Not a sign yet of Horace's return.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, "what would I not give to know what is going
on upstairs!"
"You will soon know it now," said Julian. "It is impossible that
our present uncertainty can last much longer."
He turned away, intending to go back to the room in which she had
found him. Looking at her situation from a man's point of view,
he naturally assumed that the best service he could now render to
Mercy would be to leave her to prepare herself for the interview
with Horace. Before he had taken three steps away from her she
showed him the difference between the woman's point of view and
the man's. The idea of considering beforehand what she should say
never entered her mind. In her horror of being left by herself at
that critical moment, she forgot every other consideration. Even
the warning remembrance of Horace's jealous distrust of Julian
passed away from her, for the moment, as completely as if it
never had a place in her memory. "Don't leave me!" she cried. "I
can't wait here alone. Come back--come back!"
She rose impulsively while she spoke, as if to follow him into
the dining-room, if he persisted in leaving her.
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