She stretched out her hand to open the door, when the voices (recognizable now as the voices of two men) caught her ear once more.
This time she was able to distinguish the words that were spoken.
"Any further orders, sir ?" inquired one of the men.
"Nothing more," replied the other.
Mercy started, and faintly flushed, as the second voice answered the first.

She stood irresolute close to the billiard-room, hesitating what to do next.
After an interval the second voice made itself heard again, advancing nearer to the dining-room: "Are you there, aunt ?" it asked cautiously.
There was a moment's pause.

Then the voice spoke for the third time, sounding louder and nearer.

"Are you there ?" it reiterated; "I have something to tell you." Mercy summoned her resolution and answered: "Lady Janet is not here." She turned as she spoke toward the conservatory door, and confronted on the threshold Julian Gray.
They looked at one another without exchanging a word on either side.
The situation--for widely different reasons--was equally embarrassing to both of them.
There--as Julian saw _her_--was the woman forbidden to him, the woman whom he loved.
There--as Mercy saw _him_--was the man whom she dreaded, the man whose actions (as she interpreted them) proved that he suspected her.
On the surface of it, the incidents which had marked their first meeting were now exactly repeated, with the one difference that the impulse to withdraw this time appeared to be on the man's side and not on the woman's.

It was Mercy who spoke first.
"Did you expect to find Lady Janet here ?" she asked, constrainedly.