ave killed myself upon my marriage day. I
made up my mind. Not five minutes ago the very words were upon my lips
that would have sealed my fate, when deliverance came. And now /go/. I
have done with you. Your money shall be paid to you, capital and
interest, down to the last farthing. I tender back my price, and
knowing you for what you are, I--I despise you. That is all I have to
say."

"Well, if that beant a master one," ejaculated George aloud.

Ida, who had never looked more beautiful than she did in this moment
of passion, turned to seat herself, but the tension of her feelings
and the torrent of her wrath and eloquence had been too much for her.
She would have fallen had not Harold, who had been listening amazed to
this overpowering outburst of nature, run up and caught her in his
arms.

As for Edward Cossey, he had shrunk back involuntarily beneath the
volume of her scorn, till he stood with his back against the panelled
wall. His face was white as a sheet; despair and fury shone in his
dark eyes. Never had he desired this woman more fiercely than he did
now, in the moment when he knew that she had escaped him for ever. In
a sense he was to be pitied, for passion tore his heart in twain. For
a moment he stood thus. Then with a spring rather than a step, he
advanced across the room till he was face to face with Harold, who,
with Ida still half fainting in his arms, and her head upon his
shoulder, was standing on the further side of the fire-place.

"Damn you," he said, "I owe this to you--you half-pay adventurer," and
he lifted his arm as though to strike him.

"Come, none of that," said the Squire, speaking for the first time. "I
will have no brawling here."

"No," put in George, edging his long form between the two, "and
begging your pardon, sir, don't you go a-calling of better men than
yourself adwenturers. At any rate, if the Colonel is an adwenturer, he
hev adwentured to some purpose, as is easy for to see," and he pointed
to Ida.

"Hold your tongue, sir," roared the Squire, as usual relieving his
feelings on his retainer. "You are always shoving your oar in where it
isn't wanted."

"All right, Squire, all right," said George the imperturbable; "thin
his manners shouldn't be sich."

"Do you mean to allow this?" said Cossey, turning fiercely to the old
gentleman. "Do you mean to allow this man to marry your daughter for
her money?"

"Mr. Cossey," answered the Squire, with his politest and most o