CHAPTER XX.
Next morning Mrs.Costello and Lucia prepared to return to the Cottage.
They were to remain there till the following evening, and then Mr.
Bellairs proposed to drive them down to the first village below Cacouna at which the steamboats called, that they might there embark for Moose Island, instead of being obliged to do so at the Cacouna wharf, where they were certain to meet inquisitive acquaintances.

But a short time before they were to leave their friends, Doctor Hardy called.
He asked to see Mrs.Costello, and was taken into the small room where Mrs.Bellairs usually passed her mornings.

No one else was present, and he told her at once that he had called to ask her assistance in an affair which he feared would be painful to her.
She smiled gravely.

"I am too grateful to you, doctor," she said, "not to be pleased that you should have anything to ask." "I don't know," he went on, "whether Mr.Bellairs has told you the details of Clarkson's death--I mean as to what appeared to influence him in making his confession ?" "No," she answered, rather wondering what this could have to do with her.
"I think," the doctor proceeded, "that for all his brutality in other respects, Clarkson was a good husband, and as fond of his wife and children as if he had been a model of virtue.

At all events, his last thought was of his wife; and I rashly promised to see that she did not suffer on his account.