Guessing more truly than perhaps others of her associates might do, he wrote to Maurice that night that he feared some heavy trouble either threatened, or had come upon Mrs.Costello and Lucia.

The same evening Mr.
Strafford came to the Cottage.

It was a year since his last visit, and the events which had taken place in the meantime made him even more than usually welcome to Mrs.Costello.He scarcely needed to be told that Lucia had now, at last, heard the story of her birth--he read it in her face, and rejoiced that there was full confidence between mother and daughter.

As the three sat together round the fire--for the evenings were already growing chilly, and the leaves in the garden began to fall--they spoke together of the subject on which Mrs.Costello had been so anxiously waiting her friend's counsel.
"I am afraid you are right," Mr.Strafford said.

"The only way to avoid, with certainty, any danger of meeting, is for you to leave Canada." "It is hard for both of us," Mrs.Costello answered.