ere Rachel Louisa, he had instantly said--"I shall call you Louise."
Rachel was ravished, Louisa is a vulgar name--at least it is vulgar
in the Five Towns, where every second general servant bears it. But
Louise was full of romance, distinction, and beauty. And it was the
perfect complement to Louis. Louis and Louise--ideal coincidence!
"But nobody except me is to call you Louise," he had added. And thus
completed her bliss.

"What?" she encouraged him amorously.

"Suppose we go to Llandudno on Saturday for the week-end?"

His tone was gay, gentle, innocent, persuasive. Yet the words stabbed
her and her head swam.

"But why?" she asked, controlling her utterance.

"Oh, well! Be rather a lark, wouldn't it?" It was when he talked in
this strain that the inconvenient voice of sagacity within her would
question for one agonizing instant whether she was more secure as the
proud, splendid wife of Louis Fores than she had been as a mere lady
help. And the same insistent voice would repeat the warnings which she
had had from Mrs. Maldon and from Thomas Batchgrew, and would remind
her of what she herself had said to herself when Louis first kissed
her--"This is wrong. But I don't care. He is mine."

Upon hearing of his inheritance from Mrs. Maldon, Louis was for
throwing up immediately his situation at Horrocleave's. Rachel had
dissuaded him from such irresponsible madness. She had prevented him
from running into a hundred expenses during their engagement and in
connection with the house. And he had in the end enthusiastically
praised her common sense. But that very morning at the midday meal he
had surprised her by announcing that on account of the reception he
should not go to the works at all in the afternoon, though he had
omitted to warn Horrocleave. Ultimately she had managed, by guile, to
dispatch him to the works for two hours. And now in the evening he
was alarming her afresh. Why go to Llandudno? What point was there in
rushing off to Llandudno, and scattering in three days more money than
they could save in three weeks? He frightened her ingrained prudence,
and her alarm was only increased by his obvious failure to realize the
terrible defect in himself. (For to her it was terrible.) The joyous
scheme of an excursion to Llandudno had suddenly crossed his mind,
exciting the appetite for pleasure. Hence the appetite must be
immediately indulged!... Rachel had been brought up otherwise. And as
a direct result of L