But no presentiment warned Mercy of what lay before her.

She was like a traveller going into a country whose language he has never heard, and whose currency he does not understand.

However eloquent he may be in his own land, he is dumb and helpless here; and of the fortune with which he was rich at home he is robbed at every turn by false exchanges which impose on his ignorance.
Poor Mercy! Vaguely she felt that life was cruel to Stephen and to her; but she accepted its cruelty to her as an inevitable part of her oneness with him.

Whatever he had to bear she must bear too, especially if he were helped by her sharing the burden.

And her heart glowed with happiness, recalling the expression with which he had said,-- "Remember, Mercy, you are the one bright thing in my life." She understood, or thought she understood, precisely the position in which he was placed.
"Very possibly he has even promised his mother," she said to herself, "even promised her he would never be married.