“Well, though as I said just now, the mortgagees of an estate as a body are merely a business corporation, and look at things from a business point of view only, you must remember that they are composed of individuals, and that individuals can be influenced if they can be got at.  For instance, Cossey and Son are an abstraction and harshly disposed in their abstract capacity, but Mr. Edward Cossey is an individual, and I should say, so far as this particular matter is concerned, a benevolently disposed individual.  Now Mr. Edward Cossey is not himself at the present moment actually one of the firm of Cossey and Son, but he is the hair of the head of the house, and of course has authority, and, what is better still, the command of money.”

“I understand,” said Ida.  “You mean that my father should try to win over Mr. Edward Cossey.  Unfortunately, to be frank, he dislikes him, and my father is not a man to keep his dislikes to himself.”

“People generally do dislike those to whom they are crushingly indebted; your father dislikes Mr. Cossey because his name is Cossey, and for no other reason.  But that is not quite what I meant—­I do not think that the Squire is the right person to undertake a negotiation of the sort.  He is a little too outspoken and incautious.  No, Miss de la Molle, if it is to be done at all you must do it.  You must put the whole case before him at once—­this very afternoon, there is no time for delay; you need not enter into details, he knows all about them—­only ask him to avert this catastrophe.  He can do so if he likes, how he does it is his own affair.”

“But, Mr. Quest,” said Ida, “how can I ask such a favour of any man?  I shall be putting myself in a dreadfully false position.”

“I do not pretend, Miss de la Molle, that it is a pleasant task for any young lady to undertake.  I quite understand your shrinking from it.  But sometimes one has to do unpleasant things and make compromises with one’s self-respect.  It is a question whether or no your family shall be utterly ruined and destroyed.  There is, as I honestly believe, no prospect whatever of your father being able to get the money to pay off Cossey and Son, and if he did, it would not help him, because he could not pay the interest on it.  Under these circumstances you have to choose between putting yourself in an equivocal position and letting events take their course.  It would be useless for anybody else to undertake the task, and of course I cannot guarantee that even you will succeed, but I will not mince matters—­as you doubtless know, any man would find it hard to refuse a favour asked by such a suppliant.  And now you must make up your own mind.  I have shown you a path that may lead your family from a position of the most imminent peril.  If you are the woman I take you for, you will not shrink from following it.”