In that hopeless way it ended again now.
The murmur of the two voices at the further end of the conservatory ceased.

The billiard-room door opened again slowly, by an inch at a time.
Mercy still kept her place, unconscious of the events that were passing round her.

Sinking under the hard stress laid on it, her mind had drifted little by little into a new train of thought.

For the first time she found the courage to question the future in a new way.

Supposing her confession to have been made, or supposing the woman whom she had personated to have discovered the means of exposing the fraud, what advantage, she now asked herself, would Miss Roseberry derive from Mercy Merrick's disgrace?
Could Lady Janet transfer to the woman who was really her relative by marriage the affection which she had given to the woman who had pretended to be her relative?
No! All the right in the world would not put the true Grace into the false Grace's vacant place.