It was on this same morning that Edward Cossey got a letter which
disturbed him not a little. It was from Belle Quest, and ran thus:
"Dear Mr. Cossey,--Will you come over and see me this afternoon
about three o'clock? I shall /expect/ you, so I am sure you will
not disappoint me.--B.Q."
For a long while he hesitated what to do. Belle Quest was at the
present juncture the very last person whom he wished to see. His
nerves were shaken and he feared a scene, but on the other hand he did
not know what danger might threaten him if he refused to go. Quest had
got his price, and he knew that he had nothing more to fear from him;
but a jealous woman has no price, and if he did not humour her it
might, he felt, be at a risk which he could not estimate. Also he was
nervously anxious to give no further cause for gossip. A sudden
outward and visible cessation of his intimacy with the Quests might,
he thought, give rise to surmises and suspicion in a little country
town like Boisingham, where all his movements were known. So, albeit
with a faint heart, he determined to go.
Accordingly, at three o'clock precisely, he was shown into the
drawing-room at the Oaks. Mrs. Quest was not there; indeed he waited
for ten minutes before she came in.
Pages:
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330