The New Magdalen

The mute endurance in her face additionally exasperated Grace Roseberry.

"_You_ won't confess," she went on. "You have had a week to confess in,

and you have not done it yet. No, no! you are of the sort that cheat and

lie to the last. I am glad of it; I shall have the joy of exposing you

myself before the whole house. I shall be the blessed means of casting

you back on the streets. Oh! it will be almost worth all I have gone

through to see you with a policeman's hand on your arm, and the mob

pointing at you and mocking you on your way to jail!"

This time the sting struck deep; the outrage was beyond endurance. Mercy

gave the woman who had again and again deliberately insulted her a first

warning.

"Miss Roseberry," she said, "I have borne without a murmur the bitterest

words you could say to me. Spare me any more insults. Indeed, indeed, I

am eager to restore you to your just rights. With my whole heart I say

it to you--I am resolved to confess everything!"

She spoke with trembling earnestness of tone. Grace listened with a hard

smile of incredulity and a hard look of contempt.

"You are not far from the bell," she said; "ring it."

Mercy looked at her in speechless surprise.

"You are a perfect picture of repentance--you are dying to own the

truth," pursued the other, satirically. "Own it before everybody,

and own it at once. Call in Lady Janet--call in Mr. Gray and Mr.

Holmcroft--call in the servants. Go down on your knees and acknowledge

yourself an impostor before them all. Then I will believe you--not

before."

"Don't, don't turn me against you!" cried Mercy, entreatingly.

"What do I care whether you are against me or not?"

"Don't--for your own sake, don't go on provoking me much longer!"

"For my own sake? You insolent creature! Do you mean to threaten me?"

With a last desperate effort, her heart beating faster and faster, the

blood burning hotter and hotter in her cheeks, Mercy still controlled

herself.

"Have some compassion on me!" she pleaded. "Badly as I have behaved

to you, I am still a woman like yourself. I can't face the shame of

acknowledging what I have done before the whole house. Lady Janet treats

me like a daughter; Mr. Holmcroft has engaged himself to marry me.

I can't tell Lady Janet and Mr. Holmcroft to their faces that I have

cheated them out of their love. But they shall know it, for all that.

I can, and will, before I rest to-night, tell the whole truth to Mr.

Julian Gray."

Grace burst out laughing. "Aha!" she exclaimed, with a cynical outburst

of gayety. "Now we have come to it at last!"