Mrs. Costello woke up gradually from her doze. She had been dreaming of
Cacouna, and that Maurice and Lucia were sitting near her talking of his
journey to England. She opened her eyes and found herself in a strange
room which she soon recognized, but still it seemed as if part of her
dream continued, for she could hear the murmur of two voices, very low,
and could see Lucia sitting in the adjoining room and talking to
somebody. Lucia, in fact, had forgotten to keep watch.
Mrs. Costello listened for a minute. It was strangely like Maurice's
voice. She sat up, and called her daughter.
Lucia started up and came into the salon. She bent down over her
mother, and kissed her to hide her flushed face and happy eyes for a
moment.
"Are you rested, dear mamma?" she asked.
"Yes, darling. Who is there?"
"A visitor, mother, from England."
"From England? Not your cousin?"
"No, indeed. Guess again."
"Tell me. Quickly, Lucia."
"What do you say to Maurice?"
"Impossible!"
But Maurice, hearing his own name, came forward boldly.
"I have but just arrived, Mrs. Costello. I told you I should find you
out."
They looked at each other with something not unlike defiance, but
nevertheless Mrs. Costello shook hands with her guest cordially enough.
Certainly he _had_ kept his word--there might be a mistake somewhere,
and at all events, for the present moment he was here, and it was very
pleasant to see him.
So the three sat together and talked, and it seemed so natural that they
should be doing it, that what did begin to be strange and incredible was
the separation, and the various events of the past six months. But after
Claudine had come in, and Lucia had been obliged to go away "on
hospitable cares intent," to arrange with her some little addition to
the dinner which Maurice was to share with them, the newcomer took
advantage of her absence, and resolved to get as many as possible of his
difficulties over at once. He had not yet quite forgiven his faithless
ally, and he meant to make a new treaty, now that he was on the spot to
see it carried out.
"I am afraid," he began, "that my coming so unexpectedly must have
startled you a little, but I thought it was best not to write."
Mrs. Costello could not help smiling--she was quite conscious of her
tactics having been surpassed by Maurice's.
"I am glad to see you, at any rate," she said, "now you _are_ here; but"
she added seriously, "you must not forget, nor try to tempt me to
forget, that we are all changed since we met last."
"I do not wish it. I don't wish to forget anything that is true and
real, and I wish to remind you that when I left Canada I did so with a
promise--an implied promise at any rate--from you, which has not been
kept."
"Maurice! Have you a right to speak to me so?"
"I think I have. Dear Mrs. Costello, have some consideration for me.
Was it right when I was kept a fast prisoner by my poor grandfather's
sick-bed, when I was trusting to you, and doing all I could to make you
to trust me--was it fair to break faith with me, and try to deprive me
of all the hopes I had in the world? Just think of it--was it fair?"
"I broke no faith with you. I felt that I had let you pledge yourself in
the dark; that in my care for Lucia, and confidence in you, I had to
some extent bound you to a discreditable engagement. I released you from
it; I told you the truth of the story I had hidden from everybody--I
wrote to you when my husband lay in jail waiting his trial for murder,
and I heard no more from you. It was natural, prudent, right that you
should accept the separation I desired--you did so, and I have only
taken means to make it effectual."
"I did so! I accepted the separation?"
"I supposed, at least, from your silence that you did so. Was not I
right therefore in desiring that you and Lucia should not meet again?"
"_That_ was it, then? Listen, Mrs. Costello. My last note to you seems
by some means to have been lost. There was nothing new in it; but my
father has told me that he was surprised on receiving my letter which
ought to have contained it, to find nothing for you, not even a message;
perhaps you wondered too. I can only tell you the note was written.
Then, in my next letter, written when my grandfather was actually dying,
and when I was, I confess, very angry that you should persist in trying
to shake me off, there was a message to you in a postscript which my
father overlooked, and which I myself showed to him for the first time
when I reached home and found you gone. What he had been thinking,
Heaven knows. I had rather not inquire too closely; but I will say that
it is rather hard to find that the people who ought to know one best,
cannot trust one for six months."
Mrs. Costello listened attentively while Maurice made his explanation
with no little warmth and indignation.
"Do you mean to say that you did not perceive how foolish and wrong it
had become for you to think of marrying Lucia?"
"How in the world could it be either foolish or wrong for me to wish to
marry the girl I have loved all my life? Unless, indeed, she preferred
somebody else."
"Remember who she is."
"I am not likely to forget that after all I have lately heard about her
from Mrs. Morton."
"And that you have a family and a position to think of now."
"And a home fit to offer to Lucia."
"Obstinate boy!"
"Call me what you will, but let it be understood that I have done
nothing to forfeit your promise. I am to take no further answers except
from Lucia."
"But you know, at least, that our worst fears were unfounded?"
"Of course they were. I always knew that would come right. But you have
suffered terribly; I am ashamed of my own selfishness when I think of
it."
"We have suffered. And my poor child so innocently, and so bravely.
Maurice, she is worth caring for."
"You shall see whether I value her or not. Here she comes!"
Lucia came in, the glow of pleasure still on her face which Maurice's
arrival had brought there. It was no wonder that both mother and lover
looked at her with delight as she moved about, too restlessly happy to
sit still, yet pausing every minute to ask some question or to listen
to what the others were saying. Indeed not one of the three could well
have been happier than they were that afternoon. Mrs. Costello felt that
she had done all she could in the cause of prudence, and therefore
rejoiced without compunction in seeing her favourite scheme for her
darling restored to her more perfect than ever. Maurice, without having
more than the minimum quantity of masculine vanity, had great faith in
the virtues of perseverance and fidelity, and took the full benefit of
Lucia's delight at seeing him; while Lucia herself was just simply
glad--so glad that for an hour or two she quite forgot to think of
Percy.
Maurice declared he had business which would keep him in Paris for some
weeks. He claimed permission therefore to come every day, and to take
Lucia to all the places where Mrs. Costello was not able to go.
"Oh, how charming!" Lucia cried. "I shall get some walks now. Do you
know, Maurice, mamma will not let me go anywhere by myself, and I can't
bear to make her walk; but you will go, won't you?"
"Indeed I will," Maurice said; but after that he went away back to his
hotel, with his first uncomfortable sensation. Was Lucia still really
such a child? Would she always persist in thinking of him as an elder
brother--a dear brother, certainly, which was something, but not at all
what he wanted? How should he make her understand the difference? That
very day, her warm frank affection had been a perfect shield to her. The
words that had risen to his lips had been stopped there, as absolutely
as if he had been struck dumb. 'But I need not speak just yet,' he
consoled himself. 'I must try to make her feel that I am of use to her,
and that she would miss me if she sent me away. My darling! I must not
risk anything by being too hasty.'
He wrote two notes that night; one to his father, the other to Lady
Dighton, which said,
"Do come over. I am impatient to show Lucia to you. She is more
beautiful and sweeter than ever. Of course, you will think all I say
exaggerated, so do come and judge for yourself. I want an ally. All is
right with Mrs. Costello, but I own I want courage with Lucia to "put it
to the test." Suppose after all I should lose? But I dare not think of
that."
Mrs. Costello slept little that night. A second time within a year she
saw all her plans destroyed, her anticipations proved mistaken; the
brighter destiny she had formerly hoped for, was now within her child's
grasp. Wealth, honour, and steadfast love were laid together at her
feet. Would she gather them up? Would she be willing to give herself
into the keeping of this faithful heart which had learnt so well "to
love one maiden and to cleave to her?" The doubt seemed absurd, yet it
came and haunted the mother's meditations. She knew perfectly that Lucia
had no thought of Maurice but as a friend or brother. She could not
quite understand how it had always continued so, but she knew it had.
She had never been willing to think of her child's regard for Percy as
likely to be a lasting feeling, and at most times she really did
consider it only as a thing of the past; yet to-night it came before her
tiresomely, and she remembered what Mrs. Bellairs had told her lately
about his marriage. She resolved once to ask Maurice whether he had
heard anything of it, but, on second thoughts, she decided that it was
better to leave the matter alone.
There was yet another person on whom Maurice's coming had made a most
lively impression. Claudine, as soon after her first sight of him as she
could get hold of Lucia, had a dozen questions to ask. "Was he
Mademoiselle's brother? Her cousin then? Only a friend? What a charming
young man! How tall he was! and what magnifiques yeux bruns! Now,
surely, Mademoiselle would not be so _triste_? She would go out a
little? and everybody would remark them, Mademoiselle being so graceful,
and monsieur so _very_ tall."
Lucia told her mother, laughing, that she and Maurice were going to walk
up the Champs Elysées next day, with placards, saying that they were two
North Americans newly caught; and when Maurice came next morning, she
repeated Claudine's comments to him with a perfect enjoyment of the good
little woman's admiration for "ce beau Monsieur Canadien."