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?"

"Not so near," repeated the sternly resolute voice. "Wait till
you have heard what I have to say."

Grace obeyed without a word more. There was a momentary silence.
A faint flash of light leaped up from the expiring candle, and
showed Mercy crouching on the chest, with her elbows on her
knees, and her face hidden in her hands. The next instant the
room was buried in obscurity. As the darkness fell on the two
women the nurse spoke.

CHAPTER II.