As soon as she had closed the front door she perceived that twilight was already obscuring the interior of the house.  But she could plainly see that the parlour door was about two inches ajar, exactly as she had left it a couple of hours earlier.  Probably Louis had not stirred.  She listened vainly for a sign of life from him.  Probably he was reading, for on rare occasions when he read a novel he would stick to the book with surprising pertinacity.  At any rate, he would be too lofty to give any sign that he had heard her return.  Under less sinister circumstances he might have yelled gaily:  “I say, Rache!” for in a teasing mood he would sometimes prefer “Rache” to “Louise.”

Rachel from the lobby could see the fire bright in the kitchen, and a trayful of things on the kitchen table ready to be brought into the parlour for high tea.

Mrs. Tams was out.  It was not among Mrs. Tams’s regular privileges to be out in the afternoon.  But this was Easter Saturday—­rather a special day—­and, further, one of her daughters had gone away for Easter and left a child with one of her daughters-in-law, and Mrs. Tams had desired to witness some of the dealings of her daughter-in-law with her grandchild.  Not without just pride had Mrs. Tams related the present circumstances to Rachel.  In Mrs. Tams’s young maturity parents who managed a day excursion to Blackpool in the year did well, and those who went away for four or five days at Knype Wakes in August were princes and plutocrats.  But nowadays even a daughter of Mrs. Tams, not satisfied with a week at Knype Wakes, could take a week-end at Easter just like great folk such as Louis.  Which proved that the community at large, or Mrs. Tams’s family, had famously got up in the world.  Rachel recalled Louis’ suggestion, more than a week earlier, of a trip to Llandudno.  The very planet itself had aged since then.

She looked at the clock.  In twenty minutes Mrs. Tams would be back.  She and Louis were alone together in the house.  She might go straight into the parlour, and say, in as indifferent and ordinary a voice as she could assume:  “I’ve just been over to Julian Maldon’s to give him that money—­all of it, you know,” and thus get the affair finished before Mrs. Tams’s reappearance.  Louis was within a few feet of her, hidden only by the door which a push would cause to swing!...  Yes, but she could not persuade herself to push the door!  The door seemed to be protected from her hand by a mysterious spell which she dared not break.  She was, indeed, overwhelmed by the simple but tremendous fact that Louis and herself were alone together in the darkening house.  She decided, pretending to be quite calm:  “I’ll just run upstairs and take my things off first.  There’s no use in my seeming to be in a hurry.”