The two men had not a word to say. Mr. Batchgrew grunted, vacillating.
It seemed as if the majestic apparition of Mrs. Maldon had rebuked everything that was derogatory and undignified in her trustee, and that both he and Louis were apologizing to the empty hall for being common, base creatures. Each of them--and especially Louis--had the sense of being awakened to events of formidable grandeur whose imminence neither had suspected. Still a.s.suring himself that his position was absolutely safe, Louis nevertheless was aware of a sinking in the stomach. He could rebut any accusation. "And yet ...!"
murmured his craven conscience. What could be the enigma between Mrs.
Maldon and Rachel? He was now trying to convince himself that Mrs.
Maldon had in fact divided the money into two parts, of which he had handled only one, and that the impressive mystery had to do with the other part of the treasure, which he had neither seen nor touched.
How, then, could he personally be threatened? "And yet!..." said his conscience again.
In about a minute Mrs. Tarns reappeared at the head of the stairs.
"Her _will_ have ye, mester!" said she to the councillor.
Thomas Batchgrew mounted after her.
Louis made a noise with his tongue as if starting a horse, and returned to the parlour.
Rachel, still on the sofa, showed her wet face.
"I"ve got no secret," she said pa.s.sionately. "And I"m sure Mrs. Maldon hasn"t. What"s he driving at?"
The natural freedom of her gestures and vehement accent was enchanting to Louis.
She jumped from the Chesterfield and ran away upstairs, flying.
He followed to the lobby, and saw her dash into her own room and feverishly shut the door, which was in full view at the top of the stairs. And Louis thought he had never lived in any moment so exquisite and so alarming as that moment.
He was now alone on the ground floor. He caught no sound from above.
"Well, I"d better get out of this," he said to himself. "Anyhow, I"m all right!... What a girl! Terrific!" And, lighting a fresh cigarette, he left the house.
V
"And now what"s amiss?" Thomas Batchgrew demanded, alone with Mrs.
Maldon in the tranquillity of the bedroom.
Mrs. Maldon lay once more in bed; the bedclothes covered her without a crease, and from the neat fold-back of the white sheet her wrinkled ivory face and curving black hair emerged so still and calm that her recent flight to the stairs seemed unreal, impossible. The impression her mien gave was that she never had moved and never would move from the bed. Thomas Batchgrew"s bl.u.s.terous voice frankly showed acute irritation. He was angry because nine hundred and sixty-five pounds had monstrously vanished, because the chance of a good investment was lost, because Mrs. Maldon tied his hands, because Rachel had forgotten her respect and his dignity in addressing him; but more because he felt too old to impose himself by sheer rough-riding, individual force on the other actors in the drama, and still more because he, and n.o.body else, had left the nine hundred and sixty-five pounds in the house. What an orgy of denunciation he would have plunged into had some other person insisted on leaving the money in the house with a similar result!
Mrs. Maldon looked up at him with a glance of compa.s.sion. She was filled with pity for him because he had arrived at old age without dignity and without any sense of what was fine in life; he was not even susceptible to the chastening influences of a sick-room. She knew, indeed, that he hated and despised sickness in others, and that when ill himself he became a moaning ma.s.s of cowardice and vituperation. And in her heart she invented the most wonderful excuses for him, and transformed him into a martyr of destiny who had suffered both through ancestry and through environment. Was it his fault that he was thus tragically defective? So that by the magic power of her benevolence he became dignified in spite of himself.
She said--
"Mr. Batchgrew, I want you to oblige me by not discussing my affairs with any one but me."
At that moment the front door closed firmly below, and the bedroom vibrated.
"Is that Louis going?" she asked.
Batchgrew went to the window and looked downward, lowering the pupils as far as possible so as to see the pavement.
"It"s Louis going," he replied.
Mrs. Maldon sighed relief.
Mr. Batchgrew said no more.
"What were you talking about downstairs to those two?" Mrs. Maldon went on carefully.
"What d"ye suppose we were talking about?" retorted Batchgrew, still at the window. Then he turned towards her and proceeded in an outburst: "If you want to know, missis, I was asking that young wench what the secret was between you and her."
"The secret? Between Rachel and me?"
"Aye! Ye both know what"s happened to them notes, and ye"ve made it up between ye to say nowt!"
Mrs. Maldon answered gravely--
"You are quite mistaken. I know nothing, and I"m sure Rachel doesn"t.
And we have made nothing up between us. How can you imagine such things?"
"Why don"t ye have the police told?"
"I cannot do with the police in my house."
Mr. Batchgrew approached the bed almost threateningly.
"I"ll tell you why ye won"t have the police told. Because ye know Louis Fores has taken your money. It"s as plain as a pikestaff. Ye put it on the chair on the landing here, and ye left it there, and he came along and pocketed it." Mrs. Maldon essayed to protest, but he cut her short. "Did he or did he not come upstairs after ye"d been upstairs yourself?"
As Mrs. Maldon hesitated, Thomas Batchgrew began to feel younger and more impressive.
"Yes, he did," said Mrs. Maldon at length. "But only because I asked him to come up--to fasten the window."
"What window?"
"The landing window."
Mr. Batchgrew, startled and delighted by this unexpected confirmation of his theory, exploded--
"Ha!... And how soon was that after ye"d been upstairs with the notes?"
"It was just afterwards."
"Ha!... I don"t mind telling ye I"ve been suspecting that young man ever since this morning. I only learnt just now as he was in th" house all night. That made me think for a moment as he"d done it after ye"d all gone to bed. And for aught I know he may have. But done it some time he has, and you know it as well as I do, Elizabeth."
Mrs. Maldon maintained her serenity.
"We may be unjust to him. I should never forgive myself if I was. He has a very good side to him, has Louis!"
"I"ve never seen it," said Mr. Batchgrew, still growing in authority.
"He began as a thief and he"ll end as a thief, if it"s no worse."
"Began as a thief?" Mrs. Maldon protested.