To tell the truth, I am longing for a letter from you, not only to bring me news of my father, but to satisfy me that all my hopes are not being built upon an impossibility.

Is Percy still at Cacouna?
Don't laugh at me.

My occupations here leave me plenty of time to think of you all, and I depend upon you not to let me be left quite in the dark on the subject to which I cannot help giving most of my thoughts." Mrs.Costello smiled to herself as she read; but she put off Lucia's questioning with a very unfaithful summary of the contents of the note.
It was certainly strange how much vague comfort she took in the knowledge of Maurice's love for her child.

It might have seemed that the same causes which had parted Lucia from Percy, and which she had said would part her from the whole world, would be just as powerful here; but the mother had at the bottom of her heart a kind of child-like confidence that somehow, some time, all must come right, and in the meantime she loved Maurice heartily, and wished for this happy consummation almost as much for his sake as for her daughter's..