knowledge of Maurice's love for her child. It might have seemed that the
same causes which had parted Lucia from Percy, and which she had said
would part her from the whole world, would be just as powerful here; but
the mother had at the bottom of her heart a kind of child-like
confidence that somehow, some time, all must come right, and in the
meantime she loved Maurice heartily, and wished for this happy
consummation almost as much for his sake as for her daughter's.




CHAPTER II.


There was a good deal of difference in the aspect of the country above
and below Cacouna. Below it the river bank was high; and cultivated and
fertile lands stretched back for a mile or two, till they were bordered
and shut in by the forest. Above, the bank was low. Just beyond the town
lay the swamp, which brought ague to the Parsonage and its neighbours.
On the further side of this was the steam sawmill, and a few shanties
occupied by workmen; and higher still, a road (called the Lake Shore
Road, because, after a few miles, it joined and ran along the side of
the lake) wound its way over a sandy plain, studded with clumps and
knots of scattered trees or brushwood. Rough, stubbly grass covered a
good deal of the sand, but here and there the wind had swept it up into
great piles round some obstacle that broke the level, and on these
sand-hills wild vines grew luxuriantly, covering them in many places
with thick and graceful foliage, and small purple clusters of grapes.
There were pools, too, in some places, where water-lilies had managed to
plant themselves, and where colonies of mud-turtles lived undisturbed;