"Give me your arm, Horace," she said, turning to leave the room.
"I have heard enough."
Horace respectfully offered his arm. "Your ladyship is quite
right," he answered. "A more monstrous story never was invented."
He spoke, in the warmth of his indignation, loud enough for Grace
to hear him. "What is there monstrous in it?" she asked,
advancing a step toward him, defiantly.
Julian checked her. He too--though he had only once seen
Mercy--felt an angry sense of the insult offered to the beautiful
creature who had interested him at his first sight of her.
"Silence!" he said, speaking sternly to Grace for the first time.
"You are offending--justly offending--Lady Janet. You are talking
worse than absurdly--you are talking offensively--when you speak
of another woman presenting herself here in your place."
Grace's blood was up. Stung by Julian's reproof, she turned on
him a look which was almost a look of fury.
"Are you a clergyman? Are you an educated man?" she asked. "Have
you never read of cases of false personation, in newspapers and
books? I blindly confided in Mercy Merrick before I found out
what her character really was.
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