or with his amiable partiality for one
legatee as against the other. Louis' share, beyond the Bycars house,
was in the gilt-edged stock of limited companies which sold water and
other necessaries of life to the public on their own terms.

Rachel left the pair for a moment, and returned from upstairs with
a grey jacket of Louis' from which she had to unstitch the black
_crepe_ armlet announcing to the world Louis' grief for his dead
great-aunt; the period of mourning was long over, and it would not
have been quite nice for Louis to continue announcing his grief.

As she came back into the room she heard the word "debentures,"
and that single word changed her mood instantly from bland feminine
toleration to porcupinish defensiveness. She did not, as a fact, know
what debentures were. She could not for a fortune have defined
the difference between a debenture and a share. She only knew that
debentures were connected with "limited companies"--not waterworks
companies, which she classed with the Bank of England--but just any
limited companies, which were in her mind a bottomless pit for the
savings of the foolish. She had an idea that a debenture was, if
anything, more fatal than a share. She was, of course, quite wrong,
according to general principles; but, unfortunately, women, as all men
sooner or later learn, have a disconcerting habit of being right
in the wrong way for the wrong reasons. In a single moment, without
justification, she had in her heart declared war on all debentures.
And as soon as she gathered that Thomas Batchgrew was suggesting to
Louis the exchange of waterworks stock for seven per cent. debentures
in the United Midland Cinemas Corporation, Limited, she became more
than ever convinced that her instinct about debentures was but too
correct. She sat down primly, and detached the armlet, and removed all
the bits of black cotton from the sleeve, and never raised her head
nor offered a remark, but she was furious--furious to protect her
husband against sharks and against himself.

The conduct and demeanour of Thomas Batchgrew were now explained.
His visit, his flattery, his heartiness, his youthfulness, all had a
motive. He had safeguarded Louis' interests under the will in order
to rob him afterwards as a cinematograph speculator. The thing was
as clear as daylight. And yet Louis did not seem to see it. Louis
listened to Batchgrew's ingenious arguments with naive interest and
was obviously impressed.