In Boisingham and its neighbourhood much sympathy was shown with
Belle, whom people still called Mrs. Quest, though she had no title to
that name. But she received it coldly and kept herself secluded.
As soon as her supposed husband's death was beyond a doubt Belle had
opened his safe (for he had left the keys on his dressing-table), and
found therein his will and other papers, including the mortgage deeds,
to which, as Mr. Quest's memorandum advised her, she had no claim.
Nor, indeed, had her right to them been good in law, would she have
retained them, seeing that they were a price wrung from her late lover
under threat of an action that could not be brought.
So she made them into a parcel and sent them to Edward Cossey,
together with a formal note of explanation, greatly wondering in her
heart what course he would take with reference to them. She was not
left long in doubt. The receipt of the deeds was acknowledged, and
three days afterwards she heard that a notice calling in the borrowed
money had been served upon Mr. de la Molle on behalf of Edward Cossey.
So he had evidently made up his mind not to forego this new advantage
which chance threw in his way. Pressure and pressure alone could
enable him to attain his end, and he was applying it unmercifully.
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