Complete Works of Wilkie Collins (2036 page)

Horace.
My dear Grace, you are quite mistaken. I never even thought of your work.

Mercy.
Never mind. It’s inconsistent to send for my work, and then send it away again. Ring the bell. (HORACE
rings. The
SERVANT
returns.
) Bring my work back; I have changed my mind. (
The
SERVANT
goes out.
) It is only people in our rank of life, Horace, who get good servants. Nothing upsets that man’s temper. A hard-worked servant, in a poor family, would have told me to know my own mind. (
The
SERVANT
appears again with the work.
) Thank you; that will do. (
The
SERVANT
goes out.
) Have you seen your mother lately, Horace?

Horace
(
seating himself by her
). I saw her yesterday.

Mercy
(
more and more excited — preparing her work
). She understands, I hope, that I am not well enough to call upon her? She is not offended with me?

Horace.
Offended with you? My dear Grace, she has a wedding present for you.

Mercy
. Do you know what it is?

Horace.
No. I only know it is waiting for you. Shall I go and get it to-day?

Mercy
. Your mother is very kind to me. I was afraid at one time that she would think me hardly good enough to be your wife.

Horace.
Absurd! My darling, you are connected with Lady Janet Roy.

Mercy
. Suppose I had not been connected with her? Suppose I had only been a good girl, with nothing but my own merits to speak for me, what would your mother have said then?

Horace.
Why do you ask these questions?

Mercy
. I ask to be answered.

Horace.
if you must know, my mother would have refused to sanction such a marriage as that.

Mercy
. No matter how good the girl might have been?

Horace.
My mother would have respected the girl, without ceasing to respect herself. She would have remembered what was due to the family name.

Mercy
. And she would have said — No?

Horace.
And she would have said — No.

Mercy
(
indignantly throwing down her work
). Ah!

Horace.
What is the matter?

Mercy
. Nothing. (
Aside.
) Oh! if I didn’t love him! If I had only his merciless mother to think of!

Horace.
Surely, I have not offended you?

Mercy
(
changing to tenderness
).
You
would have loved me, Horace — without stopping to think of the family name?

Horace.
My dear! how strangely you persist in coming back to that!

Mercy
(
persisting
).
You
would have loved me?

Horace
(
soothing her
). Under any circumstances — under any name!

Mercy
. No matter who I might have been? For myself alone?

Horace.
For yourself alone.

Mercy
(
with her head on his breast, and her arm round him.
). I love you! (
Starting back from him with a faint cry
). Oh! leave me! Go! Go!

Horace
(
surprised
). Leave you?

Mercy
(
rising — and speaking wildly
). Yes! The wedding-present! You offered to bring me your mother’s wedding-present. (
To herself.
) My head is failing me! I shall burst out before him with the truth! (
To
HORACE.) I am dying to see what it is. Go and get it! (
Pushing him out towards the door on the left.
) Go! Talking excites me — I am not well. Go — if you love me!

Horace.
Shall I see you when I come back?

Mercy
. Yes! yes!

Horace
(
kissing her hand
). You shall have my mother’s gift, in half-an-hour. (
He hurries out on the left.
)

Mercy
(
with a gasp of relief
). Oh! If I could only cry, now there is nobody to see me! (
She looks round the room in terror.
) This room! This horrible room! The last time I entered it, I saw her standing there. (
She points to the place.
) I can see her now — Grace Roseberry! Grace Roseberry!! Grace Roseberry, risen from the dead!!! (
A pause. She lifts her hands to her head.
) How it burns! how it burns! I mustn’t excite myself. I must keep quiet — I must try to think. (
She seats herself on the sofa, with her back to the conservatory.
) Where is she now? When is she coming back again to the house? What has she said of me to Julian Gray? He suspects me! oh, he suspects me! When will he tell the others? When will the truth come out? Why do I wait till it comes out? Why have I let a whole week pass without opening my lips? I am the vilest wretch on earth, if I wrong that woman any longer. That miserable woman! That friendless woman! (
Another pause.
GRACE ROSEBERRY
appears in the conservatory at the farther end of it. She hesitates before she advances to the room — glances suddenly over one shoulder, as if suspicious of persons following her — and disappears again at the back of the conservatory.
MERCY,
still absorbed in her own thoughts, rises with renewed agitation.
) I can’t do it — the bare thought of confessing to them horrifies me! They are so good to me, how can I confess? How can I tell them that I have cheated them out of their love? I can’t do it! I can’t do it! (
She seats herself on the nearest chair, with her back to the conservatory, and continues in a calmer tone.
) Suppose I did own the truth, what good would it do to Grace Roseberry? All the right in the world will not put Grace Roseberry in my place. Can I make it up to her in no other way? Where can I find her? I must see her in private to-day — to-morrow at latest.

(
She stops and hides her face in her hands.
GRACE ROSEBERRY
re-appears in the conservatory, advances to the door leading into the room, and speaks in a whisper.
)

Grace
(
to herself
). Not a soul to see me! I have got her to myself. (
On the point of entering the room, she stops, and looks suspiciously at the door on the right.
) What’s that?

(
The door on the right is opened from without.
JULIAN
appears.
GRACE
draws back again out of sight.
MERCY
remains absorbed in her own thoughts.
)

Julian
(
at the door
). Lady Janet, I have cautioned the lodge-keeper —
 
— (
He stops, seeing MERCY, and continues aside.
) The woman I love!

Mercy
(
aside — seeing him
). The man who suspects me! (
To
JULIAN —
timidly
). Mr. Julian Gray —
 
—

Julian
(
hesitating at the door
). Miss Roseberry?

Mercy
(
aside
). He shrinks from approaching me! (
To
JULIAN.) Did you expect to see Lady Janet?

Julian
(
still hesitating
). It doesn’t matter — I can wait. (
Aside
). I ought to leave her —
 
— (
He withdraws a step, and looks back at her furtively.
) How worn she looks! and yet how lovely still! (
He turns towards the door, and looks back again.
) I can’t leave her!

Mercy
(
aside
). I must find out if he suspects me! (
To
JULIAN —
timidly
). Lady Janet is receiving some visitors. She will be back directly.

Julian.
(
confusedly
). Thank you. I — if I am not in the way, I will wait. (
Aside.
) I daren’t look at her — I shall betray myself!

Mercy
(
aside
). I daren’t meet his eye — I shall fall at his feet with the confession of the truth.

Julian
(
advancing — shyly
). I hope you are better, Miss Roseberry?

Mercy
. Thank you. I am well enough to feel ashamed of the anxiety I have caused and the trouble I have given. I have got downstairs for the first time to-day. (
She takes up her basket to conceal her agitation.
) I am trying to do a little work. (
She turns over the wools in the basket, and looks at him with a smile.
) My skeins are all tangled. How am I to set them right again?

Julian.
Let me help you.

Mercy
(
half-amazed, half-alarmed
). You!

Julian
(
smiling
). You forget that I am a curate. Curates are privileged to make themselves useful to young ladies. Let me try.

(
He seats himself on a stool at her feet — unravels a skein — and holds it for
MERCY
to wind into a ball.
)

Mercy
(
trying
). You were in the room last week when I fainted, were you not?

Julian.
Yes.

Mercy
(
rolling up the wool
). You must think me a sad coward, even for a woman?

Julian.
I am far from thinking that. No courage could have sustained the shock which fell on you. I don’t wonder that you fainted. I don’t wonder that you have been ill.

(
She drops the wool she has rolled. As
JULIAN
picks it up for her, she speaks aside.
)

Mercy
(
aside
). Is he setting a trap for me? (
To
JULIAN,
who gives her back the ball.
) Thank you. Horace tells me you have been abroad.

Julian.
Yes. I thought it right to make some inquiries.

Mercy
(
faintly, ceasing to roll up the wool
). Any results?

Julian.
Nothing of importance; nothing worth telling.