Sorrow for her--compassionating sorrow--rose in the new
calm and filled his heart. Now, and now only, he could read in
the wasted and noble face how she had suffered. The pity which he
had felt for the unnamed woman grew to a tenfold pity for _her_.
The faith which he professed--honestly professed--in the better
nature of the unnamed woman strengthened into a tenfold faith in
_her_. He addressed himself again to his aunt, in a gentler tone.
"This lady," he resumed, "has something to say to me in private
which she has not said yet. That is my reason and my apology for
not immediately leaving the house."
Still under the impression of what she had seen on entering the
room, Lady Janet looked at him in angry amazement. Was Julian
actually ignoring Horace Holmcroft?s claims, in the presence of
Horace Holmcroft?s betrothed wife? She appealed to her adopted
daughter. "Grace!" she exclaimed, "have you heard him? Have you
nothing to say? Must I remind you--"
She stopped. For the first time in Lady Janet's experience of her
young companion, she found herself speaking to ears that were
deaf to her. Mercy was incapable of listening. Julian's eyes had
told her that Julian understood her at last!
Lady Janet turned to her nephew once more, and addressed him in
the hardest words that she had ever spoken to her sister's son.
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