Reaching it she turned, and her hands still pressing the coarse blue gown against her heart, she leaned against the door.

“Edward,” she said, in a strained whisper, for her breath came thick, “Edward—­I am going for ever—­have you no kind word—­to say to me?”

He looked at her, a scowl upon his handsome face.  Then by way of answer he turned upon his heel.

And so, still holding her hands against her poor broken heart, she went out of the house, out of Boisingham and of touch and knowledge of the world.  In after years these two were fated to meet once again, and under circumstances sufficiently tragic; but the story of that meeting does not lie within the scope of this history.  To the world Belle is dead, but there is another world of sickness, and sordid unchanging misery and shame, where the lovely face of Sister Agnes moves to and fro like a ray of heaven’s own light.  There those who would know her must go to seek her.

Poor Belle!  Poor shamed, deserted woman!  She was an evil-doer, and the fatality of love and the unbalanced vigour of her mind, which might, had she been more happily placed, have led her to all things that are pure, and true, and of good report, combined to drag her into shame and wretchedness.  But the evil that she did was paid back to her in full measure, pressed down and running over.  Few of us need to wait for a place of punishment to get the due of our follies and our sins. Here we expiate them.  They are with us day and night, about our path and about our bed, scourging us with the whips of memory, mocking us with empty longing and the hopelessness of despair.  Who can escape the consequence of sin, or even of the misfortune which led to sin?  Certainly Belle did not, nor Mr. Quest, nor even that fierce-hearted harpy who hunted him to his grave.

And so good-bye to Belle.  May she find peace in its season!

CHAPTER XXXVIII

COLONEL QUARITCH EXPRESSES HIS VIEWS

Meanwhile things had been going very ill at the Castle.  Edward Cossey’s lawyers were carrying out their client’s instructions to the letter with a perseverance and ingenuity worthy of a County Court solicitor.  Day by day they found a new point upon which to harass the wretched Squire.  Some share of the first expenses connected with the mortgages had, they said, been improperly thrown upon their client, and they again and again demanded, in language which was almost insolent, the immediate payment of the amount.  Then there was three months’ interest overdue, and this also they pressed and clamoured for, till the old gentleman was nearly driven out of his senses, and as a consequence drove everybody about the place out of theirs.

At last this state of affairs began to tell upon his constitution, which, strong as he was, could not at his age withstand such constant worry.  He grew to look years older, his shoulders acquired a stoop, and his memory began to fail him, especially on matters connected with the mortgages and farm accounts.  Ida, too, became pale and ill; she caught a heavy cold, which she could not throw off, and her face acquired a permanently pained and yet listless look.