" Mercy
summoned her resolution and answered: "Lady Janet is not here."
She turned as she spoke toward the conservatory door, and
confronted on the threshold Julian Gray.
They looked at one another without exchanging a word on either
side. The situation--for widely different reasons--was equally
embarrassing to both of them.
There--as Julian saw _her_--was the woman forbidden to him, the
woman whom he loved.
There--as Mercy saw _him_--was the man whom she dreaded, the man
whose actions (as she interpreted them) proved that he suspected
her.
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.
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