“Why not?”
The nurse was dumb. Grace called to mind the hesitation that she had shown when she had mentioned her name, and drew a new conclusion from it. “Should I be guessing right,” she asked, eagerly, “if I guessed you to be some great lady in disguise?”
Mercy laughed to herself—low and bitterly. “I a great lady!” she said, contemptuously. “For Heaven’s sake, let us talk of something else!”
Grace’s curiosity was thoroughly roused. She persisted. “Once more,” she whispered, persuasively, “let us be friends.” She gently laid her hand as she spoke on Mercy’s shoulder. Mercy roughly shook it off. There was a rudeness in the action which would have offended the most patient woman living. Grace drew back indignantly. “Ah!” she cried, “you are cruel.”
“I am kind,” answered the nurse, speaking more sternly than ever.
“Is it kind to keep me at a distance? I have told you my story.”
The nurse’s voice rose excitedly. “Don’t tempt me to speak out,” she said; “you will regret it.”
Grace declined to accept the warning. “I have placed confidence in you,” she went on. “It is ungenerous to lay me under an obligation, and then to shut me out of your confidence in return.”
“You will have it?” said Mercy Merrick. “You shall have it! Sit down again.” Grace’s heart began to quicken its beat in expectation of the disclosure that was to come. She drew her chair closer to the chest on which the nurse was sitting. With a firm hand Mercy put the chair back to a distance from her. “Not so near me!” she said, harshly.
“Why not?”