ell--" and made a gesture to imply that the enigma baffled him.

"I give it up!" breathed Rachel intimately. "I fairly give it up!"

"And of course that was the cause of her attack?" he said suddenly, as
if the idea had just occurred to him.

Rachel nodded--"Evidently."

"Well," said he, "I'll look in again during the afternoon. I must
be getting along for my grub." He was hoping that he had not
unintentionally brought about his aunt's death.

"Not had your dinner!" she cried. "Why! It's after half-past two!"

"Oh, well, you know ... Saturday...."

"I shall get you a bit of dinner here," she said. "And then perhaps
Mrs. Maldon will be waking up. Yes," she repeated, positively, "I
shall get you a bit of dinner here, myself. Mrs. Maldon would not be
at all pleased if I didn't."

"I'm frightfully hungry," he admitted.

And he was.

When she had left the parlour he perceived evidences here and there
that she had been hunting up hill and down dale for the notes; and he
went into the back room with an earnest, examining air, as though
he might find part of the missing hoard, after all, in some niche
overlooked by Rachel. He would have preferred to think that Mrs.
Maldon had not taken the whole of the money upstairs, but reflection
did much to convince him that she had. It was infinitely regrettable
that he had not counted his treasure-trove under the chair.

IV

The service of his meal, which had the charm of a picnic, was
interrupted by the arrival of the doctor, whose report on the invalid,
however, was so favourable that Louis could quite dismiss the possibly
homicidal aspect of his dealings with the bank-notes. The shock of the
complete disappearance of the vast sum had perhaps brought Mrs.
Maldon to the brink of death, but she had edged safely away again,
in accordance with her own calm prophecy that very morning. When the
doctor had gone, and the patient was indulged in her desire to be
left alone for sleep, Louis very slowly and luxuriously finished his
repast, with Rachel sitting opposite to him, in Mrs. Maldon's place,
at the dining-table. He lit a cigarette and, gracefully leaning
his elbows on the table, gazed at her through the beautiful grey
smoke-veil, which was like the clouds of Paradise.

What thrilled Louis was the obvious fact that he fascinated her. She
was transformed under his glance. How her eyes shone! How her cheek
flushed and paled! What passionate vitality found vent in her littl