Costello to remember the last talk we had together, and to
believe that I am obstinate."

This postscript, however, Mr. Leigh in his excitement and joy at the
prospect of so soon seeing his son, never found out. He read the letter
twice over, and then put it away in his desk, without even remembering
at the moment, to wonder at Maurice's continued silence towards his old
friends. The thought did strike him afterwards, but he was quite certain
that he had read every word of the letter, and was only confirmed in the
ideas he had begun to entertain. He sighed over these ideas, and over
the loss of Lucia, whom he loved with almost fatherly affection; but
still, even she was infinitely less dear to him than Maurice; and if
Maurice really did not care for her, why then, sooner than throw the
smallest shadow of blame upon him, _he_ would not seem to care for her
either.

So Mrs. Costello learned that Maurice was coming, and that he had not
thought it worth while to send even a word to his old friends.

"He is the only one," she thought, "who has changed towards us, and I
trusted him most of all."

And she took refuge from her disappointment in anger. Her disappointment
and her anger, however, were both silent; she would not say an ill word
to Lucia of Maurice; and Lucia, engrossed in her work and her
anticipations, did not perhaps remark that there was any change. She
made one attempt to persuade her mother to delay their journey until
after Maurice's arrival, but, being reminded that their passage was
taken, she consoled herself with,

"Well, it will be easy enough for him to come to see us. I suppose
everybody in England goes to Paris sometimes?"

And so the end came. They had not neglected Maurice's charge, though
Maurice seemed to have forgotten them. Whatever was possible to do to
provide for Mr. Leigh's comfort during his short solitude they had
done. The last farewells were said; Mr. Strafford, who had insisted on
going with them to New York, had arrived at the Cottage. Mrs. Bellairs
and Bella had spent their last day with their friends and gone away in
tears. All their life at Cacouna, with its happiness and its sorrow, was
over, and early next morning they were to cross the river for the last
time, and begin their journey to England.

CHAPTER II.

Maurice had full opportunity for the exercise of patience during the
last weeks of his grandfather's life. It was hard to sit there day after
day watching