he received it coldly and kept herself secluded.

As soon as her supposed husband's death was beyond a doubt Belle had
opened his safe (for he had left the keys on his dressing-table), and
found therein his will and other papers, including the mortgage deeds,
to which, as Mr. Quest's memorandum advised her, she had no claim.
Nor, indeed, had her right to them been good in law, would she have
retained them, seeing that they were a price wrung from her late lover
under threat of an action that could not be brought.

So she made them into a parcel and sent them to Edward Cossey,
together with a formal note of explanation, greatly wondering in her
heart what course he would take with reference to them. She was not
left long in doubt. The receipt of the deeds was acknowledged, and
three days afterwards she heard that a notice calling in the borrowed
money had been served upon Mr. de la Molle on behalf of Edward Cossey.

So he had evidently made up his mind not to forego this new advantage
which chance threw in his way. Pressure and pressure alone could
enable him to attain his end, and he was applying it unmercifully.
Well, she had done with him now, it did not matter to her; but she
could not help faintly wondering at the extraordinary tenacity and
hardness of purpose which his action showed. Then she turned her mind
to the consideration of another matter, in connection with which her
plans were approaching maturity.

It was some days after this, exactly a fortnight from the date of Mr.
Quest's death, that Edward Cossey was sitting one afternoon brooding
over the fire in his rooms. He had much business awaiting his
attention in London, but he would not go to London. He could not tear
himself away from Boisingham, and such of the matters as could be
attended to there were left without attention. He was still as
determined as ever to marry Ida, more determined if possible, for from
constant brooding on the matter he had arrived at a condition
approaching monomania. He had been quick to see the advantage
resulting to him from Mr. Quest's tragic death and the return of the
deeds, and though he knew that Ida would hate him the more for doing
it, he instructed his lawyers to call in the money and make use of
every possible legal means to harass and put pressure upon Mr. de la
Molle. At the same time he had written privately to the Squire,
calling his attention to the fact that matters were now once more as
they had been at th