"
"But you never told me!"
"Didn't I? I forgot," he said blandly.
"Oh, Louis!... He's not coming for supper, I hope?"
"My child, if there's a chance of a free meal, old Batch will be on
the spot."
The unaccustomed housewife foretold her approaching shame, and
proclaimed Louis to be the author of it. She began to quicken her
steps.
"You certainly ought to have let me know sooner, dearest," she said
seriously. "You really are terrible."
Hard knocks had not hurt her. But she was hurt now. And Louis'
smile was very constrained. Her grave manner of saying "dearest" had
disquieted him.
CHAPTER X
THE CHASM
I
It is true that Rachel held Councillor Thomas Batchgrew in hatred,
that she had never pardoned him for the insult which he had put upon
her in the Imperial Cinema de Luxe; and that, indeed, she could never
pardon him for simply being Thomas Batchgrew. Nevertheless, there was
that evening in her heart a little softening towards him. The fact
was that the councillor had been flattering her. She would have denied
warmly that she was susceptible to flattery; even if authoritatively
informed that no human being whatever is unsusceptible to flattery,
she would still have protested that she at any rate was, for, like
numerous young and inexperienced women, she had persuaded herself that
she was the one exception to various otherwise universal rules.
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