Again Lucia flew to the door, and opened it just as the sleigh stopped.
"Mamma!" she cried, "are you there ?" and to her inexpressible relief she was answered by Mrs.Costello's voice.
"But why are you so late ?" was the next question.
"I will tell you all presently.

Pay the man, dear, and let him go.

Or stay, tell him to come for me at ten o'clock to-morrow morning." Mrs.Costello was sitting by the fire when Lucia came back from her errand.

She looked excessively pale and tired, but in her face and in that of Mr.Strafford as he stood opposite to her there was a light and flicker of strong excitement.

Both turned to Lucia, and Mrs.Costello held out her hand.
Lucia came forward, and seeing something she could not understand, knelt down by her mother's knee and said, "What is it ?" "Good news, darling, good news at last!" Mrs.Costello tried to speak calmly, but her voice shook with this unaccustomed agitation of joy.