If the ball ends (as I believe it will) in new mortifications for Mercy—do what they may, I defy them to mortify me—I have only to say the word by telegraph, and we shall catch the ship at Plymouth.
"I know the effect it will have when I break the news to her, but I am prepared with my remedy.
The pages of my diary, written in past years, will show plainly enough that it is not she who is driving me away from England.
She will see the longing in me for other work and other scenes expressing itself over and over again long before the time when we first met."
FIFTH EXTRACT.
"Mercy's ball dress—a present from kind Lady Janet—is finished.
I was allowed to see the first trial, or preliminary rehearsal, of this work of art.
I don't in the least understand the merits of silk and lace; but one thing I know—my wife will be the most beautiful woman at the ball.
"The same day I called on Lady Janet to thank her, and encountered a new revelation of the wayward and original character of my dear old aunt.
"She was on the point of tearing up a letter when I went into her room.
Seeing me, she suspended her purpose and handed me the letter.
It was in Mercy's handwriting.
Lady Janet pointed to a passage on the last page.
'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 lades, 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.
"Let me do strict justice to every one.
The ladies who were present showed the needful respect for their hostess. They did their duty—no, overdid it, is perhaps the better phrase.
"I really had no adequate idea of the coarseness and rudeness which have filtered their way through society in these later times until I saw the reception accorded to my wife.
The days of prudery and prejudice are days gone by.
Excessive amiability and excessive liberality are the two favorite assumptions of the modern generation.