beneath the
stones of yonder church. Hail and farewell to you, our fathers!
Perchance a man might have had worse company than he met with at your
boards, and even have found it not more hard to die beneath your
sword-cuts than to be gently cozened to the grave by duly qualified
practitioners at two guineas a visit.

And the upshot of all this is that the Squire was not altogether wrong
when he declared in the silence of /his/ chamber that Edward Cossey
was not quite a gentleman. He showed it when he allowed himself to be
guided by the arts of Mr. Quest into the adoption of the idea of
obtaining a lien upon Ida, to be enforced if convenient. He showed it
again, and what is more he committed a huge mistake, when tempted
thereto by the opportunity of the moment, he made a conditional
bargain with the said Ida, whereby she was placed in pledge for a sum
of thirty thousand pounds, well knowing that her honour would be equal
to the test, and that if convenient to him she would be ready to pay
the debt. He made a huge mistake, for had he been quite a gentleman,
he would have known that he could not have adopted a worse road to the
affections of a lady. Had he been content to advance the money and
then by-and-bye, though even that would not have been gentlemanlike,
have gently let transpire what he had done at great personal expense
and inconvenience, her imagination might have been touched and her
gratitude would certainly have been excited. But the idea of
bargaining, the idea of purchase, which after what had passed could
never be put aside, would of necessity be fatal to any hope of tender
feeling. Shylock might get his bond, but of his own act he had
debarred himself from the possibility of ever getting more.

Now Edward Cossey was not lacking in that afterglow of refinement
which is left by a course of public school and university education.
No education can make a gentleman of a man who is not a gentleman at
heart, for whether his station in life be that of a ploughboy or an
Earl, the gentleman, like the poet, is born and not made. But it can
and does if he be of an observant nature, give him a certain insight
into the habits of thought and probable course of action of the
members of that class to which he outwardly, and by repute, belongs.
Such an insight Edward Cossey possessed, and at the present moment its
possession was troubling him very much. His trading instincts, the
desire bred in him to get something for his