A year passed away.  Neither Lucy nor Modbury had made much progress in their several aims; scarcely a tithe of the requisite sum for Luke’s discharge had been saved; neither could Modbury perceive that his suit advanced.  Lucy’s conduct sorely perplexed him.  She always seemed delighted when he came in, and received him with every mark of cordiality; but whenever he dropped the slightest plea in his own behalf, tears would come into her eyes, and she entreated him to desist.  He began to remark also, that besides the presence of the old dame, which was surely a sufficient safeguard against any warmth of manner he might be betrayed into, Lucy always contrived to have Susan Larkin with her.  Should she be absent, Lucy would be telling Modbury what a good, industrious, excellent girl she was; which, indeed, was the truth.

No letter came from Luke, and there was no proof that he had received hers.  Lucy began gradually to despond; for work became slack, and at times she only got enough to employ her half the day.  Not to lose ground, however, she hired herself to the neighbouring farmers’ wives to sew during her spare time, leaving Dame Damerel to the occasional care of Susan Larkin.  While she was sitting at work during one of these engagements, she compared her own cheerless lot with the happiness which surrounded her.  The farmer was reading the newspaper, his wife and daughter assisting her in the work she was doing.  As she made this comparison, and thought of Luke, banished as it were from his home, and enduring perhaps severe hardships, she could scarcely refrain from weeping.  Now and then the farmer read a paragraph from the paper, and presently exclaimed:  ’Ah, our young squire has got safe to his regiment in India.’  At these words Lucy trembled, but went on rapidly with her work, lest her emotion should be noticed.  She had previously heard that the son of a neighbouring proprietor had bought a commission in Luke’s regiment, and this was almost like having news of Luke himself.  Presently the reader went on with the paragraph:  ’"We understand there has been a fatal disease which has carried off many of the"’------ The farmer made a pause here, and Lucy’s heart sank within her.  ‘Oh, I see,’ the old gentleman ejaculated; ’the corner is turned down—­“has carried off many”—­yes—­“many of the——­horses."’

This little incident produced such strong emotions in Lucy’s frame, that though she felt, upon the whole, much gratified by merely hearing about Luke’s regiment and its horses, yet she became too ill to proceed with her work, and found it necessary to return to the cottage.

Lucy soon altered her plan of engaging herself out; for the idea struck her, that if she were to make lace on a sort of speculation, and keep it by her till it was wanted, she would in the end make a greater profit.  Having, when her father was in good circumstances, been partly educated at an Exeter boarding-school, she had acquired there some knowledge of drawing, and by exercising her pencil, she now invented some very pretty lace-patterns.