ltogether, it was as much or more my
fault than his, but having once loved him I cannot go back to you or
any other man. If you like I will go on living with you as we live,
and I will try to make you comfortable, but I can say no more."

"Think again, Belle," he said almost pleadingly; "I daresay that you
have never given me credit for much tenderness of heart, and I know
that you have as much against me as I have against you. But I have
always loved you, and I love you now, really and truly love you, and I
will make you a good husband if you will let me."

"You are very good," she said, "but it cannot be. Get rid of me if you
like and marry somebody else. I am ready to take the penalty of what I
have done."

"Once more, Belle, I beg you to consider. Do you know what kind of man
this is for whom you are giving up your life? Not only has he deserted
you, but do you know how he has got hold of Ida de la Molle? He has,
as I know well, /bought/ her. I tell you he has bought her as much as
though he had gone into the open market and paid down a price for her.
The other day Cossey and Son were going to foreclose upon the Honham
estates, which would have ruined the old gentleman. Well, what did
your young man do? He went to the girl--who hates him, by the way, and
is in love with Colonel Quaritch--and said to her, 'If you will
promise to marry me when I ask you, I will find the thirty thousand
pounds and take up the mortgages.' And on those terms she agreed to
marry him. And now he has got rid of you and he claims her promise.
There is the history. I wonder that your pride will bear such a thing.
By heaven, I would kill the man."

She looked up at him curiously. "Would you?" she said. "It is not a
bad idea. I dare say it is all true. He is worthless. Why does one
fall in love with worthless people? Well, there is an end of it; or a
beginning of the end. As I have sown, so must I reap;" and she got up,
and unlocking the door left the room.

"Yes," he said aloud when she had gone, "there is a beginning of the
end. Upon my word, what between one thing and another, unlucky devil
as I am, I had rather stand in my own shoes than in Edward Cossey's."

Belle went to her room and sat thinking, or rather brooding, sullenly.
Then she put on her bonnet and cloak and started out, taking the road
that ran past Honham Castle. She had not gone a hundred yards before
she found herself face to face with Edward Cossey himself. He was
com