w your name was queer anyhow; but I just said, Mrs. Costello is not
in, nor Miss Lucia neither, so you'd better be off; and she nodded her
head a lot of times, and seemed as if she were considering whether to go
or not. I asked her what she wanted, but she would not tell me, and
after awhile she went off again in her canoe as fast as if she was going
express."

Lucia was thoroughly startled by this story. Mr. Strafford's letter came
to her mind, and connected itself with the singular look and manner of
the squaw, at the farm. This could not certainly be the mysterious "C."
of the letter, for Mr. Strafford said "_he_ is in the neighbourhood,"
but it might be Mary Wanita, who had apparently given the first friendly
warning, and might possibly have come to Cacouna for the purpose of
giving a second, and more urgent one.

"Where was mamma?" she asked.

"Gone in to see Mr. Leigh," Margery answered; "he is quite sick to-day,
and Mr. Maurice came to ask your mamma to go and sit with him awhile."

"Did you tell her about this squaw?"

"Well, no, Miss Lucia, I had a kind of guess it was better not. You see
she is not very strong, and I thought you could tell her when you came
if you thought it was any use."

"Thank you, Margery, you were quite right."

Lucia went in slowly, thinking the matter over. It did not, however,
appear to her advisable to conceal from her mother the squaw's
visit--it might have greater significance than she, knowing so little,
could imagine--but she wished extremely that she possessed some gauge by
which to measure beforehand the degree of agitation her news was likely
to produce. She had none, however, and could devise no better plan than
that of telling Mrs. Costello, quite simply, what she had just heard
from Margery.

As she opened the door of the parlour, Mrs. Costello half rose from the
sofa, where she was lying.

"Is it you, darling," she asked, "so soon?"

"There is a storm coming on," Lucia answered; "we hurried home to escape
it."

"And you have had a pleasant day?"

"Very pleasant. You have been out, too?"

"Yes; poor Mr. Leigh is quite an invalid, and complains that he never
sees you now."

"I will go to-morrow," Lucia said hastily, and then, glad to escape from
the subject, asked if her mother had seen an Indian woman about?

Mrs. Costello answered no, but Lucia felt her start, and went on to
repeat, in as unconcerned a tone as possible, Margery's story; but when
she said