"There will be no difficulty to-morrow. Mr. Leigh is sure to hear the
particulars. I will go and ask him about them."

"You do not mean to tell him?"

"No; it will be easy enough without that, to ask about a subject which
every one will be talking of."

"Mamma, I can go to Mr. Leigh as well as you. I can go better, for I
shall not suffer as you will, and I can bring you home a faithful
account of what I hear."

"Darling, all this is new to you. I have had to serve a long
apprenticeship to learn self-restraint."

Lucia laughed bitterly. "See the advantage of my Indian blood," she
said. "Trust me, mother, I will be as steady as those ancestors of mine
who bore torture without flinching."

Mrs. Costello bent down and kissed her child's forehead.

"Yours is a better heroism, Lucia; for mental pain is harder to bear
than physical, and you would suffer to save me."

"We suffer together, mamma. I must take my share. To-morrow I shall go,
as usual, to Mr. Leigh's, and bring back all I can learn. But he will
wonder to see me, and still more if he hears that we are not going
away."

"You must simply tell him our journey is put off. He will ask no