n her side, but
still he had been fond of her, and if he could have done so, would
probably have married her. Even now he was attached to her, and would
have been glad to remain her friend if she would have allowed it. But
then came the time when her heroics began to weary him, and he on his
side began to fall in love with Ida de la Molle, and as he drew back
so she came forward, till at length he was worn out, and things
culminated as has been described. He was sorry for her too, knowing
how deeply she was attached to him, though it is probable that he did
not in the least realise the extent to which she suffered, for neither
men nor women who have intentionally or otherwise been the cause of
intense mental anguish to one of the opposite sex ever do quite
realise this. They, not unnaturally, measure the trouble by the depth
of their own, and are therefore very apt to come to erroneous
conclusions. Of course this is said of cases where all the real
passion is on one side, and indifference or comparative indifference
on the other; for where it is mutual, the grief will in natures of
equal depth be mutual also.

At any rate, Edward Cossey was quite sensitive enough to acutely feel
parting with Mrs. Quest, and perhaps he felt the manner of it even
more than the fact of the separation. Then came another consideration.
He was, it is true, free from his entanglement, in itself an enormous
relief, but the freedom was of a conditional nature. Belle had
threatened trouble in the most decisive tones should he attempt to
carry out his secret purpose of marrying Ida, which she had not been
slow to divine. For some occult reason, at least to him it seemed
occult, the idea of this alliance was peculiarly distasteful to her,
though no doubt the true explanation was that she believed, and not
inaccurately, that in order to bring it about he was bent upon
deserting her. The question with him was, would she or would she not
attempt to put her threat into execution? It certainly seemed to him
difficult to imagine what steps she could take to that end, seeing
that any such steps would necessarily involve her own exposure, and
that too when there was nothing to gain, and when all hopes of thereby
securing him for herself had passed away. Nor did he seriously believe
that she would attempt anything of the sort. It is one thing for a
woman to make such threats in the acute agony of her jealousy, and
quite another for her to carry them out in