I asked her what she wanted, but she would not tell me, and after awhile she went off again in her canoe as fast as if she was going express." Lucia was thoroughly startled by this story.

Mr.Strafford's letter came to her mind, and connected itself with the singular look and manner of the squaw, at the farm.

This could not certainly be the mysterious "C." of the letter, for Mr.Strafford said "_he_ is in the neighbourhood," but it might be Mary Wanita, who had apparently given the first friendly warning, and might possibly have come to Cacouna for the purpose of giving a second, and more urgent one.
"Where was mamma ?" she asked.
"Gone in to see Mr.Leigh," Margery answered; "he is quite sick to-day, and Mr.Maurice came to ask your mamma to go and sit with him awhile." "Did you tell her about this squaw ?" "Well, no, Miss Lucia, I had a kind of guess it was better not.

You see she is not very strong, and I thought you could tell her when you came if you thought it was any use." "Thank you, Margery, you were quite right." Lucia went in slowly, thinking the matter over.

It did not, however, appear to her advisable to conceal from her mother the squaw's visit--it might have greater significance than she, knowing so little, could imagine--but she wished extremely that she possessed some gauge by which to measure beforehand the degree of agitation her news was likely to produce.