rogramme.
Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Bellairs were altogether pleased that it should be
so, but they comforted themselves with the idea that he would very
shortly be leaving Canada, and that as he and Lucia would necessarily
see much of each other while he did remain at Cacouna, their being
associated together on that one day could not be of any great
consequence.

The next morning, therefore, when Mr. Percy made his appearance at the
Cottage, he had much to tell. But Lucia was still thinking more of
Maurice than of him; she was unusually quiet, and more inclined to talk
of England and to learn all she could of the voyage thither and of the
journey from Liverpool to Norfolk, than to occupy herself either with
the wedding or with the incidents of his tour on the Lakes. For the
first time Mr. Percy was alarmed; he began to think it possible that
during his absence, Maurice had so well used his time as to deprive him
of the influence which he had before acquired over Lucia's mind; and
this idea caused him suddenly to fancy that it was absolutely necessary
to his happiness that he should displace Maurice altogether from her
thoughts, even if, to do so, he should have to devote himself to her in
the most serious earnest.

So Mr. Bellairs' stratagem failed. Before the two days, with their
constant comings and goings, were over, Mrs. Costello saw, with dismay,
that not only was Mr. Percy so far awakened from his usual state of
boredom as to be one of the most dangerous flatterers imaginable to a
girl of sixteen, but that Lucia appeared to have yielded completely to
an attraction which had now no counterpoise, since Maurice had left
them.

Each day Lucia spent as long a time as she could with Mr. Leigh, and
strangely enough, the old man seemed to feel less depression after
Maurice was actually gone, than he had done in anticipating the
separation. In the hours which Lucia passed with him, he took delight in
talking to her of his wife, and her early home, describing it with that
wonderful recollection of trifles which seems to return to old people
when they speak of the incidents and scenes of their youth. And Lucia
loved to listen, and to picture to herself Maurice making acquaintance
with all these things which his father spoke of; and becoming necessary
to the proud, childless possessor of such wealth and so fair a home,
just as he had been necessary to them all, far away in the west. After
all, these hours were the happiest of