This
is the order of affairs, and down its well-trodden road these two were
quickly travelling.
George the wily saw it, and winked his eye with solemn meaning. The
Squire also saw something of it, not being wanting in knowledge of the
world, and after much cogitation and many solitary walks elected to
leave matters alone for the present. He liked Colonel Quaritch, and
thought that it would be a good thing for Ida to get married, though
the idea of parting from her troubled his heart sorely. Whether or no
it would be desirable from his point of view that she should marry the
Colonel was a matter on which he had not as yet fully made up his
mind. Sometimes he thought it would, and sometimes he thought the
reverse. Then at times vague ideas suggested by Edward Cossey's
behaviour about the loan would come to puzzle him. But at present he
was so much in the dark that he could come to no absolute decision, so
with unaccustomed wisdom for so headstrong and precipitate a man, he
determined to refrain from interference, and for a while at any rate
allow events to take their natural course.
CHAPTER XVI
THE HOUSE WITH THE RED PILLARS
Two days after his receipt of the second letter from the "Tiger," Mr.
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