im at length, quickening
her speech as she proceeded. And for a few moments it was as if he
was being engulfed by an enormous wave, and would drown. But the next
instant he recollected that he was on dry land, safe, high beyond the
reach of any catastrophe. His position was utterly secure. The past
was past; the leaf was turned. He had but to forget, and he was
confident of his ability to forget. The compartments of his mind were
innumerable, and as separate as the dungeons of a mediaeval prison.

"Isn't it awful?" she murmured.

"Well, it is rather awful!"

"Nine hundred and sixty-five pounds! Fancy it!"

The wave approached him again as she named the sum. Nevertheless,
he never once outwardly blenched. As he had definitely put away
unrighteousness, so his face showed no sign of guilt. Like many
ingenuous-minded persons, he had in a high degree the faculty of
appearing innocent--except when he really was innocent.

"If you ask me," said Rachel, "she never took any of the notes
upstairs at all; she left them all somewhere downstairs and only took
the serviette upstairs."

"Yes," he agreed thoughtfully, wondering whether on the other hand,
Mrs. Maldon had not taken all the notes upstairs, and left none of
them downstairs. Was it possible that in that small roll, in that
crushed ball that he had dropped into the grate, there was nearly a
thousand pounds--the equivalent of an income of a pound a week
for ever and ever?... Never mind! The incident, so far as he was
concerned, was closed. The dogma of his future life would be that the
bank-notes had never existed.

"And I've looked _ev_'rywhere!" Rachel insisted with strong
emphasis.

Louis remarked, thoughtfully, as though a new aspect of the affair was
presenting itself to him--

"It's really rather serious, you know!"

"I should just say it was--as much money as that!"

"I mean," said Louis, "for everybody. That is to say, Julian and me.
We're involved."

"How can you be involved? You didn't even know it was in the house."

"No. But the old lady might have dropped it. I might have picked it
up. Julian might have picked it up. Who's to prove--"

She cut in coldly--

"Please don't talk like that!"

He smiled with momentary constraint. He said to himself--

"It won't do to talk to this kind of girl like that. She won't stand
it.... Why, she wouldn't even _dream_ of suspicion falling on
herself--wouldn't dream of it."

After a silence he began--

"W