“Oh no!” said she.  “I can carry it quite easily, thanks.”

Louis insisted masculinely—­

“I’ll take that tray out.”

And he took it out, holding his head back as he marched, so that the smoke of the cigarette between his lips should not obscure his eyes.  Rachel followed with some oddments.  Behold those two away together in the seclusion of the kitchen; and Mrs. Maldon and Julian alone in the parlour!

“Very fine!” muttered Julian, fingering the magnificent case of pipes.  Now that there were fewer spectators, his tongue was looser, and he could relent.

“I’m so glad you like it,” Mrs. Maldon responded eagerly.

The world was brighter to her, and she accepted Julian’s amiability as Heaven’s reward for her renewal of courage.

IV

“Auntie-” began Louis, with a certain formality.

“Yes?”

Mrs. Maldon had turned her chair a little towards the fire.  The two visitants to the kitchen had reappeared.  Rachel with a sickle-shaped tool was sedulously brushing the crumbs from the damask into a silver tray.  Louis had taken the poker to mend the fire.

He said, nonchalantly—­

“If you’d care for me to stay the night here instead of Julian, I will.”

“Well—­” Mrs. Maldon was unprepared for this apparently quite natural and kindly suggestion.  It perturbed, even frightened her by its implications.  Had it been planned in the kitchen between those two?  She wanted to accept it; and yet another instinct in her prompted her to decline it absolutely and at once.  She saw Rachel flushing as the girl industriously continued her task without looking up.  To Mrs. Maldon it seemed that those two, under the impulsion of Fate, were rushing towards each other at a speed far greater than she had suspected.

Julian stirred on his chair, under the sharp irritation caused by Louis’ proposal.  He despised Louis as a boy of no ambition—­a butterfly being who had got no farther than the adolescent will-to-live, the desire for self-indulgence, whereas he, Julian, was profoundly conscious of the will-to-dominate, the hunger for influence and power.  And also he was jealous of Louis on various counts.  Louis had come to the Five Towns years after Julian, and had almost immediately cut a figure therein; Julian had never cut a figure.  Julian had been the sole resident great-nephew of a benevolent aunt, and Louis had arrived and usurped at least half the advantages of the relationship, if not more; Louis lived several miles nearer to his aunt.  Julian it was who, through his acquaintance with Rachel’s father and her masterful sinister brother, had brought her into touch with Mrs. Maldon.  Rachel was Julian’s creation, so far as his aunt was concerned.  Julian had no dislike for Rachel; he had even been thinking of her favourably.  But Louis had, as it were, appropriated her ...  From the steely conning-tower