第62章

"It means," answered Mercy, contemptuously, "that I recall every word I said to you just now.It means that I am resolved to keep my place in this house.""Are you out of your senses?"

"You are not far from the bell.Ring it.Do what you asked me to do.Call in the whole household, and ask them which of us is mad--you or I.""Mercy Merrick! you shall repent this to the last hour of your life!"Mercy rose again, and fixed her flashing eyes on the woman who still defied her.

"I have had enough of you!" she said."Leave the house while you can leave it.Stay here, and I will send for Lady Janet Roy.""You can't send for her! You daren't send for her!""I can and I dare.You have not a shadow of a proof against me.I have got the papers; I am in possession of the place; I have established myself in Lady Janet's confidence.I mean to deserve your opinion of me--I will keep my dresses and my jewels and my position in the house.I deny that I have done wrong.Society has used me cruelly; I owe nothing to Society.I have a right to take any advantage of it if I can.I deny that I have injured you.How was I to know that you would come to life again? Have I degraded your name and your character? I have done honor to both.I have won everybody's liking and everybody's respect.Do you think Lady Janet would have loved you as she loves me? Not she! I tell you to your face I have filled the false position more creditably than you could have filled the true one, and I mean to keep it.I won't give up your name; I won't restore your character! Do your worst; I defy you!"She poured out those reckless words in one headlong flow which defied interruption.There was no answering her until she was too breathless to say more.Grace seized her opportunity the moment it was within her reach.

"You defy me?" she returned, resolutely."You won't defy me long.I have written to Canada.My friends will speak for me.""What of it, if they do? Your friends are strangers here.I am Lady Janet's adopted daughter.Do you think she will believe your friends? She will believe me.She will burn their letters if they write.She will forbid the house to them if they come.I shall be Mrs.Horace Holmcroft in a week's time.Who can shake my position? Who can injure Me?""Wait a little.You forget the matron at the Refuge.""Find her, if you can.I never told you her name.I never told you where the Refuge was.""I will advertise your name, and find the matron in that way.""Advertise in every newspaper in London.Do you think I gave a stranger like you the name I really bore in the Refuge? I gave you the name I assumed when I left England.No such person as Mercy Merrick is known to the matron.No such person is known to Mr.Holm croft.He saw me at the French cottage while you were senseless on the bed.I had my gray cloak on; neither he nor any of them saw me in my nurse's dress.Inquiries have been made about me on the Continent--and (I happen to know from the person who made them) with no result.I am safe in your place; I am known by your name.I am Grace Roseberry; and you are Mercy Merrick.Disprove it, if you can!"Summing up the unassailable security of her false position in those closing words, Mercy pointed significantly to the billiard-room door.

"You were hiding there, by your own confession," she said."You know your way out by that door.Will you leave the room?""I won't stir a step!"

Mercy walked to a side-table, and struck the bell placed on it.

At the same moment the billiard-room door opened.Julian Gray appeared--returning from his unsuccessful search in the grounds.

He had barely crossed the threshold before the library door was thrown open next by the servant posted in the room.The man drew back respectfully, and gave admission to Lady Janet Roy.She was followed by Horace Holmcroft with his mother's wedding present to Mercy in his hand.

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