"Oh!" said Rachel, "Mrs. Tams said the hall clock had stopped; that must have been when Mrs. Maldon knocked up against it."
She went to the parlour door and opened it, displaying the hall clock, which showed twenty-five minutes past twelve. Louis had crept up behind Mr. Batchgrew, who in his inapposite white waistcoat stood between the two lovers, stertorous with vague anathema.
"So that was the time," said he. "And th" burglars must ha" been and gone afore that. A likely thing burglars coming at twelve o"clock at night, isn"t it? And I"ll tell ye summat else. Them burglars was copped last night at Knype at eleven o"clock when th" pubs closed, if ye want to know--the whole gang of three on "em."
"Then what about that burglary last night down the Lane?" Rachel asked sharply.
"Oh!" exclaimed Louis. "Was there a burglary down the Lane last night?
I didn"t know that."
"No, there wasn"t," said Batchgrew ruthlessly. "That burglary was a practical joke, and it"s all over the town. Denry Machin had a hand in that affair, and by now I dare say he wishes he hadn"t."
"Still, Mr. Batchgrew," Louis argued superiorly, with the philosophic impartiality of a man well accustomed to the calm unravelling of crime, "there may be other burglars in the land beside just those three." He would not willingly allow the theory of burglars to crumble. Its attractiveness increased every moment.
"There may and there mayn"t, young Fores," said Thomas Batchgrew. "Did _you_ hear anything of "em?"
"No, I didn"t," Louis replied restively.
"And yet you ought to have been listening out for "em."
"Why ought I to have been listening out for them?"
"Knowing there was all that money in th" house."
"Mr. Fores didn"t know," said Rachel.
Louis felt himself unjustly smirched.
"It"s scarcely an hour ago," said he, "that I heard about this money for the first time." And he felt as innocent and aggrieved as he looked.
Mr. Batchgrew smacked his lips loudly.
"Then," he announced, "I"m going down to th" police-station, to put it i" Snow"s hands."
Rachel straightened herself.
"But surely not without telling Mrs. Maldon?"
Mr. Batchgrew fingered his immense whiskers.
"Is she better?" he inquired threateningly. This was his first sign of interest in Mrs. Maldon"s condition.
"Oh, yes; much. She"s going on very well. The doctor"s just been."
"Is she asleep?"
"She"s resting. She may be asleep."
"Did ye tell her ye hadn"t found her money?"
"Yes."
"What did she say?"
"She didn"t say anything."
"It might be munic.i.p.al money, for all she seems to care!" remarked Thomas Batchgrew, with a short, bitter grin. "Well, I"ll be moving to th" police-station. I"ve never come across aught like this before, and I"m going to get to the bottom of it."
Rachel slipped out of the door into the hall.
"Please wait a moment, Mr. Batchgrew," she whispered timidly.
"What for?"
"Till I"ve told Mrs. Maldon."
"But if her"s asleep?"
"I must waken her. I couldn"t think of letting you go to the police-station without letting her know--after what she said this morning."
Rachel waited. Mr. Batchgrew glanced aside.
"Here! Come here!" said Mr. Batchgrew in a different tone. The fact was that, put to the proof, he dared not, for all his autocratic habit, openly disobey the injunction of the benignant, indifferent, helpless Mrs. Maldon. "Come here!" he repeated coa.r.s.ely. Rachel obeyed, shamefaced despite herself. Batchgrew shut the door. "Now,"
he said grimly, "what"s your secret? Out with it. I know you and her"s got a secret. What is it?"
Rachel sat down on the sofa, hid her face in her hands, and startled both men by a sob. She wept with violence. And then through her tears, and half looking up, she cried out pa.s.sionately: "It"s all your fault.
Why did you leave the money in the house at all? You know you"d no right to do it, Mr. Batchgrew!"
The councillor was shaken out of his dignity by the incredible impudence of this indictment from a chit like Rachel. Similar experiences, however, had happened to him before; for, though as a rule people most curiously conspired with him to keep up the fiction that he was sacred, at rare intervals somebody"s self-control would break down, and bitter, inconvenient home truths would resound in the ear of Thomas Batchgrew. But he would recover himself in a few moments, and usually some diversion would occur to save him--he was nearly always lucky. A diversion occurred now, of the least expected kind. The cajoling tones of Mrs. Tams were heard on the staircase.
"Nay, ma"am! Nay, ma"am! This"ll never do. Must I go on my bended knees to ye?"
And then the firm but soft voice of Mrs. Maldon--
"I must speak to Mr. Batchgrew. I must have Mr. Batchgrew here at once. Didn"t you hear me call and call to you?"
"That I didn"t, ma"am! I was beating the feather bed in the back bedroom. Nay, not a step lower do you go, ma"am, not if I lose me job for it."
Thomas Batchgrew and Louis were already out in the hall. Half-way down the stairs stood Mrs. Maldon, supporting herself by the banisters and being supported by Mrs. Tams. She was wearing her pink peignoir with white frills at the neck and wrists. Her black hair was loose on her shoulders like the hair of a young girl. Her pallid and heavily seamed features with the deep shining eyes trembled gently, as if in response to a distant vibration. She gazed upon the two silent men with an expression that united benignancy with profound inquietude and sadness. All her past life was in her face, inspiring it with strength and sorrow.
"Mr. Batchgrew," she said. "I"ve heard your voice for a long time. I want to speak to you."
And then she turned, yielded to the solicitous alarm of Mrs. Tams, climbed feebly up the stairs, and vanished round the corner at the top. And Mrs. Tams, putting her frowsy head for an instant over the hand-rail, stopped to adjure Mr. Batchgrew--
"Eh, mester; ye"d better stop where ye are awhile."
From the parlour came the faint sobbing of Rachel.