“I’ve something I want to say to you,” said Mrs. Maldon, in that deceptive matter-of-fact voice.  “I wanted to tell you yesterday afternoon, but I couldn’t.  And then again last night, but I went off to sleep.”

“Yes?” murmured Rachel, duped by Mrs. Maldon’s manner into perfect security.  She was thinking:  “What’s the poor old thing got into her head now?  Is it something fresh about the money?”

“It’s about yourself,” said Mrs. Maldon.

Rachel exclaimed impulsively—­

“What about me?”

She could feel a faint vibration in Mrs. Maldon’s hand.

“I want you not to see so much of Louis.”

Rachel was shocked and insulted.  She straightened her spine and threw back her head sharply.  But she dared not by force withdraw her hand from Mrs. Maldon’s.  Moreover, Mrs. Maldon’s clasp tightened almost convulsively.

“I suppose Mr. Batchgrew’s been up here telling tales while I was asleep,” Rachel expostulated, hotly and her demeanour was at once pouting, sulky, and righteously offended.

Mrs. Maldon was puzzled.

“This morning, do you mean, dear?” she asked.

Tears stood in Rachel’s eyes.  She could not speak, but she nodded her head.  And then another sentence burst from her full breast:  “And you told Mrs. Tams she wasn’t to tell me Mr. Batchgrew’d called!”

“I’ve not seen or heard anything of Mr. Batchgrew,” said Mrs. Maldon.  “But I did hear you and Louis talking outside last night.”

The information startled Rachel.

“Well, and what if you did, Mrs. Maldon?” she defended herself.  Her foot tapped on the floor.  She was obliged to defend herself, and with care.  Mrs. Maldon’s tranquillity, self-control, immense age and experience, superior deportment, extreme weakness, and the respect which she inspired, compelled the girl to intrench warily, instead of carrying off the scene in one stormy outburst of resentment as theoretically she might have done.

Mrs. Maldon said, cajolingly, flatteringly—­

“My dear, do be your sensible self and listen to me.”

It then occurred to Rachel that during the last day or so (the period seemed infinitely longer) she had been losing, not her common sense, but her immediate command of that faculty, of which she was, privately, very proud.  And she braced her being, reaching up towards her own conception of herself, towards the old invulnerable Rachel Louisa Fleckring.  At any cost she must keep her reputation for common sense with Mrs. Maldon.

And so she set a watch on her gestures, and moderated her voice, secretly yielding to the benevolence of the old lady, and said, in the tone of a wise and kind woman of the world and an incarnation of profound sagacity—­