The New Magdalen

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!"