'My letters shall be followed by my witnesses,' she proceeded.
'I shall refuse to receive your witnesses.'
'Refuse at your peril. I will appeal to the law.'
Lady Janet smiled.
'I don't pretend to much knowledge of the subject,' she said; 'but I should be surprised indeed if I discovered that you had any claim on me which the law could enforce. However, let us suppose that you
The question silenced Grace. So far as money was concerned, she was literally at the end of her resources. Her only friends were friends in Canada. After what she had said to him in the boudoir, it would be quite useless to appeal to the sympathies of Julian Gray. In the pecuniary sense, and in one word, she was absolutely incapable of gratifying her own vindictive longings. And there sat the mistress of Mablethorpe House, perfectly well aware of it.
Lady Janet pointed to the empty chair.
'Suppose you sit down again?' she suggested. 'The course of our interview seems to have brought us back to the question that I asked you when you came into my room. Instead of threatening me with the law, suppose you consider the propriety of permitting me to be of some use to you. I am in the habit of assisting ladies in embarrassed circumstances, and nobody knows of it but my steward—who keeps the accounts—and myself. Once more, let me inquire if a little advance of the pecuniary sort (delicately offered) would be acceptable to you?'
Grace returned slowly to the chair that she had left. She stood by it, with one hand grasping the top rail, and with her eyes fixed in mocking scrutiny on Lady Janet's face.
'At last your ladyship shows your hand,' she said. 'Hush-money!'
'You
Grace's hand closed tighter and tighter round the rail of the chair. Without witnesses, without means, without so much as a refuge—thanks to her own coarse cruelties of language and conduct—in the sympathies of others, the sense of her isolation and her helplessness was almost maddening at that final moment. A woman of finer sensibilities would have instantly left the room. Grace's impenetrably hard and narrow mind impelled her to meet the emergency in a very different way. A last base vengeance, to which Lady Janet had voluntarily exposed herself, was still within her reach. 'For the present,' she thought, 'there is but one way of being even with your ladyship. I can cost you as much as possible.'
'Pray make some allowances for me,' she said. 'I am not obstinate—I am only a little awkward at matching the audacity of a lady of high rank. I shall improve with practice. My own language is, as I am painfully aware, only plain English. Permit me to withdraw it, and to substitute yours. What advance is your ladyship (delicately) prepared to offer me?'
Lady Janet opened a drawer, and took out her check-book.
The moment of relief had come at last! The only question now left to discuss was evidently the question of amount. Lady Janet considered a little. The question of amount was (to her mind) in some sort a question of conscience as well. Her love for Mercy and her loathing for Grace, her horror of seeing her darling degraded and her affection profaned by a public exposure, had hurried her—there was no disputing it—into treating an injured woman harshly. Hateful as Grace Roseberry might be, her father had left her, in his last moments, with Lady Janet's full concurrence, to Lady Janet's care. But for Mercy she would have been received at Mablethorpe House as Lady Janet's companion, with a salary of one hundred pounds a year. On the other hand, how long (with such a temper as she had revealed) would Grace have remained in the service of her protectress? She would probably have been dismissed in a few weeks, with a year's salary to compensate her, and with a recommendation to some suitable employment. What would be a fair compensation now? Lady Janet decided that five years' salary immediately given, and future assistance rendered if necessary, would represent a fit remembrance of the late Colonel Roseberry's claims, and a liberal pecuniary acknowledgment of any harshness of treatment which Grace might have sustained at her hands. At the same time, and for the further satisfying of her own conscience, she determined to discover the sum which Grace herself would consider sufficient by the simple process of making Grace herself propose the terms.
'It is impossible for me to make you an offer,' she said, 'for this reason—your need of money will depend greatly on your future plans. I am quite ignorant of your future plans.''
'Perhaps your ladyship will kindly advise me?' said Grace, satirically.
'I cannot altogether undertake to advise you,' Lady Janet replied. 'I can only suppose that you will scarcely remain in England, where you have no friends. Whether you go to law with me or not, you will surely feel the necessity of communicating personally with your friends in Canada. Am I right?'
Grace was quite quick enough to understand this as it was meant. Properly interpreted, the answer signified —'If you take your compensation in money, it is understood, as part of the bargain that you don't remain in England to annoy me.'
'Your ladyship is quite right,' she said. 'I shall certainly not remain in England. I shall consult my friends—and,' she added, mentally, 'go to law with you afterward, if I possibly can, with your own money!'
'You will return to Canada,' Lady Janet proceeded; 'and your prospects there will be, probably, a little uncertain at first. Taking this into consideration, at what amount do you estimate, in your own mind, the pecuniary assistance which you will require?'
'May I count on your ladyship's, kindness to correct me if my own ignorant calculations turn out to be wrong?' Grace asked, innocently.
Here again the words, properly interpreted, had a special signification of their own: 'It is stipulated, on my part, that I put myself up to auction, and that my estimate shall be regulated by your ladyship's highest bid.' Thoroughly understanding the stipulation, Lady Janet bowed, and waited gravely.
Gravely, on her side, Grace began.
'I am afraid I should want more than a hundred pounds,' she said.
