The servant entered the room, and announced that the cab was at the door.
Grace turned to Julian with a defiant wave of her hand. 'Don't let me detain you,' she said. 'I see I have neither advice nor help to expect from Mr. Julian Gray.'
Julian beckoned to the servant to follow him into a corner of the room.
'Do you know if the doctor has been sent for?' he asked.
'I believe not, sir. It is said in the servants' hall that the doctor is not wanted.'
Julian was too anxious to be satisfied with a report from the servants' hall. He hastily wrote on a slip of paper: 'Has she recovered?' and gave the note to the man, with directions to take it to Lady Janet.
'Did you hear what I said?' Grace inquired, while the messenger was absent in the dining room.
'I will answer you directly,' said Julian.
The servant appeared again as he spoke, with some lines in pencil written by Lady Janet on the back of Julian's note. 'Thank God, we have revived her. In a few minutes we hope to be able to take her to her room.'
The nearest way to Mercy's room was through the library. Grace's immediate removal had now become a necessity which was not to be trifled with. Julian addressed himself to meeting the difficulty the instant he was left alone with Grace.
'Listen to me,' he said. 'The cab is waiting, and I have my last words to say to you. You are now (thanks to the consul's recommendation) in my care. Decide at once whether you will remain under my charge, or whether you will transfer yourself to the charge of the police.'
Grace started. 'What do you mean?' she asked, angrily.
'If you wish to remain under my charge,' Julian proceeded, 'you will accompany me at once to the cab. In that case I will undertake to give you an opportunity of telling your story to my own lawyer. He will be a fitter person to advise you than I am. Nothing will induce we to believe that the lady whom you have accused has committed, or is capable of committing, such a fraud as you charge her with. You will hear what the lawyer thinks, if you come with me. If you refuse, I shall have no choice but to send into the next room, and tell them that you are still here. The result will be that you will find yourself in charge of the police. Take which course you like: I will give you a minute to decide in. And remember this—if I appear to express myself harshly, it is your conduct which forces me to speak out. I mean kindly toward you; I am advising you honestly for your good.'
He took out his watch to count the minute.
Grace stole one furtive glance at his steady, resolute face. She was perfectly unmoved by the manly consideration for her which Julian's last words had expressed. All she understood was that he was not a man to be trifled with. Future opportunities would offer themselves of returning secretly to the house. She determined to yield—and deceive him.
'I am ready to go,' she said, rising with dogged submission. 'Your turn now,' she muttered to herself, as she turned to the looking-glass to arrange her shawl. 'My turn will come.'
Julian advanced toward her, as if to offer her his arm, and checked himself. Firmly persuaded as he was that her mind was deranged—readily as he admitted that she claimed, in virtue of her affliction, every indulgence that he could extend to her—there was something repellent to him at that moment in the bare idea of touching her. The image of the beautiful creature who was the object of her monstrous accusation—the image of Mercy as she lay helpless for a moment in his arms—was vivid in his mind while he opened the door that led into the hall, and drew back to let Grace pass out before him. He left the servant to help her into the cab. The man respectfully addressed him as he took his seat opposite to Grace.
'I am ordered to say that your room is ready, sir, and that her ladyship expects you to dinner.'
Absorbed in the events which had followed his aunt's invitation, Julian had forgotten his engagement to stay at Mablethorpe House. Could he return, knowing his own heart as he now knew it? Could he honorably remain, perhaps for weeks together, in Mercy's society, conscious as he now was of the impression which she had produced on him? No. The one honorable course that he could take was to find an excuse for withdrawing from his engagement. 'Beg her ladyship not to wait dinner for me,' he said. 'I will write and make my apologies.' The cab drove off. The wondering servant waited on the doorstep, looking after it. 'I wouldn't stand in Mr. Julian's shoes for something,' he thought, with his mind running on the difficulties of the young clergyman's position. 'There she is along with him in the cab. What is he going to do with her after that?'
Julian himself, if it had been put to him at the moment, could not have answered the question.
Lady Janet's anxiety was far from being relieved when Mercy had been restored to her senses and conducted to her own room.
Mercy's mind remained in a condition of unreasoning alarm, which it was impossible to remove. Over and over again she was told that the woman who had terrified her had left the house, and would never be permitted to enter it more; over and over again she was assured that the stranger's frantic assertions were regarded by everybody about her as unworthy of a moment's serious attention. She persisted in doubting whether they were telling her the truth. A shocking distrust of her friends seemed to possess her. She shrunk when Lady Janet approached the bedside. She shuddered when Lady Janet kissed her. She flatly refused to let Horace see her. She asked the strangest questions about Julian Gray, and shook her head suspiciously when they told her that he was absent from the house. At intervals she hid her face in the bedclothes and murmured to herself piteously, 'Oh, what shall I do? What shall I do?' At other times her one petition was to be left alone. 'I want nobody in my room'—that was her sullen cry—'nobody in my room.'
The evening advanced, and brought with it no change for the better. Lady Janet, by the advice of Horace, sent for her own medical adviser.
The doctor shook his head. The symptoms, he said, indicated a serious shock to the nervous system. He wrote a sedative prescription; and he gave (with a happy choice of language) some sound and safe advice. It amounted briefly to this: 'Take her away, and try the sea-side.' Lady Janet's customary energy acted on the advice, without a moment's needless delay. She gave the necessary directions for packing the trunks overnight, and decided on leaving Mablethorpe House with Mercy the next morning.
Shortly after the doctor had taken his departure a letter from Julian, addressed to Lady Janet, was delivered by private messenger.
Beginning with the necessary apologies for the writer's absence, the letter proceeded in these terms:
