answered; "not half so much like it as your own Canada."

"Well, perhaps I shall see it some day, but then alone. Without mamma, I
should not care half so much."

"Are you still so much a child? 'Without mamma' would be no great
deprivation to most young ladies."

"I cannot understand that. But then we have always been together; we
could hardly live apart."

"Not even if you had--Doctor Morton for instance, to take care of you?"

Lucia laughed heartily at the idea, and Mr. Percy laughed too, though
his sentence had begun seriously enough. They were now at the gate, he
bade her good-bye, and springing on his horse, went away at a pace which
was meant to carry off a considerable amount of irritation against
himself. "I had nearly made a pretty fool of myself," he soliloquised.
"It is quite time I went away from here. But what a sweet little piece
of innocence she is, and so lovely! I do not believe anything more
perfect ever was created. Pshaw! who would have thought of _my_ turning
sentimental?"

As Lucia turned from the gate, Margery put her head round the corner of
the house, and beckoned.

"Your ma's lying down, Miss Lucia,--at least I guess so,--and she
doesn't expect you yet, and I've something to tell you."

Lucia went into the kitchen and sat down. She was feeling tired after