第78章

"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?"The question silenced Grace.So far as money was concerned, she was literally at the end of her resources.Her only friends were friends in Canada.After what she had said to him in the boudoir, it would be quite useless to appeal to the sympathies of Julian Gray.In the pecuniary sense, and in one word, she was absolutely incapable of gratifying her own vindictive longings.And there sat the mistress of Mablethorpe House, perfectly well aware of it.

Lady Janet pointed to the empty chair.

"Suppose you sit down again?" she suggested."The course of our interview seems to have brought us back to the question that I asked you when you came into my room.Instead of threatening me with the law, suppose you consider the propriety of permitting me to be of some use to you.I am in the habit of assisting ladies in embarrassed circumstances, and nobody knows of it but my steward--who keeps the accounts--and myself.Once more, let me inquire if a little advance of the pecuniary sort (delicately offered) would be acceptable to you?"Grace returned slowly to the chair that she had left.She stood by it, with one hand grasping the top rail, and with her eyes fixed in mocking scrutiny on Lady Janet's face.

"At last your ladyship shows your hand," she said."Hush-money!""You will send me back to my papers," rejoined Lady Janet."How obstinate you are!"Grace's hand closed tighter and tighter round the rail of the chair.Without witnesses, without means, without so much as a refuge--thanks to her own coarse cruelties of language and conduct-- in the sympathies of others, the sense of her isolation and her helplessness was almost maddening at that final moment.A woman of finer sensibilities would have instantly left the room.Grace's impenetrably hard and narrow mind impelled her to meet the emergency in a very different way.A last base vengeance, to which Lady Janet had voluntarily exposed herself, was still within her reach."For the present," she thought, "there is but one way of being even with your ladyship.I can cost you as much as possible.""Pray make some allowances for me," she said."I am not obstinate--I am only a little awkward at matching the audacity of a lady of high rank.I shall improve with practice.My own language is, as I am painfully aware, only plain English.Permit me to withdraw it, and to substitute yours.What advance is your ladyship (delicately) prepared to offer me?"Lady Janet opened a drawer, and took out her check-book.

The moment of relief had come at last! The only question now left to discuss was evidently the question of amount.Lady Janet considered a little.The question of amount was (to her mind) in some sort a question of conscience as well.Her love for Mercy and her loathing for Grace, her horror of seeing her darling degraded and her affection profaned by a public exposure, had hurried her--there was no disputing it--into treating an injured woman harshly.Hateful as Grace Roseberry might be, her father had left her, in his last moments, with Lady Janet's full concurrence, to Lady Janet's care.But for Mercy she would have been received at Mablethorpe House as Lady Janet's companion, with a salary of one hundred pounds a year.On the other hand, how long (with such a temper as she had revealed) would Grace have remained in the service of her protectress? She would probably have been dismissed in a few weeks, with a year's salary to compensate her, and with a recommendation to some suitable employment.What would be a fair compensation now? Lady Janet decided that five years' salary immediately given, and future assistance rendered if necessary, would represent a fit remembrance of the late Colonel Roseberry's claims, and a liberal pecuniary acknowledgment of any harshness of treatment which Grace might have sustained at her hands.At the same time, and for the further satisfying of her own conscience, she determined to discover the sum which Grace herself would consider sufficient by the simple process of making Grace herself propose the terms.

"It is impossible for me to make you an offer," she said, "for this reason--your need of money will depend greatly on your future plans.I am quite ignorant of your future plans.""Perhaps your ladyship will kindly advise me?" said Grace, satirically.