William Wilkie Collins Fullscreen New Magdalene (1873)

Pause

I owe you every possible atonement (afflicted as you are) for treating you in that cruel manner.

I offered you the use of my boudoir, as part of my atonement.

I sent for you, in the hope that you would allow me to assist you, as part of my atonement.

You may behave rudely to me, you may speak in the most abusive terms of my adopted daughter; I will submit to anything, as part of my atonement.

So long as you abstain from speaking on one painful subject, I will listen to you with the greatest pleasure.

Whenever you return to that subject I shall return to my papers."

Grace looked at Lady Janet with an evil smile.

"I begin to understand your ladyship," she said. "You are ashamed to acknowledge that you have been grossly imposed upon.

Your only alternative, of course, is to ignore everything that has happened.

Pray count on my forbearance.

I am not at all offended—I am merely amused.

It is not every day that a lady of high rank exhibits herself in such a position as yours to an obscure woman like me.

Your humane consideration for me dates, I presume, from the time when your adopted daughter set you the example, by ordering the police officer out of the room?"

Lady Janet's composure was proof even against this assault on it.

She gravely accepted Grace's inquiry as a question addressed to her in perfect good faith.

"I am not at all surprised," she replied, "to find that my adopted daughter's interference has exposed her to misrepresentation.

She ought to have remonstrated with me privately before she interfered.

But she has one fault—she is too impulsive.

I have never, in all my experience, met with such a warm-hearted person as she is.

Always too considerate of others; always too forgetful of herself!

The mere appearance of the police officer placed you in a situation to appeal to her compassion, and her impulses carried her away as usual.

My fault!

All my fault!"

Grace changed her tone once more.

She was quick enough to discern that Lady Janet was a match for her with her own weapons.

"We have had enough of this," she said.

"It is time to be serious.

Your adopted daughter (as you call her) is Mercy Merrick, and you know it."

Lady Janet returned to her papers.

"I am Grace Roseberry, whose name she has stolen, and you know that."

Lady Janet went on with her papers.

Grace got up from her chair.

"I accept your silence, Lady Janet," she said, "as an acknowledgment of your deliberate resolution to suppress the truth.

You are evidently determined to receive the adventuress as the true woman; and you don't scruple to face the consequences of that proceeding, by pretending to my face to believe that I am mad.

I will not allow myself to be impudently cheated out of my rights in this way.

You will hear from me again madam, when the Canadian mail arrives in England."

She walked toward the door.

This time Lady Janet answered, as readily and as explicitly as it was possible to desire.

"I shall refuse to receive your letters," she said.

Grace returned a few steps, threateningly.

"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 can set the law in action.

You know as well as I do that the only motive power which can do that is—money.

I am rich; fees, costs, and all the rest of it are matters of no sort of consequence to me.

May I ask if you are in the same position?"