Yes, through dark and painful means a better end is coming.

But it is hard to think that you must live through all your life under the shadow of a supposed crime.

For us who have sinned life is nearly over, our punishment was just, and it will soon be ended.
It is you, my child, whom I have so tried to shield, who must bear the heaviest penalty." "No, mother, do not think so.

When all this is over we shall go away, you and I, and be very happy together again; and the happiness will be more equally balanced than it was in the old days when you had so much care and I none.

And then, if ever I am left alone, I shall go and be a Sister of Charity or one of Miss Nightingale's nurses, and be too busy and useful to be unhappy." Mrs.Costello stooped down and kissed her child's forehead.
"I thought you might have had a brighter fate than that, darling.
Perhaps I thought more of seeing you a happy woman than a good one; but if you are never to have the home I wished for you, you will find, at any rate, that a single woman's life may be full of usefulness and honour." Ah! that brighter fate! Mrs.Costello thought of Maurice, and sighed for the loss to _two_ lives.