ng, risk anything, forgive anything, rather
than own, even to herself, that she has been deceived in you. There is
more than her happiness at stake; there is pride, a noble pride, in such
love as hers, which will ignore the plainest discovery and deny the most
unanswerable truth. I am firmly convinced--from my own knowledge of her
character, and from what I have observed in her to-day--that she will
find some excuse for refusing to hear your confession. And more than
that, I believe (if the exertion of her influence can do it) that she
will leave no means untried of preventing you from acknowledging
your true position here to any living creature. I take a serious
responsibility on myself in telling you this--and I don't shrink
from it. You ought to know, and you shall know, what trials and what
temptations may yet lie before you."

He paused--leaving Mercy time to compose herself, if she wished to speak
to him.

She felt that there was a necessity for her speaking to him. He was
plainly not aware that Lady Janet had already written to her to defer
her promised explanation. This circumstance was in itself a confirmation
of the opinion which he had expressed. She ought to mention it to him;
she tried to mention it to him. But she was not equal to the effort.
The few simple words in which he had touched on the tie that bound Lady
Janet to her had wrung her heart. Her tears choked her. She could only
sign to him to go on.

"You may wonder at my speaking so positively," he continued, "with
nothing better than my own conviction to justify me. I can only say
that I have watched Lady Janet too closely to feel any doubt. I saw the
moment in which the truth flashed on her, as plainly as I now see you.
It did not disclose itself gradually--it burst on her, as it burst on
me. She suspected nothing--she was frankly indignant at your sudden
interference and your strange language--until the time came in which
you pledged yourself to produce Mercy Merrick. Then (and then only)
the truth broke on her mind, trebly revealed to her in your words, your
voice, and your look. Then (and then only) I saw a marked change come
over her, and remain in her while she remained in the room. I dread to
think of what she may do in the first reckless despair of the discovery
that she has made. I distrust--though God knows I am not naturally a
suspicious man--the most apparently trifling events that are now taking
place about us. You have held nobly to