eparation.

He took his punishment like a brave man indeed, and went about his
daily occupations with a steadfast face, but his bold behaviour did
not lessen its weight. He had promised not to go away till Ida was
married and he would keep the promise, but in his heart he wondered
how he should bear the sight of her. What would it be to see her, to
touch her hand, to hear the rustle of her dress and the music of her
beloved voice, and to realise again and yet again that all these
things were not for him, that they had passed from him into the
ownership of another man?

On the day following that upon which Edward Cossey had been terrified
into transferring the Honham mortgages to Mr. Quest the Colonel went
out shooting. He had lately become the possessor of a new hammerless
gun by a well-known London maker, of which he stood in considerable
need. Harold had treated himself to this gun when he came into his
aunt's little fortune, but it was only just completed. The weapon was
a beautiful one, and at any other time it would have filled his
sportsman's heart with joy. Even as it was, when he put it together
and balanced it and took imaginary shots at blackbirds in the garden,
for a little while he forgot his sorrows, for the woe must indeed be
heavy which a new hammerless gun by such a maker cannot do something
towards lightening. So on the next morning he took this gun and went
to the marshes by the river--where, he was credibly informed, several
wisps of snipe had been seen--to attempt to shoot some of them and put
the new weapon to the test.

It was on this same morning that Edward Cossey got a letter which
disturbed him not a little. It was from Belle Quest, and ran thus:

"Dear Mr. Cossey,--Will you come over and see me this afternoon
about three o'clock? I shall /expect/ you, so I am sure you will
not disappoint me.--B.Q."

For a long while he hesitated what to do. Belle Quest was at the
present juncture the very last person whom he wished to see. His
nerves were shaken and he feared a scene, but on the other hand he did
not know what danger might threaten him if he refused to go. Quest had
got his price, and he knew that he had nothing more to fear from him;
but a jealous woman has no price, and if he did not humour her it
might, he felt, be at a risk which he could not estimate. Also he was
nervously anxious to give no further cause for gossip. A sudden
outward and visible cessation of his intimacy wi