Reckless of the wintry chill in the outer air, she threw open one of the windows.
"Pah!" she exclaimed, with a shudder of disgust, "the very air of the room is tainted by her!" She returned to her chair.

Her mood changed as she sat down again--her heart was with Mercy once more.

"Oh, my love!" she murmured "how low I have stooped, how miserably I have degraded myself--and all for You!" The bitterness of the retrospect was unendurable.

The inbred force of the woman's nature took refuge from it in an outburst of defiance and despair.

"Whatever she has done, that wretch deserves it! Not a living creature in this house shall say she has deceived me.