to think
that his brusque visit, with Mr. Batchgrew's, was the origin of the
relapse.

"Is there any change?" Louis asked.

Rachel shook her head "No," she said. "We just have to sit and watch."

"Doctor's coming in again to-night, isn't he?"

Rachel nodded.

"It seems it's an embolus."

Rachel nodded once more. She had still no conception of what an
embolus was; but she naturally assumed that Louis could define an
embolus with exactitude.

"I say," said Louis, and his voice was suddenly charged with magical
qualities of persuasion, entreaty, and sincerity--"I say, you might
look at me."

She flushed, but she looked up at him. She might have sat straight and
remarked: "Mr. Fores, what do you mean by talking to me like that?"
But she raised her eyes and her crimson cheeks for one timid instant,
and dropped them. His voice had overcome her. With a single phrase,
with a mere inflection, he had changed the key of the interview. And
the glance at him had exposed her to the appeal of his face, more
powerful than ten thousand logical arguments and warnings. His
face proved that he was a sympathetic, wistful, worried
fellow-creature--and miraculously, uniquely handsome. His face in the
twilight was the most romantic face that Rachel had ever seen. His
gestures had a celestial charm.

He said--

"I know I ought to apologize for the way I came in this afternoon. I
do. But if you knew what cause I had ...! Would you believe that old
Batch had come to my place, and practically accused me of stealing the
old lady's money--_stealing_ it!"

"Never!" Rachel murmured.

"Yes, he did. The fact is, he knew jolly well he'd no business to
have left it in the house that night, so he wanted to get out of it by
making _me_ suffer. You know he's always been down on me. Well,
I came straight up here and I told auntie. Of course I couldn't make a
fuss, with her ill in bed. So I simply told her I hadn't got her money
and I hadn't stolen it, and I left it at that. I thought the less said
the better. But I had to say that much. I wonder what Julian would
have said if he'd been accused. I just wonder!" He repeated the word,
queerly evocative: "Julian!"

"What did Mrs. Maldon say?" Rachel asked.

"Well, she didn't say much. She believed me, naturally. And then old
Batch came. I wasn't going to have a regular scene with him up there,
so I left. I thought that was the only dignified thing to do. I wanted
to tell you, and I've told yo