inally, she found
the new Blackwood, and entertained both her old friend and herself so
well with it that two hours passed almost unperceived. Mr. Leigh's old
servant, coming in with his early dinner, interrupted them in the middle
of an interesting article, and reminded her that it was high time to go
home.

"I will come again to-morrow," she said, as she put aside her book, and
taking up her hat she hurried away.

As she walked up the lane, she could not help feeling a certain anxiety
to know whether there had been any visitors at home during her absence.
Mr. Percy often came in the morning, and if he had been there--

She ran up the verandah steps and into the parlour. Mrs. Costello sat
there alone, and two letters lay on the table.

"Here is a note for you," she said, as Lucia came in. "Mr. Percy brought
it."

"He has been here, then?" and she took up the note, not much caring to
open it when she saw Bella's writing.

"Yes. He came very soon after you were gone. He said he was coming to
say good-bye, and Bella asked him to bring that."

"To say good-bye?"

Lucia felt the colour fade out of her cheeks. She held the note in a
tight grasp to keep her hand from trembling, and sat down.

"He and Mr. Bellairs are going up the Lakes. They will be back, I
imagine, in a week or two. Perhaps, Bella tells you more."

In fact, Mr. Percy had been annoyed at not finding Lucia, and slightly
discontented at being drawn into an excursion which would take him away
from Cacouna. Only a small time yet remained before he _must_ return to
England, and he had been sufficiently conscious that Mrs. Costello would
not regret his departure, to be very uncommunicative on the subject.
Bella, however, was much more explicit.

"My dear Lucia," she said, "shall you be much surprised to hear that
these good people have arranged for a certain wedding, in which both you
and I are interested, to take place on the first of next month; that is,
not quite three weeks from to-day? How I am to be ready I do not know;
but as you are to be bridesmaid, I implore you to come to me either this
evening or to-morrow, that we may arrange about the dresses and so on.
Is not it a mercy? William has taken into his head that he is obliged to
go up the Lakes to Sault Ste. Marie, in the interest of some client or
other, and has persuaded his cousin to go with him, so that Elise and I
will be left in peace for our last few weeks together. They are to be
bac