the invalid should be
disturbed. And was not this, too, highly proper?

She gave him the news of the house and said that Mrs. Tams was taking
duty in the sick-room till four o'clock in the morning, and herself
thenceforward, but that the invalid gave no apparent cause for
apprehension.

"Old Batch been again?" asked Louis, with a complete absence of any
constraint.

She shook her head.

"You'll find that money yet--somewhere, when you're least expecting
it," said he, almost gaily.

"I'm sure we shall," she agreed with conviction.

"And how are _you_?" His tone became anxious and particular.
She blushed deeply, for the outbreak of which she had been guilty and
which he had witnessed, then smiled diffidently.

"Oh, I'm all right."

"You look as if you wanted some fresh air--if you'll excuse me saying
so."

"I haven't been out to-day, of course," she said.

"Don't you think a walk--just a breath--would do you good!"

Without allowing herself to reflect, she answered--

"Well, I ought to have gone out long ago to get some food for
to-morrow, as it's Sunday. Everything's been so neglected to-day. If
the doctor happened to order a cutlet or anything for Mrs. Maldon,
I don't know what I should do. Truly I ought to have thought of it
earlier."

She seemed to be blaming herself for neglectfulness, and thus the
enterprise of going out had the look of an act of duty. Her sensations
bewildered her.

"Perhaps I could walk down with you and carry parcels. It's a good
thing it's Saturday night, or the shops might have been closed."

She made no answer to this, but stood up, breathing quickly.

"I'll just speak to Mrs. Tams."

Creeping upstairs, she silently pushed open the door of Mrs. Maldon's
bedroom. The invalid was asleep. Mrs. Tams, her hands crossed in her
comfortable lap, and her mouth widely open, was also asleep. But Mrs.
Tams was used to waking with the ease of a dog. Rachel beckoned her to
the door. Without a sound the fat woman crossed the room.

"I'm just going out to buy a few things we want," said Rachel in her
ear, adding no word as to Louis Fores.

Mrs. Tams nodded.

Rachel went to her bedroom, turned up the gas, straightened her hair,
and put on her black hat, and her blue jacket trimmed with a nameless
fur, and picked up some gloves and her purse. Before descending she
gazed at herself for many seconds in the small, slanting glass. Coming
downstairs, she took the marketing reticule from