CHAPTER XXII.
Mr.Bellairs came, according to his promise, and drove Mrs.Costello and Lucia to Fairfield, where they were to take the boat for Moose Island.
It was a distance of about five miles; and as they glided along rapidly and smoothly, Lucia remembered with a sigh that this was probably the last sleigh drive of any length that she would have before leaving Canada.

Perhaps it was not right, considering what the object of their present journey was, that she should be at liberty to have any such thoughts; it might have been more decorous if she had been absorbed by the grave and sombre ideas which the occasion demanded; but Lucia was at heart too frank and natural to try to force upon herself the affectation of a grief she did not feel.

It had come into her heart, while Christian was slowly wearing out the last days of his unhappy life, to care for him as her father, to be deeply sorry for him, and to desire to comfort him; but now that his sufferings were over, she honestly thought that there was no further reason for grieving on his account.

She was sad, however, for very simple and childish reasons; and this idea that it was her last sleigh drive actually brought tears into her eyes.

Everything was so lovely! The road along which they passed lay like a broad white line between the dark woods and the river.