CHAPTER V.
Lucia came with flushed cheeks and beating heart into the presence of her mother and Mr.Strafford.She longed to have her question answered at once, yet dreaded to ask it.

They were waiting tea for her; and the bright cheerful room, with its peaceful home-look, the table and familiar tea-service, the perfectly settled and calm aspect of everything about, struck upon her disturbed fancy with a jarring sense of unfitness.

But in a very little while the calm began to have a more reasonable effect; and by the time tea was over, she was ready to hear what had been done, without such an exaggerated idea of its importance, as she had been entertaining during her long hours of suspense.
Yet still she did not ask; and after a little while, Mrs.Costello said, "Mr.Strafford has been all the afternoon in Cacouna.

I have scarcely had time yet to hear all he had to tell me." Lucia glanced at her mother and then at their friend; she was glad the subject had been commenced without her, and only expressed by her eyes the anxiety she felt regarding it.
Mr.Strafford looked troubled.

He felt, with a delicacy of perception which was almost womanly, the many sided perplexities increasing the already heavy trial of Mrs.Costello's life.