mendous grievance. The
fundamental lack of generosity in him was exposed. Inexperienced
though he was in women, he saw in Rachel then, just as if he had been
twenty years older, the woman who lightly imagines that the past
can be wiped out with a soft tone, an endearment, a tear, a touching
appeal. He would not let her off so easily. She had horribly lacerated
his dignity for a week--he could recall every single hurt--and he
was not going to allow himself to recover in a minute. His dignity
required a gradual convalescence. He was utterly unaffected by her
wistful charm.

Rachel moved her head somewhat towards his, and then hesitated. The
set hardness of his face was incredible to her. Her head began to
swim. She thought, "I shall really die if this continues."

"Louis--don't!" she besought him plaintively.

He walked deliberately away and nervously played with an "ornament" on
the sideboard.

"And let me tell you another thing," said he slowly. "If you think I
came back to-night because I couldn't do without you, you're mistaken.
I'm going out again at once."

She said to herself, "He has killed me!" The room circled round her,
gathering speed, and Louis with it. The emptiness in her bosom was
intolerable.

II

Louis saw her face turning paler and paler, till it was, really,
almost as white as the table-cloth. She fell back into the chair, her
arms limp and lifeless.

"Confound the girl!" he thought. "She's going to faint now! What an
infernal nuisance!"

Compunction, instead of softening him, made him angry with himself. He
felt awkward, at a loss, furious.

"Mrs. Tams!" he called out, and hurried from the room. "Mrs. Tams!" As
he went out he was rather startled to find that the door had not been
quite closed.

In the lobby he called again, "Mrs. Tams!"

The kitchen gas showed a speck of blue. He had not noticed it when he
came into the house: the kitchen door must have been shut, then. He
looked up the stairs. He could discern that the door of Mrs. Tams's
bedroom, at the top, was open, and that there was no light in the
room. Puzzled, he rushed to the kitchen, and snatched at his hat as he
went, sticking it anyhow on his head.

"Eh, mester, what ever's amiss?"

With these alarmed words Mrs. Tams appeared suddenly from behind the
kitchen door; she seemed a little out of breath, as far as Louis could
hear; he could not see her very well. The thought flashed through his
mind. "She's been listeni