Colonel Quaritch, V.C A Tale of Country Life by H. Rider Haggard First Published 1888. Contents CHAPTER I. HAROLD QUARITCH MEDITATES CHAPTER II. THE COLONEL MEETS THE SQUIRE CHAPTER III. THE TALE OF SIR JAMES DE LA MOLLE CHAPTER IV. THE END OF THE TALE CHAPTER V. THE SQUIRE EXPLAINS THE POSITION CHAPTER VI. LAWYER QUEST CHAPTER VII. EDWARD COSSEY, ESQUIRE CHAPTER VIII. MR. QUEST’S WIFE CHAPTER IX. THE SHADOW OF RUIN CHAPTER X. THE TENNIS PARTY CHAPTER XI. IDA’S BARGAIN CHAPTER XII. GEORGE PROPHESIES CHAPTER XIII. ABOUT ART CHAPTER XIV. THE TIGER SHOWS HER CLAWS CHAPTER XV. THE HAPPY DAYS CHAPTER XVI. THE HOUSE WITH THE RED PILLARS CHAPTER XVII. THE TIGRESS IN HER DEN CHAPTER XVIII. “WHAT SOME HAVE FOUND SO SWEET” CHAPTER XIX. IN PAWN CHAPTER XX. “GOOD-BYE TO YOU, EDWARD” CHAPTER XXI. THE COLONEL GOES OUT SHOOTING CHAPTER XXII. THE END OF THE MATCH CHAPTER XXIII. THE BLOW FALLS CHAPTER XXIV. “GOOD-BYE, MY DEAR, GOOD-BYE!” CHAPTER XXV. THE SQUIRE GIVES HIS CONSENT CHAPTER XXVI. BELLE PAYS A VISIT CHAPTER XXVII. MR. QUEST HAS HIS INNINGS CHAPTER XXVIII. HOW GEORGE TREATED JOHNNIE CHAPTER XXIX. EDWARD COSSEY MEETS WITH AN ACCIDENT CHAPTER XXX. HAROLD TAKES THE NEWS CHAPTER XXXI. IDA RECANTS CHAPTER XXXII. GEORGE PROPHESIES AGAIN CHAPTER XXXIII. THE SQUIRE SPEAKS HIS MIND CHAPTER XXXIV. GEORGE’S DIPLOMATIC ERRAND CHAPTER XXXV. THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES CHAPTER XXXVI. HOW THE GAME ENDED CHAPTER XXXVII. SISTER AGNES CHAPTER XXXVIII. COLONEL QUARITCH EXPRESSES HIS VIEWS CHAPTER XXXIX. THE COLONEL GOES TO SLEEP CHAPTER XL. BUT NOT TO BED CHAPTER XLI. HOW THE NIGHT WENT CHAPTER XLII. IDA GOES TO MEET HER FATE CHAPTER XLIII. GEORGE IS SEEN TO LAUGH CHAPTER XLIV. CHRISTMAS CHIMES CONCLUSION I DEDICATE THIS TALE OF COUNTRY LIFE TO MY FRIEND AND FELLOW-SPORTSMAN, CHARLES J. LONGMAN PREPARER’S NOTE This text was prepared from an 1889 edition published by Longmans, Green and Co., printed by Kelly and Co., Gate Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, W.C.; and Middle Mill, Kingston-on-Thames. COLONEL QUARITCH, V.C. A TALE OF COUNTRY LIFE CHAPTER I. HAROLD QUARITCH MEDITATES There are things and there are faces which, when felt or seen for the first time, stamp themselves upon the mind like a sun image on a sensitized plate and there remain unalterably fixed. To take the instance of a face—we may never see it again, or it may become the companion of our life, but there the picture is just as we _first_ knew it, the same smile or frown, the same look, unvarying and unvariable, reminding us in the midst of change of the indestructible nature of every experience, act, and aspect of our days. For that which has been, is, since the past knows no corruption, but lives eternally in its frozen and completed self.