The New Magdalen

On the surface of it, the incidents which had marked their first meeting

were now exactly repeated, with the one difference that the impulse

to withdraw this time appeared to be on the man's side and not on the

woman's. It was Mercy who spoke first.

"Did you expect to find Lady Janet here?" she asked, constrainedly. He

answered, on his part, more constrainedly still.

"It doesn't matter," he said. "Another time will do."

He drew back as he made the reply. She advanced desperately, with the

deliberate intention of detaining him by speaking again.

The attempt which he had made to withdraw, the constraint in his

manner when he had answered, had instantly confirmed her in the false

conviction that he, and he alone, had guessed the truth! If she was

right--if he had secretly made discoveries abroad which placed her

entirely at his mercy--the attempt to induce Grace to consent to a

compromise with her would be manifestly useless. Her first and foremost

interest now was to find out how she really stood in the estimation of

Julian Gray. In a terror of suspense, that turned her cold from head to

foot, she stopped him on his way out, and spoke to him with the piteous

counterfeit of a smile.

"Lady Janet is receiving some visitors," she said. "If you will wait

here, she will be back directly."

The effort of hiding her agitation from him had brought a passing color

into her cheeks. Worn and wasted as she was, the spell of her beauty was

strong enough to hold him against his own will. All he had to tell Lady

Janet was that he had met one of the gardeners in the conservatory, and

had cautioned him as well as the lodge-keeper. It would have been easy

to write this, and to send the note to his aunt on quitting the house.

For the sake of his own peace of mind, for the sake of his duty to

Horace, he was doubly bound to make the first polite excuse that

occurred to him, and to leave her as he had found her, alone in the

room. He made the attempt, and hesitated. Despising himself for doing

it, he allowed himself to look at her. Their eyes met. Julian stepped

into the dining-room.

"If I am not in the way," he said, confusedly, "I will wait, as you

kindly propose."

She noticed his embarrassment; she saw that he was strongly restraining

himself from looking at her again. Her own eyes dropped to the ground as

she made the discovery. Her speech failed her; her heart throbbed faster

and faster.

"If I look at him again" (was the thought in _her_ mind) "I shall fall

at his feet and tell him all that I have done!"

"If I look at her again" (was the thought in _his_ mind) "I shall fall

at her feet and own that I am in love with her!"