ential salute. "There
you are. I was really beginning to wonder. I opened the front door,
but there was no light and no sound, so I shut it again and came back.
What happened to you?"

His ingenuous and delightful face, so confident, good-natured, and
respectful, had exactly the same effect on her as before. At the sight
of it Thomas Batchgrew's vague accusation against Louis was dismissed
utterly as the rancorous malice of an evil old man. For the rest, she
had never given it any real credit, having an immense trust in her own
judgment. But she had no intention of letting Louis go free. As she
had been put in the wrong, so must he be put in the wrong. This
seemed to her only just. Besides, was he not wholly to blame? Also she
remembered with strange clearness the admiration in the mien of the
hated Batchgrew, and the memory gave her confidence.

She said, with an effort after chilly detachment--

"I couldn't wait in the cinema alone for ever."

He was perturbed.

"But I assure you," he said nicely, "I was as quick as ever I could
be. Heath had put my stick in his back parlour to keep it safe for me,
and it was quite a business finding it again. Why didn't you wait?...
I say, I hope you weren't vexed at my leaving you."

"Of course I wasn't vexed," she answered, with heat. "Didn't I tell
you I didn't mind? But if you want to know, old Batchgrew came along
while you were gone and insulted me."

"Insulted you? How? What was he doing there?"

"How should I know what he was doing there? Better ask him questions
like that! All I can tell you is that he came to me and called me into
a room at the back--and--and--told me I'd no business to be there, nor
you either, while Mrs. Maldon was ill in bed."

"Silly old fool! I hope you didn't take any notice of him."

"Yes, that's all very fine, that is! It's easy for you to talk like
that. But--but--well, I suppose there's nothing more to be said!" She
moved to one side; her anger was rising. She knew that it was rising.
She was determined that it should rise. She did not care. She rather
enjoyed the excitement. She smarted under her recent experience; she
was deeply miserable; and yet, at the same time, standing there close
to Louis in the rustling night, she was exultant as she certainly had
never been exultant before.

She walked forward grimly. Louis turned and followed her.

"I'm most frightfully sorry," he said.

She replied fiercely--

"It isn't as if I didn'