dence in you." It
was not quite true, because Rachel's protest as to Mr. Batchgrew,
seeming to point to strange concealed incidents, had most certainly
impaired the perfection of Mrs. Maiden's confidence in Rachel.

Rachel considered that she ought to pursue her advantage, and in a
voice light and yet firm, good-natured and yet restive, she said--

"I really don't think anybody has the right to talk to me about Mr.
Fores.... No, truly I don't."

"You mustn't misunderstand me, Rachel," Mrs. Maldon replied, and her
other hand crept out, and stroked Rachel's captive hand. "I am only
saying to you what it is my duty to say to you--or to any other young
woman that comes to live in my house. You're a young woman, and Louis
is a young man. I'm making no complaint. But it's my duty to warn you
against my nephew."

"But, Mrs. Maldon, I didn't know either him or you a month ago!"

Mrs. Maldon, ignoring the interruption, proceeded quietly--

"My nephew is not to be trusted."

Her aged face slowly flushed as in that single brief sentence she
overthrew the grand principle of a lifetime. She who never spoke ill
of anybody had spoken ill of one of her own family.

"But--" Rachel stopped. She was frightened by the appearance of the
flush on those devastated yellow cheeks, and by a quiver in the feeble
voice and in the clasping hand. She could divine the ordeal which Mrs.
Maldon had set herself and through which she had passed. Mrs. Maldon
carried conviction, and in so doing she inspired awe. And on the
top of all Rachel felt profoundly and exquisitely flattered by the
immolation of Mrs. Maiden's pride.

"The money--it has something to do with that!" thought Rachel.

"My nephew is not to be trusted," said Mrs. Maldon again. "I know
all his good points. But the woman who married him would suffer
horribly--horribly!"

"I'm so sorry you've had to say this," said Rachel, very kindly. "But
I assure you that there's nothing at all, nothing whatever, between
Mr. Fores and me." And in that instant she genuinely believed that
there was not. She accepted Mrs. Maldon's estimate of Louis. And
further, and perhaps illogically, she had the feeling of having
escaped from a fatal danger. She expected Mrs. Maldon to agree eagerly
that there was nothing between herself and Louis, and to reiterate
her perfect confidence. But, instead, Mrs. Maldon, apparently treating
Rachel's assurance as negligible, continued with an added solemnity--

"I