They went together to the parlour for a few minutes, and afterwards to Lucia's room, but it was not until her mother left her that it struck the poor child that some new alarm or distress had happened.
"I shall not go to sleep," she said to herself, "but wait and ask mamma when she comes in;" but youth and fatigue were too strong for her resolution, and she was soon fast asleep.

It was not, indeed, till dawn that Mrs.Costello came; her night had been spent like so many before it, in painful thought and vigil; but before she slept, she had, as she hoped, fixed clearly and definitely her plans for the future.

To have done this, was in itself a kind of relief.

She slept at last calmly, and woke in the morning with a sensation of certainty and renewed courage, which she had long been without.
At breakfast she was so cheerful and had so many questions to ask about the previous day, that Lucia readily persuaded herself that she had no need to be uneasy.
She did indeed say, "Have you heard from Mr.Strafford ?" but Mrs.
Costello's answer satisfied her: "I had a note yesterday evening.

He is coming up, and may be here to-morrow," and no more was said.
She found when she went over, soon after breakfast, to Mr.Leigh's, that the post of the evening before had brought him also a letter, full of interest to them all.