Perhaps the lady's letter will explain for you.

Why have you not looked at it yet ?" "I am in great trouble, madam, as you noticed just now--" "Have you any objection to my knowing who your visitor is ?" "No, Lady Janet." "Let me look at her card, then." Mercy gave the matron's card to Lady Janet, as she had given the matron's telegram to Horace.
Lady Janet read the name on the card--considered--decided that it was a name quite unknown to her--and looked next at the address: "Western District Refuge, Milburn Road." "A lady connected with a Refuge ?" she said, speaking to herself; "and calling here by appointment--if I remember the servant's message?
A strange time to choose, if she has come for a subscription!" She paused.

Her brow contracted; her face hardened.

A word from her would now have brought the interview to its inevitable end, and she refused to speak the word.

To the last moment she persisted in ignoring the truth! Placing the card on the couch at her side, she pointed with her long yellow-white forefinger to the printed letter lying side by side with her own letter on Mercy's lap.
"Do you mean to read it, or not ?" she asked.
Mercy lifted her eyes, fast filling with tears, to Lady Janet's face.
"May I beg that your ladyship will read it for me ?" she said--and placed the matron's letter in Lady Janet's hand.
It was a printed circular announcing a new development in the charitable work of the Refuge.