The New Magdalen

"Mercy Merrick! you shall repent this to the last hour of your life!"

Mercy rose again, and fixed her flashing eyes on the woman who still

defied her.

"I have had enough of you!" she said. "Leave the house while you can

leave it. Stay here, and I will send for Lady Janet Roy."

"You can't send for her! You daren't send for her!"

"I can and I dare. You have not a shadow of a proof against me. I have

got the papers; I am in possession of the place; I have established

myself in Lady Janet's confidence. I mean to deserve your opinion of

me--I will keep my dresses and my jewels and my position in the house. I

deny that I have done wrong. Society has used me cruelly; I owe nothing

to Society. I have a right to take any advantage of it if I can. I deny

that I have injured you. How was I to know that you would come to life

again? Have I degraded your name and your character? I have done honor

to both. I have won everybody's liking and everybody's respect. Do you

think Lady Janet would have loved you as she loves me? Not she! I tell

you to your face I have filled the false position more creditably than

you could have filled the true one, and I mean to keep it. I won't give

up your name; I won't restore your character! Do your worst; I defy

you!"

She poured out those reckless words in one headlong flow which defied

interruption. There was no answering her until she was too breathless

to say more. Grace seized her opportunity the moment it was within her

reach.

"You defy me?" she returned, resolutely. "You won't defy me long. I have

written to Canada. My friends will speak for me."

"What of it, if they do? Your friends are strangers here. I am Lady

Janet's adopted daughter. Do you think she will believe your friends?

She will believe me. She will burn their letters if they write. She will

forbid the house to them if they come. I shall be Mrs. Horace Holmcroft

in a week's time. Who can shake _my_ position? Who can injure Me?"

"Wait a little. You forget the matron at the Refuge."

"Find her, if you can. I never told you her name. I never told you where

the Refuge was."

"I will advertise your name, and find the matron in that way."

"Advertise in every newspaper in London. Do you think I gave a stranger

like you the name I really bore in the Refuge? I gave you the name I

assumed when I left England. No such person as Mercy Merrick is known to

the matron. No such person is known to Mr. Holmcroft. He saw me at the

French cottage while you were senseless on the bed. I had my gray cloak

on; neither he nor any of them saw me in my nurse's dress. Inquiries

have been made about me on the Continent--and (I happen to know from

the person who made them) with no result. I am safe in your place; I

am known by your name. I am Grace Roseberry; and you are Mercy Merrick.

Disprove it, if you can!"