
the door. I despair of describing the insolent exultation of her manner.
I can only repeat her words: 'This is exactly what I wanted! I had
intended to insist on seeing Lady Janet: she saves me the trouble. I am
infinitely obliged to her.' With that she nodded to me, and closed the
door. I have not seen her, I have not heard of her, since. For all I
know, she may be still with my aunt, and Horace may have found her there
when he entered the room."
"What can Lady Janet have to say to her?" Mercy asked, eagerly.
"It is impossible even to guess. When you found me in the dining-room
I was considering that very question. I cannot imagine that any neutral
ground can exist on which it is possible for Lady Janet and this woman
to meet. In her present frame of mind she will in all probability insult
Lady Janet before she has been five minutes in the room. I own I am
completely puzzled. The one conclusion I can arrive at is that the note
which my aunt sent to you, the private interview with Miss Roseberry
which has followed, and the summons to Horace which has succeeded in its
turn, are all links in the same chain of events, and are all tending to
that renewed temptation against which I have already warned you."
Mercy held up her hand for silence. She looked toward the door that
opened on the hall; had she heard a footstep outside? No. All was still.
Not a sign yet of Horace's return.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, "what would I not give to know what is going on
upstairs!"
"You will soon know it now," said Julian. "It is impossible that our
present uncertainty can last much longer."
He turned away, intending to go back to the room in which she had found
him. Looking at her situation from a man's point of view, he naturally
assumed that the best service he could now render to Mercy would be to
leave her to prepare herself for the interview with Horace. Before
he had taken three steps away from her she showed him the difference
between the woman's point of view and the man's. The idea of considering
beforehand what she should say never entered her mind. In her horror of
being left by herself at that critical moment, she forgot every other
consideration. Even the warning remembrance of Horace's jealous distrust
of Julian passed away from her, for the moment, as completely as if it
never had a place in her memory. "Don't leave me!" she cried. "I can't
wait here alone. Come back--come back!"