Even the man in plain clothes started to his feet.

Lady Janet (hurriedly joining Horace, and fully sharing his perplexity and alarm) took Mercy impulsively by the arm, and shook it, as if to rouse her to a sense of what she was doing.

Mercy held firm; Mercy resolutely repeated what she had said: "Send that man out of the house." Lady Janet lost all her patience with her.

"What has come to you ?" she asked, sternly.

"Do you know what you are saying?
The man is here in your interest, as well as in mine; the man is here to spare you, as well as me, further annoyance and insult.