It was as practically impossible for any one of the
three to doubt the identity of the adopted daughter of the house
as it would be for you who read these lines to doubt the identity
of the nearest and dearest relative you have in the world.
Circumstances had fortified Mercy behind the strongest of all
natural rights--the right of first possession. C!circumstances
had armed her with the most irresistible of all natural
forces--the force of previous association and previous habit. Not
by so much as a hair-breadth was the position of the false Grace
Roseberry shaken by the first appearance of the true Grace
Roseberry within the doors of Mablethorpe House. Lady Janet felt
suddenly repelled, without knowing why. Julian and Horace felt
suddenly repelled, without knowing why. Asked to describe their
own sensations at the moment, they would have shaken their heads
in despair, and would have answered in those words. The vague
presentiment of some misfortune to come had entered the room with
the entrance of the woman in black. But it moved invisibly; and
it spoke as all presentiments speak, in the Unknown Tongue.
A moment passed. The crackling of the fire and the ticking of the
clock were the only sounds audible in the room.
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