The New Magdalen

"I don't pretend to much knowledge of the subject," she said; "but I

should be surprised indeed if I discovered that you had any claim on me

which the law could enforce. However, let us suppose that you _can_ set

the law in action. You know as well as I do that the only motive power

which can do that is--money. I am rich; fees, costs, and all the rest of

it are matters of no sort of consequence to me. May I ask if you are in

the same position?"

The question silenced Grace. So far as money was concerned, she was

literally at the end of her resources. Her only friends were friends in

Canada. After what she had said to him in the boudoir, it would be quite

useless to appeal to the sympathies of Julian Gray. In the pecuniary

sense, and in one word, she was absolutely incapable of gratifying

her own vindictive longings. And there sat the mistress of Mablethorpe

House, perfectly well aware of it.

Lady Janet pointed to the empty chair.

"Suppose you sit down again?" she suggested. "The course of our

interview seems to have brought us back to the question that I asked

you when you came into my room. Instead of threatening me with the law,

suppose you consider the propriety of permitting me to be of some use to

you. I am in the habit of assisting ladies in embarrassed circumstances,

and nobody knows of it but my steward--who keeps the accounts--and

myself. Once more, let me inquire if a little advance of the pecuniary

sort (delicately offered) would be acceptable to you?"

Grace returned slowly to the chair that she had left. She stood by it,

with one hand grasping the top rail, and with her eyes fixed 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. "How

obstinate you are!"

Grace's hand closed tighter and tighter round the rail of the chair.

Without witnesses, without means, without so much as a refuge--thanks to

her own coarse cruelties of language and conduct--in the sympathies

of others, the sense of her isolation and her helplessness was almost

maddening at that final moment. A woman of finer sensibilities would

have instantly left the room. Grace's impenetrably hard and narrow mind

impelled her to meet the emergency in a very different way. A last base

vengeance, to which Lady Janet had voluntarily exposed herself, was

still within her reach. "For the present," she thought, "there is but

one way of being even with your ladyship. I can cost you as much as

possible."

"Pray make some allowances for me," she said. "I am not obstinate--I am

only a little awkward at matching the audacity of a lady of high rank.

I shall improve with practice. My own language is, as I am painfully

aware, only plain English. Permit me to withdraw it, and to substitute

yours. What advance is your ladyship (delicately) prepared to offer me?"