me; Mrs. Quest will
wonder what has become of you."

It was a random arrow, but it went straight home, and for the third
time that day Edward Cossey reddened to the roots of his hair. Without
answering a word he bowed and went.

When Ida saw this, she was sorry she had made the remark, for she had
no wish to appear to Mr. Cossey (the conquest of whom gave her neither
pride nor pleasure) in the light of a spiteful, or worst still, of a
jealous woman. She had indeed heard some talk about him and Mrs.
Quest, but not being of a scandal-loving disposition it had not
interested her, and she had almost forgotten it. Now however she
learned that there was something in it.

"So that is the difficult position of which he talks," she said to
herself; "he wants to marry me as soon as he can get Mrs. Quest off
his hands. And I have consented to that, always provided that Mrs.
Quest can be disposed of, in consideration of the receipt of a sum of
thirty thousand pounds. And I do not like the man. It was not nice of
him to make that bargain, though I brought it on myself. I wonder if
my father will ever know what I have done for him, and if he will
appreciate it when he does. Well, it is not a bad price--thirty
thousand pounds--a good figure for any woman in the present state of
the market." And with a hard and bitter laugh, and a prescience of
sorrow to come lying at the heart, she threw down the remains of the
Scarlet Turk and turned away.

CHAPTER XII

GEORGE PROPHESIES

Ida, for obvious reasons, said nothing to her father of her interview
with Edward Cossey, and thus it came to pass that on the morning
following the lawn tennis party, there was a very serious consultation
between the faithful George and his master. It appeared to Ida, who
was lying awake in her room, to commence somewhere about daybreak, and
it certainly continued with short intervals for refreshment till
eleven o'clock in the forenoon. First the Squire explained the whole
question to George at great length, and with a most extraordinary
multiplicity of detail, for he began at his first loan from the house
of Cossey and Son, which he had contracted a great many years before.
All this while George sat with a very long face, and tried to look as
though he were following the thread of the argument, which was not
possible, for his master had long ago lost it himself, and was mixing
up the loan of 1863 w