ually
divided between his father and Mrs. Costello; and Mr. Leigh had wondered
not a little at the fretted impatient humour which showed itself plainly
at times in his share of the letters written in that silent and shadowy
sickroom at Hunsdon. But Maurice said nothing to him of the real cause
of his discontent--very little of his plan of returning to Cacouna; and
it was Mrs. Costello who received the notes which acted as safety valves
to his almost irrepressible disturbance of mind. He continued to send
her, once a week, a sheet full of persuasions and arguments which the
moment they were written seemed unanswerable, and the moment they were
despatched appeared puerile and worthless. Still they came, with no
other effect than that of making the recipient more and more unhappy, as
she perceived how her own mistake had helped to increase Maurice's
hopes, and to darken his life by their destruction.

One of these letters arrived on the very evening of Mrs. Costello's
visit to the jail. It was shorter and more hurried than usual, and spoke
of Mr. Beresford being worse--so much worse that his granddaughter had
been sent for hastily, and, as every one supposed, for the last time;
but it was just as peremptory as any former one, in declaring that
nothing could or should prevent the writer from seeking for, and finding
Lucia wherever she might be, the moment he was free to leave England.

Mrs. Costello read this note with some uneasiness. She saw that on the
question which of two declining lives should waste fastest, much of the
future now depended. If death came first to the rich and well-born
Englishman, in his stately house, Maurice would be set at liberty, and
by his presence at Cacouna would add to her difficulties; if, to the
miserable prisoner who had been for so many years her terror and
disgrace, and was now thrown upon her care and pity, she should yet be
able to fly with Lucia and hide herself, not now indeed from an enemy,
but from too faithful a friend.

In the meantime, however, since she had decided to make her marriage
known to all the little world of Cacouna, she began to feel that the
Leighs, both father and son, had a right to have the truth simply and
immediately from herself. She said nothing to Lucia that evening on this
subject, but after going to her room for the night, she sat down and
wrote a very brief but clear explanation of her secret, for Maurice;
adding only a few words of affectionate farewel