hel had never seen a cinema, except a very primitive
one, years earlier--and old Batchgrew was mentioned, he being
notoriously a cinema magnate. "I cannot stand that man," said Rachel
with a candour that showed to what intimacy their talk had developed.
Louis was delighted by the explosion, and they both fell violently
upon Thomas Batchgrew and found intense pleasure in destroying him.
And Louis was saying to himself, enthusiastically, "How well she
understands human nature!"

So that when old Batchgrew, without any warning or preliminary sound,
stalked pompously into the room their young confusion was excessive.
They felt themselves suddenly in the presence of not merely a personal
adversary, but of an enemy of youth and of love and of joy--of a being
mysterious and malevolent who neither would nor could comprehend them.
And they were at once resentful and intimidated.

During the morning Councillor Batchgrew had provided
himself--doubtless by purchase, since he had not been home--with a
dandiacal spotted white waistcoat in honour of the warm and sunny
weather. This waistcoat by its sprightly unsuitability to his
aged uncouthness, somehow intensified the sinister quality of his
appearance.

"Found it?" he demanded tersely.

Rachel, strangely at a loss, hesitated and glanced at Louis as if for
succour.

"No, I haven't, Mr. Batchgrew," she said. "I haven't, I'm sure. And
I've turned over every possible thing likely or unlikely."

Mr. Batchgrew growled--

"From th' look of ye I made sure that th' money had turned up all
right--ye were that comfortable and cosy! Who'd guess as nigh on a
thousand pound's missing out of this house since last night!"

The heavy voice rolled over them brutally. Louis attempted to
withstand Mr. Batchgrew's glare, but failed. He was sure of the
absolute impregnability of his own position; but the clear memory
of at least one humiliating and disastrous interview with Thomas
Batchgrew in the past robbed Louis' eye of its composure. The
circumstances under which he had left the councillor's employ some
years ago were historic and unforgettable.

"I came in back way instead of front way," said Thomas Batchgrew,
"because I thought I'd have a look at that scullery door. Kitchen's
empty."

"What about the scullery door?" Louis lightly demanded.

Rachel murmured--

"I forgot to tell you; it was open when I came down in the middle of
the night." And then she added: "Wide open."

"Upon