performing here? You interest me indescribably. Give me your
hand."

Mercy shrank back, and refused the offered hand.

"Are we not friends?" Grace asked, in astonishment.

"We can never be friends."

"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."