Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-01-09
COLONEL LQUARITCH,
By H. RIDER HAGGARD.

He held out his hand. "Come, Belle," he said, "don't let us part like this.'
 She shook her head, and once more put her arms behind her. ''No," she answered, 1T will not take your hand Of my own free will l will never touch it again, for to me it is like the hand of the dead. Good-by, once more; good-by to you, Edward, and to all the happiness that ever had. built up all my life upon my love for you, and you have shattered it like glass. I do not reproach you; you have followed after your nature and must follow mine, and in time all things will come right-in the grave. shall not trouble you any more, provided that you do not try to marry Ida, for that l will not bear. And now go, for I am very tired," and turning she rang the bell for the servant to show him out.
 In another minute he gone She list ened till she heard the front door close behind him, and then she gave way to her grief, and f1inging herself upon the sofa, covered her face with her hands and sobbed and moaned bitterly, weeping for the past, and weeping, too, for the long desolate years tlst were to come Poor woman! do not let us judge her too hardly, for whatever was the measure of her sin, it had assuredly found her out, as our sins always do find us out in the end. She had loved this man with passion which has no parallel in the hearts of well ordered and well brought up women. She had never really lived till this fatal passion took pos session of her, and now that its object had deserted her, her heart felt as though it had died within her In that short half hour she suffered more than many women do in their whole lives; but the paroxysm passed, and she rose pale and trembling, with set teeth and blazing eyes.
 "He had better be careful" she said to herself; "he may go, but if he tries to marry Ida I will keep my word--yes, for her sake as we'll as his"
 When Edward Cossey came to consider the position, which he did seriously on the following morning, be did not find it very satisfactory. To begin with, he was not alto gether heartless man, and such scene as that which he had passed through on the previous evening was ill itself quite enough to upset his nerves At one time, at any rate, he had been much attached to Mrs. Quest; he had never borne her any violent affection that had all been on her side; but still be had been fond of her, and if he could have done so, would probably have married her. Even now he was attached to her, and would have been glad to remain her friend if she would have allowed it. But then came the time when her heroics commenced to weary him, and he on his side began to fall in love with W came forward, till at length he was worn out, and things eliminated as has been described. He was sorry for her too, knowing how deeply she was attached to him, though it is probable that he did not in the least realize the extent to which she suffered, for neither men nor women who have intentionally or otherwise been the cause of intense mental anguish to one of the opposite sex ever do quite realize this. They not unnaturally, measure the trouble by the depth of their own, and are therefore very apt to come to erroneous conclusions. Of course we are now speaking of cases where all the real passion is on one side, and indifference or compara- tive indifference on the other; for where it is mutual the grief will ill natures of equal depth be mutual also.
 At any rate, Edward Cossey was quite sensitive enough to feel the parting with Mrs. Quest acutely, and perhaps he felt the manner of it even more than the fact of the separation. Then came another considera- tlpn. He was, 1t is true, free from his en- tanglement, which was in itself an enormous relief, but the freedom was of a conditional nature. Belle had threatened trouble ill the most decisive tones sh, Id he attempt to carry out his secret purpose, which she had not been slow to divine, of marrying Ida From some occult reason, at least to him it seemed occult, the idea of this alliance was peculiarly distasteful to her, though no doubt the true explanation was that she believed, and not inaceurately, that it was in order to bring 1t about that he was bent upon desert ing her. The question with him was, would she or would she not attempt to put her threat into execution? It certainly seemed to him difficult to imagine what steps she could take to that end, seeing that any such steps would necessarily involve her own ex- posture, and that too when there was nothing to gain, and when all hopes of thereby secur- ing him for herself had passed away
 Nor did he seriously believe that she would attempt anything of the sort It is one thing for woman to make such threats in the acute agony of her jealousy and quite an- other for her to carry them out in cold blood. Looking at the matter from mans point of view, it seemed to him extremely improbable that when the occasion came she would attempt such move. He forgot how much more violently, when once it has taken possession of her being, the storm of passion sweeps through such a woman's heart than through mans. and how utterly reckless to all consequence the former sometimes be- comes. For there are women for whom all things melt ill that white heat of anguished jealousy-honor, duty, conscience, and the restraint of religion, and of these Belle Quest was one. .,-t .r ',7- Q But of this he was not aware, and though he recognized risk, he saw in it no sufficient reason to make him stay his hand For day by day the strong desire to make Ida his wife had grown upon him, till at last it possessed him body and soul. For a long whi,s the intent had been smoldering in his breast, and the tale that he now heard, to the effect that Col Quaritch had been beforehand with him, had blown it to g flame. Ida was ever present in his thoughts, even at night he could not be rid of her, for, when he slept her vision, dark eyed and beautiful, came stealing down his dreams She was his heaven, and if by any ladder known to man he might climb thereto, thither he would climb. And so he set his teeth and vowed that, Mrs. Quest or no Mrs. Quest, he would set his fortune upon the hazard of the die ay and win it, even if he loaded the dice.
 While he was still thinking thus, standing at his window and gazing out on to the market place of the quiet little town, he sud denly saw Ida herself driving up in her pony carriage It was a wet and windy day, and the rain was on her cheek, and the wind tossed little lock of her brown hair The cob was pulling, and her proud face was set, as she concentrated her energies upon hold ing him. Never to Edward Cossey had she | looked more beautiful His heart beat fast at the sight of her, and whatever doubts