Lucia felt the colour fade out of her cheeks. She held the note in a
tight grasp to keep her hand from trembling, and sat down.

"He and Mr. Bellairs are going up the Lakes. They will be back, I
imagine, in a week or two. Perhaps, Bella tells you more."

In fact, Mr. Percy had been annoyed at not finding Lucia, and slightly
discontented at being drawn into an excursion which would take him away
from Cacouna. Only a small time yet remained before he _must_ return to
England, and he had been sufficiently conscious that Mrs. Costello would
not regret his departure, to be very uncommunicative on the subject.
Bella, however, was much more explicit.

"My dear Lucia," she said, "shall you be much surprised to hear that
these good people have arranged for a certain wedding, in which both you
and I are interested, to take place on the first of next month; that is,
not quite three weeks from to-day? How I am to be ready I do not know;
but as you are to be bridesmaid, I implore you to come to me either this
evening or to-morrow, that we may arrange about the dresses and so on.
Is not it a mercy? William has taken into his head that he is obliged to
go up the Lakes to Sault Ste. Marie, in the interest of some client or
other, and has persuaded his cousin to go with him, so that Elise and I
will be left in peace for our last few weeks together. They are to be
back about the 26th, and I have done all I could to make Doctor Morton
go with them, but he says if he does, the house will not be ready, so, I
suppose, he must stay. They start by this evening's boat, and as the
dearly beloved cousin is sure to go to see you first, I shall ask him to
take my note. Entre nous, I don't believe he is particularly anxious to
go. And you? I expect every time I come near the Cottage, I shall hear