her husband,
who had no leisure for a long wedding-tour, had come back to Cacouna the
evening before, and were dining to-day at her brother-in-law's. The two
ladies were sitting in Mrs. Bellairs' room, and Bella was beginning to
hear what little news there was in Cacouna since she went away.

"Where are they going?" she asked when she had had time to believe this
surprising item regarding the Costellos.

"South, I believe, for the winter. Mrs. Costello is not well."

"Mrs. Costello or Lucia? Upon my word, if Lucia is not breaking her
heart, she ought to be, for Mr. Percy."

"Bella, I wish you would leave off talking such nonsense. Do you never
mean to be wiser?"

"Never, my dear; it's hopeless. But confess, Elise, that you were very
fidgety about Lucia, and heartily glad to get rid of your visitor. Why,
I saw it in every line of your letter, which told me he was gone."

Mrs. Bellairs coloured. "Yes, I will confess I was not sorry when he
went; he bored me a little, and I am afraid I was not as hospitable as I
might have been."

"Well, and how about Lucia? You might as well tell me, for I shall see
her to-morrow and find out everything."

"There is nothing for me to tell or you to find out. Lucia is anxious
about her mother, and, I think, sorry to leave Cacouna. There is
something like a shadow of real trouble upon her face, and I advise you,
Bella, if you have any regard for her, to talk no nonsense to her about
Mr. Percy."

Bella looked positively grave for a moment. She was but just married,
and was very happy herself--it was natural, perhaps, that she should
refuse in her own heart to acknowledge the necessity for Lucia's "real
trouble" having other cause than the departure of Percy; but, like her
sister, she was very warm-hearted, though her flightiness often
concealed it, and she had a small fund of sentiment and romance safely
hidden away somewhere, which helped to make her sympathetic.

Mrs. Bellairs was pleased with her sister's gravity. She did not choose
to confess that she also believed Lucia had to some degree grieved over
her absent admirer, for she knew nothing of his proposal or what had
followed it, and had a peculiar dislike to hearing Lucia's name linked
with his in Bella's careless talk. But she had seen clearly enough that
if he was regretted, that regret was but part of Lucia's trouble, and
she wanted to say nothing of her own suspicions, and yet to save Lucia
from the attack Bella was s