Summing up the unassailable security of her false position in those closing words, Mercy pointed significantly to the billiard-room door.
“You were hiding there, by your own confession,” she said. “You know your way out by that door. Will you leave the room?”
“I won’t stir a step!”
Mercy walked to a side-table, and struck the bell placed on it.
At the same moment the billiard-room door opened. Julian Gray appeared—returning from his unsuccessful search in the grounds.
He had barely crossed the threshold before the library door was thrown open next by the servant posted in the room. The man drew back respectfully, and gave admission to Lady Janet Roy. She was followed by Horace Holmcroft with his mother’s wedding present to Mercy in his hand.
CHAPTER XX. THE POLICEMAN IN PLAIN CLOTHES.
JULIAN looked round the room, and stopped at the door which he had just opened.
His eyes rested first on Mercy, next on Grace.