Through ominous footsteps in corridors and confrontations in the dining-room Lady Janet is driven to desperation and letters and confession reveal the truth, leading Mercy to endure a moral judgment akin to trial as she faces dismissal and final ordeal yet in acknowledging her deception and accepting responsibility she demonstrates courage and redefines love and duty through contrasts of great heart and little heart, and in the epilogue Mercy emerges not as a fugitive behind another’s name but as a renewed woman determined to live honestly, suggesting that redemption lies less in social pardon than in personal transformation.
