ted; your father dislikes Mr. Cossey because his name is Cossey,
and for no other reason. But that is not quite what I meant--I do not
think that the Squire is the right person to undertake a negotiation
of the sort. He is a little too outspoken and incautious. No, Miss de
la Molle, if it is to be done at all /you/ must do it. You must put
the whole case before him at once--this very afternoon, there is no
time for delay; you need not enter into details, he knows all about
them--only ask him to avert this catastrophe. He can do so if he
likes, how he does it is his own affair."

"But, Mr. Quest," said Ida, "how can I ask such a favour of any man? I
shall be putting myself in a dreadfully false position."

"I do not pretend, Miss de la Molle, that it is a pleasant task for
any young lady to undertake. I quite understand your shrinking from
it. But sometimes one has to do unpleasant things and make compromises
with one's self-respect. It is a question whether or no your family
shall be utterly ruined and destroyed. There is, as I honestly
believe, no prospect whatever of your father being able to get the
money to pay off Cossey and Son, and if he did, it would not help him,
because he could not pay the interest on it. Under these circumstances
you have to choose between putting yourself in an equivocal position
and letting events take their course. It would be useless for anybody
else to undertake the task, and of course I cannot guarantee that even
you will succeed, but I will not mince matters--as you doubtless know,
any man would find it hard to refuse a favour asked by such a
suppliant. And now you must make up your own mind. I have shown you a
path that may lead your family from a position of the most imminent
peril. If you are the woman I take you for, you will not shrink from
following it."

Ida made no reply, and in another moment the Squire came in to take a
couple of glasses of sherry and a biscuit. But Mr. Quest, furtively
watching her face, said to himself that she had taken the bait and
that she would do it. Shortly after this a diversion occurred, for the
clergyman, Mr. Jeffries, a pleasant little man, with a round and
shining face and a most unclerical eyeglass, came up to consult the
Squire upon some matter of parish business, and was shown into the
dining-room. Ida took advantage of his appearance to effect a retreat
to her own room, and there for the present we may leave her to her
meditations.

No