"I don't feel able to work just now." His back was turned on her for a moment, while he placed the basket on a side-table.

In that moment her mind advanced at a bound from present to future.

Accident might one day put the true Grace in possession of the proofs that she needed, and might reveal the false Grace to him in the identity that was her own.

What would he think of her then?
Could she make him tell her without betraying herself?
She determined to try.
"Children are notoriously insatiable if you once answer their questions, and women are nearly as bad," she said, when Julian returned to her.
"Will your patience hold out if I go back for the third time to the person whom we have been speaking of ?" "Try me," he answered, with a smile.
"Suppose you had _not_ taken your merciful view of her ?" "Yes ?" "Suppose you believed that she was wickedly bent on deceiving others for a purpose of her own--would you not shrink from such a woman in horror and disgust ?" "God forbid that I should shrink from any human creature!" he answered, earnestly.

"Who among us has a right to do that ?" She hardly dared trust herself to believe him.