ed her
pride. She disliked the man intensely, and nothing that he could say
or do would lessen that dislike by one jot--probably, indeed, it would
only intensify it.

Presently he stopped, his breast heaving and his face broken with
emotion, and tried to take her hand.

She withdrew it sharply.

"I do not think that there is any need for all this," she said coldly.
"I gave a conditional promise. You have fulfilled your share of the
bargain, and I am prepared to fulfil mine in due course."

So far as her words went, Edward could find no fault with their
meaning, and yet he felt more like a man who has been abruptly and
finally refused than one declared chosen. He stood still and looked at
her.

"I think it right to tell you, however," she went on in the same
measured tones, "that if I marry you it will be from motives of duty,
and not from motives of affection. I have no love to give you and I do
not wish for yours. I do not know if you will be satisfied with this.
If you are not, you had better give up the idea," and for the first
time she looked up at him with more anxiety in her face than she would
have cared to show.

But if she hoped that her coldness would repel him, she was destined
to be disappointed. On the contrary, like water thrown on burning oil,
it only inflamed him the more.

"The love will come, Ida," he said, and once more he tried to take her
hand.

"No, Mr. Cossey," she said, in a voice that checked him. "I am sorry
to have to speak so plainly, but till I marry I am my own mistress.
Pray understand me."

"As you like," he said, drawing back from her sulkily. "I am so fond
of you that I will marry you on any terms, and that is the truth. I
have, however, one thing to ask of you, Ida, and it is that you will
keep our engagement secret for the present, and get your father (I
suppose I must speak to him) to do the same. I have reasons," he went
on by way of explanation, "for not wishing it to become known."

"I do not see why I should keep it secret," she said; "but it does not
matter to me."

"The fact is," he explained, "my father is a very curious man, and I
doubt if he would like my engagement, because he thinks I ought to
marry a great deal of money."

"Oh, indeed," answered Ida. She had believed, as was indeed the case,
that there were other reasons not unconnected with Mrs. Quest, on
account of which he was anxious to keep the engagement secret. "By the
way," she went on, "I am sor