It is enough to make a man wish that his worries were over
altogether. However, we must take things as we find them, and we find
them pretty rough. Quaritch said he was coming back this evening,
didn't he? I suppose there will not be any public engagement at
present, will there? And look here, Ida, I don't want him to come
talking to me about it. I have got enough things of my own to think of
without bothering my head with your love affairs. Pray let the matter
be for the present. And now I am going out to see that fellow George,
who hasn't been here since he came back from London, and a nice bit of
news it will be that I shall have to tell him."
When her father had gone Ida did a thing she had not done for some
time--she wept a little. All her fine intentions of self-denial had
broken down, and she felt humiliated at the fact. She had intended to
sacrifice herself upon the altar of her duty and to make herself the
wedded wife of a man whom she disliked, and now on the first
opportunity she had thrown up the contract on a quibble--a point of
law as it were. Nature had been too strong for her, as it often is for
people with deep feelings; she could not do it, no, not to save Honham
from the hammer. When she had promised that she would engage herself
to Edward Cossey she had not been in love with Colonel Quaritch; now
she was, and the difference between the two states is considerable.
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