For now, in addition to all the
money which he had lost, and the painful exposure to which he had been
subjected, he was face to face with a new difficulty. Either he must
make a clean breast of it to Ida about the mortgages being no longer
in his hands or he must pretend that he still had them. In the first
alternative, the consideration upon which she had agreed to marry him
came to nothing. Moreover, Ida was thereby released from her promise,
and he was well aware that under these circumstances she would
probably break off the engagement. In the second, he would be acting a
lie, and the lie would sooner or later be discovered, and what then?
Well, if it was after marriage, what would it matter? To a woman of
gentle birth there is only one thing more irretrievable than marriage,
and that is death. Anyhow, he had suffered so much for the sake of
this woman that he did not mean to give her up now. He must meet the
mortgages after marriage, that was all.
/Facilis est descensus Averni/. When a man of the character of Edward
Cossey, or indeed of any character, allows his passions to lead him
into a course of deceit, he does not find it easy to check his wild
career. From dishonour to dishonour shall he go till at length, in due
season, he reaps as he has sown.
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