'Tell your wife, with my love,' she said, 'that I am the most obstinate woman of the two.I positively refuse to read her, as I positively refuse to listen to her, whenever she attempts to return to that one subject.
Now give me the letter back.' I gave it back, and saw it torn up before my face.The 'one subject' prohibited to Mercy as sternly as ever is still the subject of the personation of Grace Roseberry! Nothing could have been more naturally introduced, or more delicately managed, than my wife's brief reference to the subject.No matter.The reading of the first line was enough.Lady Janet shut her eyes and destroyed the letter--Lady Janet is determined to live and die absolutely ignorant of the true story of 'Mercy Merrick.' What unanswerable riddles we are! Is it wonderful if we perpetually fail to understand one another?" SIXTH EXTRACT.
"The morning after the ball.
"It is done and over.Society has beaten Lady Janet.I have neither patience nor time to write at length of it.We leave for Plymouth by the afternoon express.
"We were rather late in arriving at the ball.The magnificent rooms were filling fast.Walking through them with my wife, she drew my attention to a circumstance which I had not noticed at the time.'Julian,' she said, 'look round among the ladies, and tell me if you see anything strange.'
As I looked round the band began playing a waltz.I observed that a few people only passed by us to the dancing-room.I noticed next that of those few fewer still were young.At last it burst upon me.With certain exceptions (so rare as to prove the rule), there were no young girls at Lady Janet's ball.I took Mercy at once back to the reception-room.Lady Janet's face showed that she, too, was aware of what had happened.The guests were still arriving.We received the men and their wives, the men and their mothers, the men and their grandmothers--but, in place of their unmarried daughters, elaborate excuses, offered with a shameless politeness wonderful to see.
Yes! This was how the matrons in high life had got over the difficulty of meeting Mrs.Julian Gray at Lady Janet's house.
to themselves.Her guests remained and supped heartily notwithstanding.They all knew by experience that there were no stale dishes and no cheap wines at Mablethorpe House.They drank to the end of the bottle, and they ate to the last truffle in the dish.
"Mercy and I had an interview with my aunt upstairs before we left.
I felt it necessary to state plainly my resolution to leave England.The scene that followed was so painful that I cannot prevail on myself to return to it in these pages.My wife is reconciled to our departure; and Lady Janet accompanies us as far as Plymouth--these are the results.No words can express my sense of relief, now that it is all settled.The one sorrow I shall carry away with me from the shores of England will be the sorrow of parting with dear, warm-hearted Lady Janet.At her age it is a parting for life.
"So closes my connection with my own country.While I have Mercy by my side I face the unknown future, certain of carrying my happiness with me, go where I may.We shall find five hundred adventurers like ourselves when we join the emigrant ship, for whom their native land has no occupation and no home.Gentlemen of the Statistical Department, add two more to the number of social failures produced by England in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and seventy-one--Julian Gray and Mercy Merrick.
END OF VOLUME SEVEN.[Table of Contents]
