The one conclusion I can arrive at is that the note which my aunt sent to you, the private interview with Miss Roseberry which has followed, and the summons to Horace which has succeeded in its turn, are all links in the same chain of events, and are all tending to that renewed temptation against which I have already warned you." Mercy held up her hand for silence.

She looked toward the door that opened on the hall; had she heard a footstep outside?
No.

All was still.
Not a sign yet of Horace's return.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, "what would I not give to know what is going on upstairs!" "You will soon know it now," said Julian.

"It is impossible that our present uncertainty can last much longer." He turned away, intending to go back to the room in which she had found him.

Looking at her situation from a man's point of view, he naturally assumed that the best service he could now render to Mercy would be to leave her to prepare herself for the interview with Horace.