Title:  A Canadian Heroine, Volume 2 A Novel

Author:  Mrs. Harry Coghill

Release Date:  April 5, 2006 [EBook #18122]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

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  A Canadian heroine.

  A Novel.

  By

  The author of “Leaves from the backwoods.”

  “Questa chiese Lucia in suo dimando,
  E disse:  Or ha bisogno il tuo fedele
  Di te, e io a te lo raccomando.”—­Inferno.  Canto II.

  “Qu’elles sont belles, nos campagnes;
  En Canada qu’on vit content! 
  Salut o sublimes montagnes,
  Bords du superbe St. Laurent! 
  Habitant de cette contree
  Que nature veut embellir,
  Tu peux marcher tete levee,
  Ton pays doit t’enorgueillir.”—­J.  Bedard.

  In three volumes. 
  Vol.  I.

London:  Tinsley Brothers, 8, Catherine Street.  Strand. 1873. [All rights Reserved.]

  Printed by Taylor and Co.,
  Little Queen Street, LINCOLN’S inn Fields.

A CANADIAN HEROINE.

CHAPTER I.

Mrs. Costello had felt it a kind of reprieve when she heard from Mr. Strafford that they might delay their journey safely for a month.  The sober middle age which had come upon her before its time, as her life rolled on out of the anguish and tumult of the past, made home and quietness the most desirable things on earth to her, and her health and spirits, neither yet absolutely broken, but both strained almost to the extent of their endurance, unfitted her for the changes and excitements of long travel.  So she clung to the idea of delay with an unacknowledged hope that some cause might deliver them from their present terrors, and yet suffer them to remain at Cacouna.

In the meantime all went on outwardly as usual.  The duties and courtesies of every-day life had to be kept up,—­the more carefully because it was not desirable to attract attention.  Besides, Mrs. Costello felt that an even flow of occupation was the best thing for Lucia, whom she watched, with the keenest and tenderest solicitude, passing through the shadow of that darkness which she herself knew