Once more, and for the last time--do you stay here?
or do you go with me ?" "I stay here." She respectfully opened the library door for Lady Janet's departure as she made that reply.

Throughout the interview she had been carefully and coldly deferential; she had not once lifted her eyes to Lady Janet's face.

The conviction in her that a few hours more would, in all probability, see her dismissed from the house, had of necessity fettered every word that she spoke--had morally separated her already from the injured mistress whose love she had won in disguise.

Utterly incapable of attributing the change in her young companion to the true motive, Lady Janet left the room to summon her domestic garrison, thoroughly puzzled and (as a necessary consequence of that condition) thoroughly displeased.
Still holding the library door in her hand, Mercy stood watching with a heavy heart the progress of her benefactress down the length of the room on the way to the front hall beyond.

She had honestly loved and respected the warm-hearted, quick-tempered old lady.