impossible to force his thoughts into any other channel, and his brain
worked all day painfully and fruitlessly at schemes for finding out Mrs.
Costello's secret, and demonstrating to her that far from its being a
reason for depriving him of Lucia, it was an additional reason for
giving her to him.




CHAPTER VIII.


Maurice tried to relieve his impatience by spending the very first half
hour when he was not required to sit with his grandfather, in writing to
Mrs. Costello. If the Atlantic telegraph had but been in operation she
might have been startled by some vehement message coming in immediate
protest against her decision; but as it was, the letter which could not,
at the very best, reach her in much less than a fortnight, was full of
fiery haste and eagerness. As for reason or argument, it made no attempt
at either. It began with a simple unqualified declaration that what she
had said was, as far as it regarded Maurice himself, of no value or
effect whatever, that he remained in exactly the same mind as when he
left Canada, and that nothing whatever would alter him, except Lucia's
preference for some other person. He went on to say that he could still
wait, but that as the strongest purpose of his life would be to give
Lucia the choice of accepting or refusing him as soon as he had a home
to offer her, it was needless unkindness to try to conceal her from him.
Wherever she might be, he should certainly find her in the end, and he
implored her mother to spare him the anxiety and delay of a search.
Finally he wrote, "I cannot understand in the least what you can mean by