CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
MRS. MERCER’S STATEMENT
“I want to say what I know. I can’t go on any longer and not tell. He said he’d kill me if I didn’t do what he said. I’ve wished and wished I’d let him kill me then and not swore false and let Mr. Geoffrey go to prison. I’ve not had one happy moment since, thinking about him and about Mrs. Grey.
“I’ve got to go back to explain. Alfred and me was sweethearts when I was a girl, and he let me down and lost me my character. And when I was out of a place Mrs. Bertram Everton that was Mr. Bertie’s mother heard about me. She was staying near my home, and she took me away to give me another chance, and had me trained under her cook, and by and by when the cook left I got the place. It’s all a matter of twenty-five years ago. Mr. Bertie was five years
