Refuge the day after Mercy Merrick had left her house. This is not quite
correct. Julian, as you will presently see, has enough to answer for
without being held responsible for errors of judgment in which he has
had no share. Lady Janet (as she herself told me) went to the Refuge of
her own free-will to ask Mercy Merrick's pardon for the language which
she had used on the previous day. 'I passed a night of such misery as
no words can describe'--this, I assure you, is what her ladyship really
said to me--'thinking over what my vile pride and selfishness and
obstinacy had made me say and do. I would have gone down on my knees to
beg her pardon if she would have let me. My first happy moment was when
I won her consent to come and visit me sometimes at Mablethorpe House.'

"You will, I am sure, agree with me that such extravagance as this is to
be pitied rather than blamed. How sad to see the decay of the faculties
with advancing age! It is a matter of grave anxiety to consider how much
longer poor Lady Janet can be trusted to manage her own affairs. I shall
take an opportunity of touching on the matter delicately when I next see
her lawyer.

"I am straying from my subject. And--is it not strange?--I am writing to
you as confidentially as if we were old friends.

"To return to Julian Gray. Innocent of instigating his aunt's first
visit to the Refuge, he is guilty of having induced her to go there for
the second time the day after I had dispatched my last letter to you.
Lady Janet's object on this occasion was neither more nor less than to
plead her nephew's cause as humble suitor for the hand of Mercy Merrick.
Imagine the descent of one of the oldest families in England inviting an
adventuress in a Refuge to honor a clergyman of the Church of England by
becoming his wife! In what times do we live! My dear mother shed tears
of shame when she heard of it. How you would love and admire my mother!

"I dined at Mablethorpe House, by previous appointment, on the day when
Lady Janet returned from her degrading errand.

"'Well?' I said, waiting, of course, until the servant was out of the
room.

"'Well,' Lady Janet answered, 'Julian was quite right.'

"'Quite right in what?'

"'In saying that the earth holds no nobler woman than Mercy Merrick.'

"'Has she refused him again?'

"'She has refused him again.'

"'Thank God!' I felt it fervently, and I said it fervently. Lady Janet
laid down her knife and fork, and fixed one