Chapter 42, Finis Summary

While Lucy has dreaded the years of separation, her anticipation proves to be the worse part. M. Paul is away for three years, and she says they are the happiest of her life. She works hard to improve her school, and she builds a library for M. Paul and grows the plants he loves. Her school prospers. During the second year, she receives one hundred pounds from the nephew of the late Miss Marchmont. Lucy does not know what prompts him to send the money, but she is grateful and turns her day school into a boarding school by leasing the building next door.

Lucy works hard because she has been given hope for the future, and she is not working for herself so much as for something else. M. Paul frequently sends her long letters, because he loves her and...