Spare me your protests and excuses; I can place but one interpretation on what I saw when I opened that door." "You entirely misunderstand what you saw when you opened that door," Julian answered, quietly.
"Perhaps I misunderstand the confession which you made to me not an hour ago ?" retorted Lady Janet.
Julian cast a look of alarm at Mercy.

"Don't speak of it!" he said, in a whisper.

"She might hear you." "Do you mean to say she doesn't know you are in love with her ?" "Thank God, she has not the faintest suspicion of it!" There was no mistaking the earnestness with which he made that reply.
It proved his innocence as nothing else could have proved it.

Lady Janet drew back a step--utterly bewildered; completely at a loss what to say or what to do next.
The silence that followed was broken by a knock at the library door.

The man-servant--with news, and bad news, legibly written in his disturbed face and manner--entered the room.