The self-possession which Grace had maintained from the moment when she
had entered the dining-room, seemed now, for the first time, to be on
the point of failing her. She turned, and looked appealingly at Julian,
who had thus far kept his place apart, listening attentively.
"Surely," she said, "your friend, the consul, has told you in his letter
about the mark on the clothes?"
Something of the girlish hesitation and timidity which had marked her
demeanor at her interview with Mercy in the French cottage re-appeared
in her tone and manner as she spoke those words. The changes--mostly
changes for the worse--wrought in her by the suffering through which she
had passed since that time were now (for the moment) effaced. All that
was left of the better and simpler side of her character asserted itself
in her brief appeal to Julian. She had hitherto repelled him. He began
to feel a certain compassionate interest in her now.
"The consul has informed me of what you said to him," he answered,
kindly. "But, if you will take my advice, I recommend you to tell your
story to Lady Janet in your own words."
Grace again addressed herself with submissive reluctance to Lady Janet.
"The clothes your ladyship speaks of," she said, "were the clothes of
another woman. The rain was pouring when the soldiers detained me on the
frontier. I had been exposed for hours to the weather--I was wet to the
skin. The clothes marked 'Mercy Merrick' were the clothes lent to me by
Mercy Merrick herself while my own things were drying. I was struck
by the shell in those clothes. I was carried away insensible in those
clothes after the operation had been performed on me."
Lady Janet listened to perfection--and did no more. She turned
confidentially to Horace, and said to him, in her gracefully ironical
way: "She is ready with her explanation."
Horace answered in the same tone: "A great deal too ready."
Grace looked from one of them to the other. A faint flush of color
showed itself in her face for the first time.
"Am I to understand," she asked, with proud composure, "that you don't
believe me?"
Lady Janet maintained her policy of silence. She waved one hand
courteously toward Julian, as if to say, "Address your inquiries to
the gentleman who introduces you." Julian, noticing the gesture, and
observing the rising color in Grace's cheeks, interfered directly in the
interests of peace "Lady Janet asked you a question just now," he said; "Lady Janet
inquired who your father was."
"My father was the late Colonel Roseberry."
Lady Janet made another confidential remark to Horace. "Her assurance
amazes me!" she exclaimed.
Julian interposed before his aunt could add a word more. "Pray let us
hear her," he said, in a tone of entreaty which had something of the
imperative in it this time. He turned to Grace. "Have you any proof to
produce," he added, in his gentler voice, "which will satisfy us that
you are Colonel Roseberry's daughter?"