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.
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