Therefore the second letter was even a greater blow to her than the first: it was a second and a deeper thrust into a wound which had hardly begun to heal.

There was also a tone of confident, almost arrogant, assumption in the letter, it seemed to Mercy, which irritated her.

She did not perceive that it was the inevitable confidence of a person so sure he is right that he cannot comprehend any doubt in another's mind on the subject.

There was in Mercy's nature a vein of intolerance, which was capable of the most terrible severity.

She was as blinded, to Stephen's true position in the matter as he was to hers.