"I thank you," she said. "I wish very much for a little delay if possible. At the worst, if you do meet him, it will be only hasty flight. Can you be prepared for that, Lucia?"
"In an hour, mamma, if necessary. I only wish now to be far away from here."
Her mother's look rested on her sadly. "I do but ask for the delay of a week or two," she said.
But next day, when Mr. Strafford made his inquiry, he brought back news that three or four weeks' delay might be perfectly safe. Christian was, indeed, in the lumberer's employ, but the gang to which he was attached had started for the woods, and would not return for a month. By that time it would be easy to leave the Cottage without hurry, and without attracting unnecessary attention.
CHAPTER XII.
"Going away? Nonsense, Elise; you are joking. The very idea of Mrs. Costello going away from Cacouna!"
"She is going at any rate, to my sorrow, she and Lucia both; for six months at least, they say."
Mrs. Bellairs and her sister were together again, and Bella, though she was getting used to be called Mrs. Morton, and to see the wedding-ring on her finger, was not at all sobered yet by her matronly state, but might have passed perfectly well for Bella Latour. She and her husband, who had no leisure for a long wedding-tour, had come back to Cacouna the evening before, and were dining to-day at her brother-in-law's. The two ladies were sitting in Mrs. Bellairs' room, and Bella was beginning to hear what little news there was in Cacouna since she went away.
"Where are they going?" she asked when she had had time to believe this surprising item regarding the Costellos.