she was still capable were that of cold. Hour after hour she neither
spoke nor moved, until her sister, alarmed, and anxious by any means to
arouse her from her stupor, implored Lucia to see her, to try to make
her speak or shed the tears which, since she had seen the body of her
husband, seemed to be frozen up.

Mrs. Bellairs had not been mistaken in hoping for some good result from
Lucia's visit. At the sight of her a flood of colour rushed to Bella's
deathlike face, and she half rose to meet her; but when she felt the
long tender kiss which had a whole world of tender pity in its silent
language, she turned suddenly away, and throwing herself upon a couch,
sobbed with the passionate vehemence of a child. From that moment she
was eager to keep Lucia with her. She did not care to speak, but the
sight of one so associated with her lost happiness seemed a consolation
to her; and thus, with her own heavy weight of uncertainty and distress,
the poor girl had to take up and bear patiently such share as she could
of her friend's. After the first, too, there came back such a horrible
sensation of being a kind of accessory to the crime which had been
committed, that the mere sight of Bella's face was torture to her.

In this way the day of Mr. Strafford's arrival and the next one, that of
his first visit to the jail, passed with Lucia. It was not until quite
evening that she could leave the closed-up house and its mistress; and
never had a road seemed so long to her as that from Cacouna to the
Cottage. Her mind, roused into feverish activity, recurred to the night
when she had met Percy on that very road; she saw again, in imagination,
the figure of the Indian--of her father, as she now believed--rising up
from the green bank. She saw Percy, and heard his words, and then
remembered with bitter shame and anger that the brutal creature from
whom he had saved her, had nevertheless had power to separate them for
ever. And to this creature her mother thought herself still bound! She
grew wild with impatience to know the result of Mr. Strafford's
mission.

CHAPTER V.

Lucia came with flushed cheeks and beating heart into the presence of
her mother and Mr. Strafford. She longed to have her question answered
at once, yet dreaded to ask it. They were waiting tea for her; and the
bright cheerful room, with its peaceful home-look, the table and
familiar tea-service, the perfectly settled and calm aspect of
everything about,