Cossey to keep the matter
secret, but he appears to have divulged it. Yes, I am engaged to be
married to him."
Belle's beautiful face turned a shade paler, if that was possible, and
her eyes hardened.
"Do you wonder why I ask you this?" she said. "I will tell you, though
probably when I have done so you will never speak to me again. I am
Edward Cossey's discarded mistress," and she laughed bitterly enough.
Ida shrank a little and coloured, as a pure and high-minded woman
naturally does when she is for the first time suddenly brought into
actual contact with impurity and passion.
"I know," went on Belle, "that I must seem a shameful thing to you;
but, Miss de la Molle, good and cold and stately as you are, pray God
that you may never be thrown into temptation; pray God that you may
never be married almost by force to a man whom you hate, and then
suddenly learn what a thing it is to fall in love, and for the first
time feel your life awake."
"Hush," said Ida gently, "what right have I to judge you?"
"I loved him," went on Belle, "I loved him passionately, and for a
while it was as though heaven had opened its gates, for he used to
care for me a little, and I think he would have taken me away and
married me afterwards, but I would not hear of it, because I knew that
it would ruin him.
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