She reasoned, as she thought, astutely, that he would not be able to help it, when he saw her after a long absence.

Then she had much faith in her father's being able to arrange this satisfactorily for her, as he had arranged all other matters during her life.
"Now don't you fret, Pretty," he had said, when she bade him good-bye, "father will see to it that you have everything you want." And Lucina, all blushing with innocent confusion, had believed him.
In addition to all this she had in her trunks, strapped at the back of the stage-coach, two fine, new silk gowns, and one muslin, and a silk mantilla.

Also she carried a large blue bandbox containing a new plumed hat and veil, which cheered her not a little, being one of those minor sweets which providentially solace the weak feminine soul in its unequal combat with life's great bitternesses.
Lucina was away some three months, not returning until a few days before Thanksgiving; then she brought her friend, Miss Rose Soley, with her, and also a fine young gentleman, with long, curling, fair locks, and a face as fair as her own.
While Lucina was gone, Jerome led a life easier in some respects, harder in others.

He had no longer the foe of daily temptation to overcome, but instead was the steady grind of hunger.

Jerome, in those days, felt the pangs of that worst hunger in the world--the hunger for the sight of one beloved.