The Search in the Grounds

He turned again to Mercy as he said those words, and surprised her
timidly looking up at him. In the instant when their eyes met, the
tumult of emotions struggling in him became suddenly stilled. Sorrow for
her--compassionating sorrow--rose in the new calm and filled his heart.
Now, and now only, he could read in the wasted and noble face how she
had suffered. The pity which he had felt for the unnamed woman grew to
a tenfold pity for _her_. The faith which he professed--honestly
professed--in the better nature of the unnamed woman strengthened into
a tenfold faith in _her_. He addressed himself again to his aunt, in a
gentler tone. "This lady," he resumed, "has something to say to me in
private which she has not said yet. That is my reason and my apology for
not immediately leaving the house."

Still under the impression of what she had seen on entering the room,
Lady Janet looked at him in angry amazement. Was Julian actually
ignoring Horace Holmcroft's claims, in the presence of Horace
Holmcroft's betrothed wife? She appealed to her adopted daughter.
"Grace!" she exclaimed, "have you heard him? Have you nothing to say?
Must I remind you--"

She stopped. For the first time in Lady Janet's experience of her young
companion, she found herself speaking to ears that were deaf to her.
Mercy was incapable of listening. Julian's eyes had told her that Julian
understood her at last!

Lady Janet turned to her nephew once more, and addressed him in the
hardest words that she had ever spoken to her sister's son.