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Lady Janet's anxiety was far from being relieved when Mercy had
been restored to her senses and conducted to her own room.
Mercy's mind remained in a condition of unreasoning alarm, which
it was impossible to remove. Over and over again she was told
that the woman who had terrified her had left the house, and
would never be permitted to enter it more; over and over again
she was assured that the stranger's frantic assertions were
regarded by everybody about her as unworthy of a moment's serious
attention. She persisted in doubting whether they were telling
her the truth. A shocking distrust of her friends seemed to
possess her. She shrunk when Lady Janet approached the bedside.
She shuddered when Lady Janet kissed her. She flatly refused to
let Horace see her. She asked the strangest questions about
Julian Gray, and shook her head suspiciously when they told her
that he was absent from the house. At intervals she hid her face
in the bedclothes and murmured to herself piteously, "Oh, what
shall I do? What shall I do?" At other times her one petition was
to be left alone. "I want nobody in my room"--that was her sullen
cry--"nobody in my room.
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