RECOVERING from the first overpowering sensation of surprise,Mercy rapidly advanced, eager to say her first penitent words.Grace stopped her by a warning gesture of the hand. "No nearer tome," she said, with a look of contemptuous command. "Stay whereyou are."

Mercy paused. Grace's reception had startled her. Sheinstinctively took the chair nearest to her to support herself.Grace raised a warning hand for the second time, and issuedanother command: "I forbid you to be seated in my presence. Youhave no right to be in this house at all. Remember, if youplease, who you are, and who I am."

The tone in which those words were spoken was an insult initself. Mercy suddenly lifted her head; the angry answer was onher lips. She checked it, and submitted in silence. "I will beworthy of Julian Gray's confidence in me," she thought, as shestood patiently by the chair. "I will bear anything from thewoman whom I have wronged."

In silence the two faced each other; alone together, for thefirst time since they had met in the French cottage. The contrastbetween them was strange to see. Grace Roseberry, seated in herchair, little and lean, with her dull white complexion, with herhard, threatening face, with her shrunken figure clad in itsplain and poor black garments, looked like a being of a lowersphere, compared with Mercy Merrick, standing erect in her richsilken dress; her tall, shapely figure towering over the littlecreature before her; her grand head bent in graceful submission;gentle, patient, beautiful; a woman whom it was a privilege tolook at and a distinction to admire. If a stranger had been toldthat those two had played their parts in a romance of reallife--that one of them was really connected by the ties ofrelationship with Lady Janet Roy, and that the other hadsuccessfully attempted to personate her--he would inevitably, ifit had been left to him to guess which was which, have picked outGrace as the counterfeit and Mercy as the true woman.

Grace broke the silence. She had waited to open her lips untilshe had eyed her conquered victim all over, with disdainfullyminute attention, from head to foot

"Stand there. I like to look at you," she said, speaking with aspiteful relish of her own cruel words. "It's no use faintingthis time. You have not got Lady Janet Roy to bring you to. Thereare no gentlemen here to-day to pity you and pick you up. MercyMerrick, I have got you at last. Thank God, my turn has come! Youcan't escape me now!"

All the littleness of heart and mind which had first shown itselfin Grace at the meeting in the cottage, when Mercy told the sadstory of her life, now revealed itself once more. The woman whoin those past times. had felt no impulse to take a suffering anda penitent fellow-creature by the hand was the same woman whocould feel no pity, who could spare no insolence of triumph, now.Mercy's sweet voice answered her patiently, in low, pleadingtones.

"I have not avoided you," she said. "I would have gone to you ofmy own accord if I had known that you were here. It is myheartfelt wish to own that I have sinned against you, and to makeall the atonement that I can. I am too anxious to deserve yourforgiveness to have any fear of seeing you."

Conciliatory as the reply was, it was spoken with a simple andmodest dignity of manner which roused Grace Roseberry to fury.

"How dare you speak to me as if you were any equal?" she burstout. "You stand there and answer me as if you had your right andyour place in this house. You audacious woman! _I_ have my rightand my place here--and what am I obliged to do? I am obliged tohang about in the grounds, and fly from the sight of theservants, and hide like a thief, and wait like a beggar, and allfor what? For the chance of having a word with _you_. Yes! you,madam! with the air of the Refuge and the dirt of the streets onyou!"

Mercy's head sank lower; her hand trembled as it held by the backof the chair.

It was hard to bear the reiterated insults heaped on her, butJulian's influence still made itself felt. She answered aspatiently as ever.

"If it is your pleasure to use hard words to me," she said, "Ihave no right to resent them."

"You have no right to anything!" Grace retorted. "You have noright to the gown on your back. Look at yourself, and look atMe!" Her eyes traveled with a tigerish stare over Mercy's costlysilk dress. "Who gave you that dress? who gave you those jewels?I know! Lady Janet gave them to Grace Roseberry. Are _you_ GraceRoseberry? That dress is mine. Take off your bracelets and yourbrooch. They were meant for me."

"You may soon have the m, Miss Roseberry. They will not be in mypossession many hours longer."

"What do you mean?"

"However badly you may use me, it is my duty to undo the harmthat I have done. I am bound to do you justice--I am determinedto confess the truth."

Grace smiled scornfully.

"You confess!" she said. "Do you think I am fool enough tobelieve that? You are one shameful brazen lie from head to foot!Are _you_ the woman to give up your silks and your jewels, andyour position in this house, and to go back to the Refuge of yourown accord? Not you-- not you!"

A first faint flush of color showed itself, stealing slowly overMercy's face; but she still held resolutely by the good influencewhich Julian had left behind him. She could still say to herself,"Anything rather than disappoint Julian Gray." Sustained by thecourage which _he_ had called to life in her, she submitted toher martyrdom as bravely as ever. But there was an ominous changein her now: she could only submit in silence; she could no longertrust herself to answer.

The mute endurance in her face additionally exasperated GraceRoseberry.

"_You_ won't confess," she went on. "You have had a week toconfess in, and you have not done it yet. No, no! you are of thesort that cheat and lie to the last. I am glad of it; I shallhave the joy of exposing you myself before the whole house. Ishall be the blessed means of casting you back on the streets.Oh! it will be almost worth all I have gone through to see youwith a policeman's hand on your arm, and the mob pointing at youand mocking you on your way to jail!"

This time the sting struck deep; the outrage was beyondendurance. Mercy gave the woman who had again and againdeliberately insulted her a first warning.

"Miss Roseberry," she said, "I have borne without a murmur thebitterest words you could say to me. Spare me any more insults.Indeed, indeed, I am eager to restore you to your just rights.With my whole heart I say it to you--I am resolved to confesseverything!"

She spoke with trembling earnestness of tone. Grace listened witha hard smile of incredulity and a hard look of contempt.

"You are not far from the bell," she said; "ring it."

Mercy looked at her in speechless surprise.

"You are a perfect picture of repentance--you are dying to ownthe truth," pursued the other, satirically. "Own it beforeeverybody, and own it at once. Call in Lady Janet--call in Mr.Gray and Mr. Holmcroft--call in the servants. Go down on yourknees and acknowledge yourself an impostor before them all. ThenI will believe you--not before."

"Don't, don't turn me against you!" cried Mercy, entreatingly.

"What do I care whether you are against me or not?"

"Don't--for your own sake, don't go on provoking me much longer!"

"For my own sake? You insolent creature! Do you mean to threatenme?"

With a last desperate effort, her heart beating faster andfaster, the blood burning hotter and hotter in her cheeks, Mercystill controlled herself.

"Have some compassion on me!" she pleaded. "Badly as I havebehaved to you, I am still a woman like yourself. I can't facethe shame of acknowledging what I have done before the wholehouse. Lady Janet treats me like a daughter; Mr. Holmcroft hasengaged himself to marry me. I can't tell Lady Janet and Mr.Holmcroft to their faces that I have cheated them out of theirlove. But they shall know it, for all that. I can, and will,before I rest to-night, tell the whole truth to Mr. Julian Gray."

Grace burst out laughing. "Aha!" she exclaimed, with a cynicaloutburst of gayety. "Now we have come to it at last!"

"Take care!" said Mercy. "Take care!"

"Mr. Julian Gray! I was behind the billiard-room door--I saw youcoax Mr. Julian Gray to come in! confession loses all itshorrors, and becomes quite a luxury, with Mr. Julian Gray!"

"No more, Miss Roseberry! no more! For God's sake, don't put mebeside myself! You have tortured me enough already."

"You haven't been on the streets for nothing. You are a womanwith resources; you know the value of having two strings to yourbow. If Mr. Holmcroft fails you, you have got Mr. Julian Gray.Ah! you sicken me. _I'll_ see that Mr. Holmcroft's eyes areopened; he shall know what a woman he might have married but forMe--"

She checked herself; the next refinement of insult remainedsuspended on her lips.

The woman whom she had outraged suddenly advanced on her. Hereyes, staring helplessly upward, saw Mercy Merrick's face, whitewith the terrible anger which drives the blood back on the heart,bending threateningly over her.

"'You will see that Mr. Holmcroft's eyes are opened,'" Mercyslowly repeated; "'he shall know what a woman he might havemarried but for you!'"

She paused, and followed those words by a question which struck acreeping terror through Grace Roseberry, from the hair of herhead to the soles of her feet:

"_Who are you?_"

The suppressed fury of look and tone which accompanied thatquestion told, as no violence could have told it, that the limitsof Mercy's endurance had been found at last. In the guardianangel's absence the evil genius had done its evil work. Thebetter nature which Julian Gray had brought to life sank,poisoned by the vile venom of a womanly spiteful tongue. An easyand a terrible means of avenging the outrages heaped on her waswithin Mercy's reach, if she chose to take it. In the frenzy ofher indignation she never hesitated--she took it.

"Who are you?" she asked for the second time.

Grace roused herself and attempted to speak. Mercy stopped herwith a scornful gesture of her hand.

"I remember!" she went on, with the same fiercely suppressedrage. "You are the madwoman from the German hospital who camehere a week ago. I am not afraid of you this time. Sit down andrest yourself, Mercy Merrick "

Deliberately giving her that name to her face, Mercy turned fromher and took the chair which Grace had forbidden her to occupywhen the interview began. Grace started to her feet.

"What does this mean?" she asked.

"It means," answered Mercy, contemptuously, "that I recall everyword I said to you just now. It means that I am resolved to keepmy 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 ismad--you or I."

"Mercy Merrick! you shall repent this to the last hour of yourlife!"

Mercy rose again, and fixed her flashing eyes on the woman whostill defied her.

"I have had enough of you!" she said. "Leave the house while youcan 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. Ihave got the papers; I am in possession of the place; I haveestablished myself in Lady Janet's confidence. I mean to deserveyour opinion of me--I will keep my dresses and my jewels and myposition in the house. I deny that I have done wrong. Society hasused me cruelly; I owe nothing to Society. I have a right to takeany advantage of it if I can. I deny that I have injured you. Howwas I to know that you would come to life again? Have I degradedyour name and your character? I have done honor to both. I havewon everybody's liking and everybody's respect. Do you think LadyJanet would have loved you as she loves me? Not she! I tell youto your face I have filled the false position more creditablythan you could have filled the true one, and I mean to keep it. Iwon't give up your name; I won't restore your character! Do yourworst; I defy you!"

She poured out those reckless words in one headlong flow whichdefied interruption. There was no answering her until she was toobreathless to say more. Grace seized her opportunity the momentit 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 amLady Janet's adopted daughter. Do you think she will believe yourfriends? She will believe me. She will burn their letters if theywrite. She will forbid th e house to them if they come. I shallbe 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 toldyou 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 astranger like you the name I really bore in the Refuge? I gaveyou the name I assumed when I left England. No such person asMercy Merrick is known to the matron. No such person is known toMr. Holmcroft. He saw me at the French cottage while you weresenseless on the bed. I had my gray cloak on; neither he nor anyof them saw me in my nurse's dress. Inquiries have been madeabout me on the Continent--and (I happen to know from the personwho made them) with no result. I am safe in your place; I amknown by your name. I am Grace Roseberry; and you are MercyMerrick. Disprove it, if you can!"

Summing up the unassailable security of her false position inthose closing words, Mercy pointed significantly to thebilliard-room door.

"You were hiding there, by your own confession," she said. "Youknow 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 Grayappeared--returning from his unsuccessful search in the grounds.

He had barely crossed the threshold before the library door wasthrown open next by the servant posted in the room. The man drewback respectfully, and gave admission to Lady Janet Roy. She wasfollowed by Horace Holmcroft with his mother's wedding present toMercy in his hand.