Complete Works of Wilkie Collins (2037 page)

Mercy
(
as before
). May I ask you another question? I want to know your opinion of the person who frightened me. Do you believe her to be an adventuress? Do you think her a dangerous woman?

Julian
(
composedly
). Certainly not. Pray don’t be alarmed about her. At the worst I think her the victim of a delusion; nothing more. I don’t blame her. I pity her.

Mercy
(
with sudden resolution to know the worst
). You pity her? (
A pause.
) There! the ball is wound. (
She puts it into the basket.
) Do you believe her?

Julian
(
rising in surprise
). Believe her! Good heavens, Miss Roseberry, what put such a question into your head?

Mercy
(
trying to assume a jesting tone
). I am little better than a stranger to you. How could I feel sure that you might not suspect me?

Julian
(
warmly
). Suspect
you?
You don’t know how you distress, how you shock me! The man doesn’t live who trusts you more implicitly, who believes in you more devotedly, than I do. (
There is a momentary pause. She turns her head aside, shrinking from meeting his eye.
) Have I said anything to hurt you?

Mercy
(
still not daring to look at him
). You don’t know how your generous confidence touches me. You little think how keenly I feel your kindness! (
She hands him the work-basket.
) Will you put it away for me? (JULIAN
takes the basket to a side table.
MERCY
speaks to herself.
) I have wronged
him
too! He believes in me! If I dared own the truth to him, would he shrink from me? (JULIAN
returns.
) Suppose you had taken the other view? Suppose you had thought her a woman wickedly bent on deceiving others for a purpose of her own?

Julian.
Yes?

Mercy
. You would shrink in horror from such a false creature as that?

Julian.
God forbid that I should shrink from any human creature! Who among us has a right to do that?

Mercy
. You would still pity her and feel for her?

Julian.
With my whole heart!

Mercy
. How good you are!

Julian.
No! Don’t say that! Say, that I try to love my neighbour as myself. Who but a Pharisee can believe that he is better than another? The best among us to-day may, but for the mercy of Heaven, be the worst among us to-morrow. The true Christian virtue is the virtue which never despairs of a fellow-creature. Frail and fallen as we are, we can rise on the wings of repentance from earth to heaven. Humanity is sacred! Humanity has its immortal destiny! Who shall dare say to man or woman, There is no hope in You? Who shall dare say the work is vile, when that work bears on it the stamp of the Creator’s hand? (
He pauses, struggling with the emotion which she has roused in him.
)

Mercy
(
aside, rising
). Has Providence sent him here to help me? No! too late! too late! (
She sighs bitterly.
JULIAN
hears her and looks round.
)

Julian.
Miss Roseberry!

Mercy
(
starting and looking up
). Yes?

Julian
(
very gently
). May I venture to ask you something? (MERCY
starts.
) Don’t suppose I speak out of idle curiosity. I fancy you feel more than a common interest in the questions which you have just put to me. Are you by any chance speaking of some erring woman — not, of course, the person who frightened you — but of some other woman whom you know? (MERCY
answers by bending her head. She can neither speak to him nor look at him.
) Does that mean that I am right?

Mercy
(
faintly
). Yes.

Julian.
Are you interested in her?

Mercy
. I am.

Julian.
Go to her, and let me go with you and help you.

Mercy
(
with her head on her breast
). She has sunk too low for that. (
She falls back in the chair.
) She has deceived — basely deceived — kind, innocent people. She has cruelly wronged another woman. (GRACE
reappears listening.
)

Julian.
You judge her very harshly. Do you know how she may have been tried and tempted? Had she any friend near to advise her, to warn her, before it was too late?

Mercy
. She had no one to warn her — she was alone.

Julian.
Tempted and friendless, she may have committed herself headlong to the act which she now vainly repents. She may long to make atonement, and may not know how to begin. She may be crushed under the despair and horror of herself, out of which the truest repentance grows. Is such a woman as this all wicked, all vile? I deny it. She may have a noble nature. Give her the opportunity she needs, and she may show it nobly yet. Tell me this, has she gained anything to her own advantage by the fraud?

Mercy
. She has.

Julian.
Is she threatened with discovery?

Mercy
. She is safe from discovery as long as she closes her lips. (GRACE
disappears again.
)

Julian.
There is her opportunity. Let her own the truth without the base fear of discovery to drive her to it. Let her do justice to the woman whom she has wronged while that woman is still powerless to expose her. Let her sacrifice everything that she has gained by the fraud to the sacred duty of atonement. If she can do that — to her own prejudice, to her own shame, to her own loss — then her repentance has nobly revealed the noble nature that is in her; then she is a woman to be trusted, respected, beloved. If I saw the Pharisees and fanatics of this lower earth passing her by in contempt, I would hold out my hand to her before them all. I would say to her in her solitude and her affliction, Rise, poor wounded heart! Beautiful, purified soul, the angels in Heaven rejoice over you! Take your place among the noblest of Heaven’s creatures!

Mercy
(
aside — deeply agitated
). The words he spoke to us in the chapel at the Refuge! The words that drew tears from us all in the bygone time!

Julian
(
taking his hat
). Where is she? Don’t waste the precious moments! Don’t leave her cruelly to herself! If you can’t go to her, let me go in your place. (
He advances to the door on the left.
)

Mercy
(
with sudden resolution
). Stay here!

Julian
(
at the door
). Stay here? I don’t understand you.

Mercy
. You will understand me directly. Give me a little time.

Julian
(
returning a few steps towards her
). Do you wish to be alone? Shall I leave you for awhile, and return again?

Mercy
(
agitatedly
). No! Don’t leave me! I want encouragement — I want strength. Come back to me. (
He seats himself by her again.
) Let me take your hand. (
He hesitates — she abruptly takes his hand.
)

Julian.
(
aside — looking away from her
). Her touch thrills through me!

Mercy
(
aside — in surprise
). His hand trembles in mine! (
To
JULIAN.) Don’t look away from me! Your eye gives me courage. Look at me.

Julian.
Look at you —
 
— ? (
He loses all self-control — he looks at her ardently and takes her by both hands.
) Oh! if you only knew —
 
— ! (
Aside — with sudden self-reproach.
) What am I saying? (
He abruptly rises, and retires to the fireplace.
)

Mercy
(
resolute to speak out
). Now! now! Let me speak while I can. I have more to say to you, far more than I have said yet. Generous, merciful friend, let me say it now! (JULIAN
returns to her in surprise. She attempts to throw herself at his feet.
) I — I am the —
 
— !

Julian
(
raising her with a loud cry of recognition as the truth bursts on him
). You are the woman!!!

(
She is almost in his arms. At the same moment the door on the left opens;
LADY JANET
appears, and stops at the entrance of the room, looking sternly at them. Neither
JULIAN
nor
MERCY
show any embarrassment or take any notice of her.
MERCY
sinks into a chair.
JULIAN
is absorbed in looking at her.
)

Lady J.
(
sternly
). Mr. Julian Gray! (JULIAN
approaches
LADY J.
without the slightest confusion.
) You were right — you ought to have found nobody here on your return but me. I can place but one interpretation on what I saw when I opened that door —
 
—

Julian
(
quietly
). You entirely misunderstand what you saw when you opened that door.

Lady J.
Perhaps I misunderstand the confession which you made to me not an hour ago?

Julian
(
with a look of alarm
). Don’t speak of it! (
He indicates
MERCY). She might hear you.

Lady J.
Do you mean to say she doesn’t know you are in love with her?

Julian
(
earnestly
). Thank Heaven, she has not the faintest suspicion of it!

Lady J.
(
astonished
). He is really in earnest! What does it mean? (
The
SERVANT
enters on the left.
LADY J.
addresses him irritably
). Why do you interrupt us?

The Servant.
I beg your Ladyship’s pardon. I wanted to speak to Mr. Julian Gray.

Julian.
What is it?

The Servant.
I hardly know if I can tell you, sir, before her Ladyship.

Lady J.
I know what has happened! That abominable woman has found her way here again. Am I right?

The Servant.
Yes, my Lady.

(MERCY,
who has been disturbed by the
SERVANT’S
appearance, rises, and listens eagerly to what follows.
)