Poor Maurice! He came up the river early one glorious morning, and
standing on the steamboat's deck watched for the first glimpse of the
Cottage. His heart was beating so that he could scarcely see, but he
knew just where to look, and what to look for. At this time of year
there was no hope of seeing the fair figure watching on the verandah as
it had done when he went away, but the curl of smoke from the chimney
would satisfy him and prove that his darling was still in her old home.
He watched eagerly, breathlessly. Everything was so bright, that his
spirits had risen, and he felt almost certain he was in time. There, the
last bend of the river was turned, and now the trees that grew about
the Cottage and his father's house were visible--now the Cottage itself.
But suddenly his heart seemed to grow still--there was the house, there
was the garden where he and Lucia had worked, there was the slope where
they had walked together that last evening--but all was desolate. No
smoke rose from the chimney; and on the verandah, and on every ledge of
the windows snow lay deep and undisturbed; the path to the river was
choked and hidden, and by the little gate the drift had piled itself up
in a high smooth mound. Desolate!
When the boat stopped at the wharf, there were happily few people about.
Maurice left his portmanteau, and taking the least public way hurried
off homewards. It was too late--that was his only thought; to see his
father, to know when they went, and if possible whither--his only
desire. He strode along the road, seeing and thinking of nothing but
Lucia. There was one chance, they might not yet have left Canada. But
then that ship, and the curious sense of Lucia's nearness which he had
felt when they passed it; she must have been on board! He felt as if he
should go mad when he came to his father's gate and saw all looking just
as usual, quite calm and peaceful under the broad wintry sunshine. He
had only just sense enough at the very last minute to remember that his
father was an invalid to whom the joy of his coming might be a dangerous
shock. As he thought of this he turned round the corner of the house,
and in a moment walked into the kitchen where Mrs. George, the old
housekeeper, was busy washing up the breakfast-things.
"Law, Mr. Maurice!" cried Mrs. George, and dropped her teacup and her
cloth together--happily both on the table.
Coming into the familiar room, and seeing the familiar face, brought the
young man a little to himself. He held his impatience in check while he
received Mrs. George's welcome, answered her questions, and asked some
in return. Then he sent her in to tell his father of his arrival, and
began to walk up and down the kitchen while she was away.
In a minute or two she came out of the sitting-room, and he went in. Mr.
Leigh had had his own troubled thoughts lately, but he forgot them all
when he saw his son. Just at first there was only the sudden agitating
joy of the meeting--the happiness of seeing Maurice so well--so
thoroughly himself and yet improved--of seeing him at home again; but
then came trouble.
"So they are gone?" he said almost interrupting the first greetings, and
the old man instantly knew that all his fancies had been a mistake, and
that Maurice had come back to find Lucia.
And they were gone; and he himself had been a coward and a traitor, and
had distrusted his own son and let them go away distrusting him! He saw
it now too late. A painful embarrassment seized him.
"Yes," he said hesitatingly. "They went a week ago."
"By New York?"
"Yes."
"In the 'Atalanta' for Havre?"
"Yes. How did you know?"
"I did not know. I only guessed. Where are they gone?"
"I do not know. Mrs. Costello said their plans were so uncertain that
she could not tell me."
"Yet I should have thought, sir, that so old a friend as you might have
had a right to be told what her plans were?"
"She told no one--except that they would not stay long in any one place
at present."
Maurice walked to the window and sighed impatiently.
"A pleasant prospect!" he said, "They may be at the other end of Europe
before I can get back."
He stood for a minute looking out, and tapping impatiently with his
fingers on the window-sill, while Mr. Leigh watched him, troubled, and a
little inclined to be angry. When he turned round again he had made up
his mind that it was no use to get out of temper, a pretty sure proof
that he was so already, and that the first thing to do was to find out
exactly what his father and everybody else knew about the Costellos. He
sat down, accordingly, with a sort of desperate impatient patience, and
began a cross-examination.
"Did they leave no message for me?"
"Nothing in particular. All sorts of kind remembrances; Lucia said you
would be sure to meet some day."
"Did they never speak of seeing you in England?"
"Never. On the contrary, my impression is that they had no intention of
going to England."
"That is strange; yet if they had they would scarcely have gone by
Havre, unless to avoid all chance of meeting me."
"Why should they do that?"
Maurice said nothing, he only changed his position and looked at his
father. Mr. Leigh had asked the question suddenly, with the first dawn
of a new idea in his mind, but at his son's silent answer he shrank back
in his chair breathless with dismay. So after all he _had_ been a
traitor! With his mistaken fancies about change and absence, he had been
doing all he could to destroy the very scheme that was dearest to him,
and which he now saw was dearest to Maurice also. And he knew now that
there had been something in Mrs. Costello's manner lately less friendly
to Maurice than was usual. He had done mischief which might be
irreparable. Guilty and miserable, he naturally began to defend himself.
"If you had only told me!" he said feebly.
"I had nothing to tell, sir. I went away, as you remember, almost at a
moment's notice, to please you and my grandfather. I could not speak to
Lucia then, because--for various reasons; but I know that Mrs. Costello
was my friend. Afterwards she wrote to me when poor Morton was killed,
and told me some story I could not very well make out, but which of
course made no difference to me. Then came another letter with all the
truth about her marriage, which she seemed to think conclusive, and
which wound up by saying that she meant to take Lucia away--hide her
from me in fact. My grandfather was very ill then, and I had no time to
write to her, but my message just after his death was plain enough, I
thought--what did she say to it?"
Mr. Leigh dropped his eyes slowly from his son's face, and put his hand
confusedly to his head.
"What was it?" he said. "I can't remember."
"Only two or three words. Just that all she could say did not alter the
case, or alter me."
This was rather a free rendering of the original message, but it was
near enough and significant enough for Mr. Leigh to be quite sure he had
never heard such words before. They would have given him just that key
to his son's heart which he had longed for.
"You must be mistaken," he answered. "I never received such a message as
that."
"It was a postscript. I had meant to write to her and had not time."
"You must have forgotten. You meant to send it."
"I sent it, I am certain. Have you my letters?"
"Yes. They are in that drawer."
Maurice opened the drawer where all his letters had been lovingly
arranged in order. He remembered the look of the one he wanted and
picked it out instantly.
"There it is, sir," he said, and held out to his father those two
important lines, still unread. Mr. Leigh looked at the paper and then at
Maurice.
"I never saw it," he replied. "How could I have missed it?"
"Heaven knows! It is plain enough. And my note, which came in the letter
before that; it was never answered. _That_ may have miscarried too?"
"There was no note, Maurice, my dear boy; there was no note. I wondered
there was not."
"And yet I wrote one."
Maurice was looking at his father in grievous perplexity and vexation,
when he suddenly became aware of the nervous tremor the old man was in.
He went up to him hastily, with a quick impulse of shame and tenderness.
"Forgive me, father," he said. "I forgot myself and you. Only you cannot
know the miserable anxiety I have been in lately. Now tell me whether it
is true that you are stronger than when I left?"
He sat down by the easy-chair and tried to talk to his father as if Mrs.
Costello and Lucia had no existence; but Mr. Leigh, though he outwardly
took courage to enjoy all the gladness of their union, was troubled at
heart. It was a grievous disappointment, this coming home of which so
much had been said and thought. No one could have guessed that the young
man had been out into the world to seek his fortune, and had come back
laden with gold, or that the older had just won back again the very
light of his eyes.
Anxious as Maurice had been to avoid notice at the moment of his arrival
at Cacouna, he had been seen and recognized on the wharf, and the news
of his coming carried to Mr. Bellairs before he had been an hour at
home. So it happened that while the father and son sat together in the
afternoon, and were already discussing the first arrangements for their
return to England, a sleigh drove briskly up to the door, and Mr. and
Mrs. Bellairs came in full of welcomes and congratulations.
"I knew we might come to-day," Mrs. Bellairs said, still holding her
favourite's hand and scanning his face with her bright eyes. "We shall
not stay long, but it is pleasant to see you home again, Maurice."
"Don't say too many kind things, Mrs. Bellairs," he answered, "or you
will make me want to stay when I ought to be going."
"Going! You are surely not talking of that yet?"
"Indeed I am. We hope to be away in a fortnight."
"Oh! if you _hope_ it, there is no more to be said."
"If you knew how I have hoped to be here, and how disappointed I have
been to-day, you would not be so hard on me."
They had both sat down now and were a little apart, for the moment, from
the others. Mrs. Bellairs was surprised at Maurice's words, though she
understood instantly what he meant. He had never before given her a
single hint in words of his love for Lucia, though she had been
perfectly aware of it. She guessed now that his grandfather's death had
changed his wishes into intentions, and that since he was in a position
to offer Lucia a share of his own good fortune, he no longer cared to
make any secret of his feelings towards her.
"You did not expect that our friends would be gone," she asked in a tone
which expressed the sympathy she felt and yet could not be taken as
inquisitive. As for Maurice, he wanted to speak out his trouble to
somebody, and was glad of this result of his little impetuous speech.
"I was altogether uncertain," he answered; "I wanted to start from
England a week sooner, and if I had done so, it seems, I should have
found them here; but I was hindered, and for some reason or other, they
chose to keep me in the dark as to their intentions."
"Lucia often talked of you and of her regret at going away just when you
were expected."
"She did? Do you know where they are?"
"No; and that is the strangest thing. I believe their plans were not
quite fixed; but still Mrs. Costello was not a woman to start away into
the world without plans of some kind, and yet no one in Cacouna knows
more than that they sailed from New York to Havre."
"It is incomprehensible, except on one supposition. Did you ever hear
Mrs. Costello speak of my return?"
"Not particularly. Don't be offended, Maurice, either with her or with
me, but I did fancy once or twice that she wished to be away before you
came. Only, mind, that is simply my fancy."
"I have no doubt you fancied right; but I have a thousand questions to
ask you. Tell me first--"
"Maurice," interrupted Mr. Bellairs from the other side of the room,
"what is this your father says about going away immediately? You can't
be in earnest in such a scheme!"
"I am afraid I am," Maurice answered, getting up and standing with his
arm resting on the mantelpiece, "at least, if my father can stand the
journey."
Mr. Leigh, full of self-reproach and secret disturbance, vowed that the
journey would do him good; that he was eager to see the old country once
again. He had resolved, as the penance for his blunder, that he would
not be the means of hindering his boy one day in his quest for Lucia.
Nevertheless, the discussion grew warm, for Mr. Bellairs having vainly
protested against a winter voyage for the Costellos, had his arguments
all ready and in order, and had no scruple in bringing them to bear upon
Maurice. Of course, they were thrown away, just so many wasted words;
the angry impatient longing that was in the young man's heart would have
been strong enough to overthrow all the arguments in the universe. Only
one reason would have been strong enough to keep him--his father's
unfitness for travel; and that could not fairly be urged, for Mr. Leigh
was actually in better health than he had been for years, and would not
himself listen to a word on the subject.
Just before the visitors left, Maurice found an opportunity of asking
Mrs. Bellairs one of his "thousand questions."
"Mr. Strafford, of Moose Island, was Mrs. Costello's great adviser, does
not he know?"
"No; I wrote to him, and got his answer this morning. He only knew they
would probably stay some time in France."
She was just going out to get into the sleigh as she spoke. Suddenly
with her foot on the step she stopped,
"Stay! I have the address of a friend, a cousin, I think, of Mrs.
Costello's in England. Mr. Strafford sent it to me."
"Thanks, thanks. I shall see you in the morning."
Maurice went back joyfully into the house. Here was a clue. Now, oh, to
be off and able to make use of it!