She had many wondering thoughts, too, about Maurice.

Was he still in England?
or was he in Canada?
was he at sea?
would he come over to see them?
would he even know where to find them if he came?
Of these last subjects she spoke freely to her mother, only she kept utter silence as to Percy.

So it happened that Mrs.Costello, knowing her own estimate of her daughter's lover, and strangely forgetting not only how different Lucia's had been, but that in a nature essentially faithful, love increases instead of dying, through time and absence, comforted herself, and believed that all was now settled for the best.

Neither Percy nor Maurice, it was evident, would ever be Lucia's husband.

Nothing could be more satisfactory, therefore, than that she should have become indifferent to the one, and have only a sisterly affection for the other.