are both changed."

"Do you think _her_ changed?" Mrs. Costello asked in alarm. "She has
been so brave."

"She has grown to look much older and as if she thought too much; that
is all. And _that_ is no wonder."

Mrs. Costello was silent for a moment. She knew that Lucia had had
another burden, especially her own, to bear, and it seemed to her that
Mrs. Bellairs must know or guess something of it too. If she did, it
would be as well for her to know the exact truth. She made up her mind
at once.

"I found that it was necessary to tell her," she said, "just before Mr.
Percy went away."

Mrs. Bellairs looked at her inquiringly.

"I was afraid," she answered, "that he was likely to cause you some
uneasiness."

"He did more than that," Mrs. Costello said. "He gave Lucia her first
hard thoughts of her mother. But after all I may be doing him injustice.
Did you know that he really wanted to carry her away with him?"

"He _did_! And she refused him?"

"She refused him, when she knew her own position, and the impossibility
of her marrying him."

"Dear Mrs. Costello, what complications! I begin to understand now all
that has puzzled me."

"You had some suspicion of the truth?"

"Of part of it. I don't like Edward Percy, and I was afraid he was
gaining an influence with Lucia which would make her unhappy. I even
thought at one time that he was really in earnest, but from some news we
received a few days ago I set that down as a mistake."

"News of him? What was it?"

"That he is engaged to a lady whom his father wished him to marry; and
that they are to be married almost immediately."

"I am very glad," Mrs. Costello said, "and there is nothing to be
surprised about. He was tempted for the moment by a pretty face, but he
was not a man to waste time in thinking about a girl who had refused
him."

She said this; but she thought in her heart, 'He is not like Maurice. If
Lucia had refused him so, he would have known that she loved him still;
and while she did so, he would have had no thoughts for any other.' She
asked, however,

"Did you hear from _him_ that this was true?"

"No. But it was from an old college friend of my husband's who is now in
England."

"I do not see any use in telling Lucia. She dismissed him herself, and
is, I hope, fast forgetting him in all these other affairs that have
come upon us."

"Surely she cannot have cared enough for him to feel the separation as
she would have done if he