There are no gentlemen here to-day to pity you and pick you up.

Mercy Merrick, I have got you at last.

Thank God, my turn has come! You can't escape me now!" All the littleness of heart and mind which had first shown itself in Grace at the meeting in the cottage, when Mercy told the sad story of her life, now revealed itself once more.

The woman who in those past times had felt no impulse to take a suffering and a penitent fellow-creature by the hand was the same woman who could feel no pity, who could spare no insolence of triumph, now.

Mercy's sweet voice answered her patiently, in low, pleading tones.
"I have not avoided you," she said.