"Wilkie Collins - The New Magdalen" - читать интересную книгу автора (Collins Wilkie)

glided into view, and stood relieved against the green background of the
winter-garden.
"Did your ladyship call me?"
"Yes; I want to speak to you. Come and sit down by me."
With those words Lady Janet led the way to a sofa, and placed her companion by
her side.



CHAPTER VII.
THE MAN IS COMING.
"You look very pale this morning, my child."
Mercy sighed wearily. "I am not well," she answered. "The slightest noises
startle me. I feel tired if I only walk across the room."
Lady Janet patted her kindly on the shoulder. "We must try what a change will do
for you. Which shall it be? the Continent or the sea-side?"
"Your ladyship is too kind to me."
"It is impossible to be too kind to you."
Mercy started. The color flowed charmingly over her pale face. "Oh!" she
exclaimed, impulsively. "Say that again!"
"Say it again?" repeated Lady Janet, with a look of surprise.
"Yes! Don't think me presuming; only think me vain. I can't hear you say too
often that you have learned to like me. Is it really a pleasure to you to have
me in the house? Have I always behaved well since I have been with you?"
(The one excuse for the act of personation--if excuse there could be--lay in the
affirmative answer to those questions. It would be something, surely, to say of
the false Grace that the true Grace could not have been worthier of her welcome,
if the true Grace had been received at Mablethorpe House!)
Lady Janet was partly touched, partly amused, by the extraordinary earnestness
of the appeal that had been made to her.
"Have you behaved well?" she repeated. "My dear, you talk as if you were a
child!" She laid her hand caressingly on Mercy's arm, and continued, in a graver
tone: "It is hardly too much to say, Grace, that I bless the day when you first
came to me. I do believe I could be hardly fonder of you if you were my own
daughter."
Mercy suddenly turned her head aside, so as to hide her face. Lady Janet, still
touching her arm, felt it tremble. "What is the matter with you?" she asked, in
her abrupt, downright manner.
"I am only very grateful to your ladyship--that is all." The words were spoken
faintly, in broken tones. The face was still averted from Lady Janet's view.
"What have I said to provoke this?" wondered the old lady. "Is she in the
melting mood to-day? If she is, now is the time to say a word for Horace!"
Keeping that excellent object in view, Lady Janet approached the delicate topic
with all needful caution at starting.
"We have got on so well together," she resumed, "that it will not be easy for
either of us to feel reconciled to a change in our lives. At my age, it will
fall hardest on me. What shall I do, Grace, when the day comes for parting with
my adopted daughter?"
Mercy started, and showed her face again. The traces of tears were in her eyes.
"Why should I leave you?" she asked, in a tone of alarm.