As she passed she saw one of
the Batchgrew women (the wife of another grandson) and three little
girls of various sizes flash in succession across an open doorway at
the back. The granddaughter-in-law, who had an abode full of costly
wedding-presents over the shop, had been one of her callers, but when
they flashed across that doorway the Batchgrew women made a point of
ignoring all phenomena in the shop.
"Has Louis decided about them debentures?" Thomas Batchgrew asked,
still in a very low and confidential tone, as the two stood together
in the corner. He had put the Book and the parcel down on a very
ragged blotting-pad that lay on a chipped and ink-stained deal desk,
and began to finger a yellow penholder. There was nobody else in the
shop.
Rachel had foreseen his question.
She answered calmly: "Yes. He's quite decided that on the whole it'll
be better if he doesn't put his money into debentures."
There was no foundation whatever for this statement; yet, in
uttering the lie, she was clearly conscious of a feeling of lofty
righteousness. She faced Thomas Batchgrew, though not with a
tranquillity perfectly maintained, and she still enjoyed his
appreciation of her, but she did not seem to care whether he guessed
that she was lying or not.
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