out?" he said with a smile which lighted up his rugged face most
pleasantly.

"Anything you like to ask and that I can give," she answered in a tone
of earnestness which struck him as peculiar, for of course he did not
know the news that she had just heard from Mr. Quest.

Then for the first time for many years, Harold Quaritch delivered
himself of a speech that might have been capable of a tender and
hidden meaning.

"I am afraid," he said, bowing, "that if I came to claim the reward, I
should ask for more even that you would be inclined to give."

Ida blushed a little. "We can consider that when you do come, Colonel
Quaritch--excuse me, but here are Mrs. Quest and Mr. Cossey, and I
must go and say how do you do."

Harold Quaritch looked round, feeling unreasonably irritated at this
interruption to his little advances, and for the first time saw Edward
Cossey. He was coming along in the wake of Mrs. Quest, looking very
handsome and rather languid, when their eyes met, and to speak the
truth, the Colonel's first impression was not a complimentary one.
Edward Cossey was in some ways not a bad fellow, but like a great many
young men who are born with silver spoons in their mouths, he had many
airs and graces, one of which was the affectation of treating older
and better men with an assumption of off-handedness and even of
superiority that was rather obnoxious. Thus while Ida was greeting Mr.
Quest, he was engaged in taking in the Colonel in a way which
irritated that gentleman considerably.