I will," Maurice said; but after that he went away back to his
hotel, with his first uncomfortable sensation. Was Lucia still really
such a child? Would she always persist in thinking of him as an elder
brother--a dear brother, certainly, which was something, but not at all
what he wanted? How should he make her understand the difference? That
very day, her warm frank affection had been a perfect shield to her. The
words that had risen to his lips had been stopped there, as absolutely
as if he had been struck dumb. 'But I need not speak just yet,' he
consoled himself. 'I must try to make her feel that I am of use to her,
and that she would miss me if she sent me away. My darling! I must not
risk anything by being too hasty.'

He wrote two notes that night; one to his father, the other to Lady
Dighton, which said,

"Do come over. I am impatient to show Lucia to you. She is more
beautiful and sweeter than ever. Of course, you will think all I say
exaggerated, so do come and judge for yourself. I want an ally. All is
right with Mrs. Costello, but I own I want courage with Lucia to "put it
to the test." Suppose after all I should lose? But I dare not think of
that."

Mrs. Costello slept little that night. A second time within a year she
saw all her plans destroyed, her anticipations proved mistaken; the
brighter destiny she had formerly hoped for, was now within her child's
grasp. Wealth, honour, and steadfast love were laid together at her
feet. Would she gather them up? Would she be willing to give herself
into the keeping of this faithful heart which had learnt so well "to
love one maiden and to cleave to her?" The doubt seemed absurd, yet it
came and haunted the mother's meditations. She knew perfectly that Lucia
had no thought of Maurice but as a friend or brother. She could not
quite understand how it had always continued so, but she knew it had.
She had never been willing to think of her child's regard for Percy as
likely to be a lasting feeling, and at most times she really did
consider it only as a thing of the past; yet to-night it came before her
tiresomely, and she remembered what Mrs. Bellairs had told her lately
about his marriage. She resolved once to ask Maurice whether he had
heard anything of it, but, on second thoughts, she decided that it was
better to leave the matter alone.

There was yet another person on whom Maurice's coming had made a most
lively impression. Claudine, as soon after her first si