urriedly
entered the room.

"What is it you want with me, Lady Janet?" he inquired, not very
graciously.

"Sit down, Horace, and you shall hear."

Horace did not accept the invitation. "Excuse me," he said, "if I
mention that I am rather in a hurry."

"Why are you in a hurry?"

"I have reasons for wishing to see Grace as soon as possible."

"And _I_ have reasons," Lady Janet rejoined, "for wishing to speak to
you about Grace before you see her; serious reasons. Sit down."

Horace started. "Serious reasons?" he repeated. "You surprise me."

"I shall surprise you still more before I have done."

Their eyes met as Lady Janet answered in those terms. Horace observed
signs of agitation in her, which he now noticed for the first time. His
face darkened with an expression of sullen distrust--and he took the
chair in silence.

CHAPTER XXIV. LADY JANET'S LETTER.

THE narrative leaves Lady Janet and Horace Holmcroft together, and
returns to Julian and Mercy in the library.

An interval passed--a long interval, measured by the impatient reckoning
of suspense--after the cab which had taken Grace Roseberry away had left
the house. The minutes followed each other; and still the warning sound
of Horace's footsteps was not heard on the marble pavement of the
hall. By common (though unexpressed) consent, Julian and Mercy avoided
touching upon the one subject on which they were now both interested
alike. With their thoughts fixed secretly in vain speculation on the
nature of the interview which was then taking place in Lady Janet's
room, they tried to speak on topics indifferent to both of them--tried,
and failed, and tried again. In a last and longest pause of silence
between them, the next event happened. The door from the hall was softly
and suddenly opened.

Was it Horace? No--not even yet. The person who had opened the door was
only Mercy's maid.

"My lady's love, miss; and will you please to read this directly?"

Giving her message in those terms, the woman produced from the pocket
of her apron Lady Janet's second letter to Mercy, with a strip of paper
oddly pinned round the envelope. Mercy detached the paper, and found on
the inner side some lines in pencil, hurriedly written in Lady Janet's
hand. They ran thus.

"Don't lose a moment in reading my letter. And mind this, when H.
returns to you--meet him firmly: say nothing."

Enlightened by the warning words which Julian had spoken to her, Mercy
was at no