LI E) RARY 
 
 OF THE. 
 
 U N IVE.RSITY 
 
 or ILLINOIS 
 
 C54a 
 V.I
 
 AGATHA'S HUSBAND 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF 
 "OLIVE," -'THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY," &c. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 
 1853.
 
 
 825 
 
 H 
 
 c-i 
 
 INSCEIBED TO M. P. 
 
 In memorial of ii)t fricntrsl^ip of a lifetime. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 AGATHA'S HUSBAND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Agatha. 
 
 — If there ever was a woman thoroughly 
 hke her name, it was Agatha Bo wen. She 
 was good, in the first place — right good at 
 heart, though with a slight external rough- 
 ness (like the sound of the g in her name), 
 which took away all sentimentalism. Then 
 the vowels — the three broad rich a's — which 
 no one can pronounce with nimini-pimini 
 closed lips — how thoroughly they answered 
 to her character ! — a character in the which 
 
 VOL. I. B
 
 Agatha's husband. 
 
 was nothing small, mean, cramped, or 
 crooked. 
 
 But if we go on unfolding her in this way, 
 there will not be the shghtest use in writing 
 her history, or that of one in whom her 
 life is beautifully involved and enclosed — as 
 every married woman's should be — *' Aga- 
 tha's Husband." 
 
 He was still in cloudy mystery — an indi- 
 vidual yet to be ; and two other individuals 
 had been ^' talking him over," feminine- 
 fashion, in Miss Agatha Bowen's drawing- 
 room, much to that lady's amusement and edi- 
 fication. For, being moderately rich, she had 
 her own suite of rooms in the house where 
 she boarded; and having no mother — ah^ 
 sorrowful lot for a girl of nineteen! — she 
 sometimes filled her drawing-room with very 
 useless and unprofitable acquaintances. These 
 two married ladies — one young, the other old 
 — Mrs. Hill and Mrs. Thornycroft — had been
 
 Agatha's husband. 3 
 
 for tlie last half-hour vexing their very hearts 
 out to find Agatha a husband — a weakness 
 which, it must be confessed, lurks in the 
 heart of almost every married lady. 
 
 Agatha had been laughing at it, alter- 
 nately flushing up or looking scornful, 
 as her mouth had a natural propensity for 
 looking; balancing herself occasionally on 
 the arm of the sofa, which, being rather 
 small and of a light figure, she could do 
 with both impunity and grace ; or else rush- 
 ing to the open window, ostensibly to let her 
 black kitten investigate street-sights from its 
 mistress's shoulder. Agatha was now and 
 then very much of a child still, or could be 
 when she chose. 
 
 Mrs. Hill had been regretting some two or 
 three " excellent matches" of which she felt 
 sure Miss Bowen had thrown away her 
 chance; and young Mrs. Thornycroft had 
 tried hard to persuade her dearest Agatha 
 b2
 
 4 AGATHA S HUSBAND. 
 
 how very much happier she would be in a 
 house of her own, than as a boarder even in 
 this excellent physician's family. But Agatha 
 only laughed on, and devoted herself more 
 than ever to the black kitten. 
 
 She was, I fear, a damsel who rather 
 neglected the hienseances of life. Only, in 
 her excuse, it must be allowed that her 
 friends were doing what they had no earthly 
 business to do ; since, if there is one subject 
 above all upon which a young woman has a 
 right to keep her thoughts, feelings, and in- 
 tentions to herself, and to exact from others 
 the respect of silence, it is that of marriage. 
 Possibly, Agatha Bowen was of this opinion. 
 
 "Mrs. Hill, you are a very kind, good 
 soul ; and Emma Thornycroft, I like you very 
 much ; but if — (Oh I be quiet, Tittens !) — if 
 you could manage to let me and ' my Hus- 
 band' alone." 
 
 These were the only serious words she
 
 Agatha's husband. 5. 
 
 said — and they were but half serious ; she 
 evidently felt such an irresistible propensity 
 to laugh. 
 
 "Now," continued she, turning the con- 
 versation, and putting on a dignified aspect, 
 which occasionally she took it into her head 
 to assume, though more from playfulness 
 than earnest — "now let me tell you who 
 you will meet here at dinner to-day." 
 
 " Major Harper, of course." 
 
 " 1 do not see the * of course,' Mrs. 
 Thornycroft," returned Agatha, rather 
 sharply ; then melting into a smile, she 
 added: " "Well, ' of course,' as you say ; what 
 more likely visitor could I have than my 
 guardian ?" 
 
 " Trustee, my dear ; guardians belong to 
 romances, where young ladies are always 
 expected to hate, or fall in love with them." 
 
 Agatha's face flushed slightly. Now, 
 unlike most girls, Miss Bowen did not look
 
 6 Agatha's husband. 
 
 pretty when slie blushed ; her skin being 
 very dark, and not over clear, the red blood 
 coursing under it dyed her cheek, not " ce- 
 lestial, rosy red," but a warm mahogany 
 colour. Perhaps a consciousness of this 
 deepened the impleasant blushing fit, to 
 which, like most sensitive natures at her age, 
 she was always rather prone. 
 
 '' Not," continued Mrs. Thorny croft, watch- 
 ing her, — " not that I think any love affair is 
 likely to happen in your case; Major Harper 
 is far too much of a settled-down bachelor, 
 and at the same time too old." 
 
 Agatha pulled a comical face, and made a 
 few solemn allusions to Methuselah. She 
 had a peculiarly quick, even abrupt manner 
 of speaking, saying a dozen words in the 
 time most young ladies would take to drawl 
 out three ; and possessing, likewise, the rare 
 feminine quality of never saying a word 
 more than was necessary.
 
 Agatha's husband. 
 
 " Agatha, liow funny you are !" laughed 
 her easily-amused friend. " But, dear, tell 
 me who else is coming ?" And she glanced 
 doubtfully down on a gown that looked like 
 a marriage-silk " dyed and renovated." 
 
 " Oh, no ladies — and gentlemen never see 
 whether one is dressed in brocade or sack- 
 cloth,'' returned Agatha, rather maliciously; 
 — *' Only ' old Major Harper,' as you are 
 pleased to call him, and " 
 
 " Nay, I didn't call him very old — ^just 
 forty, or thereabouts — though he does not 
 look anything hke it. Then he is so hand- 
 some, and, I must say, Agatha, pays you 
 such attention." 
 
 Agatha laughed again — the quick, light- 
 hearted laugh of nineteen— and her brown 
 eyes brightened with innocent pleasure. 
 
 Young Mrs. Thornycroft again looked 
 down uneasily at her dress — not from over- 
 much vanity, but because her bounded
 
 8 Agatha's husband. 
 
 mind recurred instinctively from extraneous 
 or large interests to individual and lesser 
 ones. 
 
 " Is there really any one particular 
 coming, my dear ? Of course, you liave 
 no trouble about evening dress ; mourning 
 is such easy, comfortable wear." (Agatha 
 turned her head quickly aside. ) " That hand- 
 some silk of yours looks quite well still; and 
 mamma there," glancing at the contentedly- 
 knitting Mrs. Hill — " old ladies never re- 
 quire much dress ; but if you had only told 
 me to prepare for company " 
 
 " Pretty company ! Merely our own 
 circle — Dr. lanson, Mrs. lanson, and Miss 
 lanson — you need not mind outshining her 
 now " 
 
 " No, indeed ! I am married." 
 
 " Then the ^ company ' dwindles down to 
 two besides yourselves; Major Harper and 
 his brother."
 
 Agatha's husband. 
 
 " Oh ! What sort of a person is the bro- 
 ther?" 
 
 *^I really don't know; I have never seen 
 him. He is just come home from Canada ; 
 the youngest of the family — and I hate 
 boys," replied Agatha, running the sentences 
 one upon the other in her quick fashion. 
 
 " The youngest of the family — how many 
 are there in all ?" inquired the elder lady, 
 her friendly anxiety being probably once 
 more on matrimonial thoughts intent. 
 
 " I am sure, Mrs. Hill, I cannot tell. I 
 have never seen any of them but Major 
 Harper, and I never saw him till my poor 
 father died ; all which circumstances you 
 know quite well, and Emma too ; so there 
 is no need to talk a thing twice over." 
 
 From her occasional mode of speech, some 
 people might say, and did say, that Agatha 
 Bowen " had a temper of her own." It is 
 very true, she was not one of those mild,
 
 10 AGATHA^S HUSBAND. 
 
 amiable heroines who never can give a sharp 
 word to any one. And now and then, pro- 
 bably from the morbid restlessness of un- 
 satisfied youth — a youth, too, that fate had 
 deprived of those home-ties, duties, and 
 sacrifices, which are at once so arduous and 
 so wholesome — she had a habit of carrying, 
 not only the real black kitten, but the ima- 
 ginary and allegorical " little black dog," on 
 her shoulder. 
 
 It was grinning there invisibly now ; 
 shaking her curls with short quick motion, 
 swelling her rich full lips — those sort of lips 
 which are glorious in smiles, but which in 
 repose are apt to settle into a gravity not 
 unlike crossness. 
 
 She was looking thus — not her best, it 
 must be allowed — w^hen a servant, opening 
 the drawing-room door, announced "Visitors 
 for Miss Bowen." 
 
 The first who entered, very much in
 
 Agatha's husband. 11 
 
 advance of the other, appeared with that 
 easy, agreeable air which at once marks the 
 gentleman, and one long accustomed to the 
 world in all its phases, especially to the 
 feminine phase ; for he bowed over Agatha's 
 hand, and smiled in Agatha's now brighten- 
 ing face, with a sort of tender manliness, that 
 implied his being used to pleasing women, 
 and having an agreeable though not an un- 
 generous consciousness of the fact. 
 
 "Are you better — really better? Are 
 you quite sure you have no cold left? 
 Nothing to make your friends anxious about 
 you?" (Agatha shook her head smilingly.) 
 " That's right ; I am so glad." 
 
 And no doubt Major Harper was ; for 
 a true kind-heartedness, softened even to 
 tender-heartedness, was visible in his hand- 
 some face. Which face had been for twenty 
 years the admiration of nearly every woman 
 in every drawing-room he entered: a consi-
 
 12 Agatha's husband. 
 
 derable trial for any man. Now and then 
 some independent young lady, who had rea- 
 sons of her own for preferring rosy com- 
 plexions, turn-up noses, and " runaway '^ 
 chins, might quarrel with the Major's fine 
 Roman profile and jet-black moustache and 
 hair; but — there was no denying it — he was, 
 even at forty, a remarkably handsome man ; 
 one of the old school of Chesterfield perfec- 
 tion, which is fast dying out. 
 
 Everybody liked him, more or less ; and 
 some people — a few men and not a few wo- 
 men, had either in friendship or in warmer 
 fashion — deeply loved him. Society in ge- 
 neral was quite aware of this ; nor, it must be 
 confessed, did Major Harper at all attempt 
 to disprove or ignore the fact. He wore his 
 honours — as he did a cross won, no one quite 
 knew how, during a brief service in the Penin- 
 sula — neither pompously nor boastingly, but 
 with the mild indifference of conscious desert.
 
 Agatha's husband. 13 
 
 All this could be at once discerned in liis 
 face, voice, and manner ; from wliich like- 
 wise, a keen observer might draw the safe 
 conclusion that, though a decided man of 
 fashion, and something of a dandy, he was 
 above either puppyism or immorality. And 
 Agatha's rich Anglo-Indian father had not 
 judged foolishly when he put his only child 
 and her property in the trust of, as he be- 
 lieved, that rare personage, an honest man. 
 
 If the girl Agatha, who took honesty as a 
 matter of course in every gentleman, en- 
 dowed this particular one with a few 
 qualities more than he really possessed, it 
 was an amiable weakness on her part, for 
 which, as Major Harper would doubtless 
 have said with a seriously troubled counte- 
 nance, " no one could possibly blame /l^V7^." 
 
 In speaking of the Major we have taken 
 little notice — as little, indeed, as Agatha did 
 — of the younger Mr. Harper.
 
 14 Agatha's husband. 
 
 " My brother, Miss Bowen. He came 
 liome when my sister Emily died." The brief 
 introduction terminated in a shght fall of 
 voice, which made the young lady look sym- 
 pathisingly at the handsome face that took 
 shades of sadness as easily as shades of mirth. 
 In her interest for the Major she merely 
 bowed to his brother; just noticed that the 
 stranger was a tall, fair " boy," not at all 
 resembling her own friend ; and after a polite 
 speech or two of welcome, to which Mr. 
 Harper answered very briefly, she hardly 
 looked at him again until she and her guests 
 adjourned to the family drawing-room of 
 Dr. lanson. ^ 
 
 There, the Major happening to be en- 
 grossed by doing earnest politeness to Mrs. 
 Thornycroft and her mother, Agatha had 
 to enter side by side with the younger 
 brother, and likewise to introduce him to 
 the worthy family whose inmate she w^as.
 
 Agatha's husband. 15 
 
 She did so, making the whole circuit of 
 the room towards Miss Jane lanson, in the 
 hope that he would cast anchor, or else be 
 grappled by, that young lady, and so she 
 should get rid of him. However, fate was 
 adverse; the young gentleman showed no 
 inclination to be thus put aside, and Miss 
 Bowen, driven to despair, was just going 
 to extinguish him altogether with some spe- 
 cimen of the unceremonious manner which 
 she occasionally showed to "boys," when, 
 observing him more closely, she discovered 
 that he could not exactly come under this 
 category. 
 
 His fair face, fair hair, and thin, stripling- 
 like figure, had deceived her. Investigating 
 deeper, there was a something in his grave 
 eye and firmly-set mouth which bespoke the 
 man, not the boy. Agatha, who, treating 
 him with a careless womanly superiority 
 that girls of nineteen use, had asked " how
 
 16 Agatha's husband. 
 
 long he had been in Canada ?" and been 
 answered '' Fifteen years," — hesitated at her 
 next intended question — the very rude and 
 malicious one — " How old he was when he 
 left home ?" 
 
 " I was, as you say, very young when I 
 quitted England," he answered, to a less 
 pointed remark of Miss lanson's. " I must 
 have been a lad of nine or ten — little 
 more." 
 
 Agatha quite started, to think of the dis- 
 respectful way in which she had treated a 
 gentleman twenty-five years old ! It made 
 her shy and uncomfortable for some minutes, 
 and she rather repented of her habit of 
 ^patronising "boys." 
 
 However, what was even twenty-five ? A 
 raw, uncouth age. No man was really good 
 for anything until he was thirty. And, as 
 quickly as courtesy and good feeling allowed 
 her, she glided from the uninteresting younger
 
 Agatha's husband. 17 
 
 brother, to the charmed circle where the 
 elder was talking away, as only Major 
 Harper could talk, using all the weapons of 
 conversation by turns, to a degree that never 
 can be truly described. Like Taglioni's en- 
 trechats^ or Grisi's melodious notes, such ex- 
 trinsic talent dies on the senses of the listener, 
 who cannot prove, scarcely even explain, but 
 only say that it was so. Nevertheless, with all 
 his power of amusing, a keen observer might 
 have discerned in Major Harper a want of 
 depth — of reading — of thought; a some- 
 thing that marked out Vhomme de societe 
 in contradiction to the man of intellect or 
 of letters. Had he been an author — ^which 
 he was once heard to thank Heaven he was 
 not — he would probably have been one of 
 those shallow, fashionable sentimentalists 
 who hang like Mahomed's coffin between 
 earth and heaven, an eyesore unto both. 
 As it was, his modicum of talent made him 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 18 agatha's husband. 
 
 a most pleasant man in liis own sphere — tlie 
 drawing-room. 
 
 "Eeally," whispered the good, corpulent 
 Dr. lansoD, who had been laughing so much 
 that he quite forgot dinner was behind time, 
 "my dear Miss Bowen, your friend is the 
 most amusing, witty, delightful person. It is 
 quite a pleasure to have such a man at one's 
 table." 
 
 '^ Quite a pleasure, indeed," echoed Mrs. 
 lanson, deeply thankful to anything or any- 
 body that stood in the breach between her- 
 self, her husband, and the dilatory cook. 
 
 Agatha looked gratified and proud. Cast- 
 ing a shy glance towards where her friend 
 was talking to Emma Thorny croft and Miss 
 lanson, she met the eye of the younger 
 brother. It expressed such keen, though 
 grave observance of her, that she felt her 
 cheeks warm into the old, unbecoming, un- 
 comfortable blush.
 
 Agatha's husband. 19 
 
 It was rather a satisfaction that, just 
 then, they were summoned to dinner; 
 Major Harper, in his half tender, half pa- 
 ternal manner, advancing to take her down- 
 stairs; which ^Yas his custom, when, as fre- 
 quently happened, Agatha Bowen was the 
 woman he liked best in the room. This 
 was indeed his usual way in all societies, 
 except when out of his kindliness of heart 
 he now and then made a temporary sacrifice 
 in favour of some woman who he thought 
 liked Iwn best. Though even in this case, 
 perhaps, he would not have erred, or felt 
 that he erred, in offering his arm to Agatha. 
 
 She looked happy, as any young girl 
 would, in receiving the attentions of a man 
 whom all admired; and was quite contented 
 to sit next to him, listening while he talked 
 cheerfully and brilliantly, less for her per- 
 sonal entertainment than that of the table 
 in general. Which she thought, considering 
 c2
 
 20 Agatha's husband. 
 
 the dulness of the lanson circle, and that 
 even her own kind-hearted, long-known 
 friend, Emma Thorny croft, was not the 
 most intellectual woman in the world, — 
 showed great good nature on the part of 
 Major Harper. 
 
 Perhaps the most silent person at table 
 was the younger brother, whose Christian 
 name Agatha did not know. However, 
 hearing the Major call him once or twice by 
 an odd-sounding word, something like " Key- 
 nell" or " Ennell," she had the curiosity to 
 inquire. 
 
 " Oh, it is N. L. — his initials ; which I 
 'call him by, instead of the very ugly name 
 his cruel godfathers and godmothers imposed 
 upon him as a life-long martyrdom." 
 
 " What name is that ?" asked Agatha, 
 looking across at the luckless victim of no- 
 menclature, who seemed to endure his woes 
 with great equanimity.
 
 Agatha's husband. 21 
 
 He met her eye, and answered for himself, 
 showing he had been listening to her all the 
 time. " I am called Nathanael — it is an old 
 family name — Nathanael Locke Harper." 
 
 "You don't look very like a Nathanael," 
 observed his neighbour, Mrs. Thornycroft, 
 doubtless wishing to be complimentary. 
 
 " I think he does," said Agatha, kindly, 
 for she was struck by the infinitely sweet 
 and "good" expression which the young 
 man's face just then wore. " He looks like 
 the Nathanael of Scripture, ^ in whom there 
 was no guile.' " 
 
 A pause — for the lansons were those sort 
 of religious people who think any Biblical 
 allusions irreverent — except on Sundays. But 
 Major Harper said, heartily, ''That's true!" 
 and cordially, nay affectionately, pressed 
 Agatha's hand. Nathanael slightly coloured, 
 as if with pleasure, though he made no answer
 
 22 Agatha's husband. 
 
 of any kind. He was evidently unused to 
 bandy either jests or compliments. 
 
 If anything could be objected to in a young 
 man so retiring and unobtrusive as he, it was 
 a certain something the very opposite of his 
 brother's cheerful frankness. His features, 
 regular, delicate, and perfectly colourless j his 
 hair long, straight, and of the palest brown, 
 without any shadow of what painters would 
 call a " warm tint," auburn or gold^ running 
 through it ; his slow, quiet movements, rare 
 speech, and a certain passive composure 
 of aspect, altogether conveyed the impres- 
 sion of a nature which, if not positively re- 
 pellant, was decidedly cold. 
 
 Agatha felt it, and though from the rule 
 of opposites, this species of character awoke 
 in her a spice of interest; yet Avas the inte- 
 rest of too faint and negative a kind to 
 attract her more than mx)mentarily.
 
 Agatha's husband. 2S 
 
 In lier own mind slie set down Nathanael 
 Harper as " a very odd sort of youth" — (a 
 youth she still persisted in calling him) — and 
 turned again to his brother. 
 
 They had dined late, and the brief evening 
 bade fair to pass as after-dinner evenings do. 
 Arrived in the drawing-room, old Mrs. Hill 
 went to sleep ; Miss lanson, a pale young 
 woman, in delicate health, disappeared; Mrs. 
 lanson and Mrs. Thornycroft commenced a 
 low-toned, harmless conversation, which was 
 probably about " servants" and " babies." 
 Agatha being at that age when domestic 
 affairs are very uninteresting, and girlish 
 romance has not yet ripened into the sweet 
 and solemn instincts of motherhood, stole 
 quietly aside, and did the very rude thing of 
 taking up a book and beginning to read " in 
 company." But, as before stated, Miss 
 Agatha had a will of her own, which she 
 usually followed out, even when it ran a
 
 24 agatha's husband. 
 
 little contrary to the ultra-refined laws of 
 propriety. 
 
 The book not being sujficiently interesting, 
 she was beginning like many another clever 
 girl of nineteen to think the society of mar- 
 ried ladies a great bore, and to wonder when 
 the gentlemen would come up-stairs. Her 
 wish was shortly gratified by the door's 
 opening — but only to admit the "youth" 
 Nathanael. 
 
 However, partly for civility, and partly 
 through lack of entertainment, Agatha smiled 
 upon even him, and tried to make him talk. 
 
 This was not an easy matter, since in all 
 qualities he seemed to be his elder brother's 
 opposite. Indeed, his reserve and brevity 
 of speech emulated Agatha's own; so they 
 got on together ill enough, until by some 
 happy chance they lighted on the subject of 
 Canada and the Backwoods. Where is there 
 boy or girl of romantic imagination who did
 
 Agatha's husband. 25 
 
 not, at" some juvenile period of existence, 
 revel in descriptions of American forest-life? 
 Agatlia had scarcely passed this, the latest 
 of her various manias ; and on the strength 
 of it, she and Mr. Harper became more 
 sociable. She even condescended to declare 
 " that it was a pleasure to meet with one 
 who had absolutely seen, nay, lived among 
 red Indians." 
 
 " Ay, and nearly died among them too," 
 added Major Harper, coming up so unex- 
 pectedly, that Agatha had not noticed him. 
 " Tell Miss Bowen how you were captured, 
 tied to the stake, half- tomahawked, &c. — how 
 you lived Indian fashion for a whole year, 
 till you were sixteen. Wonderful lad ! A 
 second Nathaniel Bumppo!" added he, tap- 
 ping his brother's shoulder. 
 
 The young man drew back, merely an- 
 swered " that the story would not interest
 
 26 Agatha's husband. 
 
 Miss Bowen," and retired, "wliether out of 
 pride or shyness it was impossible to say. 
 
 The conversation, taken up and led, as 
 usual, by Major Harper, became a general 
 disquisition on the race of North American 
 Indians. Accidentally, or not, the elder 
 brother drew from the younger many facts, 
 indicating a degree of both information and 
 experience, w^hich made every one glance 
 with surprise, respect, and a little awe, on 
 the delicate, boyish-looking Nathanael. 
 
 Once, too, Agatha took her turn as an 
 object of interest to the rest. They were all 
 talking of the distinctive personal features 
 of that' strange race, which some writers 
 have held to be the ten lost tribes of Israel. 
 Agatha asked what were the characteristics 
 of an Indian face, often stated to be so fine ? 
 
 '^ Look in the mirror, Miss Bo wen," said 
 Nathanael, joining in the conversation.
 
 Agatha's husband. 27 
 
 " What do you mean ?" 
 
 " I mean, tliat were you not an English- 
 woman, I should have thought you descended 
 from a Pawnee Indian — all except the hair. 
 The features are exact — long, almond-shaped 
 eyes, aquiline nose, mouth and chin of the 
 rare classic mould, which these children of 
 nature keep, long after it has almost vanished 
 out of civilised Europe. Then your com- 
 plexion, of such a dark ruddy brown — 
 your " 
 
 " Stop— stop!" cried the Major, heartily 
 laughing. " Miss Bo wen will think you 
 have learnt every one of her physical pecu- 
 liarities off by heart already. I had not the 
 least idea you were gifted with so much 
 observation." 
 
 ^' Nay, do let him go on; it amuses me,'' 
 cried the young girl, 'laughing, though she 
 could not help blushing a little also. 
 
 But Nathanael had " shrunk into his shell,"
 
 28 AGATHA^S HUSBAND. 
 
 as his brother humorously whispered to 
 Agatha, and was not to be drawn out for 
 the remainder of the evening. 
 
 The Harpers left early, thus affording 
 great opportunity for their characters being 
 discussed afterwards. Every lady in the 
 room had long since declared herself " in 
 love" with the elder brother; the fact was 
 now repeated for the thousandth time, to- 
 gether with one or two remarks about the 
 younger Harper, whom they agreed was 
 rather nice-looking, but so eccentric ! 
 
 Miss Bo wen scarcely thought about Na- 
 thanael at all; except that, after she was in 
 bed, a comical recollection floated through 
 other more serious ones, and she laughed 
 outright at the notion of being considered 
 like a Pawnee Indian !
 
 AGATHA S HUSBAND. 29 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 Of all the misfortunes incidental to youth 
 (falling in love included), there are few- 
 greater than that of having nothing to do. 
 From this trial, Agatha Bowen, being un- 
 happily a young lady of independent pro- 
 perty, suffered martyrdom every day. She 
 had no natural ties, duties, or interests, and 
 was not sufficiently selfish to create the like 
 in and about her own personality. She did 
 not think herself handsome enough to be 
 vain, so had not that sweet refuge of femi- 
 nine idleness — dress. Nor, it must be dole- 
 fully confessed, was she of so loving a nature
 
 30 Agatha's husband. 
 
 as to love anybody or everybody, as some 
 women can. 
 
 Kind to all, and liking many, she was 
 apparently one of tliose characters who only 
 really love two or three people in the whole 
 course of their existence. To such, life is a 
 serious, perilous, and often terrible journey. 
 
 " Well, Tittens, I don't know, really, what 
 we are to do with ourselves this morning," 
 said Agatha, talking aloud to her Familiar, 
 the black kitten, who shared the solitude of 
 her little drawing-room. " You'd like to go 
 and play down stairs, I dare say ? It's all 
 very nice for you to be running after Mrs. 
 lanson's wools, biit I can't see anything 
 amusing in fancy-work. And as for dawd- 
 ling round this square and Kussell-square 
 with Jane lanson and Fido — pah ! I'd quite 
 as soon be changed into a lap-dog, and led 
 along by a string. How stupid London is ! 
 Oh, Tittens, to think that you and I have
 
 Agatha's husband. 31 
 
 never lived in the country since we were 
 born. Wouldn't you like to go ? Only, 
 then we should never see " 
 
 The foolish girl paused, and laughed, as if 
 she did not like to soliloquise too confiden- 
 tially, even to a kitten. 
 
 " Which of them did you like the best 
 last night, Tittens ? One was not over civil 
 to you; but Nathanael — ^yes, certainly you 
 and that juvenile are great friends, consider- 
 ing you have met but four evenings. All in 
 one week, too. Our house is getting quite 
 gay, Miss Tittens ,• only it is so much the 
 duller in the mornings. Heigho ! 
 
 Life's a weary, weary, weary, 
 Life's a weary coble o' care; 
 
 " What's the other verse ?" And she 
 began humming : 
 
 " Man's a steerer, steerer, steerer, 
 Man's a steerer — life is a pool."
 
 32 Agatha's husband. 
 
 " I wonder, Tittens, how you and I shall 
 steer through it ? and whether the pool will 
 be muddy or clear ?" 
 
 Twisting her fingers in and about her 
 little pet's jetty fur, Agatha sat silent, until 
 slowly there grew a thoughtful shadow in 
 her eyes, a forewarning of the gradual passing 
 away of that childishness, which in her, from 
 accidental circumstances, had lasted strangely 
 long. 
 
 "Come, we won't be foohsh, Tittens," 
 cried she, suddenly starting up. " We'll 
 put on our bonnets, and go out — that is, one 
 of us will, and the other may take to Berlin 
 wool and Mrs. lanson." 
 
 The bonnet was popped on quickly and 
 independently — Miss Bowen scorned to in- 
 dulge in the convenience, or annoyance, of a 
 lady's-maid. Crossing the hall, the customary 
 question, '' Whether she would be home to 
 dinner?" stopped her.
 
 Agatha's husband. 33 
 
 " I don't know — I am not quite sure. 
 Tell Mrs. lanson not to wait for me." 
 
 And she passed out, feeling keener than 
 usual the consciousness that nobody would 
 wait for her, or look for her, or miss her; 
 that her comings in and goings out were 
 perfectly indifferent to every human being in 
 the house, called by courtesy her " home." 
 Perhaps this was her own fault, but she 
 could not help it. It was out of her nature 
 to get up an interest among ordinary people, 
 where interests there were none. 
 
 Little more had she in the house whither 
 she was going to pay one of her extempore 
 visits ; but then there was the habit of old 
 affection, began before characters develope 
 themselves into the infinite variety from which 
 mental sympathy is evolved. She could not 
 help liking EmmaThornycroft, her sole child- 
 ish acquaintance, whose elder sister had been 
 Agatha's daily governess, until she died. 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 Agatha's husband. 
 
 " I know Emma will be glad to see me, 
 which is something ; and if she does tire me 
 with talk about the babies ; why, children 
 are better than Berlin wool. And there is 
 always the piano. Besides, I must walk out, 
 or I shall rust to death in this horrible Bed- 
 ford-square." • 
 
 She walked on, rather in a misanthropic 
 mood, a circumstance to her not rare. But 
 she had never known mother, sister, or bro- 
 ther; and the name of father was to her little 
 more than an empty sound. It had occa- 
 sionally come mistily over the Indian seas, in 
 the shape of formal letters — the only letters 
 that ever visited the dull London house 
 where she spent her shut-up childhood, and 
 acquired the accomplishments of her teens. 
 Mr. Bowen^died on the high seas: and when 
 his daughter met the ship at Southampton, 
 a closed black coffin was all that remained 
 to her of the name of father. That bond.
 
 Agatha's husband. S5 
 
 like all others, was destined to be to her a 
 mere shadow. Poor Agatha ! 
 
 Quick exercise always brings cheerfulness 
 when one is young, strong, and free from 
 any real cares. Agatha's imaginary ones, 
 together with the vague sentimentalisms into 
 which she was on the verge of falling, yet 
 had not fallen, vanished under the influence 
 of a cheerful walk on a sunny summer's day. 
 She arrived at Mr. Thornycroft's time enough 
 to find that admirable young matron busied 
 in teaching to her eldest boy the grand 
 mystery of dining ; that is, dining like a 
 Christian, seated at a real table with a real 
 silver knife and fork. These latter Master 
 James evidently preferred poking into his 
 eyes and nose, rather than his mouth, and 
 evinced far greater anxiety to sit on the 
 table than on the chair. 
 
 "Agatha, dear— so glad to see you !" 
 and Emma's look convinced even Agatha 
 d2
 
 36 Agatha's husband. 
 
 that tliis was true. " You will stay of 
 course ? Just in time to see James eat his 
 first dinner, like a man ! Now Jemmie, 
 wipe his pretty mouth, and then give Auntie 
 Agatha a sweet kiss." 
 
 Agatha submitted to the kiss, though she 
 did not quite believe in the adjective ; and 
 felt a certain satisfaction in knowing that the 
 title of " Auntie " was a mere compliment. 
 She did not positively dislike children, else 
 she would have been only half a woman, or 
 a woman so detestable as to be an anomaly 
 in creation ; but her philoprogenitiveness was, 
 to say the least, dormant at present; and her 
 sense of infantile beauty being founded on 
 Sir Joshua's and Murillo's cherubs, she had 
 no great fancy for the ugly little James. 
 
 She laid aside her bonnet, and smoothing 
 her curls in the nursery mirror, looked for 
 one minute at her Pawnee-Indian face, the 
 sight of which now often made her smile.
 
 Agatha's husband. 37 
 
 Then she sat down to lunch with Emma 
 and the children ; being allowed, as a great 
 favour, to be placed next Master James, and 
 drink with him out of his silver mug. Miss 
 Bo wen accepted the offered honour calmly, 
 made no remark, but — went thirsty. 
 
 For an hour or two she sat patiently lis-- 
 tening to what had gone on in the house 
 ^ince she was there — how baby had cut two 
 more teeth, and James had had a new braided 
 frock — (which was sent for that she might 
 look at it) — how Missy had been to her first 
 children's party, and was to learn dancing 
 at Midsummer, if papa could be coaxed to 
 agree. 
 
 " How is Mr. Thornycroft ?" asked Agatha. 
 
 " Oh, very well — papa is always well. I 
 only wish the little ones took after him in 
 that respect." 
 
 Agatha, who was old enough to remember 
 Emma engaged, and Emma newly-married;
 
 38 Agatha's husband. 
 
 smiled to think how entirely the lover be- 
 loved, and the all-important young husband 
 had dwindled into a mere " Papa ;" liked and 
 obeyed in a certain fashion, for Emma was 
 a good wife, but evidently made a very 
 secondary consideration to " the children." 
 
 The young girl, as yet neither married, nor 
 in love — wondered if this were always so. 
 She often had such wonderings and specu- 
 lations when she came to Emma's house. 
 
 She was growing rather tired of so much 
 domestic information, and had secretly taken 
 out her watch to see how many hours it 
 would be to dinner and to Mr. Thornycroft, 
 a sensible, intelligent man, who from love to 
 his wife had been always very kind to his 
 wife's friends — when there came the not un- 
 welcome sound of a knock at the hall-door. 
 
 " Bless me; that is surely the Harpers. I 
 had quite forgotten Major Harper and the 
 bears."
 
 Agatha's husband. 39 
 
 " An odd conjunction," observed Agatha, 
 smiling. 
 
 " Major Harper, wlio yesterday, for the 
 fifth time, promised to take Missy to the 
 Zoological Gardens to see the bears. He 
 has remembered it at last." 
 
 No, he had not remembered it; it would 
 have been a very remarkable circumstance 
 if he had; being a person so constantly full 
 of engagements, for himself and others. The 
 visitor was only his younger brother, who had 
 often daundered in at Mrs. Thornycroft's 
 house, possibly from a liking to Emma's 
 Mendly manner, or because, cast astray for a 
 fortnight on the wide desert of London, he 
 had, like Agatha, " nothing to do." 
 
 If Nathanael had other reasons, they, of 
 course, never came near the surface, but 
 lay buried under the silent waters of his 
 quiet mind. 
 
 Agatha was half pleased, half disappointed
 
 40 Agatha's husband. 
 
 at seeing him. ]Mrs. Thornycroft, good soul, 
 was always charmed to have a visitor, for 
 her society did not attract many. Only 
 betraying, as usual, what was uppermost in 
 her simple thoughts, she could not long con- 
 ceal her regret concerning little Missy and 
 the bears. 
 
 To Agatha's great surprise, Mr. Harper, 
 who she thought, in his dignified gravity 
 would never have condescended to such a 
 thing, volunteered to assume his brother's 
 duty. 
 
 '' For," said he, with a slight smile, " I have 
 had too many perilous encounters with wild 
 bears in America, not to feel some curiosity 
 in seeing a few captured ones in England." 
 
 " That will be charming," cried Mrs. 
 Thornycroft, looking at him with a mixture 
 of respect and maternal benignity. " Then 
 you can tell Missy all those wonderful stories, 
 only don't frighten her."
 
 Agatha's husband. 41 
 
 " Perhaps I might. She seems rather shy 
 of me." And the adventurous young gentle- 
 man eyed askance a small be-ribboned child, 
 who was creeping about the room and staring 
 at him. " Would it not be better if " 
 
 '• If mamma went? There, Missy, don't 
 cry ; mamma will go, and Agatha, too, if she 
 would like it ?" 
 
 " Certainly," Miss Bowen answered, with 
 a mischievous glance at Nathanael. " I 
 ought to investigate bears, if only to prove 
 myself descended from a Pawnee Indian." 
 
 So, once more, the heavy nut-brown curls 
 was netted up into the crown of her black 
 bonnet, and her shawl pinned on carelessly — 
 rather too carelessly for a young woman; 
 since that gracious adornment, neatness, 
 rarely increases with years. Agatha was 
 quickly ready. In the ten minutes she had 
 to wait for Mrs. Thornycroft, she felt, more 
 than once, how much merrier they would
 
 42 Agatha's husband. 
 
 have been witli tlie elder than the younger bro- 
 ther. Also — for Agatha was a conscientious 
 girl — she thought, seriously, what a pity it 
 was that so pleasant and kind a man as 
 Major Harper had such an unfortunate habit 
 of forgetting his promises. 
 
 Yet she regretted him — regretted his flow 
 of witty sayings that attracted the hu- 
 morous half of her temperament, and his 
 touches of seriousness or sentiment which 
 hovered like pleasant music round the yet- 
 closed portals of her girlish heart. Until 
 suddenly — conscientiousness again ! — she 
 began to be aware she was thinking a great 
 deal too much of Major Harper ; so, with a 
 strong effort, turned her attention to his 
 brother and the bears. 
 
 She had leant on Mr. Harper's offered 
 arm all the way to the Eegent's Park, yet he 
 had scarcely spoken to her. No wonder, 
 therefore, that she had had time for medita-
 
 Agatha's husband. 43 
 
 tion, or that her comparison between the 
 two brothers should be rather to Nathanael's 
 disadvantage. The balance of favour, how- 
 ever, began to right itself a httle when she saw 
 how kind he was to Emma Thornycroft, who 
 alternately screamed at the beasts, and made 
 foolish remarks concerning them ; also, how 
 carefully he watched over little Missy and 
 James, the latter of whom, with infantile 
 pertinacity, would poke his small self into 
 every possible danger. 
 
 At the sunken den, where the big brown 
 bear performs gymnastic exercises on a 
 centre tree, Master Jemmie was quite in his 
 , glory. He emulated Bruin by climbing 
 from his feet into nurse's arms — thence into 
 mamma's, and lastly, much to her discomfi- 
 ture, into Miss Bovz-en's. The attraction 
 being that she happened to stand close to 
 the railing and next to Mr. Harper, who, 
 with a bun stuck on the end of his long stick,
 
 44 agatha's husband. 
 
 had coaxed Bruin up to the very top of the 
 tree. 
 
 There the creature swayed awkwardly, his 
 four un wieldly paws planted together, and 
 his great mouth silently snapping at the 
 cakes. Agatha could hardly help laughing ; 
 she, as well as the children, was so much 
 amused at the monster. 
 
 " Mr. Harper, give Missy your cane. Missy 
 would like to feed bear," cried the mamma, 
 now very bold, going with her eldest pet to 
 the other side the den, and attracting the 
 animal thither. 
 
 At which little James, who could not yet 
 speak, setting up a scream of vexation, tried 
 to stretch after the creature ; and whether 
 from his own impetuosity or her careless 
 hold, sprang — oh, horror ! — right out of 
 Agatha's arms. A moment the little muslin 
 frock caught on the railing — caught — ripped ; 
 then the sash, with its long knotted ends.
 
 Agatha's husband. 45 
 
 which some one snatched at — nothing but 
 the sash held up the shrieking child, who 
 hung suspended half way over the pit, in 
 reach of the beast's very jaws. 
 
 The bear did not at once see it, till startled 
 by the mother's frightful cries. Then he 
 opened his teeth — it looked almost like a 
 grin — and began slowly to descend liis tree, 
 while, as slowly, the poor child's sash was 
 unloosing with its weight. 
 
 A murmur of horror ran through the 
 people near ; but not a man among them 
 offered help. They all slid back, except 
 Nathanael Harper. 
 
 Agatha felt his sudden gripe. " Hold my 
 hand firm. Keep me in my balance," he 
 whispered, and throwing himself over to the 
 whole extent of his body, and long right 
 arm, managed to catch hold of James, who 
 struggled violently. 
 
 " Hold me tight — tighter still, or we are 
 lost," said he, trying to writhe back again ; his
 
 46 Agatha's husband. 
 
 hand, — sucli a little delicate hand it seemed for 
 a man, quivering with the weight of the child. 
 
 She grasped him frantically — his wrist — 
 his shoulder — nay, stretching over, linked 
 her arms round his neck. Something in her 
 touch seemed to impart strength to him. He 
 whispered, half gasping, 
 
 " Hold me firm, and I'll do it yet, Agatha." 
 She did not then notice, or recollect till long 
 afterwards, how he had called her by her 
 Christian name, nor the tone in which he 
 had said it. 
 
 The moment afterwards, he had lifted the 
 child out of the den, and poor Jemmie was 
 screaming out his now harmless terror safe in 
 the maternal arms. 
 
 Then, and not till then, Agatha burst into 
 tears. Tears, which no one saw, for the 
 mother, hugging her baby, was the very 
 centre of a sympathising crowd. Mr. 
 Harper, paler than ordinary, leaned against 
 the stone-work of the den.
 
 Agatha's husband. 47 
 
 " Oh, from what have you not saved me !" 
 cried Agatha, as after her thankfulness for the 
 rescued life, came another thought, personal, 
 yet excusable. " Had Emma lost the child, 
 I should have felt like a murderess to the day 
 of my death." 
 
 Nathanael shook his head, trying to smile ; 
 but seemed unable to speak. 
 
 " You have not hurt yourself ?" 
 
 "Oh no. Very little. Only a strain," 
 said he as he removed his hand from his side. 
 " Go to your friend ; I will come presently." 
 
 He did come — though not for a good while; 
 and Miss Bo wen fancied from his looks that 
 he had been more injured than he acknow- 
 ledged ; but she did not like to inquire. 
 Nevertheless he rose greatly in her estima- 
 tion, less for his courage than for the presence 
 of mind and common sense which made it 
 valuable, and for the self-restraint and in- 
 difference which caused him afterwards to
 
 48 Agatha's husband. 
 
 treat the whole adventure as such a trifling 
 thing. 
 
 It was after all, nothing very romantic or 
 extraordinary, and happened in such a brief 
 space of time, that probably the circumstance 
 is not noted in the traditionary chronicles of 
 the Zoological Gardens^ which contain the 
 frightful legend carefully related that day by 
 several keepers to Mrs. Thorny croft — how a 
 bear had actually eaten up a child, falling in 
 the same manner into the same den. 
 
 But the adventure, slight as it may appear, 
 made a very great and sudien difference in 
 the slender tie of acquaintanceship, hitherto 
 subsisting between Agatha and Major Har- 
 per's brother. She began to treat Nathanael 
 more like a friend, and ceased to think of him 
 exactly as a " boy." 
 
 Master James's mamma, when she at last 
 turned her attention from his beloved small 
 self, was full of thanks to his preserver. Mr.
 
 Agatha's husband. 49 
 
 Harper assured her that his feat was merely 
 a little exertion of muscular strength, and 
 at last grew evidently uncomfortable at 
 being made so much of. Returning home 
 wath them, he would fain have crept away 
 from the scene of his honours ; but the good- 
 natured, warm, motherly-hearted Emma, im- 
 plored him to stay. 
 
 " We will nurse you if you are hurt, w^hich 
 I am afraid you must be — it was such a 
 dreadful strain ! Oh Jemmie, Jemmie !" 
 and the poor mother shuddered. 
 
 " Indeed you must come in," added Miss 
 Bowen kindly, seeing that Emma's thoughts 
 were floating away, as appeared this time 
 natural enough, to her own concerns. " You 
 shall rest all the evening, and we will talk 
 to you, and be very, very agreeable. Pray 
 yield !" 
 
 Nathanael argued no more, but went in 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 
 
 " quite lamb-like/' as Mrs. Thorny croft after- 
 wards declared. 
 
 This acquiescence in him was little re- 
 warded, Agatha thought — for the evening hap- 
 pened to be duller even than evenings usually 
 passed at the Thornycrofts. The head of the 
 household, being detained in the City, did 
 not appear ; and Mrs. Thornycroft's tongue, 
 unchecked by her husband's presence, and 
 excited by the event of the afternoon, gal- 
 lopped on at a fearful rapidity. She poured 
 out upon the luckless young man all the 
 baby biography of her family, from Missy's 
 christening down to the infant Selina's cutting 
 of her first tooth. To all of which he listened 
 with a praiseworthy attention, giving at least 
 silence, which was doubtless all the answer 
 Emma required. 
 
 But Agatha, whose sympathy in these 
 things was, as before said, at present small, 
 grew half ashamed, half vexed, and finally.
 
 Agatha's husband. 51 
 
 ratlier angry — especially when she saw the 
 pale weariness that gradually overspread Mr. 
 Harper's face. More than once she hinted 
 that he should have the arm-chair, or lie 
 down, or rest in some way ; but he took not 
 the least notice ; sitting immoveably in his 
 place, which happened to be next herself, 
 and vaguely looking across the table towards 
 Mrs. Thornycroft. 
 
 At nine o'clock, becoming paler than ever, 
 he bestirred himself, and talked of leaving. 
 
 " I ought to be going too. It is not far, 
 and as our roads agree, I will walk with you," 
 said Agatha, simply. 
 
 He seemed surprised — so much so, that she 
 almost blushed, and would have retracted, 
 save for the consciousness of her own frank 
 and kindly purpose. She had watched him 
 closely, and felt convinced that he had been 
 more injured than he confessed ; so in her 
 e2
 
 52 Agatha's husband. 
 
 enerous straightforward fashion, she wanted 
 to " take care of him," until he was safe at his 
 brother's door, which she could see from her 
 own. And her solitary education had been 
 conducted on such unworldly principles, that 
 she never thought there was anything remark- 
 able or improper in her proposing to w^alk home 
 with a young man whom she knew she could 
 trust in every way, and who was besides 
 Major Harper's brother. 
 
 Nor did even the matronly Mrs. Thorny- 
 croft object to the plan — save that it took her 
 visitors away so early. '' Surely," she added, 
 " you can't be tired out already." 
 
 Agatha had an ironical answer on the very 
 tip of her tongue ; but something in the clear, 
 *^good" eye of Nathanael repressed her little 
 wickedness. So she only whispered to Emma 
 that for various reasons she had wished to 
 return early. 
 
 " Very well, dear, since you must go, I
 
 agatha's husband. 53 
 
 am sure Mr. Harper will be most happy to 
 escort you." 
 
 " If not, I hope he will just say so," added 
 Agatha, very plainly. 
 
 He smiled ; and his full, soft 'grey eye, 
 fixed on hers, had an earnestness which 
 haunted her for many a day. She began 
 heartily to like Major Harper's brother, 
 though only as his brother^ with a sort of 
 reflected regard, springing from that she felt 
 for her guardian and friend. 
 
 This consciousness made her manner per- 
 fectly easy, cheerful, and kind, even though 
 they were in the perilously sentimental posi- 
 tion of two young people strolling home to- 
 gether in the soft twilight of a Midsummer 
 evening ; likewise occasionally stopping to 
 look westward at a new moon, which peered 
 at them round street-corners and through the 
 open spaces of darkening squares. But
 
 54 Agatha's husband. 
 
 nothing could make these two at all romantic 
 or interesting ; their talk on the road was on 
 the most ordinary topics — chiefly bears. 
 
 ''You seem quite familiar with wild beast 
 life," Agatha observed. " Were you a very 
 great hunter?" 
 
 " Not exactly, for I never could muster up 
 the courage, or the cowardice, wantonly to 
 take away life. I don't remember ever shoot- 
 ing anything, except in self-defence, which 
 was occasionally necessary during the journeys 
 that I used to make from Montreal to the 
 Indian settlements with Uncle Brian." 
 
 '' Uncle Brian," repeated Agatha, wonder- 
 ing whether Major Harper had ever men- 
 tioned such a personage, during the two years 
 of their acquaintance. She thought not, since 
 her memory had always kept tenacious record 
 of what he said about his relatives — which 
 was at best but little. It was one of the few
 
 Agatha's husband. 55 
 
 things in him which jarred upon Agatha's 
 feelings — Agatha, to whose isolation the idea 
 of a family and a home was so pathetically 
 sweet — his seeming so totally indifferent to 
 his own. All she knew of Major Harper's 
 kith and kin was, that he was the eldest bro- 
 ther of a large family, settled somewhere down 
 in Dorsetshire. 
 
 These thoughts swept through her mind, 
 as AgathU repeated rather interrogatively 
 "Uncle Brian?" 
 
 " The same who fifteen years since took 
 me out with him to America; my father's 
 youngest brother. Has Frederick never told 
 you of him? They two were great com- 
 panions once." 
 
 " Oh, indeed !" And Agatha, seeing that 
 Nathanael at least showed no dislike, but 
 rather pleasure, in speaking of his family, 
 thought she might harmlessly indulge her 
 curiosity about the Harpers of Dorsetshire.
 
 56 
 
 *' And you went away with Mr. Brian Harper, 
 at ten years old. How could your mother 
 part with you ?" 
 
 ^' She was dead — she died when I was 
 born. But I ought to apologise for thus 
 talking of family matters, which cannot in- 
 terest you." 
 
 " On the contrary, they do — very much,'^ 
 cried Agatha ; and then blushed at her own 
 earnestness, at which Nathanael brightened 
 up into positive warmth. 
 
 " How kind you are ! how I wish you knew 
 my sisters ! It is so pleasant to me to know 
 them at last, after writing to them and think- 
 ing about them for these many years. How 
 you would like our home — I call it home, 
 or getting that I have been only a visitor, and 
 in a short time must go back to my real home, 
 Montreal." 
 
 " Must you indeed !" And Agatha felt 
 sorry. She had been at once surprised and
 
 Agatha's husband. 57 
 
 gratified by the confidential way in which 
 this usually reserved young man talked to 
 her, and her alone. " Why do you live in 
 America? You are not at all like our re- 
 ceived notions of an American ?" 
 
 " "We cannot stay to discuss your ^notions,' " 
 said he, smiling, as if he read her thoughts j 
 " otherwise I might prove to you that it is 
 quite possible to find such a thing as an 
 American gentleman. But I have not in v 
 me either Yankee blood or education. I was 
 English born ; brought up in British Canada, 
 and by Uncle Brian." 
 
 He spoke the latter words with a certain 
 proud afiection, as if the very naming of such 
 a man were sufl^icient guarantee for himself. 
 Agatha secretly wondered what could pos- 
 sibly be the reason that Major Harper had 
 never even mentioned this wonderful uncle, 
 whom Nathanael seemed to hold in such 
 honour.
 
 58 Agatha's husband. 
 
 ^' Of course/' he continued, " though I 
 dearly like England, though" — and he sunk 
 his voice a little — "though now it will be 
 doubly hard to go away, I could never think 
 of leaving Uncle Brian to spend his old age 
 alone in the country of his adoption." 
 
 " No, no," returned Agatha, absently, her 
 thoughts still running on this new Mr. Harper. 
 "What profession is he?" 
 
 " Nothing now. He has led an unsettled 
 life — always poor. But he took care to settle 
 me in a situation under the Canadian Govern- 
 ment, so his personal poverty does not signify. 
 We both think ourselves well to do now." 
 
 Agatha's sense of womanly decorum could 
 hardly keep her from pressing her companion's 
 arm, in instinctive acknowledgment of his 
 goodness. She thought his face looked ab- 
 solutely beautiful. 
 
 However, restraining her quick impulses 
 within the bounds of propriety, she walked
 
 Agatha's husband. 59 
 
 on. " And so you will again cross that fear- 
 ful Atlantic Ocean?" she said at length, with 
 a slight shudder. The young man saw her 
 gesture, and looked surprised — nay, quite 
 gladdened. But nevertheless he remained 
 silent. 
 
 Agatha did the same, for the mention of 
 the sea brought back to her the one only 
 noteworthy incident of her life, which had 
 given her this strange antipathy to the sea 
 and to the thought of traversing it. But 
 this subject — the horrible bugbear of her 
 childhood — she rarely hked to recur to, even 
 now ] so it did not mingle in her conversation 
 with Mr. Harper. 
 
 At last Nathanael said : " I would it were 
 possible — indeed I have often vainly tried — 
 to persuade Uncle Brian to come back to 
 England. But since he will not, it is clearly 
 right for me to return to Canada. Anne 
 Valery says so."
 
 60 Agatha's husband. 
 
 " Anne Valery !" again repeated Agatha, 
 catching at this second strange name with 
 which she was supposed to be famihar. 
 
 " What, did you never hear of her — my 
 father's ward, my sisters' chief friend — quite 
 one of the family? Is it possible that my 
 brother never spoke to you of Anne Valery ?" 
 
 No; certainly not. Agatha was quite sure 
 of that. The circumstance of Major Harper's 
 having a friend who bore the very suspicious 
 and romantically-interesting name of Anne 
 Valery, could never have slipped Miss 
 Bowen's memory. She answered Nathanael's 
 question in an abrupt negative ; but all 
 the way through Russell-square she silently 
 pondered as to who, or what like, Anne 
 Valery could be ? finally sketching a fancy- 
 portrait of a bewitching young creature, with 
 blue eyes and golden hair — the style of beauty 
 which Agatha most envied, because it was 
 most unlike herself.
 
 Agatha's husband. 61 
 
 Ere reaching Dr. lanson's door, her atten- 
 tion was called to Mr. Harper, whose feet 
 dragged so wearily along, that Agatha was 
 convinced that, in spite of his efforts to con- 
 ceal it, he was seriously ill. Her womanly 
 sympathy rose — she earnestly pressed him to 
 come in and consult Dr. lanson. 
 
 '' No — no. Uncle Brian and I always cure 
 ourselves. As he often says^ ' A man after 
 forty is either a doctor or a fool.' " 
 
 " But you are only twenty-five." 
 
 " Ay, but I have seen enough to make 
 me often feel like a man of forty," said he, 
 smiling. " Do not mind me. That strain 
 was rather too much ; but I shall be all right 
 in a day or two." 
 
 " I hope so," cried Agatha, anxiously ; 
 " since, did you suffer, I should feel as if it 
 were all of my causing, and for me." 
 
 " Do you think 1 should regret that ?" 
 said the young man, in a tone so low, that its
 
 62 Agatha's husband. 
 
 meaning scarcely reached her. Then, as if 
 alarmed at his own words, he shook hands 
 with her hastily, and walked down the square. 
 Agatha thought how different was the 
 abrupt, singular manner of Nathanael from 
 Major Harper's tender, lingering, courteous 
 adieu. Nevertheless, she fulfilled her kind 
 purpose towards the young man ; and running 
 to her own window, watched his retreating 
 figure, till her mind was relieved by seeing 
 him safely enter his brother's door.
 
 AGATHA'S HUSBAND. 63 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A WEEK — nay, more than a week slipped 
 by in the customary monotony of that large, 
 placidly genteel, Russell-square house, and 
 Agatha heard nothing of the house round 
 the corner, which constituted one of the 
 faint few interests of her existence. Some- 
 times she felt vexed at the lengthened ab- 
 sence of her friend and " guardian," as she 
 persisted in considering him ; sometimes the 
 thought of young Nathanael's pale face crossed 
 her fancy, awakening both sincere compas- 
 sion and an uncomfortable doubt that all 
 might not be going on quite right within the
 
 64 Agatha's husband. 
 
 half'drawn window-blinds, at which she now 
 and then darted a curious glance. 
 
 At last her curiosity or interest rose to 
 such a pitch, that it is to be feared that Agatha 
 in her independent spirit, and ignorance of, or 
 indifference to the world, might have com- 
 mitted the terrific impropriety of making a 
 good-natured inquiry at the door of this 
 bachelor-establishment. She certainly would, 
 had it consisted only of the harmless youth 
 Nathanael ; but then Major Harper, at the 
 mention of whose name Mrs. lanson now 
 began to smile aside, and the invalid Jane to 
 dart towards Agatha quick, inquisitive looks — 
 No ; she felt an invincible repugnance to 
 knocking, on any pretence, at Major Harper's 
 door. 
 
 However, having nothing to do and little 
 to think of, and, moreover, being under the un- 
 wholesome necessity of keeping all her thoughts
 
 Agatha's husband. 65 
 
 to herself, her conjectures grew into such 
 a mountain of discomfort — partly selfish, 
 partly from the hearty gratitude which had 
 awoke in her towards the younger brother 
 since the adventure with the bear — that Miss 
 Bowen set off one fine morning, hoping to 
 gain intelligence of her neighbours by the 
 round-about medium of Emma Thornycroft. 
 
 But that excellent matron had had two of 
 her children ill with some infantine disease, 
 and had in consequence not a thought to 
 spare for any one out of her own household. 
 The name of Harper never crossed her lips 
 until Agatha, using a safe plural, boldly asked 
 the question,. '' Had Emma seen anything of 
 them ?" 
 
 Mrs. Thornycroft could not remember. — 
 Yes, she fancied some one had called — Mr. 
 Harper, perhaps ; or no, it must have been the 
 Major, for somebody had said something about 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 agatha's husband. 
 
 Mr. Nathanael's being ill or out of town. But 
 the very day after that the measles came out 
 on James, and poor little Missy had just been 
 moved out of the night-nursery into the spare 
 bedroom, &c., &c., &c. 
 
 The rest of Emma's information concerning 
 her babies was, as they say in advertisements 
 of lost property, " of no value to anybody but 
 the original owner." 
 
 Agatha bestowed a passing regret on young 
 Nathanael, whether he were ill or out of town ; 
 she would have liked to have seen more of 
 him. But that Major Harper should contrive 
 to saunter up to the Eegent's Park to visit 
 the Thornycrofts^ and never find time to turn 
 a street-corner to say " how d'ye do" to her ! 
 she thought it neither courteous nor kind. 
 
 There was little inducement to spend the 
 day with Emma, who in her present mood and 
 the state of her household, was a mere con-
 
 Agatha's husband. 67 
 
 versational Dr. Buchan — a walking epitome 
 of domestic medicine. So Miss Bowen ex- 
 tended her progress ; took an early dinner 
 with Mrs. Hill, and stayed all the afternoon at 
 that good old lady's silent and quiet lodgings, 
 where there was neither piano nor books, save 
 one, which Agatha patiently read aloud for 
 two whole hours — " The Life of EHzabeth 
 Fry." A volume uninteresting enough to a 
 young creature like herself, yet sometimes 
 smiting her with involuntary reflections, as 
 she contrasted her own aimless, useless exist- 
 ence with the life of that worthy Quakeress — 
 the prison-angel. 
 
 Having tired herself out, first with read- 
 ing and then with singing — very prosy and 
 lengthy ballads of the old school, which were 
 the ditties Mrs. Hill always chose — Agatha 
 departed much more cheerful than she came. 
 So great strength and comfort is there in 
 r2
 
 68 Agatha's husband. 
 
 having something to do, especially if that 
 something happens to be, according to the 
 old nursery -rhyme — 
 
 Not for ourself, but our neighbour. 
 
 Another day passed — which being rainy, 
 made the Doctor's dull house seem more 
 inane than ever to the girl's restless humour. 
 In the evening, at his old-accustomed hour. 
 Major Harper " dropped in," and Agatha 
 forgot his sins of omission in her cordial wel- 
 come. Very cordial it v/as, and unaffected, 
 such as a young girl of nineteen may give to 
 a man of forty, without her meaning being 
 ill-construed. But under it Major Harper 
 looked pathetically sentimental and uncom- 
 fortable. Very soon he moved away, and 
 became absorbed in delicate attentions towards 
 the sick and sufferinof Jane lanson, 
 
 Agatha thought his behaviour rather odd,
 
 Agatha's husband. 69 
 
 but generously put upon it the best con- 
 struction possible — viz., his known kind- 
 heartedness. So she herself went to the 
 other side of the invahd couch, and tried to 
 make mirth likewise. 
 
 Asking after Mr. Harper, she learnt that 
 her friend had been acting as sick-nurse to 
 his brother for some days. 
 
 " Poor fellow — he will not confess that he 
 is ill, or w^hat made him so. But I hope he will 
 be about again soon, for they are anxiously 
 expecting him in Dorsetshire. Nathanael is 
 the ' good boy ' of our family, and as w^orthy 
 a creature as ever breathed." 
 
 Agatha smiled with pleasure to see the 
 elder brother waxing so generously warm ; 
 but when she smiled, Major Harper sighed, 
 and cast his handsome eyes another w^ay. All 
 the evening he scarcely talked to her at all, 
 but to Mrs. and Miss lanson. Agatha was 
 quite puzzled by this pointed avoidance, not
 
 70 Agatha's husband. 
 
 to say incivility, and had some thoughts of 
 plainly asking him if he were vexed with her; 
 but womanly pride conquered girlish frank- 
 ness, and she was silent. 
 
 After tea their quartett was broken by a 
 visitor, whom all seemed astonished to see, 
 and none more so than Major Harper. 
 
 " Why, Nathanael, I thought you were 
 safely disposed of v;ith your sofa and book. 
 What madness makes you come out to- 
 night ?" 
 
 " Inchnation, and weariness," returned the 
 other, indifferently, as, without making more 
 excuses or apologies, he dragged himself to 
 the arm-chair, which Miss Bowen good-na- 
 turedly drew out for him, and shpped into 
 the circle, quite naturally. 
 
 ''Well, wilful lads must have their way," 
 cried his brother, "and I am only too glad 
 to see vou so much better." 
 
 W^ith that, the flow of the Major's winning
 
 AGATHA'S HUSBAND. 71 
 
 conversation re-commenced ; in which current 
 all the rest of the company lay like silent 
 pebbles, only too happy to be bubbled round 
 by such a pleasant and refreshing stream. 
 
 The younger Harper sat in his arm-chair, 
 leaning his forehead on his hand, and from 
 under that curve now and then looking at them 
 all, especially Agatha. 
 
 At a late hour the brothers went away, 
 leaving Mrs. and Miss lanson in a state of 
 extreme delight, and Miss Bowen in a mood 
 that, to say the least, was thoughtful — more 
 thoughtful than usual. 
 
 After that lively evening followed three 
 dull days, consisting of a solitary forenoon, an 
 afternoon walk through the squares, dinner, 
 backgammon, and bed ; the next morning, 
 da capo al fine^ and so on ; a dance of exist- 
 ence as monotonous as that of the spheres, 
 and not half so musical. On the fourth day, 
 while Miss Bowen was out walking, Nathanael
 
 72 Agatha's husband. 
 
 Harper called to take leave before his journey 
 to Dorsetshire. He stayed some time, waiting 
 Agatha's return, Mrs. lanson thought ; but 
 finally changed his mind, and made an abrupt 
 departure, for which the young lady was rather 
 sorry than otherwise. 
 
 The fifth day, Emma Thornycroft appeared, 
 and, strange to say, without any of her little 
 ones ; still stranger, without many references to 
 them on her lips, except the general informa- 
 tion that they were all getting well now. 
 
 The busy woman evidently had some- 
 thing on her mind, and plunged at once in 
 medias res. 
 
 " Agatha, dear, I came to have a little 
 talk with you." 
 
 " Very well," said Agatha smiling; and 
 calmly prepared to give up her morning to 
 the discussion of some knotty point in dress 
 or infantile education. But she soon perceived 
 that Emma's pretty face was too ominously
 
 Agatha's husband. 73 
 
 important for anything short of that gravest 
 interest of feminine life — matrimony ; or 
 more properly in this case — match-making. 
 
 " Agatha, love," repeated Emma, with the 
 affectionate accent that was always quite real, 
 but which now deepened under the circum- 
 stances of the case, " do vou know that 
 young Northen has been speaking to Mr. 
 Thornycroft about you again." 
 
 " I am very sorry for it," was the short 
 answer. 
 
 " But, my dear, isn't it a great pity that 
 you could not like the young man ? Such a 
 good young man too, and with such a nice 
 establishment already. If you could only 
 see his house in Cumberland-terrace — the 
 real Turkey carpets^ inlaid tables, and damask 
 chairs." 
 
 " But I can't marry carpets, tables, and 
 chairs."
 
 74 agatha's husband. 
 
 " Agatha, you are so funny ! Certainly 
 not, without the poor man himself. But there 
 is no harm in him, and I am sure he would 
 make an excellent husband." 
 
 " I sincerely hope so, provided he is not 
 mine. Come, Tittens, tell Mrs. Thorny- 
 croft what ^ou think on the matter," cried 
 the wilful girl, trying to turn the question 
 off by catching her little favourite. But 
 Emma would not thus be set aside. She was 
 evidently well-primed with a stronger and 
 steadier motive than what usually occupied 
 and sufficed her easy mind. 
 
 " Ah — how can you be so childish ! But 
 when you come to my age -" 
 
 '' I shall, in a few more years. I wonder if 
 I shall be as young-looking as you, Emma?'' 
 This was a very adroit thrust on the part of 
 Miss Agatha, but for once it failed. 
 
 " I hope and trust so, dear. That is, if
 
 Agatha's husband. 75 
 
 you have as good a husband as I have. Only, 
 be he what he may, he cannot be such another 
 as my dear James." 
 
 Agatha internally hoped he might not; for, 
 much as she hked and respected Emma's good 
 spouse, her ideal of a husband was certainly 
 not Mr. James Thornycroft. 
 
 " Tell me," continued the anxious matron, 
 keeping up the charge — " tell me, Agatha, 
 do you ever intend to marry at all?" 
 
 " Perhaps so; I can't say. Ask Tlttens !" 
 
 " Did you ever think in earnest of marry- 
 ing ? And" — here with an air of real con- 
 cern Emma stole her arm round her friend's 
 waist — " did you ever see anybody whom you 
 fancied you could like, if he asked you?" 
 
 Agatha laughed, but the colour was rising 
 in her brown cheek. " Tut, tut, what non- 
 sense!" 
 
 " Look at me, dear, and answer seriously." 
 
 Agatha, thus hemmed in, turned her face
 
 76 Agatha's husband. 
 
 full round J and said, with some dignity, " I 
 do not know, Emma, wrhat right you have to 
 ask me that question." 
 
 " Ah, it is so ; I feared it was," sighed 
 Emma, not in the least offended. " I often 
 thought so, even before he hinted " 
 
 " Who hinted— and what ?" 
 
 " I can't tell you; I promised not. And of 
 course you ought not to know. Oh, dear, 
 what am I letting out !" added poor Mrs. 
 Thornycroft, in much discomfiture. 
 
 " Emma, you will make me angry. What 
 ridiculous notion have you got into your 
 head ? What on earth do you mean ?" cried 
 Miss Bowen^ speaking quicker than her usual 
 quick fashion, and dashing the kitten off her 
 knee as she rose. 
 
 " Don't be vexed with me, my poor dear 
 girl. It may not be so — I hope not ; and 
 even if it were, he is so handsome, so agree- 
 able, and talks so beautifully — I am sure you
 
 Agatha's husband. 77 
 
 are not the first woman by many a dozen that 
 has been in love with him." 
 
 " With whom ?" was the sharp question, as 
 Agatha grew quite pale. 
 
 " I must not say. — Ah, yes — I must. It 
 may be a mere supposition. I wish you would 
 only tell me so, and set my mind at rest, and 
 his too. He is quite unhappy about it, poor 
 man, as I see. Though, to be sure, he could 
 not help it, even if you did care for him." 
 
 " Him— what ' him ?' " 
 
 " Major Harper." 
 
 Agatha's storm of passion sank to a dead 
 calm. She sat down again composedly, turn- 
 ing her flushed cheeks from the light. 
 
 " This is a new and very entertaining 
 story. You will be kind enough, Emma, 
 to tell me the whole, from beginning to 
 end." 
 
 " It all lies in a nutshell, my dear. Oh, 
 how glad I am that you take it so quietly.
 
 78 Agatha's husband. 
 
 Then, perhaps it is all a mistake, arising from 
 your hearty manner to every one. I told 
 him so, and said that he need not scruple 
 visiting you, or be in the least afraid that — '^ 
 
 " That I was in love in him ? He was 
 afraid, then ? He informed you so ? Very 
 kind of him ! I am very much obliged to 
 Major Harper." 
 
 '^ There now — off you go again. Oh, if 
 you would but be patient." 
 
 "Patient — when the only friend I had 
 insults me ! — when I have neither father, nor 
 brother — nobody — nobody — " She stopped, 
 and her throat choked ; but the struggle was 
 in vain ; she burst into uncontrollable tears. 
 
 " You have me, Agatha, always me, and 
 James !" cried Emma, hanging about her 
 neck, and weeping for company ; until, 
 very soon, the proud girl shut down the flood- 
 gates of her passion, and became herself again. 
 Herself — as she could not have been, were
 
 Agatha's husband. 79 
 
 there a mightier power dwelling in her heart 
 than pride. 
 
 " Now, Emma, since you have seen how 
 the thing has vexed me, though not"— - 
 and she laughed — " not as being one of the 
 many dozens of fools in love with Major Harper 
 — will you tell me how this amusing circum- 
 stance arose?" 
 
 " I really cannot, my dear. The whole 
 thing was so hurried and confused. We were 
 talking together, very friendly and sociably, 
 as the Major and I always do, about you ; and 
 how much I wished you to be settled in life, 
 as he must wish likewise, being the trustee 
 of your little fortune, and standing in a sort 
 of fatherly relation towards you. He did 
 not seem to like the word ; looked very grave 
 
 and very " 
 
 " Compassionate, doubtless ! Said ^ he had 
 reason to believe, that is to fear, I did not
 
 80 Agatha's husband. 
 
 regard him quite as a father !' That was it, 
 Emma, I suppose ?" 
 
 ^' Well, my dear, I am glad to see you 
 laughing at it. I don't remember his precise 
 words." 
 
 ''Probably these : ' My dear Mrs. Thorny- 
 croft, I am greatly afraid poor Agatha Bowen 
 is dying for love of me.' Very candid — and 
 like a gentleman !" 
 
 " Now you are too sarcastic ; for he is a 
 gentleman, and most kind-hearted too. If 
 you had only seen how grieved he was at the 
 bare idea of your being made unhappy on his 
 account !" 
 
 " How considerate ! — and how very con- 
 fidential he must have been to you." 
 
 " Nay, he hardly said anything plainly : I 
 assure you he did not. Only somehow he 
 gave me the impression that he was afraid of 
 — what I had feared for a long time. For as
 
 Agatha's husband. 81 
 
 I always told you, Agatha, Major Harper is 
 a settled bachelor — too old to change. Be- 
 sides, he has had so many women in love with 
 him." 
 
 " Does he count their names, one by one, 
 on his fingers, and hang their locks of hair on 
 his paletot, after the Indian-fashion Nathanael 
 Harper told us of? — Poor innocent Natha- 
 nael !" And on her excited mood that pale 
 " good" face rose up like a vision of serenity. 
 She ceased to mock so bitterly at Nathanael's 
 brother and her own once honoured friend. 
 
 " I don't like your abusing Major Harper in 
 this way," said Emma, gravely; " we all know 
 his little weaknesses, but he is an excellent 
 man, and my husband likes him. And it 
 is nothing so very wonderful if he has been 
 rather confidential with a steady married 
 woman like me — just the right person, in short 
 It was for your good too, my dear. I am sure 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 Agatha's husband. 
 
 I asked him plainly if he ever could think of 
 marrying you ? But he shook his head, and 
 answered, ' No, that was quite impossible.' " 
 
 " Quite impossible, indeed^" said Agatha, 
 her proud lips quivering. " And should he 
 favour you with any more confidences, you 
 may tell him that Agatha Bowen never knew 
 what it was to be ' in love ' with any man. 
 Likewise, that were he the only man on earth, 
 she would not condescend to fall in love with, 
 or marry Major Frederick Harper. — Now 
 Emma, let us go down to lunch." 
 
 They would have done so, after Mrs. 
 Thornycroft had kissed and embraced her 
 friend, in sincere delight that Agatha was 
 quite heart-whole, and ready to make what 
 she called " a sensible marriage," but they 
 were stopped on the stairs by a letter that 
 came by post. 
 
 " A strange hand," Miss Bowen observed.
 
 Agatha's husband. 8S 
 
 carelessly. " Will you go down-stairs^ Emma, 
 and I will come when I have read it." 
 
 But Agatha did not read it. She threw it 
 on the floor, and turning the bolt of the door, 
 paced her little drawing-room in extreme 
 agitation. 
 
 " I am glad I did not love him — I thank 
 God I did not love him," she muttered by 
 fits. " But I might have done so, so good 
 and kind as he was, and I so young, with no 
 one to care for. And no one cares for me — 
 no one — no one !" 
 
 " Young Northen" darted through her 
 mind, but she laughed to scorn the possibility. 
 What love could there be in an empty-headed 
 fool? 
 
 " Never any but fools have ever made love 
 to me ! Oh, if an honest, noble man did but 
 love me," and I could marry, and get out of this 
 friendless desolation, this contemptible, schem- 
 ing, match-making set, where I and my 
 g2
 
 84 Agatha's husband. 
 
 feelings are talked of, speculated on, banded 
 about from house to house. It is horrible 
 —horrible ! But I'll not cry ! No !" 
 
 She dried the tears that were scorching 
 her eyes, and mechanically took up her letter; 
 until, remembering how long she had been 
 up-stairs, and how all that time Emma's 
 transparent disposition and love of talk might 
 have laid her and her whole affairs open 
 before the lansons, she quickly put the 
 epistle in her pocket, and went down into the 
 dining-room. 
 
 It was not till night, when she sat idly 
 brushing out her long curls, and looking at 
 her Pawnee face in the mirror — alas! the 
 poor face now seemed browner and uglier 
 than ever ! — that Agatha recollected her un- 
 opened letter. 
 
 " It may give me something to think about, 
 which will be well," sighed she; and care- 
 lessly pushing her hair behind her ears, she
 
 Agatha's husband. 85 
 
 drew the candle nearer, and began leisurely 
 to read. 
 
 The commencement was slightly abrupt : 
 
 "A month ago — had any one told me I 
 should write this letter, I could not have be- 
 lieved it possible. But strange things hap- 
 pen in our lives — things over which we seem 
 to have no control; we are swept on by an 
 impulse and a power which most often guide 
 us for our good. I hope it may be so now. 
 
 " I came to England with no intention save 
 that of seeing my family, and no affection in 
 my heart stronger than for tbem. Living 
 the solitary life that Uncle Brian leads, I 
 have met with few women, and have never 
 loved any woman — until now. 
 
 "You may think me a *boy;' indeed, I 
 overheard you say so once ; but I am a man — 
 with a heart full of all a man's emotions, 
 passionate and strong. Into that heart I
 
 86 Agatha's husband. 
 
 took you^ from the first moment I ever saw 
 your face. This is just three weeks ago, but 
 it might have been three years — I know you 
 so well. I have w^atched you continually; 
 every trait of your character — every thought 
 of your mind. From other people I have 
 found out every portion of your history — 
 every daily action of your life. I know you 
 wholly and completely, faults and all, and — 
 I love you. No man will ever love you 
 more than I. 
 
 " That you should love me now, is, I am 
 aware, unlikely ; indeed, almost impossible; 
 therefore I shall not expect or desire any 
 answer to this letter, sent just before I leave 
 for Dorsetshire. 
 
 " On my return, a week hence, I shall come 
 and see you, should you not forbid it. I shall 
 come merely as a friend^ so that you need 
 have no scruple in my visiting you, once at 
 least. If afterwards, when you know me
 
 Agatha's husband. 87 
 
 better, you should suffer me to ask for an- 
 other title, giving to you the dearest and 
 closest that man can give to woman — then — 
 oh ! little you think how I would love you, 
 Agatha ! 
 
 "Nathanael Locke Haeper." 
 
 Agatha read this letter all through with 
 a kind of fascination. Her first emotion was 
 that of most utter astonishment. It had 
 never crossed her mind that Nathanael Har- 
 per was the sort of being very likely to love 
 any one — and for him to love her ! With 
 such a love, too, that despite its suddenness 
 carried with it the impression of quiet depth, 
 strength, and endurance irresistible. It was 
 beyond belief 
 
 She read over again fragments of his own 
 words. '' I took you into my heart from the 
 first moment I ever saw you ;" — " I love you 
 — no man will ever love you more than I ;"
 
 88 AGATHA S HUSBAND. 
 
 " Little you think how I would love you, 
 Agatha !" 
 
 Agatha — who a minute before had been 
 pondering mournfully that no one cared for 
 her — that she was of no use to any one — and 
 that no living soul would miss her, were her 
 existence blotted out from the face of earth 
 that very night ! 
 
 She began to tremble ; ay, even though 
 she felt that Nathanael had judged correctly — 
 that she did not now love him, and probably 
 never might — still, overwhelmed with the 
 sudden sense of his great love, she trembled. 
 A strange softness crept over her; and for 
 the second time that day she yielded to a 
 weakness only drawn from her proud heart by 
 rare emotions — Agatha wept.
 
 AGATHA'S HUSBAND. 89 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 ToJ say that Agatha Bowen slept but ill 
 that night would be unnecessary : since there 
 is probably no girl who did not do so after 
 receiving a first love-letter. And this was 
 indeed her first; for the common-place and 
 business-like episode of young Northen had 
 not been beautified by any such composi- 
 tions. A second harmless adventure of Hke 
 kind had furnished her with a little amuse- 
 ment and some vexation, — but never till now 
 had her girlish heart been approached by any 
 wooing which she could instinctively feel was 
 that of real love. It touched her very much ; 
 for a time absorbing all distinct resolutions
 
 90 agatha's husband. 
 
 or intentions in a maze of pleasant, tender 
 pity, and wonderment not unmixed with fear. 
 
 Half the night she lay awake, planning what 
 she should do and say in the future; writing 
 in her tired brain a dozen imaginary answers 
 to Mr. Harper's letter, until she recollected 
 that he had expressly stated it required none. 
 Nevertheless, she thought she must write, if 
 only to tell him that she did not love him, 
 and that there was not the slightest use in 
 his hoping to be anything more to her than a 
 friend. 
 
 " A friend !" She recoiled at the word, 
 remembering how sorely her pride and feel- 
 ings had been wounded by him she once held 
 to be the best friend she had. She never 
 could hold him as such any more. Her im- 
 pulsive anger exaggerated even to contempti- 
 bleness the vanity of a man who fancied every 
 woman was in love with him. She forgot all 
 Major Harper's good qualities^ his high sense
 
 Agatha's husband. 91 
 
 of honour, his unselfish kind-heartedness, his 
 generous, gay spirit. She set him down at 
 once as unworthy the name of friend. Then 
 — what friend had she ? Not one — not one 
 in the world. 
 
 In this strait, strangely, temptingly sweet 
 seemed to come the words, " I love you; no 
 man will ever love you better than Z" 
 
 To one whose heart is altogether free, the 
 knowledge of being deeply loved, and by a 
 man whose attachment would do honour to 
 any woman, is a thought so soothing, so 
 alluring, that from it spring half the mar- 
 riages — not strictly love-marriages — which 
 take place in the world ; sometimes, though 
 not always, ending in real happiness. 
 
 Agatha began to consider that it would seem 
 very odd if she wrote to Mr. Harper, in his 
 home, among his family. Perhaps his sisters 
 might notice her handwriting — a useless fear,
 
 92 Agatha's husband. 
 
 since they had never seen it ; and at all 
 events it would be a pity to trouble his hap- 
 piness in that pleasant visit, by conveying 
 prematurely the news of his rejection. She 
 would wait, and give him no answer for at 
 least a day or two ; it was such a bitter thing 
 to inflict .pain to any human being, especially 
 to one so gentle and good as Nathanael 
 Harper. 
 
 With this determination she went to sleep. 
 
 She woke next morning, having a confused 
 sense that something had happened, that 
 some one had grieved and offended her; and 
 — strange consciousness, softly dawning ! — 
 that some one loved her — deeply, dearly, as 
 she had never been loved before. That even 
 now some one might be thinking of her — of 
 her alone, as his first object in the world. 
 The sensation was new, inexplicable, but 
 pleasant nevertheless. It made her feel —
 
 Agatha's husband. 93 
 
 what the desolate orphan girl rarely had felt — 
 a sort of tenderness for, and honouring of 
 herself. As she dressed, she once looked 
 wistfully, even pensively, in the looking-glass. 
 
 " It is certainly a queer, brown, Pawnee 
 face ! I wonder what he could see in it to 
 admire. But he is very kind, very ! I wish 
 I could have cared for him !" 
 
 Her heart trembled ; all the woman in her 
 was touched. But Agatha was resolved not 
 to be sentimental, so she fastened her morning- 
 dress rather more tastefully than usual, and de- 
 scended to breakfast. 
 
 Beside her plate lay a letter, which was 
 pretty closely eyed by the lanson family, as 
 their inmate's correspondence had always 
 been remarkably small. 
 
 " A black edge and seal. No bad news, I 
 hope, my dear Miss Bowen ?" said the Doctor's 
 wife, sympathetically. 
 
 Agatha did not fear. Alas ! in the whole
 
 94 Agatha's husband. 
 
 wide world she had not a relative to lose ! 
 And, glancing at the rather peculiar hand, 
 she recognised it at once. She remembered 
 likewise, to account for the black seal, that 
 one of the Miss Harpers had died within the 
 year. So whether from the spice of malice 
 in her composition she wished to disappoint 
 the polite inquisitiveness of the lansons, or 
 whether from more generous reasons of her 
 own, Miss Bowen left her letter unopened 
 until the meal was done; when, carelessly 
 taking it up, she adjourned to her own sitting- 
 room. 
 
 There was not the slightest necessity for any 
 such precaution, as the missive contained 
 merely these lines. 
 
 " In my letter of yesterday — which I doubt 
 not you have received, since I posted it my- 
 self — I omitted to say that not even my 
 brother is aware of it, or of its purport ; as 
 I rarely inform any one of my own private
 
 Agatha's husband. 95 
 
 affairs. Though, of course, I presume not 
 to lay the same restriction on you. God 
 bless you !" 
 
 The " God bless you" was added hastily 
 in less neat writing, as if the letter had been 
 broken open to do it. The signature was 
 merely his initials, " N. L. H.," and the date 
 " Kingcombe Holm," which Agatha supposed 
 was his father's house in Dorsetshire. 
 
 Then even there, amidst his dear home 
 circle, he had thought of her ! Agatha was 
 more moved by that trifling circumstance, 
 and by the self-restraint and silence that ac- 
 companied it, than she would have been by a 
 whole quire of ordinary love-letters. 
 
 He did not write again during seven entire 
 days, and while this pause lasted she had time 
 to think much and deeply. She ceased to 
 play and talk confidentially with Tittens, and 
 felt herself growing into a woman fast. Great 
 mental changes may at times be wrought in
 
 96 Agatha's husband. 
 
 one week, especially when it happens to be 
 one of those not infrequent July weeks, which 
 seem as if the sky were bent upon raining out 
 at once the tears of the whole summer. 
 
 On the Friday evening, when Miss Bowen, 
 heartily tired of her weather-bound imprison- 
 ment, stood at the dining-room window, look- 
 ing out on a hazy, yellow glow that began to 
 appear in the west, sparkled on the drenched 
 trees of the square, and made little bright 
 reflections on the rain-pools of the pavement, 
 — there appeared a gentleman from the house 
 round the corner, carefully picking his steps 
 by the crossing, and finally landing at Doctor 
 lanson's door. It was Major Harper. 
 
 Agatha instinctively quitted the window, 
 but on second thoughts returned thither, and 
 "when he chanced to look up, composedly bowed. 
 
 He was come to spend the evening as 
 usual, and she must meet him as usual too, 
 otherwise he might think — supposing he had
 
 Agatha's husband. 97 
 
 not yet seen Emma Thornycroft, or even if he 
 had, he might think — what made Agatha's 
 cheek burn hke fire. But she controlled her- 
 self. The first vehemence of her pride and 
 anger was over now. She had discovered that 
 the dawning inclination on which she had be- 
 stowed a few dreamings and sighings, trying, 
 in foolish girlish fashion, to fan a chance tin- 
 der-spark into the holy altar-fire of a woman's 
 first love — had gone out in darkness, and that 
 her free heart lay quiet, in a sort of twilight 
 shade, waiting for its destiny. 
 
 Nor for the last few days had she even 
 thought of Nathanael. His silence had as 
 yet no power to grieve or surprise her; if it 
 struck her at all, it was with the hope that 
 perhaps his wooing might die out of itself, 
 and save her the trouble of a painful refusal. 
 She had begun to think — what girls of nine- 
 teen are very slow to comprehend — that there 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 Agatha's husband. 
 
 might be other things in the world besides 
 love and its ideal dreams. She had read 
 more than usual — some sensible prose, some 
 lofty-hearted poetry ; and was, possibly, '' a 
 sadder and a wiser" girl than she had been 
 that day week. 
 
 In this changed mood, after a little burst 
 of well- controlled temper, a scornful pang, 
 and a slight trepidation of the heart. Miss 
 Agatha Bowen walked up-stairs to the draw- 
 ing-room to meet Major Harper. 
 
 Her manner in so doing was most com- 
 mendable, and a worthy example to those 
 young ladies who have to extinguish the tiny 
 embers of a month or two's idle fancy, created 
 by'an impressible nature, by girlhood's frantic 
 longing after unseen mysteries, and by the 
 terrible misfortune of having nothing to do. 
 But Miss Bowen's demeanour, so highly credit- 
 able, cannot be set forward in words, as hers
 
 Agatha's husband. 99» 
 
 consisted in the very simplest, mildest, and 
 politest "How d'ye do." 
 
 Major Harper met her with his accustomed 
 pleasantly tender air, until gradually he re- 
 collected himself, looked pensive, and subsided 
 into coldness. It was evident to Agatha 
 that he could not have had any communi- 
 cation from Mrs. Thornycroft. She was 
 growing vexed again, alternating from wo- 
 manly wrath to childish pettishness — for in 
 her heart of hearts she had a deep and 
 friendly regard for the noble half of her 
 guardian's character — when suddenly she de- 
 cided that it was wisest to take refuge in in- 
 difference and her piano. There she stayed 
 for certainly an hour. 
 
 At length, Major Harper came softly into 
 her drawing-room. 
 
 " Don't let me disturb you — but, when- you 
 have quite finished playing, I should like to 
 say a word to you. — Merely on business," he 
 h2
 
 100 Agatha's husband. 
 
 added^ with a slightly confused manner, un- 
 usual to the perfect self-possession of Major 
 Harper. 
 
 Agatha sat down and faced him, so frigidly, 
 that he seemed to withdraw from the range 
 of her eyes. " You do not often converse 
 with me on business." 
 
 He drew back. " That is true. But I con- 
 sidered that with so young a lady as yourself 
 it w^as needless. — And I hate all business," 
 he added, imperatively. 
 
 " Then I regret that my father burdened 
 you with mine." 
 
 *' No burden ; it is a pleasure — if by any 
 means I can be of use to you. Believe me, 
 my dear Miss Bowen, your advantage, your 
 security, is my chief aim. And therefore, in 
 this investment, of which I think it right to 
 inform you " 
 
 " Investment ?" she repeated, turning round 
 a childish puzzled face. '' Oh, Major Harper,
 
 . Agatha's husband. 101 
 
 you know I am quite ignorant of these things. 
 Do let us talk of something else." 
 
 " With all my heart," he responded, evi- 
 dently much reheved, and turned the some- 
 what awkward conversation to the first avail- 
 able topic, Avhich chanced to be his brother 
 Nathanael. 
 
 " You cannot think how much I miss him 
 in my rooms, even though he was such a 
 short time with me. An excellent lad is 
 N. L., and I hear they are making so much 
 of him in Dorsetshire. They tell me he will 
 certainly stay there the whole three months 
 of his leave." 
 
 " Oh, indeed !" observed Agatha, briefly. 
 She hardly knew whether to be pleased or 
 sorry at this news, or by doubting it to take 
 a feminine pride in being so much better 
 informed on the subject than the Harper 
 family. 
 
 " No wonder he is so happy," continued
 
 102 Agatha's husband. 
 
 the Major, with one of his occasional looks of 
 momentary, though real sadness. " Fifteen 
 years is a long time to be away. Though, I 
 fear, I myself have been almost ^s long with- 
 out seeing the v/hole family together." 
 
 " Are they all together now ?" — Agatha 
 felt an irresistible desire to ask questions. 
 
 " I believe so ; at least my father and ray 
 three unmarried sisters. Old bachelors and 
 old maids are plentiful in the Harper family. 
 We are all stiff-necked animals; we eschew 
 even gilded harness." 
 
 Agatha's cheek glowed with anger at this 
 supposed benevolent warning to herself. 
 
 "I dare say your sisters are very happy, 
 nevertheless ; marriage is not always a ' holy 
 estate,' " said she, carelessly. " But there 
 was some other Dorsetshire lady whom 
 Mr. Harper told me of Who is Anne 
 Valery?" 
 
 Major Frederick Harper actually started,
 
 Agatha's husband. 103 
 
 and the deep sensitive colour, which not even 
 his forty years and his long worldly experi- 
 ence could quite keep down, rose in his hand- 
 some face. 
 
 '' So N. L. spoke to you of her. No wonder. 
 She is an — an excellent person." 
 
 " An excellent person," repeated Agatha, 
 mischievously. " Then she is rather elderly, 
 I conclude ?" 
 
 "Elderly — Anne Yalery elderly ! By Hea- 
 vens, no !" (And the excited Major used the 
 solitary asseveration which clung to hira^ the 
 last trace of his brief military experience.) 
 " Anne Valery old ! Not a day older than 
 myself! We were companions as boy and 
 girl, young man and young woman, until — 
 stay — ten — fifteen years ago. Fifteen years ! 
 — ah, yes — I suppose she would be consi- 
 dered elderly now." 
 
 After this burst, Major Harper sank into 
 one of his cloudy moods. At last he said,
 
 104 Agatha's husband. 
 
 in a confidential and rather sentimental 
 tone, 
 
 " Miss Valery is an excellent lady — an 
 old friend of our family ; but she and I 
 have not met for many years. Circum- 
 stances necessitated our parting." 
 
 " Circumstances !" 
 
 Agatha guessed the truth — or fancied she 
 did ; and her wrathful pride was up again. 
 More trophies of the illustrious Frederick's 
 unwilling slaughters — more heart's blood dye- 
 ing the wheels of this unconscious Juggernaut 
 of female devotees ! Yet there he sat, looking 
 so pathetically regretful, as if he felt himself 
 the blameless, helpless instrument of fate to 
 w^ork the sentimental woe of all womankind ! 
 Agatha was absolutely dumb with indignation. 
 
 She was a little unjust, even were he erring. 
 It is often a great misfortune, but it is no 
 blame to a good man that good women — 
 more than one — have loved him; if, as all
 
 Agatha's husband. 105 
 
 noble men do, he hides the humiliation or 
 sorrow of their love sacredly in his own heart, 
 and makes no boast of it. Of this nobihty 
 of character, rare indeed, yet not unknown or 
 impossible — Frederick Harper just fell short. 
 Kind, clever, and amusing he might be, but 
 he was a man not sufficiently great to be 
 humble. 
 
 No more was said on the mysterious topic 
 of Miss Anne Valery. Agatha was too angry ; 
 and the subject seemed painful to Major 
 Harper. Though he did what was not his 
 habit — especially with female friends — he en- 
 deavoured, instead of encouraging, to throw 
 off his momentary sentimentality, and become 
 his usual witty, cheerful, agreeable self. 
 
 Miss Bowen, even in her tenderest in- 
 clinings towards her guardian, had at times 
 thouorht him a httle too talkative — a little 
 too much of the briUiant man of the world. 
 Now, in her bitterness against him^ his gaiety
 
 106 Agatha's husband. 
 
 was positively offensive to her. She rose, 
 and proposed that they should quit her own 
 private room for the general drawing-room 
 of the family. 
 
 The lansons were all there, even the Doc- 
 tor being prone to hnger in his dull home 
 for the pleasure of Major Harper's delightful 
 company. There was another, too, the un- 
 expected sight of whom made both Agatha 
 and her companion start. 
 
 As she and the Major entered, there arose 
 almost like an apparition from his seat in the 
 window-recess — the tall, shght figure of Na- 
 thanael. 
 
 " N. L. ! Where on earth have you dropped 
 from ? What a vei^y extraordinary fellow^ you 
 are !" cried the elder brother. 
 
 " Perhaps unwelcome also !" said the quiet 
 voice. 
 
 " Unwelcome — never, my dear boy ! Only 
 next time, do be a little more confidential.
 
 Agatha's husband. 1.0f 
 
 Here have I been telling a whole string of 
 apparent fibs about your movements — have I 
 not, Miss Bowen ? Do you not consider this 
 brother of mine the most eccentric creature 
 in the world ?" 
 
 Agatha looked up, and met the young man's 
 eyes. Their expression could not be mis- 
 taken ; they were lover's eyes — such as never 
 in her life she had met before. They seemed 
 constraining her to do what out of pity or 
 mechanical impulse she at once did — silently 
 to hold out her hand. 
 
 Nathanael took it with his usual manner. 
 There was no other greeting on his part or 
 hers. Immediately afterwards he slipped away 
 to the very farthest corner of the room. 
 
 It would be hard to say whether Agatha 
 felt relieved or disappointed at his behaviour ; 
 but surprised she most certainly was. This 
 was not the sort of " lover's meeting " of 
 girlish imaginings ; nor was he the sort of
 
 108 Agatha's husband. 
 
 lover, so perfectly unobtrusive, self-restrained, 
 and coldly calm. She was glad she had not 
 been at the pains to write the romantically- 
 pitiful, tender refusal, which she had concocted 
 sentence by sentence in her deeply-touched 
 heart, during that first wakeful night. He 
 did not seem half miserable enough to need 
 such w^ondrous compassion. 
 
 Freed in measure from constraint, she be- 
 came her own natural self, as women rarely 
 indeed never are in the presence of those 
 they love, or of those by whom they believe 
 themselves loved. Neither unpleasant con- 
 sciousness rested heavily on Agatha now ; her 
 demeanour was therefore very sweet, candid, 
 and altogether pleasing. 
 
 Major Harper even forgot his benevolent 
 precautions on Miss Bowen's account, and 
 tried to render himself as agreeable as here- 
 tofore, talking away at a tremendous rate, 
 and with most admirable eloquence, while his
 
 AGATHA'S HUSBAND. 109 
 
 brother sat silent in a corner. The contrast 
 between them was never so strong. But once 
 or twice Agatha, weaned out with laughing 
 and listening, stole a look towards the jSgure 
 that she felt was sitting there ; and encoun- 
 tered the only sign Nathanael gave, — the un- 
 mistakeable " lover's eyes." They seemed to 
 pierce into her heart and make it quiver — 
 not exactly with tenderness, but with the 
 strange controlhng sense by which the love 
 of a strong nature, reticent, and self-possessed 
 even in its utmost passion — at times appears 
 to enfold a woman. And any true affection, 
 whether of lover or friend, to those who have 
 never known it and are unconsciously pining 
 for lack of it, comes at first like water in a 
 thirsty land. 
 
 Miss Bowen's frank gaiety died slowly 
 away, and she fell into more than one long 
 reverie, which did not escape the benign 
 notice of her guardian. He grew serious, and
 
 110 Agatha's HUSBAND. 
 
 made an attempt to remove from her his own 
 dangerous proximity. 
 
 " Come, N. L., it is time we vanished. 
 You have never told me the least frao'ment 
 of news from home — that is, from King- 
 combe." 
 
 "You were too much engaged, brother. 
 But we have plenty of time." 
 
 " Kingcombe ; is that the place your father 
 lives at?" said Mrs. lanson, who took a pa- 
 tronising interest in the young man. " What 
 a pretty name ! Were you aware of it, Miss 
 Bowen?" 
 
 Agatha, for her life, could not help changing 
 colour as she answered " Yes," knowing per- 
 fectly well who was watching her the while, 
 and that he and she were thinkinsf of the same 
 thing, namely, the brief note whose date was 
 her only information as to the family resi- 
 dence of the Harpers. 
 
 " Kingcombe is as pretty as its name," ob-
 
 Agatha's husband. Ill 
 
 served the elder brother. — " A name more 
 peculiar than at first seems. It was given 
 by a loyal Harper during the Protectorate. 
 It had been St. Mary's Abbey, but he 
 with pretended sanctimoniousness changed 
 the name, and called it Kingcomhe Holm; 
 as a gentle hint from the Dorsetshire coast 
 to Prince Charles over the water. Ah! a 
 clever fellow was my great great grandfather, 
 Geoffrey Harper !" 
 
 All laughed at the anecdote, and the Ian- 
 sons looked with additional respect on the 
 man who thus carelessly counted his grand- 
 fathers up to the Commonwealth. But Mrs. 
 lanson's curiosity penetrated even to the 
 Harpers of Queen Victoria's day. 
 
 " I am sure we can't let you two gentlemen 
 away so early. If you have family matters 
 to talk over, suppose we send you for half 
 an hour to Miss Bowen's drawing-room ; or^ 
 if they are not secrets, pray discuss them
 
 112 Agatha's husband. 
 
 here. I am sure we are all greatly interested ; 
 are we not, Miss Bowen ?" 
 
 Aofatha made some unintelliofible answer. 
 She thought Nathanael's quick eyes darted 
 from her to Mrs. lanson and back again, as 
 if to judge whether, young-lady-like, she had 
 told his secret to all her female friends. But 
 there was soraethino^ in Ao^atha's countenance 
 v^/hich marked her out as that rare character, 
 a woman who can hold her tongue — even in 
 a love affair. 
 
 After a minute she looked at Mr. Harper 
 gravely, kindly, as if to say, " You need not 
 fear — I have not betrayed you ;" and meet- 
 ing her candid eyes, his suspicions vanished. 
 He drew nearer to the circle, and began to 
 talk. 
 
 " Mrs. lanson is very kind, but we need 
 not hold any such solemn conclave, Frede- 
 rick," said he, smiling. ^' All the news that 
 I did not unfold in my letter of yesterday, I
 
 Agatha's husband. 113 
 
 can tell you now. I would like every one 
 here to be interested in our good sisters and 
 in all at home." 
 
 " Yes — oh, yes," responded the other, me- 
 chanically. " Any messages for me ?" 
 
 " My father says he hopes to see you this 
 autumn at Kingcombe. He is growing an 
 old man now." 
 
 " Ah, indeed ! — An admirable man is my 
 father, Miss Bowen. Quite a gentleman of 
 the old school ; but peculiar — rather peculiar. 
 Well, what else, Nathanael ?" 
 
 " Elizabeth, since Emily's death, seems to 
 have longed after you very much. — You were 
 the next eldest, you know, and she fancies 
 you were always very like Emily. She says 
 it is so long since you have been to King 
 combe." 
 
 " It is such a dull place. Besides, I have 
 seen them all elsewhere occasionally." 
 
 " Ail but Ehzabeth ; and you know, unless 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 Agatha's husband. 
 
 you go to Kingcombe, you never can see 
 Elizabeth/' said the younger brother, gently. 
 
 " That is true ! — Poor dear soul !" Frede- 
 rick answered, looking grave. " Well, I will 
 go ere long." 
 
 " Perhaps at Eulalie's wedding, which I 
 told you of?" 
 
 '' True — true. Eulalie is the youngest 
 Miss Harper, as we should explain to our 
 kind friends here — whom I hope we are not 
 boring very much with our family reminis- 
 cences. And Eulalie, contrary to the usual 
 custom of the Hsrpers, is actually going to 
 be married. To a clergyman, is he not, 
 N. L. ? — Late curate of Kingcombe parish ?" 
 
 "No — of Anne Valery's parish. By the 
 way, you have not yet asked a single ques- 
 tion about Anne Valery." 
 
 The Major's aspect visibly changed. In all 
 the years of his acquaintance with the world 
 he had not yet learnt the convenient art of
 
 Agatha's husband. 115 
 
 being a physiognomical hypocrite. " Well, 
 never mind — I ask a dozen questions now. 
 How could I forget so excellent a friend of 
 the family ?" 
 
 " She is, indeed/' said Nathanael, earnestly, 
 while a glow of pleasure or enthusiasm dyed 
 his pale features, and he even ceased his 
 close watch over Agatha. " Though I was 
 such a boy when I left, I find I have kept a 
 true memory of Anne Valery. She is just the 
 woman I always pictured her, from my own 
 remembrance, and from Uncle Brian's chance 
 allusions ; though, in general, it was little 
 enough he said of England or home. I was 
 quite surprised to hear from Elizabeth what a 
 strong friendship used to exist between Uncle 
 Brian, yourself, and Anne Yalery." 
 
 Major Harper's restlessness increased. 
 " Really, we are indulging our friends with 
 our whole genealogy — uncles, aunts, and col- 
 i2
 
 116 Agatha's husband. 
 
 lateral branches included — which cannot be 
 very interesting to Mrs. and Miss lanson, or 
 even to Miss Bowen, however kindly she may 
 be disposed to^vards the Harper family." 
 
 The lansons here made polite disclaimers, 
 but Agatha said nothing. Immediately after- 
 wards, Nathanael's conversation likewise ebbed 
 into silence. 
 
 The next time Agatha heard him speak 
 was in answer to a sudden question of his 
 brother's, as to what had made him return to 
 London so unexpectedly ? "I thought you 
 would have stayed at least three months." 
 
 " No/' he said, in a low tone, "by that 
 time I shall be far enough away." 
 
 "Why so?" 
 
 " From circumstances which have lately 
 arisen" — he did not look at Agatha, but she 
 felt his meaning — " I fear I must return to 
 America at once."
 
 Agatha's husband. 117 
 
 He said no more, for his brother asked no 
 more questions. But the tidings jarred pain- 
 fully on Agatha's mind. 
 
 He was then going away, this man of so 
 gentle^ true, and noble nature — this, the only 
 man who loved her, and whom, while she 
 thought of rejecting, she had still hoped to 
 retain as an honoured and dear friend. He 
 was going away, and she might never see him 
 more. She felt grieved, and her lonely, 
 unloved position rose up before her in more 
 bitterness and more fear than it was wont to 
 do. She became as thoughtful and silent as 
 Nathanael himself. 
 
 Mr. Harper never attempted to address 
 her or attract her attention durinor all that 
 strange, long evening, which comprised in 
 itself so many shght circumstances, so many 
 conflicting states of feeling. Almost the only 
 word this very eccentric lover said to her was
 
 118 Agatha's husband. 
 
 in a whisper, just as his hand touched hers in 
 bidding good-by. 
 
 " As I am leaving England so soon, may I 
 come here again to-morrow ?" 
 
 " No, not to-morrow;" and then, her kind 
 heart repenting of the evident pain she gave, 
 she added, " Well, the day after to-morrow, if 
 you like. But- " 
 
 Whatever that forbidding " but" was meant 
 to hint,, Nathanael did not stay to hear. He 
 was gone in a moment. 
 
 However, that night a chance word of Mrs. 
 lanson's did more for the suit of the unloved, 
 or only half-loved lover, than he himself ever 
 dreamed of. 
 
 " Well," said that lady, with sly, matronly 
 smile, as, showing more attention than usual, 
 she lighted Agatha's candle for bed — '' well, 
 my dear Miss Bowen, is the wedding to be at 
 my house ?"
 
 Agatha's husband. 119 
 
 " What wedding ?" 
 
 ' ' Oh, you know ; you know ! I have guessed 
 it a long while, but to-night — surely, I may 
 congratulate you ? Never was there a more 
 charmmg man than Major Harper." 
 
 Agatha looked furious. " Has he then" — 
 " told you the lie he told to Emma" — she was 
 about to say. but luckily checked herself. 
 " Has he then been so premature as to say we 
 were engaged ?" 
 
 " No ! oh, of course not. But the thing is 
 as plain as light." 
 
 " You are mistaken, Mrs. lanson. He is 
 one of my very kindest friends; but I have 
 never had the slightest intention of marrying 
 Major Harper." 
 
 With that she took her candle, and walked 
 slowly to her own room. There, with her door 
 locked, though that was needless, since there 
 was no welcome or unwelcome friendship 
 likely to intrude on her utter soHtude, — she
 
 120 Agatha's husband. 
 
 gave way to a woman's wounded pride. Added 
 to this, was the terror that seizes a helpless 
 young creature, who, all supports taken aAvay, 
 is at last set face to face with the cruel world, 
 without even the steadfastness given by a 
 strong sorrow. If she had really loved Frede- 
 rick Harper, perhaps her condition would have 
 been more endurable than now. 
 
 At length, above the storm of passion there 
 seemed floating a small still voice, just as if 
 the spirit of him who she knew was always 
 thinking of her, then spoke to her spirit, with 
 the wondrous communication that has often 
 happened in dreams, or waking, between two^ 
 one of whom intensely loved. A communica- 
 tion which appears both possible and credible 
 to those who have felt any strong human 
 attachment, especially that one which for the 
 sake of its object seems able to cross the 
 bounds of distance, time, life, or eternity. 
 It was a thing that neither then or after-
 
 Agatha's husband. 121 
 
 wards could she ever account for, and years 
 elapsed before she mentioned the circumstance 
 to any one. But while she lay weeping across 
 her bed, Agatha seemed to hear distinctly, 
 just as if it had been a voice gliding past the 
 window, half-mixing with the wind that was 
 then rising, the words : 
 
 '^ / love you ! No man will ever love you 
 like meP 
 
 That night, before she slept, her determi- 
 nation was taken.
 
 122 Agatha's husband. 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 Next morning Miss Bowen astonished 
 every one, and excited once more Mrs. Ian- 
 son's incredulous smile, by openly desiring the 
 servant who waited to take a message for her 
 to Maj^r Harper's. It w^as to the effect that 
 she wished immediately to see that gentleman, 
 could he make it convenient to visit her. 
 
 The message was given by her very dis- 
 tinctly, and with most creditable calmness, 
 considering that the destinies of her whole 
 life hung on the sentence. 
 
 Major Harper appeared, and was shown 
 into Miss Bowen's drawing-room. She was
 
 Agatha's husband. 123 
 
 not there, and the Major waited rather un- 
 easily for several minutes, unaware that half 
 of that time she had been standing without, 
 her hand on the lock of the door. But her 
 tremulousness was that of natural emotion, 
 not of fluctuating purpose. No physiogno- 
 mist studying Agatha's mouth and chin would 
 doubt the fact, that though rather slow to 
 will — when she had once willed, scarcely any- 
 thing had power to shake her resolution. 
 
 She went in at last, and bade Major 
 Harper good morning. ''I have sent for 
 you," she said, '^ to talk over a little busi- 
 ness." 
 
 " Business !" — And the hesitation and dis- 
 comfort which seemed to arise in him at the 
 mere mention of the word, again were visible 
 in Major Harper. 
 
 " Not trust business — something quite dif- 
 ferent," said Agatha, scarcely able to help 
 smiling at the alarm of her guardian.
 
 124 Agatha's husband. 
 
 " Then anything you like, my dear Miss 
 Bowen ; I have nothing in the world to do 
 to-day. That stupid brother of mine is worse 
 company than none at all. He said he had 
 letters to write to Kingcombe, and vanished 
 up-stairs. The rude fellow ! But he is an 
 excellent fellow too." 
 
 " So you have always said. He appears to 
 love his home, and be mucli beloved there. 
 Is it so ?" 
 
 " Most certainly. Already they know 
 him better than they do me, and care for him 
 more ; though he has been away for fifteen 
 years. But then he has kept up a constant 
 correspondence with them ; while I, tossing 
 about in the world — ah ! I have had a hard 
 life, Miss Bowen !" 
 
 He looked so sad, that Agatha felt sorry 
 for him. But his melancholy moods had less 
 power to touch her than of old. His gaiety so 
 quickly and invariably returned, that her
 
 Agatha's husband. 125 
 
 belief in the reality of his grief was somewhat 
 shaken. 
 
 She paused a little, and then recurred again, 
 indiiferently as it were, to Nathanael — the 
 one person in his family of whom Major 
 Harper always spoke gladly and warmly. 
 
 " You seem to have a great love for your 
 younger brother. Is he then so noble a cha- 
 racter ?" 
 
 " What do you call a noble character, my 
 dear young lady ?" 
 
 The half-jesting, half-patronising manner 
 irritated Agatha ; but she answered boldly : 
 
 " A man honest in his principles, faithful 
 to his word ; just, generous, and honourable." 
 
 " What a category of qualities ! How inte- 
 rested young ladies are in a pale, thin boy ! 
 Well then " — seeing that Agatha looked 
 serious — "well then, I declare to Heaven 
 that, even according to your high-flown defini- 
 tions, he is as noble a lad as ever breathed. I
 
 126 Agatha's husband. 
 
 can find no fault in hira, except that, as I said, 
 he is such a mere boy. Are you satisfied? Did 
 you want to try if I were indeed a heartless, 
 unbrotherly, good-for-nothing fellow, as you 
 appear to think me sometimes ?" 
 
 " No," said Agatha briefly, noticing with 
 something hke scorn the Major's instinctive 
 assumption that her questions must have 
 some near or remote reference to himself, 
 while he never once guessed their real mo- 
 tive. That answered, she changed the con- 
 versation. 
 
 After half an hour's chat, Major Harper 
 delicately alluded to the supposed business 
 on which she had wished to see him, though 
 in a tone that showed him to be rather 
 doubtful whether it existed at all. 
 
 Agatha coloured, and her heart quailed a 
 little, as any girl's would, in having to speak 
 so openly of things which usually reach young 
 maidens softly murmured amidst the confes-
 
 Agatha's husband. 127 
 
 sions of first love, or revealed by tender parents 
 with blessings and tears. Life's earliest and 
 best romance came to her with all its bloom 
 worn away — all its sacredness and mystery 
 set aside. For a moment she felt this hard. 
 
 " I wished to inform you of something 
 nearly concerning me, which, as the guardian 
 appointed by my father_, it is right you should 
 know. I have had" — here she tried to make 
 her lips say the words without faltering — 
 " I have had an offer of marriage." 
 
 " God bless mj soul !" stammered out 
 Major Harper, completely thrown off his 
 guard by surprise. A very awkward pause 
 ensued, until, his natural good feeling con- 
 quering any other, he said, not without emo- 
 tion, " The fact of your consulting me shows 
 that this offer is — is not without interest to 
 you. May I ask — is it likely — that I shall 
 have to congratulate you ?"
 
 128 Agatha's husband. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 He rose up slowly, and walked to the win- 
 dow. Whether his sensations were merely 
 those of wounded vanity, or whether he had 
 liked her better than he himself acknow- 
 ledged, certain it was that Major Frederick 
 Harper w^as a good deal moved — so much so, 
 that he succeeded in concealing it. He came 
 back, very kind, subdued, and tender, sat 
 down by her side, and took her hand. 
 
 " You will not wonder that I am somew^hat 
 surprised — nay, affected-y-by these sudden 
 tidings, viewing you as I have always done 
 in the light of a — younger sister — or — or a 
 daughter. Your happiness must naturally be 
 very dear to me." 
 
 "Thank you," murmured Agatha; and the 
 tears came into her eyes. She felt that she 
 had been somewhat harsh to him ; but she 
 felt, too, with great thankfulness, that despite
 
 Agatha's husband. 129 
 
 this softening compunction, her heart was 
 free and firm. She had great liking, but no 
 love, for Major Harper. 
 
 " I trust the — the gentleman you allude to, 
 is hkely to make you happy ?" 
 
 " YeSj" returned Agatha, for she could only 
 speak in monosyllables. 
 
 " Is he — as your friend and guardian I 
 may ask that question — is he of good stand- 
 ing in the world, and in a position to maintain 
 you comfortably ?" 
 
 " I do not know — I have never thought 
 about that," she cried, restlessly. " All I 
 know is, that he loves me — that I honour 
 
 him — that he would take me " "out of 
 
 this misery," she was about to say, but 
 stopped, feeling that both the thought and 
 its expression were unworthy Nathanael's fu- 
 ture wife, and unfit to be heard by Natha- 
 nael's brother. 
 
 " That he would take me," repeated she, 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 
 
 firmly, " into a contented and happy home, 
 where I should be made a better woman than 
 I am, and live a life more worthy of myself 
 and of him." 
 
 " You must then esteem him very highly?" 
 " I do — more than any man I ever knew." 
 The Major winced slightly, but quickly 
 recovered himself. " That is, I believe, the 
 feeling with which every woman ought to 
 marry. He who wins and deserves such 
 an attachment is " — and he sighed — " is a 
 happy man ! — Happier, perhaps, than those 
 who have remained single." 
 
 Again there ensued a pause, until Major 
 Harper broke it by saying : 
 
 " There is one more question — the last of 
 all — which, after the confidence you have 
 shown me, I may venture to ask : do I know 
 this gentleman?" 
 
 Agatha replied by putting into his hands 
 his brother's letter.
 
 Agatha's husband. 131 
 
 The moment she had done so she felt 
 remorse for having betrayed her lover's con- 
 fidence by letting any eyes save her own rest 
 on his tender words. Had she loved him as 
 he her, she could not have done so ; and even 
 now a painful sensation smote her. But it 
 was too late. 
 
 Major Harper's eyes had merely skimmed 
 down the page to the signature, when he 
 threw it from him, crying out vehemently: 
 
 " Impossible ! Agatha marry Nathanael — 
 Nathanael marry Agatha ! — He is a boy, a 
 very child ! What can he be thinking of? 
 Send his letter back — tell him it is utter non- 
 sense ! Upon my soul it is !" 
 
 Major Harper was very shortsighted and 
 inconsiderate when he gave way to this burst 
 of vexation before any woman — still more 
 before such a woman as Agatha. 
 
 She let him go on without interruption, 
 k2
 
 132 agatiia's husband. 
 
 but she lifted the letter from the floor, re- 
 folded it, and held it tenderly — more tenderly 
 than she had ever until now felt towards it or 
 its writer. Something of the grave sweet- 
 ness belonging to the tie of an affianced wife 
 began to east its shadow over her heart. 
 
 " Major Harper, when you have quite done 
 speaking, perhaps you will sit down and hear 
 what I have to say." 
 
 Struck by her manner, he obeyed, entreat- 
 ing her pardon likewise, for he was a true 
 gentleman, and felt that he had acted very 
 wrong. 
 
 " But surely," he began — until, looking at 
 her, something convinced him that his argu- 
 ments were useless. He stretched out his 
 hand again for the letter, but with a slight 
 gesture which expressed much, Agatha with- 
 held it. After a pause, he said, meekly 
 enough, as if thoroughly overcome by cir-
 
 AGATHA^S HUSBAND. 133 
 
 cumstances, — " So, it is quite true ? You 
 really love my brother ?" 
 
 " I honour him, as I said, more than I do 
 any man." 
 
 "And love him — are you sure you love 
 him ?" 
 
 " No one," she answered^ deeply blushing 
 — " no one but himself has a right to receive 
 the answer to that question." 
 
 " True, true. Pardon me once more. But 
 I am so startled, absolutely shocked. My 
 brother Nathanael — he that was a baby when 
 I was a grown man — he to marry — marrying 
 
 you too — and I Well ; I suppose I am 
 
 really growing into a miserable, useless old 
 bachelor. I have thrown away my life ; I 
 shall be the last apple left on the tree — and 
 a tolerably withered one too. But no matter. 
 The world shall see the sunny half of me to 
 the last." 
 
 He laughed rather' tunelessly at his own
 
 134 Agatha's husband. 
 
 bitter jest, and after a brief silence, reco- 
 vered his accustomed manner. 
 
 " Well, such things must be, and I, though 
 a bachelor myself, have no right to forbid 
 marriages. Allow me to congratulate you. 
 Of course you have answered this letter? 
 My brother knows his happiness ?" 
 
 " He knows nothing ; but I wished that he 
 should do so to-day, after I had spoken to 
 you. It was a respect I felt to be your due, 
 to form no engagement of this kind without 
 your knowledge." 
 
 " Thank you," he said, in a low voice. 
 
 " You have been good and kind to me,'^ 
 continued Agatha, a little touched, " and 
 I wish to have your approval in all things — 
 chiefly in this. Is it so ?" 
 
 He offered his hand, saying, " God bless 
 you," with a quivering lip. He even mut- 
 tered " my child ;" as though he felt how old 
 he was growing, and how he had let all life's
 
 Agatha's husband, 135 
 
 happiness slip by, until it was just that he 
 should no longer claim it, but be content to see 
 young people rejoicing in their youth. After 
 a pause, he added, " Now, shall I go and fetch 
 my brother ?" 
 
 " No," replied Agatha, " send for him, and 
 do you stay here." 
 
 " As you please," said Major Harper, a 
 good deal surprised at this very original way 
 of conducting a love affair. After courteously 
 offering to withdraw himself to the dining- 
 room, which Agatha declined, he sat and 
 waited with her during the few minutes that 
 elapsed before his brother appeared. 
 
 Nathanael looked much agitated ; his boyish 
 face seemed to have grown years older since 
 the preceding night. He paused at the door, 
 and glanced with suspicion on his brother and 
 Miss Bo wen. 
 
 " You sent for me, Frederick ?" 
 
 " It was I who sent for you," said Agatha.
 
 136 Agatha's husband. 
 
 And then, steadfastly regarding him whom 
 she had tacitly accepted as her husband, the 
 guide and ruler of her whole life — her self- 
 possession failed. A great timidity, almost 
 amounting to terror, came over her. Vaguely 
 she felt the want of something unknown — 
 something which in the whirl of her destiny 
 she could grasp and hold by, sure that she 
 held fast to the right. It was the one emotion, 
 neither regard, liking, honour, or esteem, yet 
 including and surpassing all — the love, strong, 
 pure love, without which it is so dangerous, 
 often so fatal, for a woman to marry. 
 
 Agatha, never having known this feeling, 
 could scarcely be said to have sacrificed it ; 
 at least not consciously. But even while she 
 believed she was doing right in accepting the 
 man who loved her, and whom she could 
 make so happy, she trembled. 
 
 Major Harper sat looking out of the window 
 in an uncomfortable silence, which he evi-
 
 Agatha's husband. 137 
 
 dently knew not how to break. It was a 
 very awkward and somewhat ridiculous posi- 
 tion for all three. 
 
 Nathanael was the first to rise out of 
 it. Slowly his features settled into compo- 
 sure, and the strong, earnest purpose of his 
 soul gave him both dignity and calmness, 
 even though all hope had evidently died. 
 He looked steadily at his brother, avoiding 
 Agatha. 
 
 " Frederick, I think I understand now^ 
 She has been telling you all." 
 
 " It was right she should. Her father left 
 her in ray care. She wishes you to learn 
 her decision in my presence^" said Major 
 Harper, unwittingly taking a new and even 
 respectful tone to the younger brother, whom 
 he was wont to call " that boy." 
 
 Nathanael grasped with his slight, long 
 fingers the chair by which he stood. " As 
 she pleases. I am quite ready. Still — if —
 
 138 Agatha's husband. 
 
 yesterday — without telling you or any one — 
 
 she had said But I am quite ready to 
 
 hear what she decides." 
 
 Despite his firmness, the words were ut- 
 tered slowly and with a great struggle. 
 
 " Tell him everything, Miss Bowen ; it will 
 come better from yourself," said Frederick 
 Harper, rising. 
 
 Agatha rose likewise, walked across the 
 room, and laid her hand in that of him who 
 loved her. The only words she said were so 
 low that he alone could hear them : 
 
 ^' I have been very desolate— be kind 
 to me!" 
 
 Nathanael made no answer; indeed for the 
 moment his look was that of a man bewildered 
 — but he never forgot those words. 
 
 Agatha felt her hand clasped — softly — but 
 with a firm grasp that seemed to bind it his 
 for ever. This was the only sign of be- 
 trothal that passed between them. In another
 
 AGATHA'S HUSBAND. IW 
 
 minute or two, unable to bear the scene 
 longer, she crept out of the room and walked 
 up-stairs, feeling with a dizzy sense, half of 
 comfort, half of fear — yet, on the whole, the 
 comfort stronger than the fear — that the 
 struggle was all over, and her fate sealed for 
 life. 
 
 When she descended, an hour after, the 
 Harpers had gone ; but she found a little 
 note awaiting her, just one line : 
 
 " If not forbidden, I may come this even- 
 ing?" 
 
 Agatha knew she had no right to forbid 
 even had she wished it, now. So she v^aited 
 quietly through the long, dim, misty day — 
 which seemed the strangest day she had ever 
 known ; until, in the evening, her lover's 
 knock came to the door. 
 
 She was sitting with Jane lanson, near 
 whom, partly in shy fear, partly from a 
 vague desire for womanly sympathy, she had
 
 140 Agatha's husband. 
 
 closely kept for the last hour. As yet, the 
 lansons knew nothing. She wondered, 
 whether from his manner or hers they would 
 be likely to guess what had passed that morn- 
 ing between herself and Mr. Harper ? 
 
 It was an infinite relief to her when 
 following, nay preceding Nathanael, there 
 appeared his elder brother, with the old 
 pleasant smile and bow. 
 
 But amidst all his assumed manner, Major 
 Harper took occasion to whisper kindly to 
 Agatha ; " My brother made me come — I 
 shall do admirably to talk nonsense to the 
 lansons." 
 
 And so he did, carrying off the restraint 
 of the evening so ingeniously that no one 
 would have suspected any deeper elements 
 of joy or pain beneath the smooth surface 
 of their cheerful group. 
 
 Nathanael sat almost as silent as ever; 
 but even his very silence was a beautiful,
 
 Agatha's husband. 141 
 
 joyful repose. In his aspect a new soul seemed 
 to have dawned — the new soul, noble and 
 strong, which comes into a man when he feels 
 that his life has another life added to it, to 
 guard, cherish, and keep as his o\vn until 
 death. And though Mr. Harper gave little 
 outward sign of what was in him, it was 
 touching to see how his eyes followed his 
 betrothed everywhere, whether she were 
 moving about the room, or working, or trying , 
 to sing. Continually Agatha felt the shining 
 of these quiet, tender eyes, and she began 
 to experience the consciousness — perhaps the 
 sweetest in the world — of being able to make 
 another human being entirely happy. 
 
 Only sometimes, when she looked at her 
 future husband — hardly able to believe he 
 was really such — and thought how strangely 
 things had happened, how here she was, 
 no longer a girl but a woman engaged to be
 
 142 Agatha's husband 
 
 married, sitting calmly by her lover's side, 
 without any of the tremblingly delicious emo- 
 tions which she had once believed would 
 constitute the great mystery, Love — a strange 
 pensiveness overtook her. She felt all the 
 solemnity of her position, and as yet little 
 of its sweetness. Perhaps that would come 
 in time. She resolved to do her duty to- 
 wards him whom she so tenderly honoured, 
 and who so deeply loved herself; and all 
 evening the entire gentleness of her be- 
 haviour was enough to steal the very soul 
 out of any one who held towards her 
 the relation now borne by Nathanael 
 Harper. 
 
 At length, even the good-natured elder 
 brother's flow of conversation seemed to fail, 
 and he gave hints about leaving, to which 
 the younger tacitly consented. Agatha bade 
 them both good night in public, and crept
 
 Agatha's husband. 143 
 
 away, as she thought unobserved, to her own 
 sitting-room. 
 
 There she stood before the hearth, which 
 looked cheerful enough this wet July night, — 
 the fire-light shining on her hands, as they 
 hung down listlessly folded together. She 
 was thinking how strange everything seemed 
 about her, and what a change had come in a 
 few days — nay, hours. 
 
 Suddenly^ a light touch was laid on her 
 shoulder. It startled her, but she did not 
 attempt to shake it off. She knew quite 
 well whose hand it was^ and that it had a 
 right to be there. 
 
 "Agatha I" 
 
 She half turned, put her fingers gently in 
 his, and said once more '' Good night." 
 
 " Good night, my Agatha." 
 
 And for a minute he stood, holding her 
 hand by the fire-light, until some one below
 
 144 Agatha's husband. 
 
 called out loudly for "Mr. Harper." Then a 
 kiss, soft and timid as a woman's, trembled 
 over Agatha's mouth, and he was gone. 
 
 This was the first time she had ever been 
 kissed by any man. The feeling it left was 
 very new^ tremulous^ and strange.
 
 Agatha's husband. 145 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The next morning was Sunday. Under 
 one of the dark arches in Bloom sbury Church 
 — with Mrs. lanson's large feathers tossing 
 on one side and Jane's sickly unhappy face 
 at the other — Agatha said her prayers in 
 due dominical form. " Said her prayers" is 
 the right phrase, for trouble had not yet 
 opened her young heart to pray. Yet she 
 was a good girl, not wilfully undevout ; and 
 if during the long missionary-sermon she se- 
 cretly got her prayer-book and read — what 
 was the most likely portion to attract her — the 
 marriage service, it was with feelings solem- 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 Agatha's husband. 
 
 nised and not unsacred. Some portions of it 
 made her very thoughtful, so thoughtful that 
 when suddenly startled by the conclusion of 
 the sermon, she prayed — not with the clergy- 
 man, for " Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics" 
 — but for two young creatures, herself and 
 another, who perhaps needed Heaven's mer- 
 ciful blessings quite as much. 
 
 When she rose up, it was with moist eye- 
 lashes; and then she perceived what until 
 this minute she had not seen, — that close be- 
 hind her, sitting where he had probably sat 
 all church-time, was Nathanael Harper. 
 
 If anything can touch the heart of a ge- 
 nerous woman, when it is still a free heart, it 
 is that quiet, unobtrusive, proudly-silent love 
 which, giving all, exacts nothing. Agatha's 
 smile had in it something even of shy ten- 
 derness, when at the church-door she was met 
 by Mr. Harper. And when, after speaking 
 courteously to the lansons, he came, quite
 
 Agatha's husband. 147 
 
 naturally as it were, to her side, and drew 
 her arm in his, she felt a strange sense of 
 calm and rest in knowing that she leant on 
 her betrothed husband. 
 
 At the door he seemed wishful enough to 
 enter ; but Mrs. lanson invariably looked 
 very coldly upon Sunday visitors. And 
 something questioning and questionable in 
 the glances of both that lady and her daughter 
 was very painful to Miss Bo wen. 
 
 " Not to-day," she whispered, as her lover 
 detained her hand. '^ To-morrow I shall have 
 made all clear to the lansons." 
 
 "As you will! Nothing shall trouble 
 you," said he, with a gentle acquiescence, 
 the value of which, alas ! she did not half 
 appreciate. '' Only remember, I have so 
 few to-morrows." 
 
 This speech troubled Agatha for many 
 minutes, bringing various thoughts concern- 
 ing the dim future which as yet she had 
 l2
 
 148 Agatha's husband. 
 
 scarcely contemplated. It is wonderful how 
 little an unsophisticated girl's mind rests on 
 the common-sense and common-place of mar- 
 riage, — household prospects, income, long or 
 short engagements, and the like. When in 
 the course of that drowsy, dark Sunday after- 
 noon, with the rain-drops dripping heavily on 
 the balcony, she took opportunity formally to 
 communicate her secret to the astonished Mrs. 
 lanson, Agatha was perfectly confounded by 
 the two simple questions : " When are you 
 to be married ? And where are you going to 
 live ?" 
 
 " And oh! my dear," cried the Doctor's wife, 
 roused into positive sympathy by a confidence 
 which always touches the softest chord in 
 every woman's heart — " oh, my dear, I hope it 
 will not be a long engagement. People change 
 so — at least men do. You don't know what 
 misery comes out of long engagements !" 
 And, lowering her voice, she turned her dull
 
 Agatha's husband. 149 
 
 grey eyes, swimming with motherly* tears, 
 towards the corner sofa where the pale, fretful, 
 old-maidish Jane lay sleeping. 
 
 Agatha understood a little, and guessed 
 more. After that day, however ill-tempered 
 and disagreeable the invalid might be, she 
 was always very patient and kind towards 
 Jane lanson. 
 
 After tea, when her daughter was gone to 
 bed, Mrs. lanson unfolded all to the Doctor, 
 Vv^ho nearly broke Miss Bowen's fingers with 
 his congratulatory shake ; John the footman, 
 catching fragments of talk, probably put the 
 whole story together for the amusement of the 
 lower regions ; and when Agatha retired to 
 rest she was quite sure that the whole house, 
 down to the little maid who waited on herself, 
 was fully aware of the important fact that 
 Miss Bowen was going to be married to Mr. 
 Locke Harper. 
 
 This annoyed her — she had not expected
 
 150 Agatha's husband. 
 
 it. But she bore it stoically as a necessary 
 evil. Only sometimes she tliought how 
 different all things were, seen afar and near ; 
 and faintly sighed for that long ago lost 
 picture of wakening fancy — the Arcadian, 
 impossible love-dream. 
 
 She sat up till after midnight, writing to 
 Emma Thornycroft, the only near friend to 
 whom she had to write, the news of her 
 engagement — information that for many 
 reasons she preferred giving by pen not 
 words. Finishing, she put her blind aside to 
 have one freshening look at the trees in the 
 square. It was quite cloudless now, the 
 moon being just rising — the same moon 
 that Agatha had seen, as a bright slender 
 line appearing at street-corners, on the 
 Midsummer-night when she and Nathanael 
 Harper walked home together. She felt 
 a deep interest in that especial moon, 
 which seemed between its dawning and
 
 Agatha's husband. 151 
 
 waning to have comprised the whole fate of 
 her life. 
 
 Quietly opening the window, she leant 
 out gazing at the moonlight, as foolish girls 
 will — yet who does not remember, half pathe- 
 tically, those dear old follies ! 
 
 " Hei^ho ! I wonder what will be the end 
 of it all I" said Agatha Bowen ; without speci- 
 fying what the pronoun "it" alluded to. 
 
 But she stopped, hearing a footstep rather 
 policeman-like passing up and down the 
 railing under the trees. And as after a while 
 he crossed the street — she saw that the 
 *^ policeman" had the very unprofessional ap- 
 pearance of a cloak and long fair hair : — 
 Agatha's cheek burned ; she shut down the 
 window and blind, and re-lighted the candle. 
 But her heart beat fast — it was so strange, so 
 new to be the object of such love. " How- 
 ever, I suppose I shall get used to it — besides 
 — oh, how good he is !"
 
 152 Agatha's husband. 
 
 And the genuine reverence of lier heart 
 conquered its toucli of feminine vanity ; which, 
 perhaps, had he known, Nathanael would 
 have done wiser in going to bed Hke a 
 Christian, than in wandering hke a heathen 
 idolater round his beloved's shrine. But 
 however her pride may have been flattered, 
 it is certain that Agatha went to sleep with 
 tears, innocent and tender enough to serve 
 as mirrors for watching night-angels, lying 
 on her cheek. 
 
 The next morning she waited at home, 
 and for the first time received her betrothed 
 openly as such. She was sitting alone in her 
 little drawing-room engaged at her work ; but 
 put it down when Mr. Harper entered, and 
 held out her hand kindly, though with a 
 slight restraint and confusion. Both were 
 needless: he only touched this lately- won 
 hand with his soft boyish lips — like a preux 
 chevalier of the olden time — and sat down
 
 Agatha's husband. 153 
 
 by her side. However deep his love might 
 be, its reserve was unquestionable. 
 
 After a while he began to talk to her — 
 timidly yet tenderly, as friend with friend — 
 watching her fingers while they moved, until 
 at length the girl grew calmed by the 
 calmness of her young lover. So much so, 
 that she even forgot he was a young man 
 and her lover, and found herself often stead- 
 fastly looking up into his face, which was 
 gradually melting into a known likeness, as 
 many faces do when we grow familiar with 
 them. Agatha puzzled herself much as to 
 who it could be that Mr. Harper was like — 
 though she found no nearer resemblance 
 than a head she had once seen of the angel 
 Gabriel. 
 
 She told him this — quite innocently, and 
 then recollecting herself, coloured deeply. 
 But Nathanael looked perfectly happy. 
 
 " The likeness is very flattering," said he,
 
 154 Agatha's husband. 
 
 smiling. " Yet I would only wish to be — 
 what you called me once, the first evening I 
 saw you. Do you remember ?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 "Ah — well — it was not probable you 
 should," he answered, as if patiently taking 
 upon himself the knowledge which only a 
 strong love can bear — that it is alone in its 
 strength. " It was merely when they were 
 talking of my name, and you said I looked 
 like a Nathanael. Now, do you remember ?" 
 
 *' Yes, and I think so still," she replied, 
 without any false shame. " I never look at 
 you, but I feel there is ' no guile ' in you, 
 Mr. Harper." 
 
 " Thanks," he said, with much feeling. 
 " Thanks — except for the last word. How 
 soon will you try to say ' Nathanael?' " 
 
 A fit of wilfuhiess or shyness was upon 
 Agatha. She drew away her hand which 
 he had taken. " How soon ? Nay, I cannot
 
 AGATHA S HUSBAND. 155 
 
 tell. It is a long name, old-fashioned, and 
 rather ugly." 
 
 He made no answer — scarcely even showed 
 that he was hurt; but he never again asked 
 her to call him " Nathanael." 
 
 She went on with her work, and he sat 
 quietly looking at her for some little time 
 more. Any Asmodeus peering at them 
 throuofh the roof would have vowed these 
 were the oddest pair of lovers ever seen. 
 
 At last, rousing himself, Mr. Harper said: 
 " It is time, Agatha" — he paused, and added 
 — " dear Agatha — quite time that we should 
 talk a little about what concerns our happi- 
 ness — at least, mine." 
 
 She looked at him — saw how earnest he 
 was, and put down her work. The softness 
 of her manner soothed him. 
 
 " I know, dear Agatha, that it is very 
 wrong in me; but sometimes I can hardly 
 believe this is all true, and that you really
 
 156 Agatha's husband. 
 
 promised — wliat I heard from your own lips 
 two days ago. Will you — out of that good 
 heart of yours — say it again ?" 
 
 "What must I say?" 
 
 " That you love — no, I don't mean that — 
 but that you care for me a little — enough to 
 trust me with your happiness? Do you?" 
 
 For all reply, Agatha held out the hand 
 she had drawn back. Her lover kept it 
 tight in that peculiar grasp of his — very soft 
 and still, but firm as adamant. 
 
 ^' Thank you. You shall never regret your 
 trust. My brother told me all you said to 
 him on Saturday morning. I know you do 
 not quite love me yet." 
 
 Agatha started, it was so true. 
 
 " Still, as you have loved no one else — 
 you are sure of that ?" 
 
 She thought a minute, then lifted her 
 candid eyes, and answered: 
 
 '^ Yes, quite sure!"
 
 agat?ha's husband. 157 
 
 He, watching her closely, betrayed him- 
 self so far as to give an inward thankful sigh. 
 
 " Then, Agatha, since I love you, I am. 
 not afraid." 
 
 " Nor I," she answered, and a tear fell, 
 for she was greatly moved. Her betrothed 
 put his arms round her, softly and timidly, 
 as if unfamiliar with actions of tenderness; 
 but she trembled so much that, still softly, 
 he let her go, only keeping firm hold of her 
 hand, apparently to show that no power on 
 earth, gentle or strong, should wrest that 
 from him. 
 
 A few minutes after, he began speaking 
 of his affairs, of which Agatha was in a state 
 of entire ignorance. She said, jestingly — 
 for they had fallen into quite famihar jesting 
 now, and were laughing together hke a 
 couple of children — that she had not the 
 least idea whether she were about to marry a 
 prince or a beggar.
 
 158 Agatha's husband. 
 
 " No," answered her lover, smiling at her 
 unworldliness, and thereby betraying that 
 innocent as he looked, his was not the inno- 
 cence of ignorance. " No ; but I am not 
 very like a prince, and as a beggar I should 
 certainly be too proud to marry you'' 
 
 'indeed! Why?" 
 
 "Because I understand you are a very 
 rich young lady (I don't know how rich, 
 for I never thought of the subject or in- 
 quired about it till to-day), while I am 
 only able to earn my income year by year. 
 Yet it is a good income, and I earnestly 
 hope fdly equal to yours." 
 
 " I don't know what mine is. But why 
 are you so punctilious ?" 
 
 ''Uncle Brian impressed upon me, from 
 my boyhood, that one of the greatest horrors 
 of life must be the taunt of having married 
 an heiress for her money." 
 
 " Has he ever married ?'^
 
 Agatha's husband. 159 
 
 "No." 
 
 " And is he a very old man ?" Miss Bowen 
 asked, less interested in money matters than 
 in this Uncle Brian, whose name so con- 
 stantly floated in meteoric-fashion across his 
 nephew's conversation. 
 
 "Fifteen years in the colonies makes a 
 man old before his time. And he was not 
 very young, probably Ml thirty, when he 
 went out. But I could go on talking of Uncle 
 Brian for ever; you must stop me, Agatha." 
 
 " Not I — I like to hear," she answered, 
 beginning to feel how sweet it was to sit 
 talking thus confidentially, and know herself 
 and her words esteemed fair and pleasant 
 in the eyes of one who loved her. But as 
 she looked up and smiled, that same witch- 
 ing smile put an effectual stop to the chro- 
 nicle of Brian Harper. 
 
 " And I have to go back to Canada so 
 soon!" whispered Nathanael'to himself, as
 
 160 Agatha's husband. 
 
 his gaze, far less calm than heretofore, fell 
 down like a warm sunshine over his be- 
 trothed. " The time of my stay will soon 
 be over, and — what then, Agatha ?" 
 
 She did not wholly comprehend the ques- 
 tion, and so let it pass. She was quite 
 content to keep him talking about things 
 and people in whom her interest was na- 
 turally growing ; of Kingcombe Holm, the 
 old house on the Dorset coast, where the 
 Harpers had dwelt for centuries ; of its pre- 
 sent owner, Nathanael Harper, Esquire, who, 
 proud of that venerable name so renowned 
 in Dorsetshire pedigrees, had once refused 
 to merge it even in the blaze of a peerage. 
 Of the 'Q.Ye Miss Harpers, of whom one was 
 dead, and another, the all-important "married 
 sister," Mrs. Dugdale, lived in a town close 
 by. Of Eulalie, the pretty cadette who was 
 at some future time going to disappear be- 
 hind the shadows of matrimony ; of busy,
 
 Agatha's husband. 161 
 
 housekeeping Mary, whom nobody could pos- 
 sibly do without, and who couldn't be suffered 
 to marry on any account whatever. Last of 
 all, was the eye, ear, and heart of the house, 
 kept tenderly in its inmost nook, from which 
 for twenty years she had never moved, and 
 never would move until softly carried to the 
 house appointed for all living — Elizabeth, 
 the eldest — of whom Nathanael's soft voice 
 grew softer as he spoke. His betrothed 
 did not like to ask many questions about 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 The one of whom she had it in her mind 
 always to inquire, and whose name some- 
 how always slipped past, was Miss Anne 
 Valery. 
 
 All this conversation — wherein the young 
 lover bore himself much more bravely than 
 in regular "love making" — a manufacture 
 at which he was not aufait at all, caused the 
 morning to pass swiftly by. Agatha thought 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 agatha's husband. 
 
 if all her life were to move so smoothly and 
 pleasantly, she need never repent trusting its 
 current to the guidance of Nathanael Harper. 
 And when, soon after he departed, Emma 
 Thornycroft came in, all smiles, wonderings, 
 and congratulations, Miss Bowen was in a 
 mood cheerful enough to look the happy 
 fiancee to the life; besides womanly and 
 tender enough to hang round her friend's 
 neck, testifying her old regard — ^until Master 
 James testified his also, and likewise his ge- 
 neral sympathy in the scene, by flying at 
 them both with bread-and-buttery fingers. 
 
 " Ah, Agatha, there is nothing like being 
 a wife and mother ! you see what happiness 
 lies before you," cried the affectionate soul, 
 hugging her unruly son and heir. 
 
 Miss Bowen slightly shuddered ; being 
 of a rather different opinion ; which, how- 
 ever, she had the good taste to keep to 
 herself, since occasionally a slight misgiving
 
 Agatha's husband. 163 
 
 arose that either she was unreasonably harsh, 
 or that the true type of infantile loveable- 
 ness did not exist in the young Thornycrofts. 
 
 As a private penance for possible injustice, 
 and also out of the general sunniness of her 
 contented heart, she was particularly kind to 
 Master James that day, and moreover pro- 
 mised to spend the next at the Botanic 
 Gardens — not the terrific Zoological ! — with 
 Emma and the babies. 
 
 " And," added the young matron, with a 
 gracious satisfaction, " you know, my dear, 
 we shall — now and always — be most happy 
 to see Mr. Harper in the evening." 
 
 m2
 
 164 Agatha's husband. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Whether Mr. Harper, being a rather 
 proud and reserved individual, was not " so 
 happy to be seen in the evening" as an atten- 
 dant planet openly following his sphered idol, 
 or whether, like all true lovers, he was very 
 jealous over the lightest public betrayal of 
 love's sanctity, most certainly he did not 
 appear until he had been expected for at 
 least two hours. Even then his manner was 
 somewhat constrained. Emma's smiling, half- 
 jesting congratulations were nipped in the 
 bud ; she felt — as she afterwards declared — 
 " quite frightened at him."
 
 Agatha's husband. 165 
 
 Agatha, too, met him rather meekly, fear- ' 
 ing lest she had led him into a position dis- 
 tasteful to his feelings. She was relieved 
 when, taking little notice of herself, he fell 
 into conversation with Mr. Thornycroft — a 
 serious discussion on political and general 
 topics. Once or twice, glancing at him, and 
 noticing how well he talked, and how manly 
 and self-possessed he looked, Agatha began 
 to feel proud of her betrothed. She could 
 not have endured a lover who — in not unfre- 
 quent lover-like fashion — " made a fool of 
 himself" on her account. 
 
 While the two gentlemen still talked, Miss 
 Bowen stood secretly listening, but appa- 
 rently watching the rich twilight that co- 
 loured the long sweep of the Eegent's Park 
 trees — a pretty sight, even though in the 
 land of Cockayne. 
 
 " There's a carriage at our door!" screamed
 
 166 Agatha's husband. 
 
 Missy from the balcony, receiving a hurried 
 maternal reproof for ill-behaviour. Mrs. 
 Thornycroft wondered who the unoppor- 
 tune visitor could be. 
 
 It was a lady, who gave no name, but 
 wished to know if Mr. Locke Harper were 
 there, and if so, would he come to the car- 
 riage and speak to her a moment ? 
 
 Nathanael did so, looking not less sur- 
 prised than the rest of the party. After 
 five minutes had elapsed, he was still absent 
 from the room. 
 
 " Very odd !" observed Emma, half in 
 jest, half earnest ; "I should inquire into 
 the matter if I were you. Let me see — I 
 fancy the carriage is still at the door. It 
 would be rude to peep, you know, but we 
 can inquire of the maid." 
 
 " No," said Agatha, gently removing Mrs 
 Thorny croft's hand from the bell ; " Mr.
 
 Agatha's husband. 167 
 
 Harper will doubtless tell me all tliat is 
 necessary. He is perfectly able to conduct 
 his own affairs." 
 
 y- It was a speecli implying more indiffer- 
 ence than she really felt, for this mysterious 
 interview did not quite please her. She tried 
 vainly to go on talking with Mrs. Thorny croft, 
 and actually started when she heard the car- 
 riage drive off, and Nathaniel come up-stairs. 
 
 His countenance was a good deal troubled, 
 but he did not give the slightest explana- 
 tion — not even when Mrs. Thornycroft 
 joked him about his supposed " business." 
 
 '^ With a lady, too ! Not, I hope, a young 
 lady?" 
 
 " What did you say ?" he asked, absently, 
 his eyes fixed afar off on Agatha- 
 
 '' I hope your visitor in the carriage was 
 not a young lady ?" 
 
 " No." The answer Avas in a tone that 
 put an end to any more jesting.
 
 168 Agatha's husband. 
 
 Nathanael sat down, and tried to take up 
 the thread of politics just dropped with 
 Mr. Thornycroft, but only for a few minutes. 
 Then stealing round by Miss Bowen's side, 
 he whispered: 
 
 " I want to speak to you : would you 
 mind coming hbme soon ?" 
 
 "At once, if you wisli it," she answered, 
 perceiving that sgrnething was wrong, and 
 feelino- towards him too much of kindness 
 and too little of jealous love, to be in any 
 way displeased at his strange behaviour. 
 
 " Will you do it, then, dear Agatha ? 
 Keep them from talking to me." 
 
 Agatha was ill at contrivance, but she 
 managed somehow to get away ; and before 
 it was dark she and her betrothed were out 
 in the broad terrace. 
 
 " Now," said she, taking his arm kindly, 
 " if anything is amiss, you can tell me all 
 as we walk home. Better walk than ride."
 
 Agatha's husband. 169 
 
 ^' No, we must ride; I would not lose a 
 minute," Nathanael answered, as lie hurried 
 her into a conveyance, and gave the order 
 to drive to Bedford-square. 
 
 Miss Bo wen felt a twinge of repugnance 
 at this control so newly exercised over the 
 liberty of her actions ; but her good-hearted- 
 ness still held out, and she waited patiently 
 for her lover to explain. However, he 
 seemed to forget that any explanation was 
 necessary. He leaned back in the corner 
 quite silent, with his hand over his eyes. 
 Had she loved him, or not known that he 
 was her lover, Agatha would soon have 
 essayed the womanly part of comforter, but 
 now timidity restrained her. 
 
 At length timidity was verging into dis- 
 trust, when he suddenly said, just as they 
 were entering the square : 
 
 " I have used the dear right you lately
 
 170 Agatha's husband. 
 
 gave me, in taking a strange liberty with 
 you and your house. I have appointed to 
 meet me there to-night one whom I must 
 see, and whom I could not well see in any 
 other way — a lady — a stranger to you. But, 
 stay^ she is here !" 
 
 And as they stopped at the door, where 
 another carriage had stopped likewise, Na- 
 thanael unceremoniously leaped out, and 
 went to this " mysterious stranger." 
 
 " Go in, dear Agatha," said he, returning; 
 " go to your own sitting-room, and I will 
 bring her to you." 
 
 Agatha, half reluctant to be so ordered 
 about, and thoroughly bewildered likewise, 
 mechanically obeyed. Nevertheless, with a 
 sort of pleasure that this humdrum court- 
 ship was growing into something interest- 
 ing at last, she waited for the intruding 
 " lady."
 
 Agatha's husband. 171 
 
 That she was a lady, the first glimpse of 
 her as she entered the room leaning rather 
 heavily on Nathanael's arm, brought sufficient 
 conviction. She was tall, and a certain slow, 
 soft way of moving, cast about her an atmo- 
 sphere of sweet dignity. Her age was not 
 easily distinguishable, but her voice, in the 
 few words addressed to Mr. Harper, " Is your 
 friend here?" seemed not that of a very 
 young woman. 
 
 In her presence, Miss Bowen instinctively 
 rose. 
 
 " Yes, she is here," said Nathanael, an- 
 swering the stranger. Then, nerving him- 
 self to explain everything, " You could not 
 know what I wrote yesterday to my father 
 and to Elizabeth. She is Agatha Bowen, 
 my — my wife that will be. Agatha, this 
 lady is Miss Anne Yalery." 
 
 It would be hard to say which of the two 
 thus suddenly introduced to each other was
 
 172 Agatha's husband. 
 
 most surprised. However, the elder lady 
 recovered herself soonest. 
 
 '^ I was not aware of this ; but I am very 
 glad. And I need not now apologise for 
 thus intruding." 
 
 She went up to the young betrothed, and 
 took her by the hand warmly, seeming at 
 once and without further explanation to 
 comprehend all ; while on Agatha's side, 
 her look, her voice, her touch, communi- 
 cated a sudden. trust and pleasure. It was 
 one of those instinctive, inexplicable attrac- 
 tions which almost every one has experi- 
 enced more or less during life. She could 
 not take her eyes off Miss Valery; the face 
 and manner seemed at once familiar and 
 strange. She had never been so impressed 
 by any woman before. 
 
 To show all hospitable attentions, to place 
 an arm-chair for her guest, and even, as she 
 appeared weary, to entreat her to put aside
 
 Agatha's husband. 173 
 
 her bonnet and mantle — seemed quite na- 
 tural to Miss Bowen^ just as if they had been 
 friends of years. Anne thanked her cour- 
 teously, let her do what she would — but all 
 the while looked anxiously at Nathanael. 
 
 '^ You know, we have much to say. Is 
 she aware of what I told you ?" 
 
 " Not yet ; I could not tell her ; it shocked 
 me so. Oh, my poor uncle !" 
 
 Agatha, who was unfastening her guest's 
 cloak, turned round. 
 
 '^ What, your Uncle Brian ? Has anything 
 happened ? You speak almost as if he were 
 dead." 
 
 Anne Yalery shivered. 
 
 '^ Dead ! God forbid 1" cried the young 
 man, more deeply moved than his betrothed 
 had ever seen him. " But we have had ill 
 news. He went as interpreter on a Govern- 
 ment mission, as he had often done before ; 
 he was so popular among the Indians. But
 
 174 Agatha's husband. 
 
 from some treachery shown them, the tribe 
 grew enraged, and carried him off prisoner. 
 Heaven only knows if they have spared his 
 hfe. But I think — I feel they wiU. He was 
 so just to the red men always. He is surely 
 safe." 
 
 " Yes, he is safe," repeated Miss Yalery, 
 as if any alternative but that were utteily 
 incredible and impossible. 
 
 Nathanael continued : " The tidings reached 
 Kingcombe yesterday, and our friend here, 
 coming to London, volunteered to bring 
 them, and consult with me. If there is any 
 good deed to be done, it is sure to be done 
 by Anne Yalery," added Nathanael, stretch- 
 ing out his hand to hers. 
 
 She took it without speaking, being appa- 
 rently much exhausted. And now that her 
 bonnet was off, and she sitting near the 
 lamp, Agatha discerned that Miss Valery 
 was by no means young, or beautiful. At all
 
 Agatha's husband. 175 
 
 events, she was at that time in an unmarried 
 woman's life when it ceases to signify whether 
 she is handsome or not. Her hair at first 
 seemed brown, but on looking closer, there 
 appeared on either side the parting broad 
 silvery lines, as if two snow-hands laid on 
 the head had smoothed it down, leaving it 
 shining still. 
 
 Agatha turned from her passing exami- 
 nation of Miss Valery to the subject in ques- 
 tion, evidently so painful to her betrothed. 
 
 ^' You wish to consult together ? Do so. 
 Pray stay here. I am very sorry for your 
 trouble, Mr. Harper. Anything that I can 
 do for you or your friend, you know " — and 
 her voice dropped softly — " it is my duty 
 now." 
 
 Nathanael looked at her, longing despite 
 this grief to clasp her to his heart and say 
 how happy he was; but he restrained him-
 
 176 Agatha's husband. 
 
 self, and let liis eyes alone declare what he 
 felt. They were very eloquent. 
 
 While this passed between the young- 
 people, the elder lady arose from her chair, 
 as if quietude were painful to her. 
 
 " Nathanae], every minute is precious to 
 anxiety such as you must feel. Have you 
 thought what had better be done, since you 
 are the right person to do it?" 
 
 " As yet I have thought of nothing. And, 
 alas ! what can be done ?" 
 
 " Sit down, and let us consider," said she, 
 laymg her hand on his, with a force soft y^t 
 steady as that of her words. 
 
 Agatha was gliding out of the room, 
 but her lover's quick movement and Miss 
 Yalery's look stopped her. 
 
 " Do not go, Miss Bo wen; you are not so 
 unknown to me as I to you. I had much 
 rather you stayed."
 
 Agatha's husband. 177 
 
 So she took up her position a little distance 
 off, and listened while the two friends con- 
 sulted ; pondering the while on what a rare 
 kind of man Mr. Brian Harper must be to 
 win such regard. 
 
 "You say the news came accidentally?" 
 Mr. Harper observed. " It may not be true, 
 then." 
 
 " It is. I had it confirmed to-day." 
 
 " How ?" 
 
 '^ I went to the Colonial Office myself" 
 (" Kind Anne Yalery !" murmured the young 
 man.) " It was best to do so before I told 
 you anything. You, knowing the whole 
 facts, would then decide more readily." 
 
 " You are right and wise as ever. Now, 
 tell me exactly what you heard." 
 
 " While a treaty was going forward for 
 the Government purchase of Indian lands, 
 there arose a quarrel, and two red men were 
 
 VOL. I, N
 
 178 AGATHA S HUSBAND. 
 
 upon slight grounds punished cruelly. Then 
 the whole tribe went off in the night, carrying 
 as prisoners two Englishmen — one by force. 
 The other is believed to have offered himself 
 willingly as a hostage, until the reparation 
 of what he considered an injustice shown by 
 his countrymen to the Indians. You may 
 guess who he was." 
 
 " Uncle Brian, of course," cried Nathanael, 
 pacing the room. *'Just like him! He 
 would do the maddest things for the sake of 
 honour." 
 
 Anne Valery's eyes flashed in the dark a 
 momentary brightness, as if they were grow- 
 ing young again. 
 
 " But his life is surely safe : all over the 
 Indian country they respect the very name 
 of Brian Harper. No harm can touch him 
 — it is quite impossible!" said the young 
 man, determinedly. 
 
 " I think so too." And Miss Valery drew
 
 Agatha's husband. 179 
 
 a long breath. " Still, such danger is very 
 terrible — is it not ?" And she turned slightly, 
 to include Agatha in the circle. 
 
 " Oh, terrible !" the girl cried, deeply 
 interested. '^ But could he not be sought 
 for — rescued ? Could not a party be de- 
 spatched after him? If I were a man I 
 would head one immediately." 
 
 Miss Valery, faintly smiling, patted Aga- 
 tha's hand. It was easy to see that this 
 good heart opened itself at once to Natha- 
 nael's young betrothed. 
 
 " That is what I had in my own mind, 
 and should have spoken of to his nephew 
 here — a party of search, which the Ca- 
 nadian Government, if urged, would no 
 doubt consent to. Nathanael could propose 
 it — plan it. He is both ingenious and wise." 
 
 " Ah, he is ; he seems to know every 
 thing!" cried Agatha warmly. " Surely, 
 n2
 
 180 Agatha's husband. 
 
 Mr. Harper, you could think of something 
 — do something ?" 
 
 " I could," said the nephew, slowly 
 waking from a long interval of thought. 
 " I could do — what perhaps I ought, and 
 will — for him who has been more than a 
 father to me." 
 
 ''What is that?" Mgatha asked, while 
 Miss Valery regarded him silently. 
 
 " To go back to America — head a search ; 
 or, if that is refused me, search for him 
 myself alone, and never give up until I find 
 him — living or dead." 
 
 " Ah, do so ! that will be right, generous, 
 noble — you could not fail." 
 
 " There is no saying, Agatha ; only, if 
 done, it must be done without delay. I 
 must start at once — in a week — nay, a day 
 — leaving England, home, you, everything. 
 That is hard!"
 
 Agatha's husband. 181 
 
 He uttered the last words inaudibly, and 
 his left hand was suddenly clenched, as he 
 turned and walked once up the room and 
 down again. 
 
 Agatha knew not what to say. Only a 
 great love, conscious of the extent of its 
 own sacrifice, would have had boldness to 
 urge the like upon him. 
 
 Miss Yalery's sweet, quiet voice broke the 
 troubled pause : 
 
 " You cannot start yet, Nathanael ; you 
 would have to apply to the Government 
 here. It would be impossible for you to 
 leave under at least a fortnight." 
 
 ''Ah!" he sighed, momentarily relieved, 
 which was but natural. " Yet, how wrong 
 I am ! for my poor uncle's sake I ought not 
 to lose a day. Surely there would be some 
 way of hastening the time, if inquiries were 
 to be set on foot." 
 
 " I have made all that could be made ;
 
 182 AGATHA'S HUSBAND. 
 
 still, try yourself, though I fear it is useless. 
 The suspense is bitter, but what is inevitable 
 must be borne," said Anne, with the smile 
 of one long used to the practice of that 
 doctrine. " And in a fortnight — a fortnight 
 is a long time. Miss Bowen ?" 
 
 The smile, flitting to Agatha, took a cheer- 
 fulness which hitherto in the sad subject of 
 her talk Miss Valery had not displayed. A 
 certain benevolent meaning, which Agatha 
 rather guessed at than discerned, was like- 
 wise visible there. 
 
 '^ Come," said she, "for this night we can 
 do nothing ; but having settled what we 
 shall do, or rather what Mr. Harper will 
 do, let us make ourselves at rest. Be con- 
 tent, my dear Nathanael. Heaven will take 
 care of him for whom we fear." 
 
 Her voice trembled, Agatha fancied ; and 
 the young girl thought how full and gene- 
 rous was this kind woman's sympathy ;
 
 Agatha's husband. 183 
 
 likewise Jbow good Nathanael must be to 
 have awakened so deep a regard in sucli 
 an one as Miss Anne Valery. 
 
 The. clock struck ten. " We are early 
 folk in Dorsetshire ; but as my old servant 
 Andrews has secured my lodgings close by 
 (I am a very independent woman, you 
 see, Miss Bowen), if you will allow me, 
 I should like to sit another half hour, and 
 become a little better acquainted with you.'' 
 
 Agatha gave her a delighted welcome, and 
 astonished the lanson family by ordering all 
 sorts of hospitalities. The three began to con- 
 verse upon various matters, the only remark- 
 able fact being that no one inquired for or 
 alluded to a person, doubtless familiar to all 
 — Frederick Harper. On Agatha's part this 
 omission was involuntary ; he had quietly 
 slipped out of her thoughts hour by hour and 
 day by day, as her interest in him became
 
 184 Agatha's husband. 
 
 absorbed in others more akin to her true 
 nature. 
 
 But though every one tried to maintain the 
 conversation on indifferent topics, the feel- 
 ings of at least two out of the three neces- 
 sarily drew it back to one channel. There 
 they sat, running over the slight nothings, pro- 
 bable and improbable, which in hard suspense 
 people count up ; though still the worst Na- 
 thanael seemed to fear was the temporary 
 hardship to which his uncle would be ex- 
 posed. 
 
 " And he is not so young as he used to be. 
 How often have I urged him to be content 
 with his poverty and come home. He shall 
 come home now. If once I get him out 
 of these red fellows' hands, he shall turn 
 his face from their wild settlements for ever. 
 He can easily do it, even if I must stay in 
 Canada."
 
 Agatha's husband. 185 
 
 The young man looked at his newly-be- 
 trothed wife, and looked away again. It 
 was more than he could bear. 
 
 ^' Agatha," said Miss Valery after a pause, 
 during which she had closely observed both 
 the young people — " I may call you Agatha^ 
 for the sake of my friend here, may I not ?" 
 
 " Yes," was the low answer. 
 
 " Well then, Agatha, shall you and I have 
 a little talk ? We need not mind that foolish 
 boy; he was a boy, just so high, when I first 
 knew him. Let him walk up and down the 
 room a little, it will do him good." 
 
 She moved to the sofa, and took Agatha 
 by her side. 
 
 " My dear" — (there was a rare sweetness 
 in the way Miss Valery said the usually 
 unsweet words my dear) — " I need not say 
 w^hat, of course, we two both think, that she 
 w^ill be a happy woman who marries N"a- 
 thanael Harper."
 
 186 Agatha's husband. 
 
 Agatha, with her eyes cast down, looked 
 everything a young girl could be expected 
 to look under the circumstances. 
 
 " Your happiness, as well as your history, 
 is to me not like that of an entire stranger. 
 I once knew your father." 
 
 " Ah, that accounts for all!" cried Agatha, 
 delighted to gain this confirmation of her 
 strange impression in favour of Miss Yalery. 
 " When was this, and where was I ?" 
 
 " Neither born nor thought of" 
 
 Agatha's countenance fell. " Then of 
 course it was impossible — yet I felt certain 
 — I could even believe so now — that I have 
 seen you before." 
 
 While the girl looked, a quick shadow 
 passed over Anne Yalery's still features, 
 for the moment entirely changing their ex- 
 pression. But soon returned their ordinary 
 settled calm. 
 
 " We often fancy that strangers' faces are
 
 Agatha's husband. 18f 
 
 familiar. It is usually held to be an omen 
 of future affection. Let me hope that it 
 will prove so now. I have long wished, 
 and am truly glad, heart-glad, to see you, my 
 dear child." 
 
 She bent Agatha's forehead towards her, 
 and kissed it. Gradually her. lips recovered 
 their colour, and she began to talk again, 
 showing herself surprisingly famihar with 
 the monotonous past life of the young girl, 
 and likewise with her present circumstances. 
 
 " How kind of you to take such an in- 
 terest in me!" cried Agatha, her wonder ab- 
 sorbed in pleasure. 
 
 " It was natural," Anne said, rather 
 hastily. "A woman left orphan from the 
 cradle as I was, can feel for another 
 orphan. It is a desolate position for a 
 young girl." 
 
 " Ay, very desolate," said Agatha ; and
 
 188 Agatha's husband. 
 
 suddenly the recollection crossed her mind 
 of how doubly she should feel that desola- 
 tion when her betrothed husband was gone, 
 for how long, no one could tell ! A regret 
 arose, half tenderness, half selfishness ; but 
 she deemed it wholly the latter, and so 
 crushed it down. 
 
 " How long have you been engaged to 
 Nathanael ?" asked Miss Valery, in a man- 
 ner so sweet as entirely to soften the abrupt- 
 ness of the question, and win the unhesitat- 
 ing answer. 
 
 " A very short time — only a few days. 
 Yet I seem to have known him for years. 
 Oh, how good he is ! how it grieves me to see 
 him so unhappy," whispered Agatha, watch- 
 ing his restless movements up and down. 
 
 " It Avill be a hard trial for him, this part- 
 ing with you. Men like Nathanael never love 
 lightly ; even sudden passions — and his must
 
 Agatha's husband. 189 
 
 have been rather sudden — in them take 
 root as with the strength of years. I am 
 very sorry for the boy." 
 
 And Miss Valery's eyes glistened as they 
 rested on him whom probably from old habit 
 she thus called. 
 
 " Well, have you done your little mys- 
 teries ?" said he, coming up to the sofa, with 
 an effort to be gay. " Have you taken my 
 character to pieces, Anne Yalery ? Kemem- 
 ber, if so, I have little enough time to recover 
 it. A fortnight will be gone directly." 
 
 No one answered. 
 
 " Come, make room j I will have my place. 
 I will sit beside you, Agatha." 
 
 There was a sort of desperation in his 
 " I will " that indicated a great change in 
 the reserved, timid youth. Agatha yielded 
 as to an irresistible influence, and he placed 
 himself by her side, putting his arm firmly 
 round her waist, quite regardless of the pre-
 
 190 Agatha's husband. 
 
 sence of a third person — though about 
 Anne there was an abiding spirit of love 
 which seemed to take under its shadow all 
 lovers, ay, even though she herself were 
 an old maid. But perhaps that was the very 
 reason. 
 
 " I was doing you no harm, Nathanael," 
 said she, smiling. " And I was thinking, 
 like you, how soon a fortnight will be gone, 
 and how hard it is for you to part from this 
 little girl that loves you." 
 
 The inference, so natural, so holy, which 
 Miss Yalery had unconsciously drawn, 
 Agatha had not the heart to deny. She 
 knew it was but right that she should love, 
 and be supposed to love, her betrothed hus- 
 band. And looking at him, his sulFering, his 
 strong self-denial, she almost felt that she 
 did really love him, as a wife ought. 
 
 " If," said the soft voice of the good angel — 
 " if you had not known each other so short
 
 Agatha's husband. 191 
 
 a time, and been so newly betrothed, I should 
 have said — judging such things by what they 
 were when I was young," — here she mo- 
 mentarily paused — " I should have said, 
 Nathanael, that there was only one course 
 w^hich_, as regarded both her and yourself, 
 w^as wisest, kindest, best." 
 
 " What is that ?" cried he, eagerly. 
 
 " To do a little sooner what must neces- 
 sarily have been done soon — to take one 
 another's hands — thus." 
 
 Agatha felt strong, wild fingers grasping 
 her own ; a dizziness came over her — she 
 shrank back crying, "No, no !" and hid her- 
 self on Miss Yalery's shoulder. Nathanael 
 rose up and walked away. 
 
 When he returned, it was with his " good " 
 aspect, tender and calm. 
 
 " Now, Anne, I was wrong even to think 
 of such a thing;. Assure her I will never
 
 192 AGATHA S HUSBAND. 
 
 urge it. She is quite right in saying ' No.' — 
 What man could expect such a sacrifice ?" 
 
 " And what woman would deem it such ?" 
 whispered Miss Yalery. " But I know I am 
 a very foolish, romantic old maid, and view 
 these things in a different light to most 
 people. So my dear, be quite at rest," she 
 continued, soothing the young creature, who 
 still clung to her. " No one will urge you 
 in any way ; he will not, he is too generous ; 
 and I had no right even to say what I did, 
 except from my affection for him." 
 
 She looked fondly at the young man, as if 
 he had been still a little child, and she saw 
 him in the light of ancient days. These im- 
 pelled her to speak on earnestly. 
 
 " Another reason I had; because I am old, 
 and you two are young. Often, it seems as if 
 the whole world — fate, trial, circumstance — 
 were set against all lovers to make them part.
 
 Agatha's husband. 193 
 
 It is a bitter thing when they part of their own 
 free will. Accidents of all kinds— change, 
 sorrow, even death, may come between, and 
 they may never meet again. Agatha, 
 Nathanael — believe one who has seen more 
 of life than you — rarely do those that truly 
 love ever attain the happiness of marrying one 
 another. One half the world — the best and 
 noblest half — thirst all their lives for that 
 bliss which you throw away. What, Aga- 
 tha, crying ?" 
 
 And she tried to lift up the drooping 
 head, but could not. 
 
 " Nay, dear; I was wrong to grieve you 
 so. Please God, you two may meet again, 
 and marry and be happy, even in this 
 world. Come, Nathanael, you can say all 
 this much better than I. Tell her you will 
 be quite content, and wait any number of 
 years. And, as to this parting, it is a right 
 
 VOL. I. O
 
 194 Agatha's husband. 
 
 and noble sacrifice of yours ; let her see how 
 nobly you will bear it." 
 
 " Ay, Agatha, I will," said the young 
 lover firmly, as he stood before her, half 
 stooping, half kneeling — though not quite 
 kneeling, even then. But his whole manner 
 showed the crumbling away of that clear- 
 shining but icy covering with which nature 
 or habit had enveloped the whole man. 
 
 Agatha lifted her head, and looked at him 
 long and earnestly. 
 
 " I will," he repeated, " I promise you I 
 will. Only be content — and in token that 
 you are so, give me your hand." 
 
 She gave him both, and then leaned back 
 again on Miss Yalery's shoulder. 
 
 " Tell him — I will go with him — any- 
 where — at any time — if it will only make 
 him happy." .
 
 Agatha's husband. 195 
 
 The same night, when Nathanael and 
 Anne Valery had left her, Agatha sat think- 
 ing, almost in a dream, yet without either 
 sorrow or dread — that all uncertainty was 
 now over — that this day week would be her 
 wedding-day. 
 
 02
 
 196 agatha's husband. 
 
 CHAPTER YIIL 
 
 " I WISH, as I stated yesterday, that Miss 
 Bowen's property should be settled entirely 
 upon herself. This is the only course which 
 to my thinking can reconcile a man to the 
 humiliation of receiving a large fortune with 
 his wife." 
 
 ''An odd doctrine, truly! Where did 
 you learn it ?" laughed Major Harper, who 
 was pacing the Bedford-square drawing- 
 room with quick, uneasy steps ; while his 
 brother stood very quiet, only looking from 
 time to time at the closed door. It was the 
 Saturday before the marriage ; and Agatha's
 
 Agatha's husband. 197 
 
 trustee had come to execute his last guardian- 
 ship of her and her property. There was 
 lying on a corner-table, pored over by a 
 lawyer-like individual — that formidable in- 
 strument, a marriage settlement. 
 
 " Where did I learn it ?" returned Mr. 
 Harper, smiling. " Why, where I learned 
 most of my opinions, and everything that is 
 good in me — with Uncle Brian. Poor 
 Uncle Brian," and the smile faded into grave 
 anxiety. 
 
 ''Are you really going on that mad expe- 
 dition?" said the elder brother, with the 
 tone of a man who being perturbed in his 
 own mind is ready to take a harsh view of 
 everything. 
 
 " I do not think it mad — and anything 
 short of madness I ought to undertake, and 
 shall — for him." 
 
 "Ay," muttered the other, " there it is, 
 Brian always made everybody love him."
 
 198 Agatha's husband. 
 
 " But," continued Nathanael, " as I said 
 last night to Miss Bo wen, I shall do nothing 
 fooUshly. We must hold ourselves prepared 
 for the worst ; still, if better tidings should 
 come — though that is scarcely possible now 
 — then, perhaps " 
 
 " You would not go!" cried Major Harper, 
 eagerly. "Which would of course delay 
 your marriage. How very much better that 
 Avould be." 
 
 " Why so ?" said the bridegroom, with a 
 piercing look. 
 
 Frederick appeared confused, but threw it 
 off with a laugh. 
 
 " Oh, women like a little longer courtship. 
 They are never caught all in a minute, 
 unless they are quite indifferent as to who 
 catches them. And even then — ' marry in 
 haste' — you know the proverb — nay, don't 
 be angry," he added, as his brother turned 
 abruptly away. "I was only jesting ; and
 
 Agatha's husband. 199 
 
 a happy fellow like you can afford to be 
 laughed at by a miserable old bachelor 
 like me." 
 
 The momentary annoyance passed. Na- 
 thanael was, indeed, too happy to be seriously 
 vexed at anything. 
 
 " Still, for some reasons," continued Major 
 Harper, " I wish my fair ward were not be- 
 coming my sister in such a terrible hurry. 
 So much to be done in one week, and by a 
 man like me, who hates the very name of 
 business; it is next to impossible but that 
 some things should be slurred and hurried 
 over. For instance, there was no time, 
 Grimes said, to draw up a long deed of 
 settlement, showing precisely where her 
 money was invested." 
 
 " I told you I wanted nothing of the kind. 
 I scarcely understand your English law. But 
 can it not be stated in plain legal form — a 
 dozen lines would surely do it — that every
 
 200 Agatha's husband. 
 
 farthing Agatha has I settle upon herself 
 exclusively from the day she becomes my 
 wife." 
 
 " That is done. I — I — in fact, Mr. Grimes 
 had already advised such a course as being 
 the shortest." 
 
 '- Then what is the use of saying any 
 more about it ?" 
 
 " But, brother," observed Major Harper, 
 in whose manner was perceptible a certain 
 vague uneasiness, "if — though I assure you 
 Grimes has transacted all these matters, and 
 he is a sharp man of business, while I am 
 none — still, if it would be any satisfaction 
 to you to know particulars concerning where 
 Miss Bowen's money is invested " 
 
 " In the funds ; and to remain there by 
 her father's will, I think you said." 
 
 "Precisely. It was invested there," re- 
 turned the brother, with an accent so light 
 on the past tense that Nathanael, pre-occu-
 
 Agatha's husband. 201 
 
 pied with other things than money matters, 
 did not observe it. 
 
 ''Well, then, so let it stay. Don't let 
 us talk any more about this matter. I trust 
 entirely to you. To whom should I trust, if 
 not to my own brother?" 
 
 At these hearty words Major Harper's face, 
 quick in every mobile expression of feeling, 
 betrayed no slight discomposure. He walked 
 the room in a mood of agitation, compared 
 to which the bridegroom's own restlessness 
 was nothing. Then he went to the farther 
 end of the apartment, and hurriedly read 
 over the marriage settlement. 
 
 " Faugh, Grimes ! what balderdash is 
 this ?" he whispered angrily. " Balderdash ? 
 — nay, downright lies !" 
 
 " Drawn up exactly as you desired, and as 
 we arranged, Major Harper," answered Mr. 
 Grimes, formally. " Settling upon the lady
 
 202 Agatha's husband. 
 
 and her heirs for ever all her property now 
 in the ' Three per Cent. Consols.' " 
 
 ''Just Heavens ! and there's not a penny 
 of it there !" 
 
 " But there will be by the time the mar- 
 riage is celebrated, or soon after — since you 
 are determined to sell out those shares." 
 
 "I wish I could — I wish to Heaven I 
 could !" cried the poor Major, in a despair 
 that required all the warnings of his legal 
 adviser to smother it down, so as to keep 
 their conference private. " I've been driven 
 nearly mad going from broker to broker 
 in the City to-day. I might as well attempt 
 to sell out shares in the Elysian Fields as 
 in that confounded "Wheal Caroline." 
 
 "Fluctuations, my dear sir; mere fluctu- 
 ations ! 'Tis the same in all Cornish mines. 
 Yet, as I said, both concerning your own 
 little property and Miss Bowen's afterwards,
 
 Agatha's husband. 203 
 
 I would wish no better investment. I have 
 the greatest confidence in the Wheal Caro- 
 line shares." 
 
 " Confidence," echoed the Major, ruefi.illy. 
 " Put where is my brother's confidence in me, 
 
 when I tell him 'Pon my life, I can't 
 
 tell him!" 
 
 '' There is not the slightest need ; I have 
 accurate information from the mine, which 
 next w^eek will raise the shares to ten per 
 cent, premium, and then, since you are so 
 determined to sell out that most promising 
 investment " 
 
 " I will, as sure as I live. I vow I'llnever 
 be trustee to any young lady again, as long 
 as my name is Frederick Harper. However, 
 if this must stand" — and he read from the 
 deed — " ' all property now invested in the 
 Three per Cents.' — ^Oh, oh." Major Harper 
 shook his head, with a deep-drawn sigh of 
 miserable irresolution.
 
 204 agatha's husband. 
 
 Yet there lay the parchment, sickening 
 him with its prevaricating if not lying face ; 
 and his invisible good angel kept pulling 
 him on one side — nay, at last pulled him 
 half-way across the room to where, absorbed 
 in a reverie — pardonable under the circum- 
 stances — his brother sat. 
 
 ^'Nathanael, pray get out of that brown 
 study, and have five minutes' talk with me. 
 If you only knew the annoyance I have 
 endured all this week concerning Agatha's 
 fortune ! How thankful I shall be to trans- 
 fer it from my hands into yours." 
 
 "Thank you !" said the lover, rather 
 absently. 
 
 " And I hope it will give you less trouble 
 and more reward than it has given me," 
 continued the elder brother, still anxiously 
 beating about the bush, ere he came to 
 a direct confession. "I declare, I have 
 been as anxious for the young lady's
 
 Agatha's husband. 205 
 
 benefit as if I had intended marrying her 
 myself." 
 
 The bridegroom's quick, fiery glance 
 showed Major Harper that he had gone a 
 little too far, even in privileged jesting. 
 " Nathanael, I assure you " 
 
 "But Nathanael had heard the door open. 
 He hastily went forward and met his bride. 
 With her were Mr. and Mrs. Thornycroft, 
 Dr. and Mrs. lanson, and another lady. 
 The latter quickly passed out of the imme- 
 diate circle, and sat down in a retired corner 
 of the room. 
 
 Agatha looked pale and worn out, which 
 was no wonder, considering that for several 
 days she had endured morning, noon, and 
 night, all the wearisome preparations which 
 the kind-hearted Emma deemed indispensable 
 to " a really nice wedding." But her betrothed 
 noticed her paleness with troubled eyes. 
 
 " You are not ill, my darling ?"
 
 206 Agatha's husband. 
 
 " No," said Agatha, abruptly, blushing 
 lest any one should hear the tender word, 
 which none had ever used to her before, 
 and blushing still deeper when, meeting 
 Major Harper's anxious looks fixed on them 
 both, she fancied he had heard. A foolish 
 sensitiveness made her turn away from lier 
 lover, and talk immediately to the first per- 
 son who came in her way. 
 
 Meanwhile Mr. Thornycroft and Dr. Ian- 
 son, with a knowledge that time was pre- 
 cious, had gone at once to the business of 
 the meeting, and were deep in ]3erusal of 
 the marriage settlement of which they were 
 to be witnesses. 
 
 " Why, Miss Bowen, you are a richer 
 girl than I knew," said Emma's worthy 
 husband, coming forward, with his round 
 pleasant face. " I congratulate you ; at 
 this particular crisis, when hundreds are 
 being ruined by last year's mania for railway
 
 Agatha's husband. 207 
 
 speculation J it is most fortunate to have safe 
 funded property." 
 
 Major Harper's conscience groaned within, 
 and it was all over. He resigned himself 
 to stern necessity and force of circumstances 
 — hoping everything would turn out for 
 the best. 
 
 Then they all gathered round the table, 
 and Mr. Grimes droned out the necessary 
 formalities. The bride-elect listened, half 
 in a dream — the bridegroom rather more 
 attentively. 
 
 "Are you quite sure," said he, pausing, 
 with the pen in his hand, and casting his 
 eyes keenly over the document — '^ are you 
 quite sure this deed answers the purpose 
 I intended ? This is the total amount of 
 property which Mr. Bowen left ?" 
 
 And he looked from his brother to the 
 lawyer with an anxiety which long after- 
 wards recurred bitterly to Agatha's mind.
 
 208 Agatha's husband. 
 
 Mr. Grimes bowed, and assured him 
 that all was correct. So the young bride- 
 groom signed with a steady hand, and after- 
 wards watched the rather tremulous signa- 
 ture of his bride. Then an inexpressible 
 content diffused itself over his face. Putting 
 her arm in his, he led her away proudly, 
 as though she were already his own. 
 
 Confused by her novel position, Agatha 
 looked instinctively for some womanly 
 encouragement, but Emma Thorny croft was 
 busily engaged in admiring observation of 
 the bold signature of her James, and Mrs. 
 lanson was worse than nobody. 
 
 " Miss Yalery ! — what has become of Miss 
 Valery ?" said the bride, lier eyes wandering 
 restlessly around. Other eyes followed hers 
 — Major Harper's. Incredulously these 
 rested on the silent lady in the distance, 
 whose whole mien, figure, and attire, in 
 the plain dark dress, and close morning cap,
 
 Agatha's husband. 209 
 
 marked her a woman undeniably and fear- 
 lessly middle-aged. 
 
 " Is it possible !" he exclaimed. " Can 
 that be Anne Valery ?" 
 
 The lady arose, and met him with ex- 
 tended hand. " It is Anne Valery, and she 
 is very glad to see you. Major Harper." 
 
 They shook hands ; his confused manner 
 contrasting strongly with her perfect sere- 
 nity. After a moment Miss Bowen, who 
 could not help watching, heard him say : 
 
 " I, too, am glad we have met at last. It 
 is as friends." 
 
 " I was never otherwise to you," she an- 
 swered, gently; and joined the circle. 
 
 This rather singular greeting, noticed by 
 none but herself, awakened Agatha's old 
 wrath against Major Harper, lest, as her 
 romantic imagination half suggested, the 
 secret of Anne Valery's always remaining 
 Anne Valery, was, that his old companion 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 210 Agatha's husband. 
 
 had been first on the illustrious Frederick's 
 long list of broken hearts. If so, never was 
 there a broken heart that made so little out- 
 ward show, or wore such a cheerful exterior 
 as Miss Valery's. 
 
 But Agatha's own heart was too full of 
 the busy trembling fancies which throng 
 round a young bride to conjecture on the 
 hearts of other people. Very soon Major 
 Harper quitted the house, and the Thorny- 
 crofts also. She was left alone with her lover 
 and with Anne — Anne, who ever since her 
 engagement had seemed to keep a steady 
 watch over her. They had rarely met, and 
 for brief intervals ; yet Agatha felt that 
 she was perpetually under this guardianship, 
 gentle, though strong — holding her fluctuat- 
 ing spirit firm, and filling her with all cheer- 
 ful hopes and tender thoughts of her future 
 husband. She seemed to grow a better 
 woman every time she saw Anne Valery. It
 
 Agatha's husband. 211 
 
 was inexpressibly sweet to turn for a few 
 moments each day from tlie lace and the 
 ribbons, the dresses and the bride-cake, and 
 hear Anne talk of what true marriage really 
 was — when two people entirely and worthily 
 loved one another. 
 
 And A2;atha had not the courasfe to con- 
 fess what she began to hope was a foolish 
 doubt, that the " love" which Miss Valery 
 seemed to take for granted she felt towards 
 Nathanael, was a something which as yet 
 she herself did not quite understand. 
 
 That Saturday afternoon, nevertheless, 
 she was cahner and more at ease. Signing 
 the settlement had removed all doubts from 
 her mind, and make her realise clearly that 
 she would soon be Mr. Harper's wife. And 
 he was so tender over her, so happy. Her 
 marriage with him appeared to make every 
 one happy. That very day he had brought 
 p2
 
 212 Agatha's husband. 
 
 her a heap of letters from Dorsetshire ; her 
 first welcome from his kindred — her own that 
 would be. 
 
 They seemed to know all about her — 
 from Anne Valery doubtless — and to be de- 
 lighted at Nathanael's choice. There was a 
 kind but formal missive from the old father, 
 hnplying his dignified satisfaction that at last 
 one of his sons would marry to keep up the 
 family name. From the daughters there 
 were letters, varying in style and matter, but 
 all cordial (except, perhaps, Eulalie's, who 
 had years to wait before she married, and 
 was rather cross accordingly). One note, in 
 neat and delicate writing, made Agatha's 
 heart beat ; for it was signed, " Your affec- 
 tionate siste7\ Elizabeth." 
 
 She, who had longed for a sister all her 
 life ! Heaven was very good to her, to give 
 her all ties through one ! It seemed, indeed,
 
 Agatha's husband. 213 
 
 right and holy that she should be married 
 to Nathanael. 
 
 One only unutterable terror she had, which 
 by a fortunate chance was never alluded to 
 by any one, and she was too much occupied 
 to have it often forced on her mind. This 
 was, the thought of having to cross the seas 
 to Canada. 
 
 " Oh!" she sighed, as she sat, with the let- 
 ters on her lap, listening to what her lover 
 said of his sisters and his family — " oh! that 
 we could do as your father seems to wish, 
 and go and live in Dorsetshire, near King- 
 combe Holm." 
 
 " I wish it too, if it would please you, 
 dear ; but it seems impossible. How could 
 I live in England without a profession ? — 
 even supposing Uncle Brian did consent to 
 return and settle at home. Sometimes, but 
 very rarely, he has hinted at such a possibi-
 
 214 Agatha's husband. 
 
 lity. — He has indeed, Anne," continued the 
 young man, noticing how keenly Miss Va- 
 lery's eyes were fixed on him. 
 
 '' I am glad to hear it," was all her reply. 
 
 " But he always said he would never return 
 till he was grown either very rich or very 
 old. Alas ! the latter chance may come, but 
 the former never ! Poor Uncle Brian ! If 
 he comes at all, it is sure not to be for many 
 years." 
 
 " Not for many years !" repeated Miss 
 Yalery, who was crossing over to Agatha's 
 side with a piece of rich lace she had been 
 unfolding. As she walked, her hand was 
 unconsciously pressed upon her chest, a 
 habit she had after any quick movement. 
 And, leaning over Agatha, she breathed 
 painfully and hard. 
 
 " My dear ?" The young girl looked up. 
 " Your sisters that are to be, desired me to
 
 Agatha's husband. 215 
 
 give you from them a wedding-present. It 
 was to be your veil. But I had a whim 
 that I would like to give you your veil 
 myself. Here it is. Will you accept it, 
 with my love ?" 
 
 So saying, she laid over the bride's head 
 a piece of old point lace, magnificent in 
 texture. Agatha had never seen anything 
 like it. 
 
 " Oh, Miss Valery, to think of your giving 
 me this ! It is fit for a queen !" And she 
 looked at Mr. Harper, hesitating to accept 
 so costly a gift. 
 
 '^ Nay, take it," said he, smiling. " Never 
 scruple at its costliness ; it cannot be richer 
 than Anne's heart." And he grasped his 
 old friend's hand warmly. 
 
 Miss Valery continued, with a slight 
 colour rising in her cheek, " This was 
 given me twenty years ago for a wedding-
 
 216 Agatha's husband. 
 
 veil. It has been wasted upon me, you 
 see, but I wish some one to wear it, and 
 would like it to be worn by Mrs. Locke 
 Harper.'' 
 
 Agatha blushed crimson. Nathanael 
 looked delighted. Neither noticed Anne 
 Valery ; who, her passing colour having 
 sank into a still deeper paleness — quietly 
 returned to her seat, and soon after quitted 
 the house.
 
 Agatha's husband. 217 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 It was a most unconscionably early hour 
 on the wedding morning when Mrs. Thorny« 
 croft, who had insisted on mounting guard 
 overnight in Bedford-square, to see that all 
 things were made ready to go off " merry 
 as a marriage bell," came into Agatha's room 
 and roused the bride. 
 
 " I never knew such a thing in all my life ! 
 Well, he is the most extraordinary young 
 man ! What is to be done, my dear ?" 
 
 "What — what?" said Agatha, waking, 
 with a confused notion that something very 
 dreadful had happened, or was going to hap-
 
 218 Agatha's husband. 
 
 pen. She recollected that this day on which 
 she so early opened her eyes was some day of 
 great solemnity. It seemed so like that of 
 her father's funeral. 
 
 " Don't be frightened, love. Nothing has 
 occurred ; only there is Mr. Harper in the 
 parlour below, wanting to speak with you. I 
 never heard of such a request from a bride- 
 groom. It is contrary to all rules of common 
 sense and decorum." 
 
 " Hush !" said Agatha, trying to collect 
 her thoughts. " Tell me exactly his mes- 
 sage." 
 
 " That he wished to speak with you at 
 once, before you dress for church ; and will 
 wait for you in the dining-room. What — 
 you are not going to do as he desires? — / 
 wouldn't! One should never obey till after 
 marriage." 
 
 Agatha made no answer, but composedly 
 began to dress. In a few minutes she had once
 
 Agatha's husband. 219 
 
 more put on the mourning, laid aside as she 
 thought for ever the night before, and had 
 ffone down-stairs to her brideo^room. 
 
 He was standing in the only available 
 corner of the room not occupied by a chaotic 
 mass of hymeneal preparations, and gazing 
 vacantly out into the square, where the trees 
 cast the long shadows of early morning, while 
 the merry little sparrows kept up a perpetual 
 din. 
 
 As the door moved, Mr. Harper turned 
 round. He had a sickly, w^orn look, as if he 
 had scarcely slept all night, and in his manner 
 was a strange mingling of trouble and of joy. 
 
 '^ Agatha — how kind ! I ought to apolo- 
 gise," he began, taking both her hands. '^But 
 no ! I cannot." 
 
 "Nothing is wrong? No misfortune hap- 
 pened?" 
 
 " Misfortune ? God forbid ! Surely I do 
 not look as if it were a misfortune? I am
 
 220 Agatha's husband. 
 
 only too glad — too happy. Whatever results 
 from it, I am indeed happy !" 
 
 " Then so am I, whatsoever it may be," 
 returned Agatha, softly. " Still, do tell me." 
 
 Her bridegroom, as he pressed her to his 
 bosom, looked as if he had for the moment 
 forgotten all about his tidings ; but after- 
 wards, when her second entreaty came, he 
 took out a letter and bade her read, holding 
 her fast the while with a light, firm hand on 
 her shoulder. He seemed ahuost to fear that 
 at the news he brought she would glide out of 
 his grasp like snow. 
 
 " It is an odd hand — strange to me," said 
 Agatha. "Is it" — and a sudden thought 
 struck her — '^ is it " 
 
 " Yes— thank God !" 
 
 " Oh, then, he is safe — I am so glad — so 
 glad !" cried Agatha, iu the true sympathy of 
 her heart. But her very gladness appeared 
 to affect contrariwise the troubled mood of
 
 Agatha's husband. 221 
 
 her lover. His hand dropped imperceptibly 
 from her shoulder — he sat down. 
 
 "Read the letter, which came late last 
 night. I thought you would be pleased — 
 that was why I thus disturbed you." 
 
 Agatha, who had not yet learned the joy 
 or pain of reading momently the changes 
 of a beloved face, immediately perused the 
 letter. It was rather eccentric of its kind : 
 
 " Lodge of 0-me-not-tua. 
 
 " My dear Boy, 
 "If ever you get into the hands of those 
 red devils, be not alarmed: it isn't so bad 
 as it seems. If you saw me now, in the big 
 buffalo-cloak of a medicine-man, after smoking 
 dozens of pipes of peace with every one of the 
 tribe, sitting at the door of my lodge, with 
 miles of high prairie-grass rolling in waves 
 towards the sunset, you would rather envy 
 me than otherwise, and cry out, as I have 
 often done, ' Away with civihsation !'
 
 222 Agatha's husband. 
 
 " I am not scalped — I thought 1 should not 
 be ; the tribe (it wastes valuable paper to 
 write their long name, but you will have heard 
 it) — the tribe know me too well. I make a 
 capital white medicine-man. I might have 
 escaped any day, but, pshaw ! honour ! — So 
 I choose to see a Httle of the great western 
 forests, until I know how my two red friends 
 have been treated on Lake Winnipeg shore. 
 But in no case is any harm likely to come to 
 me, except those chances of mortality which 
 are common to all. 
 
 " You will receive this (which a worthy 
 psalm-singing missionary conveys to New 
 York) almost as soon as the news of our 
 adventure reaches Europe. I send it to relieve 
 you, dear nephew, and all friends, if I have 
 any left, from further anxiety concerning me, 
 and especially from useless search, as I shall 
 not return to Montreal until it seems to me 
 good.
 
 Agatha's husband. 223 
 
 " Therefore, stay in Europe as long as, 
 or longer than you planned, and God prosper 
 you, Nathanael, my good boy. 
 
 " Your affectionate Uncle, 
 
 " Brian Locke Harper. 
 
 " I trust earnestly that this scrawl will reach 
 Kingcombe Holm. Possibly, no more news 
 of me may ever reach there. — Yet I fear not, 
 for He who is everywhere is likewise in 
 the wild western prairies ; and life is not so 
 sweet that I should dread its ending. Still, 
 if it does end, remember me to my nieces, 
 my brother, and all old friends, including 
 Anne Valery. If living, I shall reappear 
 sometime, somewhere. 
 
 " B. L. H." 
 
 " This is indeed happy news ; — so far," 
 said Agatha, " though he seems in no 
 cheerful mood." 
 
 " Melancholy was always his way at times."
 
 224 Agatha's husband. 
 
 "What a strange man he must be!" she 
 continued, still thinking more of the letter 
 than of anything else. "But" — and she 
 turned to Nathanael — " your mind is now at 
 rest ? You will not need to go to America ?" 
 
 " Not just yet." 
 
 She looked at him a moment in surprise, for 
 there was something peculiar in liis manner. 
 She felt half angry with him for sitting so 
 still, and speaking so briefly, wbile she herself 
 was trembling with delight. " Have you told 
 Miss Yalery ?" He shook his head. "Ah, 
 then, go at once and tell her, so happy as 
 she will be ! Do go." 
 
 " Presently. Come and sit down here. I 
 want to talk to you, Agatha." 
 
 She let him place her by his side. He took 
 her hands, and regarded her earnestly. 
 
 " Do you remember what day this was to 
 have been ?" 
 
 " Was to have been ?" she repeated, and
 
 agatiia's husband. 225 
 
 instinctively guessed what he had doubtless 
 come to say. Her heart began to beat 
 violently, and her eyes dropped in confusion. 
 
 " I say ' was^ because, if you desire it, it 
 shall not be. I see the very idea is a rehef 
 to you. I saw it in your sudden joy." 
 
 Agatha was amazed — she had till this 
 moment never thought of such a thing. Mr. 
 Harper's whole manner of speech and proceed- 
 ing was so very incomprehensible — like a 
 lover's — that she told the entire truth in 
 simply saying " that she did not understand 
 him." 
 
 " Let me repeat it in plainer words." But 
 the plainer words would not come ; after 
 one or two vain efforts, he sat with averted 
 face, speechless. At last he said abruptly, 
 " Agatha, do you wish to defer our marriage ?" 
 
 As he spoke, his grasp of her hand was so 
 fierce that it positively hurt her. " Oh, let me 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 
 
 go — you are not kind," she cried, shrinking 
 from the pain, which he did not even perceive 
 he had inflicted — so strange a mood was upon 
 him. He loosed her hand at once, and stood 
 up before her, speaking vehemently. 
 
 " I meant to be kind — very kind — just in 
 the vi^ay that I knew w^ould most please you. 
 I meant to tell you that I wish you to hold 
 yourself quite free, both as to this day or any 
 other days : that you have only to say the 
 
 word, and What a fool I am making of 
 
 myself!" 
 
 Muttering the last words, he turned and 
 v^alked quickly to the far end of the room, 
 leaving Agatha to meditate. It was a 
 new thing to see such passion in him ; and 
 while half frio^htened she was interested and 
 touched. She would have been more so, 
 but for a certain satirical bitterness which 
 roused her pride, until she could not do as
 
 Agatha's husband. 227 
 
 she had at first intended — follow him, and 
 ask why he was angry. The humility of 
 love was not yet hers. 
 
 So she sat without moving, her eyes fixed 
 on her hand, where the red mark left by her 
 lover's grasp was slowly disappearing ; until, 
 a minute after, he approached. 
 
 " Was that the mark of my fingers on 
 your wrist ? Did I hurt you, my poor 
 Agatha ?" 
 
 " Yes, a little." 
 
 " Forgive me !" And sitting down beside 
 her, he bent his lips to where his rude grasp 
 had been, kissing the little wrist over and 
 over again, though he did not speak. 
 
 His concession in this, the first ripple which 
 had ever stirred their calmest of all calm 
 courtships, moved Agatha even more than 
 his sudden gust of passion. It is a curious 
 fact, that some women — and they not of 
 the weaker or more foolish kind — ^like very 
 q2
 
 228 Agatha's husband. 
 
 much to be ruled. A strong nature is in- 
 stinctively attracted by one still stronger. 
 Most certainly Agatha had never so dis- 
 tinctly felt the cords — not exactly of love, 
 but of some influence akin thereto — which 
 this young man had netted round her, as 
 when he began to draw them with a tight, 
 firm hand, less that of a submissive lover 
 than of a dominant husband. She had never 
 liked him half so well as when, taking her 
 hand once more into his determined hold, he 
 said — gently, indeed, but in a tone that would 
 be answered — 
 
 " Now, tell me, what do you wish ?" 
 ' ''What do I wish ?" echoed she, feeling as 
 tliough some hard but firm support were 
 about to relax from her, leaving her trembling 
 and insecure to the world's open blasts. " I 
 do not know — I cannot tell. Talk to me a 
 little ; that will help me to judge." 
 
 His eye brightened, though faintly. " I will
 
 Agatha's husband. 229 
 
 speak, but you shall decide, for all lies in your 
 own hands. I thought this right, and came 
 here determined on telling you so." 
 
 " Well ?" said Agatha, expectantly. 
 
 " You promised me this hand to-day, be- 
 lieving I was to leave England at once. My 
 not leaving frees you from that promise — at 
 least at present. If you would rather wait 
 until you know me better, or loved me better, 
 then " 
 
 " What then ?" 
 
 " We will quite blot out this day — crush it 
 — destroy it, no matter what it was to have 
 been. We will enter upon to-morrow, not as 
 wife and husband, but mere lovers — friends — 
 acquaintance — anything you like. Nay — I am 
 growing a fool again." 
 
 He put his hand to his forehead, sighed 
 heavily, and then continued with less violence. 
 
 " If this is what you wish — as from your 
 silence I conclude it is — be assured, Agatha,
 
 230 Agatha's husband. 
 
 that I shall consent. I will take no wife against 
 her will. The kisses of her lips would sting 
 rae, if there were no love in her heart." 
 
 Agatha was still silent. 
 
 " Well then, it must be so," said he, in 
 slow, measured speech. " I must go away 
 out of this house, for I am no bridegroom. 
 You may tell the women to put away those 
 white baubles till they are again wanted — 
 which may be — never 1" 
 
 She looked up questioningly. 
 
 " I repeat — never. The currents of life, 
 so many and so fierce, may sweep us asunder 
 at any moment. I may become mercenary, 
 and choose a richer wife even than yourself ; 
 or you may turn from me to some one more 
 pleasing, more winning — my brother, per- 
 haps " 
 
 Agatha recoiled, while the angry blood 
 flashed from brow to throat. Her lover saw it, 
 and for the moment a strange intentness w^as
 
 Agatha's husband. 231 
 
 in his gaze. But immediately he smiled, as 
 a man would at some horrible phantom of his 
 own creating, and continued with a softened 
 manner : 
 
 " Or, if our own wills hold secure, many- 
 things may happen, as Anne Valery fore- 
 warned us, to prevent our union. Even 
 ere a month or two — for if you are ever mine 
 it must be as soon as then — but even within 
 that time one or other of us may have gone 
 away where no loving, no regretting, can ever 
 call us back any more." 
 
 Terrible was the imagined solitude of a 
 world from which had passed the only being 
 who cherished her — the only being whom she 
 thoroughly honoured. Agatha drew closer 
 to Nathanael. 
 
 " Still, for all that," continued he, striving 
 to keep even in his mind the balance of 
 honour and generous tenderness against the
 
 232 agatha's husband. 
 
 arguments of selfish passion, ''if for any 
 reason you wish to postpone this day for 
 weeks, months, or years, I will take the 
 chance. All shall be as you deem best for 
 your own happiness. As for mine — I will try 
 to be content." 
 
 He paused a little, but it Avas a pause which 
 no woman could misunderstand. Then, turn- 
 ing back to her, he said in a low tone, 
 
 " When shall I go away, Agatha ?" 
 
 Her brow dropped slowly against his arm, 
 as, much agitated, yet not unhappy, she 
 w^hispered the one word '-'• Never V 
 
 For one moment Agatha felt against her 
 own the loud convulsive throbs of the heart 
 that loved her — an embrace which, in its utter 
 outpouring of rapture, was like none that came 
 before it, or after. When she learned to count 
 and chronicle such tokens of love, as one begins 
 to count each wave when the sand grows dry.
 
 agatha's husband. 233 
 
 this stood firm, immutable — a truth, a reality, 
 which no succeeding doubts could gainsay. 
 
 It lasted, as such moments can biit last, a 
 space too brief to be reckoned, dying out of 
 its own intensity. Agatha slid from her 
 lover's arms, and swiftly passing out at the 
 door, met Emma coming in. The unlucky 
 bridegroom was left to make his own expla- 
 nation to Mrs. Thornycroft, and how he 
 performed that feat remains to this day a 
 mystery. 
 
 Solemnly, and much affected, the bride 
 \vent up-stairs to put on her wedding-gar- 
 ments. 
 
 Anne Yalery had just arrived. She sat 
 alone in Miss Bowen's dressing-room, playing 
 with the weddinoj-wreath. Her face wore a 
 thoughtful, sickly, sad look, but the moment 
 she heard some one at the door this expression 
 vanished.
 
 234 Agatha's husband. 
 
 " So, my dear, you have a rather uncon- 
 scionable bridegroom, Mrs. Thorny croft tells 
 me. He has been here already." 
 
 Suddenly all that had happened recurred to 
 Agatha. She forgot her own agitation in the 
 joy of being the first to bring good news. 
 
 " Ah, you little know why he came. Uncle 
 Brian — there is a letter from Uncle Brian." 
 
 And in her warm-heartedness she threw 
 her arms round Miss Valery's neck. She 
 was very much surprised that Anne did not 
 speak a single word, and that the cheek 
 against which her young glowing one was 
 pressed felt as cold as marble. 
 
 " Are you not glad, Miss Valery ?" 
 
 " Yes, very glad. Now, will you go down- 
 stairs and fetch me the letter ?'* 
 
 And, gently putting the young girl from 
 her, Anne sat down. As Agatha left the 
 room, she fancied she heard a faint sound — a
 
 Agatha's husband. 235 
 
 sigh or gasp ; but Miss Yalery had not moved. 
 She sat as at first — her hands clasped on 
 her lap, the veil of her bonnet falling over 
 her face. And coming back some minutes 
 after, Agatha found her in precisely the same 
 position. 
 
 " Thank you, dear." She held out her 
 hand for the letter, and then retired with it 
 to a far window. It took a good while t© 
 read. All the time that the young bride was 
 being dressed by Emma and the maid, Miss 
 Yalery stood in that recess, her back turned 
 toward them, apparently reading or ponder- 
 ing over that strange scrawl from the Far 
 West. 
 
 At last Mrs. Thornycroft gently hinted 
 that there was hardly time for her to return 
 home arid dress for the wedding. 
 
 " Dress for the wedding," repeated Anne, 
 absently. " Oh, yes ; I remember, it was to 
 be early. No fear ! I will be quite ready."
 
 236 Agatha's husband. 
 
 Slie crossed the room, walking slowly, but 
 at tlie door turned to look at the bride, on 
 whose head Emma was already placing the 
 orange-blossoms. 
 
 " Doesn't she look pretty ?" appealed the 
 gratified matron-ministrant. 
 
 " Yes ; ver}^ pretty. — God bless her !" said 
 Miss Yalery, and kissed her on the fore- 
 head. Agatha quite started — the lips were 
 so cold. 
 
 " Well !" cried Emma Thomycroft, as the 
 door closed, " I do wish, my dear, that little 
 Missy had been grown up enough to be your 
 bridesmaid instead of that very quiet, ordi- 
 nary-looking old maid. But, after all, the 
 contrast mil be the greater." 
 
 At nine o'clock the bride's half of the 
 wedding-party were all safely assembled in 
 Doctor lanson's drawing-room, and every- 
 thing promised to go off successfully — to 
 which result Emma, now all in her glory,
 
 Agatha's husband. 237 
 
 prided herself as having been the main con- 
 tributor — and no doubt the kind, active, 
 sensible Httle matron was right. — When lo ! 
 — there came an unlucky contretemps. 
 
 Major Harper, who of com'se was to give 
 away the bride, sent word that on account of 
 sudden business he could not possibly be at 
 the church before eleven. At that hour he 
 promised faithfully to meet his brother there. 
 The note which Mr. Harper sent over was a 
 very hurried and disjointed scrawl. This 
 was all that the vexed bridegroom knew of 
 the matter. 
 
 So for two long hours Agatha sat in her 
 wedding-dress, strangely quiet and silent — 
 sometimes playing with the wreath of orange- 
 blossoms which her lover had sent her, 
 and which, being composed of natural 
 flowers, according to a whim of Mr. Har- 
 per's, was already beginning to fade. Still,
 
 238 Agatha's husband. 
 
 she refased to put it aside, tliough the pru- 
 dent Emma warned her it would be quite 
 withered before she reached the church ; " as 
 was sure to be the case when people were 
 so ridiculous as to wear real flowers/' 
 
 The good soul went about, half scold- 
 ing, half crying; hoping nothing might 
 happen, or consoling herself with looking 
 alternately at her pretty peach-coloured 
 dress, and her " James," who walked about, 
 indulging in gay reminiscences of his own 
 wedding, and looking the most comfortable 
 specimen imaginable of a worthy middle-aged 
 ^' family man." Nevertheless, in spite of 
 Mr. Thornycroft's efforts to cheer up the 
 dreariness of the group, it was a great relief 
 to everybody when, at the earliest reason- 
 able time, the bride's small party started, and 
 were at length assembled under the dark 
 arches of Bloomsbury Church — darker than
 
 Agatha's husband. 239 
 
 usual to-day, for the morning had gloomed 
 over, and become close, hot, and thundery. 
 
 Punctually at eleven, but not a minute 
 before, which — Emma whispered — was cer- 
 tainly not quite courteous in a bridegroom, 
 Mr. Harper came in. There was no one with 
 Mm. 
 
 " My brother not here?" he said, in 
 anxiety. 
 
 Some one hinted that Major Harper was 
 never very punctual. 
 
 " He ought to be, this day at least," 
 observed Mr. Thorny croft. *'And I am 
 confident I saw him not half an hour ago 
 walking homeward round the other side of 
 Bedford-square. Do not be alarmed about 
 him, pray." This last remark was addressed 
 to Agatha, who, overpowered by the close- 
 ness of the day, and by these repeated 
 disasters, had begun to turn pale.
 
 240 Agatha's husband. 
 
 Nathanael watched her with a keen 
 anxiety, which only agitated her the more. 
 Every one seemed uneasy and rather dull ; 
 — a circumstance not very remarkable, since, 
 in spite of the popular delusion on that sub- 
 ject, very few ever really look happy at a 
 wedding. It makes clearer to each one the 
 silent ghost sitting in every human heart, 
 which may take any form — bliss long desired, 
 lost, or unfulfilled — or, in the fulfilling 
 changed to pain — or, at best, looked back 
 upon with a memory half-pensive if only 
 because it is the past. 
 
 For forty interminable minutes did the 
 little party wait in the dreary church aisles, 
 until the clock, and likewise the beadle, 
 warned them it was near the canonical hour. 
 
 ''What are we to do?" whispered the 
 bridegroom, looking towards Anne Valery. 
 She took his hand, and drawing it towards
 
 Agatha's husband. 241 
 
 Agatha's, which hung on her arm, said 
 earnestly : 
 
 " Wait no longer — life's changes will not 
 wait. Marry her now — nothing should come 
 between lovers that love one another." 
 
 Anne's manner, so faltering, so different 
 from her usual self, irresistibly impressed the 
 hearers. Silently the little group moved to 
 the altar; the clergyman, weary of delay, 
 hurried the service, and in a few minutes the 
 young creatures who eight weeks before had 
 scarcely heard each other's names, were 
 made " not two, but one flesh." 
 
 It was all like a dream to Agatha Bowen ; 
 she never believed in its reality until, 
 signing that name, "Agatha Bowen," in 
 the register-book, she remembered she was 
 so signing it for the last time. A moment 
 after, Emma's husband, who had assumed 
 the ofiice of father to the bride, cordially 
 
 VOL. I, R
 
 242 agatha's husband. 
 
 shaking her hand, wished all happiness to 
 Mrs. Harper. 
 
 Agatha started, shivered, and burst into 
 tears. It was a natural thing, after so many 
 hours of overstramed excitement ; nor were 
 her tears those of unhappiness, yet they 
 seemed, every drop, to burn on her bride- 
 groom's heart. To crown all, while these 
 unlucky tears were still falling, some one at 
 the vestry door cried out, " Tliere's Major 
 Harper." 
 
 It was indeed himself. He entered the 
 church hurriedly — very pale — with beads of 
 dew standing on his brow. 
 
 "Are they married ? Only tell me — are 
 they married ?" cried he. 
 
 Some uncontrollable feeling made Natha- 
 nael move to his wife's side and snatch her 
 hand. • 
 
 "Yes," said he, meeting his brother's eye, 
 "we axe married."
 
 Agatha's husband. 243. 
 
 Major Harper sunk into one of the vestry- 
 cliairs, muttering something, inaudible to all 
 <5ars save those which seemed fatally gifted 
 with preternatural acuteness — the young 
 bridegroom's. Nathanael fancied — ^nay, was 
 certahi — that he heard his brother say, " Oh 
 Heaven^ poor Agatha^ Like lightnmg his 
 eye shot down to his bride, whose weepmg 
 had changed into a look of frightened sur- 
 prise. He dropped her hand, then with a 
 determined air again took possession of it, 
 saying sternly to his brother : 
 
 '' What is the reason of all this ? Is any- 
 thing amiss ?'' • 
 
 " No, nothing — ^have I said anything ?" 
 
 " Then why startle us thus ? It is not 
 right, Frederick." 
 
 " Hush — perhaps he is ill," whispered 
 Anne Yalery. 
 
 Major Harper looked up, and among the 
 many inquiring eyes, met hers. It seemed 
 r2
 
 244 
 
 to fix liim, sting liim, rouse liim to self- 
 command. 
 
 " I am quite well," lie cried, witli a hoarse 
 attempt at laughter. ^' A gay bachelor al- 
 ways feels doubly cheery at a wedding. So 
 it is all over, Nathanael ? I beg your pardon 
 for being too late ; but I have been running 
 about town on important business, till I am 
 half dead. Still, let me offer my congratu- 
 lations to the bride." 
 
 He came forward jauntily, seized Agatha's 
 hand and was about to kiss it, but for a 
 slight shrinking on her part. Immediately 
 his face became clouded with a wild re- 
 morse, a perfect agony of sorrow. At least 
 so it appeared to one who never for a mo- 
 ment relaxed his watch — the younger bro- 
 ther. 
 
 " Really," said Mr. Thomycroft, who, 
 during the few minutes thus occupied, had 
 bustled in and out of the vestry — " really, are
 
 Agatha's husband. 245 
 
 we never intending to come home? Some- 
 body must make a diversion here. Major 
 Harper, will you take my wife? Miss^ 
 Valery, allow me ?" 
 
 This fortunate interference effected a 
 change. All moved away a little from the 
 bridegroom, who was still standing by his 
 wife's chair. 
 
 " Agatha — will you come ?" 
 She mechanically rose ; Mr. Harper drew 
 her arm in his, and led her down the aisle. 
 There were a few stray lookers-on at the 
 church-door, who peered at them curiously. 
 An inexphcable shadow hung over them. 
 Never were a newly-married couple more 
 silent or more grave. 
 
 Only, as they stood on the entrance-steps 
 that were wet with a past shower of thunder- 
 rain, and Agatha in her thin white shoes 
 was walking right on, her husband drew her 
 back.
 
 246 agatha's husband. 
 
 " It wDl not hurt me. Do let me go," 
 slie said. 
 
 " No, you must not. You are mine now," 
 was tlie answer, with a look tliat would liave 
 made the tone of control sound in any loving 
 bride's ear the sweetest ever heard. 
 
 He left Agatha in the churchy and hurried 
 a little in advance. His brother and Mrs. 
 Thorny croft were standing at the porch, 
 Emma laughing and whispering. And while 
 waiting for the carriage, it so chanced that 
 Nathanael caught what they were saying. 
 
 ^' Why, Major Harper, you look as dull 
 as if you had been in love with Agatha 
 yourself! And after what you confessed to 
 me, I did positively believe she was in love 
 with you." 
 
 " Agatha in love with me ! really you 
 flatter me," said Major Harper, looking down 
 and tapping his boot, with his own self-com- 
 placent, regretful smile.
 
 Agatha's husband. 247 
 
 " I did indeed think it, from her agitation 
 when I told her so. — Hush ! is that any one 
 near us ? But then Agatha " 
 
 '-' Don't speak of her," cried Major Harper, 
 in a burst of real emotion. " And she liked 
 me so well, poor child ! Oh, I wish to 
 Heaven I had married her myself, and saved 
 her from " 
 
 Here a voice was heard calling " Mr. 
 Harper — Mr. Harper," but the bridegroom 
 was nowhere to be seen. Some one — not 
 her husband — put Agatha into the carriage. 
 Several minutes after, Nathanael appeared. 
 
 ^'^'Where have you been ? Your wife is 
 waiting." 
 
 " My wife ?" He looked round bewil- 
 dered, as if the words struck him with the 
 awful irrevocable sense of what was done. 
 Hurriedly he ran down the steps, sprang into 
 the carriage beside Agatha, and they drove 
 away.
 
 248 agatha's husband. 
 
 Through many streets and squares they 
 passed, for the breakfast was to be at Emma's 
 house. Agatha sat for the first tune alone 
 with her husband. The sun just coming out 
 threw a soft crhnson hght through the closed 
 blinds; the very air felt warm and sweet, 
 like love. Agatha's heart was stirred with 
 a new tenderness towards him into whose 
 keeping she had just given her whole life. 
 
 For a little while she sat, her eyes cast 
 down, wondering what he would say or do, 
 whether he would take her hand, or draw her 
 softly to his breast and let her cry her heart 
 out there, as she almost longed to do — poor 
 fatherless, motherless, brotherless, sisterless 
 girl, who in her husband alone must con- 
 centrate every earthly tie. 
 
 But he never spoke — never moved. He 
 leaned back m the carriage as pale as death, 
 his lips rigidly shut together, his eyes shut 
 too, except that now and then they opened
 
 agatha's husband. 249 
 
 and closed again, to show that he was not 
 in a state of unconsciousness. But towards 
 his young wife no look ever once wandered. 
 
 At length he started as from a trance and 
 saw her sitting there, very quiet, for the 
 pride of her nature was beginning to rise at 
 this strange treatment from him to whom she 
 had just given herself — her all. She was 
 nervously moving the fingers of her left hand, 
 where the newly placed ring felt heavy and 
 strange. 
 
 Nathanael snatched the hand with vio- 
 lence. 
 
 " Agatha — are you not my Agatha ? Tell 
 me the truth — the whole truth. I will have 
 it from you!" 
 
 " Mr. Harper !" she exclaimed, half fright- 
 ened, half angry. 
 
 His long, searching gaze tried to read her 
 every feature — her pale cheeks — her lips
 
 250 Agatha's husband. 
 
 proud, nay, almost sullen — her eyes, from 
 which the softness so lately visible had 
 changed into inquietude and trouble. There 
 was in her all maidenly innocence — no one 
 could doubt that ; but nothing could be 
 more unlike the shy tenderness of a bride, 
 loving, and married for love. 
 
 Slowly, slowly, the young bridegroom's 
 gaze fell fr-om her, and his thoughts settled 
 into dull conviction. All his violence ceased, 
 leaving an icy composm-e, which in itself 
 bore the omen of its lasting stay. 
 
 " Forgive me," he said, in a kind but cold 
 voice, while his vehement grasp relaxed into 
 a loose hold. " You are my dear wife now, 
 and I will try to be a good husband to you, 
 Agatha." 
 
 Stooping forward, his lips just touched 
 her cheek — which shrank from hhn, Agatha 
 scarcely knew why.
 
 agatha's husband. 251 
 
 " I see !" he muttered to himself. " Well, 
 
 be it so ! And God help us both !" 
 
 The carriage stopped. Honest Mr. James 
 
 Thornycroft was at the door, bidding a gay 
 
 and full-hearted welcome to the bridegroom 
 
 and bride. 
 
 What a marriage-day !
 
 252 agatha's husband. 
 
 chapte:r X. 
 
 ''Are you quite warm there, Agatha?" 
 " Yes, thank you, quite warm," she said, 
 turning round a little, and then turning back. 
 She sat working, or seeming to work, at a 
 large bay-window that fronted the sea at 
 Brighton. Already there had come over her 
 the slight but unmistakeable change which 
 mdicates the wife — the girl no longer. She 
 had been married just one week. 
 
 Her husband sat at a table writing, as was 
 his habit during the middle of the day, in 
 order that they might walk out in the even- 
 ing. He had often been thus busy during the
 
 Agatha's husband. 253 
 
 week, even tliough it was the first week of 
 the honeymoon. 
 
 The honeymoon ! How different the word 
 now sounded to Agatha ! Yet she had nothing 
 to complain of. Mr. Harper was very kind ; 
 watchful and tender over her to a degree 
 which she felt even more than she saw. In 
 the mornings he read to her, or talked, chiefly 
 upon subjects higher and withal pleasanter 
 than Agatha had ever heard talked of before ; 
 in the evenings they drove out or walked, 
 till far into the starry summer night. They 
 were together constantly, there never passed 
 between them a quick or harsh word, and 
 yet 
 
 Agatha vainly tried to solve the dim, 
 cloudy "yet," which had no tangible form, 
 and only arose now that the first bewilderment 
 of her changed existence was settling into 
 reality, and she was begmning to recognise
 
 254 agatha's husband. 
 
 herself as Agatha Harper, no longer a girl, 
 but a married woman. The sole conclusion 
 she could come to was, that she must be now 
 learning what she supposed every one had to 
 learn — that a honeymoon is not quite the 
 dream of bliss which young people believe in, 
 and that few married couples are quite happy 
 during the first year of their union. 
 
 And Mrs. Harper (or Mrs. Locke Harper, 
 as her husband had had printed on the cards, 
 omitting the name which she had once stig- 
 matised as " iigly/') was probably not alto- 
 gether wide of the truth, though m this case 
 she judged from mistaken because individual 
 evidence. It is next to impossible that two 
 lives, unless assimilated by strong attach- 
 ment and rare outward circumstances, if 
 suddenly thrown together, should at once 
 mingle and flow harmoniously on. It takes 
 time, and the influence of perfect love, to
 
 agatha's husband. 255 
 
 melt and fuse tlie two currents into one beau- 
 tiful whole. Perhaps, did all young lovers 
 believe and prepare for this, there would be 
 fewer disappoiated and unhappy marriages. 
 
 Though sitting at the open window, with 
 the sharp sea-breeze blowing in upon her — 
 it happened to be a sunless and gloomy day 
 — Agatha had answered that she was " quite 
 warm." Nevertheless her heart felt cold. 
 Not positively sad, yet void. An infinitude 
 of passionate devotion is necessary to make 
 two active human beings content with one 
 another's sole company for eight entire days, 
 having nothing to occupy them but each 
 other. 
 
 Wanting this — yet scarcely conscious of 
 her need — the young wife sat, in her secret 
 soul all shivering and a-cold. 
 
 At last, wearied with the long grey sweep 
 of undulating sea, she closed the window.
 
 256 agatha's husband. 
 
 " I thought the breeze would be too keen 
 for you," said Mr. Harper, whom her lightest 
 movement always seemed to attract. 
 
 " Oh, no ; but I am tired of watching the 
 waves. How melancholy it must be to live 
 here. I have a perfect terror of the sea." 
 
 "Had I known that, I would not have 
 proposed our coming to-day from Leamington 
 to Brighton. But we can leave to-morrow." 
 
 "I did not mean that,^' she answered 
 quickly, dreading lest her husband might 
 have thought her speech ungracious or 
 unkind. " We need not go — unless you 
 wish it." 
 
 The bridegroom made no immediate reply; 
 but there was a melancholy tenderness in his 
 eyes, as, without her knowing it, he sat 
 watching his young wife. At length he rose, 
 and putting her arm m his, stood a long 
 time with her at the mndow.
 
 Agatha's husband. 257 
 
 " I thiiik, dear Agatha, « that you are 
 right. The sea is always sad. How dreary 
 it looks now — like a wide-stretched monoto- 
 nous life whose ending we see not, yet it 
 must be crossed. How shall we cross it ?" 
 
 Agatha looked inquiringly. 
 
 " The sea I mean," he continued, with a 
 sudden change of tone. " Shall we go over 
 to France for a week or two ?" 
 
 ' ' Oh, no " — and she shuddered. ' ' It would 
 kill me with fear to cross the water." 
 
 He looked surprised at her unaccountable 
 repugnance, which she had scarcely expressed 
 than she seemed overpowered by confasion. 
 Her husband forbore to question her fur- 
 ther ; but the next day told her that he 
 had arranged for their quitting Brighton and 
 making a tour through the west of England, 
 proceeding from thence to London. 
 
 "Where — as my brother, or rather my 
 brother's solicitor, writes me word — some 
 
 VOL. I. s
 
 258 Agatha's husband. 
 
 business about your fortune will require our 
 return in another fortnight. Are you willing, 
 Agatha?" 
 
 " Oh yes — quite mlling," she cried ; for 
 now that her changed life was floating her 
 far away from her old ties, she began to have 
 a yearning for them all. 
 
 So the honeymoon dwindled to three 
 weeks, at the close of which Mr. and Mrs. 
 Locke Harper were again in London. 
 
 It seemed very strange to Agatha to come 
 back to the known places, and roll over the 
 old familiar London stones, and see all tilings 
 going on as usual ; while in herself had come 
 so wide a gap of existence, as if those one- 
 and-twenty days of absence had been one- 
 and-twenty years. 
 
 She had become a little more happy lately; 
 a little more used to her new life. And 
 day by day something undefinable began to 
 draw her towards her husband. It was m
 
 Agatha's husband. 259 
 
 fact the dawning spirit of love, which should 
 and might have come before marriage, in- 
 stead of being, as now, an after-growth. Be- 
 neath its influence Nathanael's very hkeness 
 altered; his face grew more beautiful, his 
 voice softer. Looking at him now, as he 
 sat by her side, Mr. Harper hardly appeared 
 to her the same man who, returning from 
 the church as her bridegroom, had impressed 
 her with such shrinking awe. 
 
 He too was more cheerful. All the long 
 railway journey he had tried to amuse her; 
 the hmnorous half of his disposition — for 
 Nathanael had, like most good men, a spice 
 of humour about hhn — coming out as it had 
 never done before. However, as they neared 
 London, he as well as liis wife had become 
 rather gTave. But when, abruptly turning 
 round, he perceived her earnestly, even 
 tenderly regarding him (at which Agatha 
 s2
 
 260 agatha's husband. 
 
 was foolish enough to blush, as if it were a 
 crime to be looking admiringly at one's hus- 
 band), he melted into a smile. 
 
 " Here we are in the old quarters, Agatha. 
 The question is, where shall we go to, since 
 we have no lodgings taken?" 
 
 " You should have let me write to Emma, 
 as I wished." 
 
 ''No," he said, shortly ; "it was a pity to 
 trouble her." 
 
 " She would not have thought it so, poor 
 dear Emma." 
 
 " Were you very inthnate with Mrs. 
 Thomycroft ? Did you tell her everything 
 in your heart, as women do ?" 
 
 Agatha was amused by the jealous search- 
 ing tone and look, so replied carelessly, 
 "Oh yes, all I had to tell — which was 
 not much. I don't deal in mysteries, nor 
 like them. But the chief mystery now
 
 261 
 
 seems to be, where are we to go ? If Emma 
 may not be troubled, surely Mrs. lanson, or 
 your brother " 
 
 " My brother is out of town." 
 
 "Indeed!" And Agatha looked as she 
 felt, neither glad nor sorry, but purely indif- 
 ferent. Her husband, observing it, became 
 more cheerful. 
 
 " Nay, my dear Agatha, you shall not be 
 inconvenienced. We will go first to some 
 quiet lodgings I know of, where Anne 
 Valery always stays when she is in London 
 — though she has returned home now, I 
 think. And afterwards, if you find the 
 evening very dull " 
 
 "Ah!" exclaimed the young wife, smiling 
 a beautiful negative. 
 
 " We will go and take a sentimental 
 walk through those very squares we strolled 
 through that night — do you remember ?" 
 
 "Yes!"
 
 262 Agatha's husbai^d. 
 
 How strange -seemed that recollection t — 
 how little she had then thought she was 
 walking with her future husband ! 
 
 Yet, as a few hours after she trod the 
 well-known ways, with her wifely feelings, 
 sweet and grave, and thought that the arm 
 on which she now leaned was her own 
 through life, Agatha Harper was not un- 
 happy, nor would she for one moment have 
 wished to be again Agatha Bowen. 
 
 The next day, by the husband's express 
 desire — the declaring of wliich was a great 
 act of virtue on his part — word was sent to 
 the Thomycrofts of the arrival of Mt. and 
 Mrs. Locke Harper. 
 
 Very trembhng, shy, and bewitching the 
 bride sat, waiting for the meeting; and when 
 Emma did really come, very tragico-comic, 
 half pleasure, half tears, was the hearty em- 
 brace between the two women. Mr. Harper 
 stood and looked on — he played the young
 
 Agatha's husband. 263 
 
 Imsband as composedly as lie liad done the 
 lover and tlie bridegroom, except for a slight 
 jealous movement as he saw the cHnging, 
 the kisses, the tears, which, with the warmth 
 of a heart thrilled by new emotions and 
 budding out into all manner of new tender- 
 nesses, Agatha lavished on her friend. 
 
 Yet, whatever he felt, no one could ob- 
 serve but that Nathanael was extremely 
 pohte and kind to Mrs. Thomycroft. She 
 on her part admired him extremely — in 
 whispers. 
 
 "How well he looks! Eeally quite 
 changed ! No one would ever think of call- 
 ing him ' a boy' now. You must be quite 
 proud of your husband, my dear." 
 
 Agatha smiled, and a hght thrill at her 
 heart betrayed its answer. Very soon she 
 ceased to be shy and shame-faced, and sat 
 talking quite at ease, as if she had been Mrs. 
 Locke Harper for at least a year.
 
 264 AGATHA 'S HUSBAND. 
 
 Emma Tliornycroft was a person not likel}' 
 to waste much time on the sentmientahties 
 of such a meetmg ; she soon dashed mto the 
 common-sense questions of what were their 
 plans in London? and when they would 
 come and dine with herself and "James?" 
 " Quite friendly. We will ask no one — 
 except of com'se Major Harper." 
 
 " He is out of town," said Nathanael. 
 
 " Wliat a pity ! — Yet, no wonder ; London 
 is so terribly hot now. Is he quite well?" 
 
 "I believe so," Agatha answered for her 
 husband, who had moved off. 
 
 "Because James has met him frequently 
 of late, rushing about the City as pale as 
 a ghost, and looking so miserable. We 
 were afraid something was wrong with 
 him." 
 
 " Oh, I hope not," exclaimed Agatha. 
 
 " My brother is quite well," Mr. Harper 
 again observed, from his outpost by the
 
 Agatha's husband. 265 
 
 window ; and something in Ms tone uncon- 
 sciously checked and changed the conversa- 
 tion. 
 
 Whether by Agatha's real inclination, or 
 by some imnoticed influence of Nathanael's, 
 who, gentle as his manners were, through a 
 score of other opposing wills seemed always 
 silently to attain liis own, Mrs. Thorny- 
 croft's hospitable schemes were overruled. 
 At least, the venue was changed from Ke- 
 gent's Park to the Harpers' own temporary 
 home — where, as if by magic, a multitude of 
 small luxuries had already gathered round 
 the young wife. She took all quite naturally, 
 never pausing to think how they came. 
 
 It was with a trepidation which had yet 
 its pleasure, that she arrayed herself for 
 this, the first time of her taking her place 
 at the head of her husband's table. She 
 put on a high white gown, which Mr. Har- 
 per had once said he Hked — she was be-
 
 266 agatha's husband. 
 
 ginning to be anxious over her dress and 
 appearance now. Glancing into the niirror, 
 there recurred to her mind a speech she had 
 once heard from some foohsh matron — " Oh, 
 it does not signify what I wear, or how I 
 look — I'm married !" Agatha thought what 
 a very wrong doctrine that was ! and laughed 
 at herself for never having much cared to 
 seem pleasing until she had some one to 
 please. Nay, now for the first time she 
 grumbled at the Pawnee-face, wishing it had 
 been fairer ! 
 
 But fair or not, when it came timidly 
 and shone over NathanaeFs shoulder, he sit- 
 ting leaning thoughtfully on his hand, the 
 result was such as materially to relieve any 
 womanly doubts about her personal appear- 
 ance. He kissed her m unwonted, smiling 
 tenderness. 
 
 " I like that dress -, and yom* curls" — softly 
 touching them — "your curls fall so prettily.
 
 Agatha's husband. 2€7 
 
 How well you look, Agatha ! Happy too ! 
 Is it really so ? Are you getting more used to 
 me and my faults, dear ?" There was some- 
 thing inexpressibly tender in the way he said 
 "Dear," the only caressing word he ever 
 used. 
 
 " Your faults !" re-echoed she iu a merry 
 incredulous tone. But before she could say 
 more, the guests most inopportunely arrived. 
 And Agatha, very naturally, darted from 
 her husband to the other side of the room 
 like a flash of lightning. 
 
 If the Thornycrofts had expected to find a 
 couple of turtle-doves cooing in a cage, they 
 were certainly disappointed. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Locke Harper had apparently settled down 
 into an ordinary husband and wife, resuming 
 serenely their place in society, and behaving 
 towards each other and the world in general 
 just like sensible old married people. Their 
 friends, taking the hint, treated them in like
 
 268 agatha's husband. 
 
 manner ; and thus now and for ever vanished 
 Agatha's honeymoon. 
 
 After dinner Emma, anxious about Aga- 
 tha's proceedings, and still more anxious 
 to have a hand in the same, for she was 
 never happy unless busy about her own or 
 other people's affairs, made inquiries as to 
 the future plans of the young couple. 
 
 Agatha could give no answer, for, to her 
 great thankfulness, her husband had hitherto 
 avoided the subject. She looked at him for 
 a reply. 
 
 '' I think, Mrs. Thornycroft, it will pro- 
 bably be tliree months before I" — he smil- 
 ingly corrected himself, and said " we — return 
 to Canada." 
 
 " Then what do you intend to do mean- 
 while ? Of course, Agatha dear, you will 
 remain in London ?" 
 
 " Oh yes," she replied, accustomed to de- 
 cide for herself, and forgetting at the mo-
 
 agatha's husband. 269 
 
 ment that there was now another to whose 
 decision she was bound to defer. Blushins^, 
 she looked towards her husband, who was 
 talking to Mr. Thorny croft. He tamed, as 
 indeed he always did when he heard her 
 speaking, but he made no remark, and the 
 " Yes" passed as their mutual assent to 
 Emma's question. 
 
 " I know a place that would just suit you," 
 pursued the latter; "that is, if you take a 
 furnished house." 
 
 " I should like it much." 
 
 "It is but a cottage — rather small, con- 
 sidering your means; by-the-by, Agatha, 
 how close our friend the Major kept all 
 your aifairs. No one imagined you were 
 so rich." 
 
 " Neither did I, most certainly. But — 
 the cottage." 
 
 " The prettiest little place imaginable.
 
 270 Agatha's husband. 
 
 Such a love of a drawing-room! I went 
 there to call on young Northen's sister when 
 she married, last year. Poor thing — sad 
 affair that, my dear." 
 
 " Indeed," said Agatha, who now felt an 
 interest in all stories of marriages. 
 
 " It happened a fortnight ago, soon after 
 your wedding. They quarrelled — she got 
 through a window, and ran away home to 
 her father. It seems she had never cared 
 a straw for her husband, but had married 
 him out of spite, liking some one else better 
 all the time. His own brother, too, they 
 say." 
 
 " What a wicked — wicked thing !" cried 
 Agatha warmly. So warmly that she did 
 not see, close by her chair, her husband — 
 watching her intently, nay, wildly. As 
 she ceased, he drew himself up to his fall 
 statm^e, and stood erect. His countenance
 
 agatha's husband. 271 
 
 became wonderfully beautiful, altogether 
 glowing. 
 
 " Eeally, you seem to have comprehended 
 the matter at once," said Mr. Thorny croft, 
 startled in the winding up of a long harangue 
 about the Corn Laws by the exceeding 
 bright look which his hearer turned towards 
 hun. 
 
 " Yes, I think I shall soon comprehend 
 everything," was the answer, as Mr. Harper 
 placed himself on the arm of his wife's chair, 
 in the gay attitude of a very boy. She, 
 moving a little, made room for him and 
 smiled. Nay, she even leant silently against 
 his arm, which he had thrown romid the 
 back of her chair. 
 
 " Come, Agatha, I want to hear about 
 that wonderful house which your friend is 
 persuading you to take. You know, I 
 happen to have a little concern in the
 
 272 agatha's husband. 
 
 matter likewise. Have I not, Mr. Thorny- 
 croft ?" 
 
 " Certainly ; since you liave turned out to 
 be tliat no less wonderful personage wliich 
 my wife lias been perpetually boring me 
 about for the last two years — Agatha's Hus- 
 band," said Mr. Thorny croft, patiently re- 
 signing the Corn Laws to their inevitable 
 doom — oblivion. 
 
 But Emma, plunging gladly into her na- 
 tive element, discussed the whole house from 
 attic to kitchen. Mr. Harper listened with 
 a complaisant and amused look. Begin- 
 ning to discern the sterling good there was 
 in the little woman, he passed over her 
 harmless small-mindedness ; knowing well 
 that m the wide-built mansion of human na- 
 tm^e there must be always a certam order of 
 beings honourable, useful, and excellent in 
 themselves, to form the basement-story.
 
 Agatha's husband. 273 
 
 The twilight darkened while Emma talked , 
 the faster perhaps that her " James/' whose 
 respected presence always restrained her 
 tongue, was discovered to be undeniably 
 asleep. But the young couple were excellent 
 listeners. Nathanael still sat balancing him- 
 self on the arm of his wife's chair ; his hand 
 having dropped playfully among her curls. 
 He joined with gaiety in all the discussions. 
 More than once, in talking of the various 
 arrangements of their new household, his 
 voice faltered, and the hearts of the husband 
 and wife seemed trembhng towards one an- 
 other. 
 
 The conversation ended in Emma's receiv- 
 ing carte-blanche to take the house, if prac- 
 ticable, that the Harpers might settle there 
 for three months certain. 
 
 " Come, this is better than I expected," 
 cried the worthy little woman. *' We shall 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 Agatha's husband. 
 
 be neighbours, and I can teach Agatha house- 
 keeping. She will have a nice little menage^ 
 and can give a proper ^At Home,' and 
 charming wedding parties. Shall she not, 
 Mr. Harper?" 
 
 " If she wishes." 
 
 But Agatha's whispered "No," and kind 
 pressure of the hand, brought to liim a most 
 blissfud conviction that she did not wish, 
 and that she would be, as she said, "happier 
 living quietly at home." Home ! what a word 
 of promise that sounded m both their ears ! 
 
 When the hghts came, Mr. Thomycroft 
 woke up ; with many apologies, poor man ; 
 only, as his wife said, " Everybody knew 
 how hard James worked, and how tired he 
 was at night." The two gentlemen fraternised 
 once more. They began one of those general 
 arguments on the history of the tunes, which 
 when spoken are intensely interestmg, and
 
 AGATHA S HUSBAND. 275 
 
 being written, as intensely prosy. The ladies 
 listened in a most wife-like and pleased sub- 
 mission. 
 
 " How well my husband talks — doesn't 
 he ?" whispered Emma, with sparlding eyes. 
 
 Agatha agreed, and indeed Mr. Thorny- 
 croft's strong sense and acute judgment were 
 patent to every one. But when Mr. Harper 
 spoke, his clear views on every point, his 
 trenchant but pleasant mt, by wliich he 
 romided off the angularities of argument, 
 and above all his keen, far-seeing intellect, 
 which dived into wondrous depths of know- 
 ledge, and invariably brought something pre- 
 cious to light — these things w^ere to the young 
 wife a positive revelation. 
 
 She sat attentive, beguming to learn what 
 strange to say was no pain — her own igno- 
 rance, and her husband's superior wisdom. 
 She had never before felt at once so proud 
 and humble. 
 
 t2
 
 276 Agatha's husband. 
 
 Wlien tlie Tliomycrofts departed, and Mr. 
 Harper returned up-stairs from bidding them 
 good-by, lie found liis mfe in a tliougiitful 
 mood. 
 
 "Well, dear, have you had a pleasant 
 evening? Are you content with our plans?" 
 
 " Yes — indeed, more so than I deserve. 
 Oh, how good you are !'* she whispered ; 
 and her shortcomings tow^ards him grew into 
 a great burden of regret. 
 
 " Hush !" he answered, smiling; " we will 
 not begin discussing one another's goodness, 
 or you know the subject would be intermi- 
 nable. And I would like us to hold a little 
 serious consultation before to-morrow. You 
 are not sleepy?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Stretch yourself out on the sofa, and let 
 me sit beside you. There — are you quite 
 comfortable ?" 
 
 " Ah, yes," she said, and thought for the
 
 agatha's husband. 277 
 
 hundredth time how sweet it was to have 
 some one to take care of her. 
 
 " Now, my wife, hsten ! You seemed to 
 long for that cottage very much, and you 
 shall have it. Nay, you ought, because at 
 present you are the rich lady ; while I, so 
 long as I remain in England, receive none 
 of my salary from Montreal, and am, com- 
 paratively speaking, poor. In fact, nothing 
 but that very secondary character, ^ Agatha's 
 Husband.'" 
 
 Though he laughed, there was a little 
 jarring bitterness in this confession ; but 
 Agatha was too simple to notice it. He 
 continued quickly : 
 
 ^' Nevertheless, this position is only tempo- 
 rary ; I shall be quite your equal in Canada." 
 
 "In Canada!" she echoed dolefully. "Oh, 
 surely — surely we need not go ?" 
 
 " Are you in earnest, Agatha?" 
 
 " I am indeed," said she, gathering up
 
 278 Agatha's husband. 
 
 courage to speak to liim of what ever since 
 her marriage had been grooving an inexpres- 
 sible dread. 
 
 "Why so?" 
 
 ''I_I am afraid to tell." 
 
 "Shall /tell you? You cannot bear to 
 leave yom* old friends ? You fear to go into 
 a new comitr}^, entirely among strangers, with 
 only your husband ?" 
 
 His suddenly suspicious tone stopped the 
 frank denial that was bursting to his wife's 
 lips. She only said, a little hurt, " If that 
 were true, I would have told you. I always 
 speak exactly what I think." 
 
 "Is it so? is it indeed so?" he cried, with 
 a lightening of countenance as sudden as its 
 shade. " Oh, Agatha, forgive me ;" and his 
 heart seemed melting before her. " I am not 
 good to you — but you do not quite under- 
 stand me yet." 
 
 " I feel that. Yet what can I do ?"
 
 Agatha's husband. 279 
 
 '• Nothing ! Only wait. I Avill try to cure 
 myself without paining you. But, for tlie 
 sake of our whole life's happiness, hence- 
 forward always be open with me, Agatha ! 
 Don't hide from me anything! Set your 
 frank goodness against my wicked suspici- 
 ousness, and make me ashamed of myself, as 
 now." 
 
 He had not spoken so freely or with so 
 much emotion since they were married ; and 
 his wife was deeply touched. She made no 
 answer, but half raising herself, crept to his 
 arms, almost as if she loved Mm. So she 
 truly did, in a measure, though not with the 
 spontaneous, self-existent love, which, once 
 lit in a woman's breast, is like the central 
 fire hidden in the earth's bosom, enduring 
 through all surface variations — through sum- 
 mer and winter, earthquakes, floods, and 
 storms — utterly unchangeable and indestruc- 
 tible. And, however wildly extravagant this
 
 280 i\GATnA's HUSBAND. 
 
 simile may sound — liowever rare tlie fact it 
 illustrates, nevertheless such Love is a great 
 truth, possible and probable, which has ex- 
 isted and may exist — thank God for it! — to 
 prove that He did not found the poetry of 
 all humanity upon a beautiful deceit. 
 
 Something of this mystery was beginning 
 to stir in the ^vife's heart ; the ghi-wife, mar- 
 ried before her character was half formed — 
 before the perfecting of love, wliich taking, 
 as all feelings must, the impress of individual 
 nature, was in her of slow development. 
 
 As Agatha lay, her head buried m her 
 husband's neck, guessing out of her o^vn 
 heart something of what was j)assing in his, 
 there came to her the first longing after that 
 oneness of sphit, without which marriage is 
 but a false or base union, legal and sanctified 
 before men, but, oh ! how unholy in the sight 
 of God! 
 
 The young wife felt as if now, and not
 
 Agatha's husband. 281 
 
 until now, she could unfold to her husband 
 all the secrets of her heart, all its foolishness, 
 ignorance, and fears. 
 
 " If you will listen to me, and not despise 
 me very much, I will tell you somethmg that 
 I have never told to any one until now." 
 
 She could not imagine why, but at this 
 soft whisper he trembled ; however, he bade 
 her go on. 
 
 '' You wonder why it is I am so terrified 
 at leaving England ? It is not for any of the 
 reasons you said, but for one so foolish that 
 I am half ashamed to confess it. I dare not 
 cross the sea." 
 
 " Is that all ?" Mr. Harper cried, and 
 the unutterable dread which had actually 
 blanched his cheek disappeared instantane- 
 ously. He felt hmiself another man. 
 
 '^ Wait, and I'll tell you why tliis is," con- 
 tinued Agatha. " Wlien I was a Kttle child,
 
 282 Agatha's husband. 
 
 somewhere about four years old, I was at 
 some seaport town — I don't know where — 
 I never did, for there was no one with 
 me but my nurse, and she died soon after. 
 One day, I remember being in a little boat 
 going to see a large ship. There were other 
 people with us, especially one lady. Some- 
 how, playing with her, 1 fell overboard." 
 Here Agatha shuddered involuntarily. " It 
 may be very ridiculous, but even now, when 
 I am ill or restless m mind, I constantly 
 dream over again that horrible drowning." 
 
 Her husband drew her closer to him, mur- 
 muring, " Poor child !" 
 
 " Ah, I was indeed a poor child ! When, 
 after being brought to life again — for I fancy 
 I must have been nearly dead — my nurse for- 
 bade me ever to speak of what had happened, 
 no one can tell into what a terror it grew. I 
 never shall overcome it, never! The very
 
 Agatha's husband. 283 
 
 sight of the sea is more than I can bear. To 
 cross it — to be on it " 
 
 " Hush, dear, quiet yourself," said her hus- 
 band, soothingly. *' Now, tell me all you 
 can remember." 
 
 " Scarcely anything more, except that when 
 I came to myself I was lying on the beach, 
 with the stranger lady by me." 
 
 " Who was she ?" 
 
 " I have not the slightest idea. Being 
 so young, I recollect little about her — in 
 fact, only one thing: that just as she was 
 leaving me to go on in the Httle boat, my 
 nurse called out, ^ We are all too late ; the 
 ship is gone!' and the lady fell flat down 
 where she stood — dead, as I thought then. 
 They carried me away, and I never saw or 
 heard of her again." 
 
 " How strange !" 
 
 " But," continued Agatha, gathering cou- 
 rage as she fonnd her husband did not smile
 
 284 Agatha's husband. 
 
 at her folly, and beginning to speak with him 
 more freely than she had ever done with 
 any person in her life, "but you have no 
 idea the impression the chrcumstance left on 
 my mind. For years I made of this lady — 
 to whom I feel sure I owed in some way or 
 other the saving of my Hfe — a sort of guar- 
 dian angel. I believe I even prayed to her 
 — such a queer, foolish child I was — oh, so 
 foolish !" 
 
 " Very likely, dear ; we all are," said Mr. 
 Harper, gaily. "And you are quite sure 
 you never saw your angel ?" 
 
 " No, nor any one like her. The person 
 most like, and yet very unlike, too, in some 
 things, was — don't laugh, please — was Miss 
 Valery. That, I fancy, was the reason why 
 I liked her so from the fii'st, and was ready 
 to do anything she bade me." 
 
 *'Then when you consented to marry me 
 it was only for love of Anne Valery ?" And
 
 Agatha's husband. 285 
 
 beneath Nathanael's smile lingered a little sad 
 earnest. 
 
 His wife did not answer — even yet she 
 was too shy to say tlie words, '^ I love you." 
 But she took his hand, and reverently kissed 
 it, whispering: 
 
 "I am quite content. I would not have 
 things otherwise than they are. And all I 
 mean by telling such a long foolish story is 
 this : — teach me how to conquer myself and 
 my fears, and I will go with you anywhere 
 — even across the sea." 
 
 " My own dear wife." His voice was 
 quite broken ; so sudden, so unexpected was 
 this declaration from her, and by the trem- 
 blings which shook her all the while he saw 
 how great her struggle had been. 
 
 For many minutes, holding her little head 
 on his arm, the young husband sat silent, 
 buried in deep thought ; Agatha never saw 
 the changes, bitter, fierce, sorrowful, that
 
 286 Agatha's husband. 
 
 by turns swept over the face under whicli 
 
 her own lay so calmly, with sweet shut eyes. 
 
 Strange difference between the woman and 
 
 the man. 
 
 " Agatha," he said at last, "I have quite 
 
 decided." 
 
 " Decided what ?" 
 
 " That I will give up my office at Mon- 
 treal, and we will live in England." 
 
 She was so astonished that at first she 
 could not speak ; then she bm"st into joyful 
 tears, and hung about him, murmming un- 
 utterable thanks. For the moment he felt 
 as if this reward made his sacrifice nothing, 
 and yet it had cost him almost everything 
 that his manly pride held dear. 
 
 " Then you will not go ? You will never 
 cross the terrible Atlantic again ?" cried 
 Agatha. 
 
 " I do not promise that ; for I must go, 
 soon or late, if only to persuade Uncle Brian
 
 Agatha's husband. 28f 
 
 to return witli me to England. — Uncle 
 Brian ! what will he say when he learns 
 that I have given up my independence, and 
 am living pensioner on a rich wife," muttered 
 the young man bitterly. 
 
 " But," continued he, trying to make a 
 jest of the matter, " though I do renounce 
 my income in the New World, I am not going 
 to live an idler on your little ladyship's 
 bounty. I intend to work hard at anythmg 
 that I can find to do. And it will be 
 strange if, in this wide, busy England, I can- 
 not turn to some honourable profession. By 
 Heaven! I'd rather go into the fields and 
 chop wood with this right hand " 
 
 And suddenly dashing it down on the 
 table, he startled Agatha very much ; so 
 much that she again clung to him, and in- 
 nocently begged him not to be angry with 
 her. 
 
 Then, once more, Nathanael took her in
 
 288 Agatha's husband. 
 
 his arms, and became calm in calming lier. 
 Tlius tliey sat, until the silence grew hea- 
 venly between the two, and it seemed as if 
 in this new confidence, and in the joy^of 
 mutual self-renunciation, were beginning that 
 true marriage which makes of husband and 
 wife not only '' one flesh," but one soul.
 
 Agatha's husband. 289 
 
 CHAPTER XI, 
 
 It had been arranged with. Emma Thorny- 
 croft that Mrs. Harper should take the benefit 
 of that lady's superior domestic and worldly 
 experience — for Agatha herself was a perfect 
 child — and that they two should go over 
 the intended house together. Accordingly, 
 m the course of the following day Mrs. 
 Thornycroft appeared — very business-hke — 
 to carry away the young wife, and give her 
 her first lesson in household responsibilities. 
 
 From this important business Mr. Harper 
 was laughingly excluded, as being only a 
 ^' gentleman," and required merely to pro- 
 
 VOL. I. U
 
 2'90 Agatha's husband. 
 
 nounce a final decision upon tlie niceties of 
 feminine choice. 
 
 " In fact," said Emma, gaily assuming the 
 autocracy of her sex, " husbands ought to 
 have nothing at all to do with house-choosing 
 or house-keeping, except to pay the rent and 
 the bnis." 
 
 Agatha could not help laughing at this, 
 until she saw that Mr. Harper was silent. 
 
 A few minutes before they started he took 
 his wife aside, and showed her a letter. It 
 was the formal renunciation of the appoint- 
 ment he held at Montreal. 
 
 " How kind !" she cried, in unfeigned de- 
 light. " And how quickly you have Mfilled 
 yoiu" promise !" 
 
 "When I have once decided I always 
 do the thing immediately and irremediably. 
 This letter shall go to-day." 
 
 " Ah ! — let me post it," whispered Agatha, 
 taking a wilful, childish pleasure in thus de-
 
 Agatha's husband. * 29^1 
 
 molishing every chance of the fature she had 
 so dreaded. 
 
 "What! cannot you yet trust me?" re- 
 turned her husband. " Nay, there is no 
 fear. What is done, is done. But you shall 
 have your way." 
 
 And walking with them a little distance, 
 he suffered Agatha with her own hands to 
 post the decisive letter. 
 
 After he left them, she told Mrs. Thorny- 
 croft the welcome news, enlarging upon Mr. 
 Harper's goodness in resigning so much for 
 her sake. 
 
 " Eesigning ?" said Emma, laughing. 
 " Well, I don't see much noble resignation 
 in a young man's giving up a hard-working 
 situation in the colonies to hve at ease on 
 his wife's property in England. My dear, 
 husbands always like to make the most of 
 their little sacrifices. You mustn't believe 
 half they say." 
 
 u2
 
 292 • Agatha's HUSBAND. 
 
 " My husband never said one word of his," 
 cried Agatha, rather indignantly, and re- 
 pented herself of her frankness to one whose 
 ideas now more than ever jarred with her 
 own. Three weeks' constant association 
 with a man like Nathanael had lifted her 
 mind above the ordinary standard of woman- 
 hood to which Emma belonged. She began 
 
 4 
 
 to half believe the truth of what she had 
 once with great astonishment Jieard Anne 
 Valery declare — ay, even Anne Valery — 
 that if the noblest moral type of man and 
 of woman were each placed side by side, the 
 man would be the greater of the two. 
 
 But this thought she kept fondly to her- 
 self, and suiFered Emma to talk on without 
 much attending to her conversation. It was 
 chiefly about some City business with which 
 " her James" had been greatly annoyed 
 of late — having to act for a friend who had 
 been ruined by taking shares in a bubble
 
 Agatha's husband. 293 
 
 company formed to work a Cornish mine. 
 Agatha had often been doomed to listen to 
 such historiettes. Mrs. Thornycroft had a 
 great fancy for putting her harmless fingers 
 in her husband's business matters, for which 
 the chief apology, in her friend's eyes, was 
 the good little wife's great interest in all 
 that concerned " my James." So Agatha 
 had got into a habit of listening with one 
 ear, saying, " Yes," " No," and "Certainly;" 
 while she thought of other things the while. 
 This habit she to-day revived, and pondered 
 vaguely over many pleasant fancies while 
 hearing mistily of certain atrocities perpe- 
 trated by "City scoundrels" — Emma was 
 always warm in her epithets. 
 
 "The ' Company,' my dear, is a complete 
 take-in — all sham names, secretaries, trea- 
 surers, and even directors. The whole affair 
 was got up among two or three people in a
 
 294 Agatha's husband. 
 
 lawyer's office ; and who do you think that 
 lawyer is, Agatha ?" 
 
 " I don't know," said Mrs. Harper, feeling 
 perfectly indifferent, even if he were the man 
 in the moon. 
 
 " I am not sure that I ought to tell you, 
 for James only found it out, or rather guessed 
 it, this morning at breakfast-time. And if 
 the thing can only be proved, it vv^ill go very 
 suspiciously against the people who have 
 been mixed up in the affair, and especially 
 against this Mr. Grimes. — There, I declare 
 I've let the cat out of the bag at last, for all 
 James cautioned me not !" 
 
 " Well, be content," said Agatha, awak- 
 ing from a reverie as to how many days 
 her husband intended to stay at Kingcombe 
 Holm, whither they were this week going 
 on a formal invitation, and whether the new 
 house would be quite ready on their return
 
 Agatha's husband. 295 
 
 — "Be content, Emma; I really did not 
 catch the name." 
 
 "I'm glad of it," said the gossiping little 
 woman — though she looked extremely sorry. 
 " Of course, if Major Harper had known — 
 why, you would have heard." 
 
 " Heard what ?" asked Agatha, her cu- 
 riosity at last attracted by her brother-in- 
 law's name. But now Emma seemed wil- 
 fully bent upon maintaining a mysterious 
 silence. 
 
 " That's exactly what I can't tell you, my 
 dear, except thus much — that my husband 
 is afraid Major Harper has been losing a 
 good deal of money, since more than two- 
 thirds of the shares in Wheal Caroline were 
 in his name, and now the vein has failed — 
 that is, if there ever was a vein or a mine at 
 all — and the other shareholders declare there 
 has been a great deal of cheating somewhere 
 — and — you understand."
 
 296 Agatha's husband. 
 
 Agatha ciid not understand one jot. All 
 she drew from this confused vokibility was 
 the fact that Major Harper had somehow lost 
 money, for which she was very sorry. But 
 to her utter ig;norance of financial or business 
 matters the term ^'losing money" bore very 
 little meaning. However, she recurred with 
 satisfaction to her own reputed wealth, and 
 thought if Major Harper were in any need 
 he would of course tell his brother, and she 
 and Nathanael could at once supply what 
 he wanted. She determined to speak to her 
 husband the first opportunity, and so dis- 
 missed the subject, as being not half so inte- 
 resting as that of "the new house." 
 
 At the gate of this the two ladies now 
 stood, and Emma, with a matronly import- 
 ance, introduced the gratified young wife to 
 all its perfections. 
 
 If there be one instinct that lurks in a 
 woman's breast, ready to spring up when
 
 Agatha's husband. 297 
 
 touched, and bloom into all sorts of beauti- 
 ful and bappy feelings, it is the sense of home 
 — of pleasant domestic sway and domestic 
 comfort — the looking forward to " a house 
 of one's own." Many ordinary girls marry for 
 nothing but this ; and in the nobler half of 
 their sex even amidst the strongest and 
 most romantic personal attachment there is a 
 something — a vague, dear hope, that, flying 
 beyond the lover and the bridegroom, nestles 
 itself in the husband and the future home — 
 The home as well as the husband, since it 
 is given by him, is loved for his sake, 
 and made beautiful for his comfort, while 
 he is the ruler, the guide, and the centre 
 of all. 
 
 Mrs. Harper, as she went through the rooms 
 of this, the first house she had ever looked on 
 with an eye of interest, admiring some things, 
 objecting to others, and beginning to arrange 
 and decide in her own mind, — felt the
 
 298 Agatha's husband. 
 
 awakening of that feeling which philosophers 
 call " the domestic instinct'^ — the instinct 
 which makes of women good wives, fond 
 mothers, and wise mistresses of pleasant 
 households. She wondered that, as Agatha 
 Bowen, she had thought so little of these 
 things. 
 
 " Yes," said she, brightening up as she lis- 
 tened to Emma's long-winded discourse upon 
 furniture and arrangements, and learning for 
 the first time to appreciate the capital good 
 sense of that admirable domestic oracle and 
 young housekeeper's guide — ''Yes, I think 
 this will just do. And, as you say, we can 
 easily manage to buy it, furniture and all, so 
 as to make what improvements we choose. 
 Oh, how delicious it will be to have a house 
 of one's own !'^ 
 
 And the tears almost came into her eyes at 
 thought of that long vista of future joy — the 
 years which might pass in this same dwelling.
 
 agatha's husband. 299 
 
 " My husband," she said to the person who 
 showed them over the place — and her cheeks 
 glowed, and her heart dilated with a tender 
 pride as she used the word — '' my husband 
 will come to-morrow and make his decision. I 
 think there is very little doubt but that we 
 shall take the house." 
 
 So anxious was she to conclude the matter 
 and let Mr. Harper share in all her plea- 
 sant feelings, that she excused herself from 
 staying at Emma's until he came to fetch 
 her, and determined to walk back to meet 
 him. 
 
 " What, with nobody to take care of you ?" 
 said Emma. 
 
 " The idea of anybody's taking care of me ! 
 We never thought of such a thing three 
 months ago. I used to come and go every- 
 where at my own sweet will, you know," 
 laughed Agatha. Nevertheless, it v^as a 
 sweet thought that there was somebody to
 
 300 Agatha's husband. 
 
 take care of her. Her high spirit was begin- 
 ning to learn that there are dearer pleasures 
 in life than even the pleasure of independence. 
 
 Pondering on these things — and also on the 
 visit to Kinorcombe Holm which her hus- 
 band had that morning decided — she walked 
 through the well-known squares, her eyes and 
 her veil lowered, her light springy step re- 
 strained into matronly dignity. Agatha had a 
 wondrous amount of dignity for such a little 
 woman. Her gait, too, had in it something very 
 peculiar — a mixture of elasticity, decision, and' 
 pride. Her small figure seemed to rise up 
 airily between each footpress, as if unac- 
 customed to creep. There was a trace of 
 wildness in her motions ; hers was anything 
 but a dainty tread or a lazy drawing-room 
 glide ; it was a bold, free Indian-like walk — 
 a footstep of the wilderness. 
 
 No one who had once known her could 
 ever mistake Agatha, be she seen ever so far
 
 Agatha's husband. 301 
 
 off; and as she went on her way, a gentleman, 
 crossing hastily from the opposite side of 
 the square, saw her, started, and seemed in- 
 clined to shrink from recognition. But she, 
 attracted by his manner, lifted up her eyes, and 
 soon put an end to his uncertainty. Though 
 a good deal surprised by the suddenness of 
 the rencontre^ there was no reason on earth 
 why Mrs. Harper should not immediately go 
 up and speak to her husband's brother. 
 
 She did so, holding out her hand frankly. 
 
 Major Harper's response was hesitating to 
 a painful degree. He looked, in the common 
 but expressive phrase, " as if he had seen a 
 ghost." 
 
 " Who would have thought of meeting you 
 here, Miss Bowen — Mrs. Harper I mean?" 
 he added, seeing her smile at the already 
 strange sound of her maiden name. What 
 could have possessed Major Harper to be 
 guilty of such uncourteous forgetfulness ?
 
 302 Agatha's husband. 
 
 ''You evidently did not think I was my real 
 self, or you would not have been going to 
 pass me by ; I — that is, we'' — at the word 
 Nathanael's wife cast off her shyness, and 
 grew bravely dignified — " we came back to 
 London two days ago." 
 
 ''Indeed!" 
 
 "Your brother," — she had not yet quite the 
 courage to say " my husband," when speaking 
 of him, especially to Frederick Harper — "your 
 brother thought you were out of town." 
 
 " I ? — yes — no. No, it was a mistake. But 
 are you not going in ? Good morning !" 
 
 In his confusion of mind he was handing 
 her up the steps of Dr. lanson's door, which 
 they were just passing. Agatha drew back ; 
 at first surprised, then alarmed. His strange 
 manner, his face, not merely pale but ghastly, 
 the suppressed agitation of his whole aspect, 
 seemed forewarnings of some ill. It was her 
 first consciousness that she was no longer
 
 Agatha's husband. 303 
 
 alone, in herself including alike all her plea- 
 sure and all her pain. 
 
 " Oh, tell me," she cried, catching his arm, 
 " is there anything the matter ? Where is 
 my husband ?" 
 
 The quick fear, darting arrow-like to her 
 heart, betrayed whose image lay there nearest 
 and dearest now. Major Harper looked at 
 her, looked and — sighed ! 
 
 " Don't be afraid," he said kindly ; " all is 
 well with your husband, for aught I know. 
 He is a happy fellow in having some one in 
 the world to be alarmed on his account." 
 
 Agatha blushed deeply, but made no re- 
 ply. She took her brother-in-law's offered arm, 
 offered with a mechanical courtesy that sur- 
 vived the great discomposure of mind under 
 which he evidently laboured, and turned with 
 him towards home. She was at once puzzled 
 and grieved to see the state he was in, which,
 
 304 Agatha's husband. 
 
 deny it and disguise it as he would — and he 
 tried hard to do so — was quite clear to her 
 womanly perception. His laugh was hollow, 
 his step hurried, his eyes wandering from 
 side to side as if he were afraid of being seen. 
 How different from his old cheerful lounge, 
 full of a good-natured conceit, apparently con- 
 tent with himself, and willing that the whole 
 street should gaze their fill at Major Frederick 
 Harper. 
 
 So old he looked, too ; as if the moment 
 his merry mask of smiles was thrown off, the 
 cruel lurking wrinkles appeared. Agatha 
 pitied him, and felt a return of the old 
 liking, warm and kind, such as it was before 
 the inuendoes of foolish friends had first 
 lured her to distrust the nature of her own 
 innocent feelings and then changed them 
 into positive contempt and aversion. 
 
 She said, with an air of gentle matronly
 
 Agatha's husband. 305 
 
 freedom, half sisterly, too, and wholly dif- 
 ferent from the shy manner of Agatha Bowen 
 to Major Harper : 
 
 " You must come home with me. I fear 
 you are ill, or in anxiety. Why did you not 
 tell your brother ?" And suddenly she thought 
 of Emma's statement of the morning. But 
 Agatha, in her unworldliness, never supposed 
 such a trivial loss as that of money could 
 make any man so miserable as Major Harper 
 seemed. 
 
 ^^ I ill? I anxious? I tell my brother?" 
 he repeated, sharply. 
 
 " Nay, as you will. Only do come to us. 
 He will be so glad to see you." 
 
 " Glad to see me !" He again repeated 
 her words, as though he had none of his own, 
 or were too bewildered to use them. Never- 
 theless, through a certain playful influence 
 which Agatha could exert when she liked, 
 
 VOL. I. X
 
 306 agatha's husband. 
 
 making almost everybody yield to her, 
 Major Harper suffered himself to be led 
 along ; his companion talking pleasantly to 
 him the while, lest he might think she noticed 
 his discomposure. 
 
 Arrived at home, they found that Na- 
 thanael had walked to the Regent's Park to 
 fetch his wife, according to agreement. 
 
 Mrs. Harper looked sorry. She had al- 
 ready learned one little secret of her husband's 
 character — his dislike to any unpunctuality, 
 any altered plans or broken promises. " Still, 
 you must come in and wait for him." 
 
 " Wait for whom ?" said Major Harper, 
 absently. 
 
 " Your brother." 
 
 "My brother! — I, wait to see my brother! 
 Impossible — I — ITi write. Good morning — 
 good morning." 
 
 He was leaving the hall^-more hurried
 
 Agatha's husband. 307 
 
 and agitated than ever — when Mrs. Harper, 
 now really concerned, laid her hand upon 
 his arm. 
 
 "lAvill not let you go. Come in, and 
 tell me what ails you." 
 
 The soft whisper, the eyes of genuine com- 
 passion^ — womanly compassion only, without 
 any love — were more than Major Harper 
 could resist. 
 
 " I will go," he muttered. " Better tell 
 it to you than to my brother." And he fol- 
 lowed her up-stairs. 
 
 The cool shadow of the room seemed to 
 quiet his excitement ; he drank a glass of 
 water that stood by, and became more like 
 himself. 
 
 "Well, my dear young lady,'' he said, 
 with some return of the paternal manner of 
 old times, " when did you come back to 
 London ?'^ 
 
 x2
 
 308 Agatha's husband. 
 
 " Two days since, as I told you. And, 
 as you will soon hear, your brother's plans 
 are all changed — we are going to live in 
 London." 
 
 " To live in London ?" 
 
 " He has given up his appointment at 
 Montreal. We have taken a house, or shall 
 take it to-day, and settle here. He intends 
 entering at the bar, or something of the sort ; 
 but you must persuade him not. What is 
 the use of his toiling, when I — that is we — 
 are so rich ?" 
 
 While Agatha thus talked, chiefly to amuse 
 her brother-in-law and make him feel that she 
 was really his sister, one and the same in 
 family interests — while she talked, she was 
 astonished to see Major Harper's face over- 
 spread with blank dismay. 
 
 " And — Nathanael has really given up his 
 appointment ?"
 
 Agatha's husband. 309 
 
 " He has, and for my sake. Was it not 
 good of him?" 
 
 "It was madness ! Nay — it is I that have 
 been the madman — it is I that have done it 
 all. Agatha, forgive me ! But no — you never 
 can !" 
 
 As they stood together by the fireplace 
 he snatched her hand, gazing down upon her 
 with unutterable remorse. 
 
 " Poor Bowen's daughter that he trusted 
 to me ! Such a mere child too 1 Oh, forgive 
 me, Agatha !" 
 
 She thought some extraordinary delusion 
 had come upon him — perhaps the forerunner 
 of some dreadful illness. She tried to take 
 her hand away, though kindly, for she firmly 
 believed him to be delirious. Nothing could 
 really have happened to herself that Mr. Har- 
 per did not know. With him to take care of 
 her, she was quite safe. And in that moment
 
 310 agatha's husband. 
 
 — for all passed in a moment — Nathanael's 
 wife first felt how implicitly she was begin- 
 ning to put her trust in him. 
 
 While she remained thus — her hand still 
 closed tightly in her brother-in-law's grasp, 
 half terrified, yet trying not to show her 
 terror — the door opened, and her husband 
 entered. 
 
 At first Mr. Harper seemed petrified with 
 amazement ; then a torrent of dumb fury 
 swept over hhn. Crossing the room, he laid 
 a heavy hand on his brother's shoulder : 
 
 "Frederick, you forget yourself; this is 
 my wife. — Agatha ?" 
 
 The searching agony of that one word, as 
 he turned and looked her full in the face, was 
 unutterable. She scarcely perceived it. 
 
 " Oh, I am so glad you are come," was all 
 she said. He drew her to his side — indeed, 
 she had sprang there of her own accord —
 
 Agatha's husband. 311 
 
 and wrapped his arms tightly round her, as 
 if to show that she was his possession, his 
 own property. 
 
 " Now, brother, whatever you wished to 
 say to my wife, say it to us both." 
 
 Major Harper could not speak. 
 
 " He was waiting to see you ; he is ill — 
 very ill, I think," whispered Agatha to her 
 husband. " Shall I leave you together ?" 
 
 *' Yes," he answered, releasing her, but 
 only to draw her back again, with the same 
 wildly-questioning look, the meaning of which 
 was to her innocence quite inexplicable. — 
 "My wife?" 
 
 " My dear husband !" 
 
 At that whisper, which burst from her full 
 heart in the comfort of seeing him and of 
 knowing that he would take on himself the 
 burden of ail her anxiety, Nathanael let her 
 go. She crept away, most thankful to get
 
 312 agatha's husband. 
 
 out of the room, and leave Major Harper 
 safe in his brother s hands. 
 
 But when a quarter of an hour — half an 
 hour — passed by, and still the two gentlemen 
 remained shut up together, without send- 
 ing for her to join their conference, or, 
 as she truly expected, to tell her that 
 poor Major Harper must be taken home 
 in the delirium of a brain fever — Agatha 
 began rather to wonder at the circum- 
 stance. 
 
 She apprehended no evil, for her even 
 course of existence had never been crossed 
 by those sudden tragedies, the impression of 
 which no one ever entirely overcomes, w^hich 
 teach us to walk trembling along the ways of 
 life, lest each moment a gulf should open at 
 our feet. Ao^atha had read of such misfor- 
 tunes, but believed them only in books ; to 
 her the real world and her own fate therein
 
 Agatha's husband. 313 
 
 appeared the most monotonous thing ima- 
 ginable. It never entered her mind to create 
 an adventure or a mystery. 
 
 She waited another fifteen minutes — until 
 the clock struck five, and the servant came 
 up to her to announce dinner, and to know 
 whether the same information should be con- 
 veyed to the gentlemen in the drawing-room. 
 Servants seem instinctively to guess when 
 there is something extraordinary going on in 
 a house, and the maid — as she found her mis- 
 tress sitting in her bed-chamber, alone and 
 thoughtful — wore a look of curiosity, which 
 made Mrs. Harper colour. 
 
 '^ Go down and tell your master — no, stay, 
 I will go myself." 
 
 She waited until the maid had disappeared, 
 and then went down-stairs, but stopped at 
 the drawing-room door, on hearing within loud 
 voices, at least one voice — Major Harper's.
 
 314 Agatha's husband. 
 
 He seemed pleading or protesting ve- 
 hemently. Agatha might almost have dis- 
 tinguished the words, but — and the fact is 
 much to her credit, since, her brother-in- 
 law's apparently sane tones having suppressed 
 her fears, she was now smitten with very na- 
 tural curiosity — but she stopped her ears, and 
 ran up-stairs again. There she remained, 
 waiting for a lull in the dispute — in which, 
 however, she never caught one tone of 
 Nathanael's. 
 
 At last, feeling rather humihated at being 
 thus obliged to flutter up and down the stairs 
 of her own abode, and crave admittance into 
 her own drawing-room, Mrs. Harper ventured 
 to knock softly, and enter. 
 
 Frederick Harper was sitting on the sofa, 
 his head crushed down upon his hands. Na- 
 thanael stood at a little distance, by the fire- 
 place. The attitude of the elder brother in-
 
 Agatha's husband. 315 
 
 dicated deep humiliation, that of the younger 
 was freezing in its sternness. Agatha had 
 never seen such an expression on JSTathanael's 
 face before. 
 
 "What did you want?" he said abruptly, 
 thinking it was the servant who entered. 
 
 She could not imagine what made him start 
 so_, nor what made the two brothers look at 
 her so guiltily. The ftict left a very un- 
 comfortable impression on her mind. 
 
 "I only came " she began. 
 
 " No matter, dear." Her husband walked 
 up to her, speaking in a low voice, studiously 
 made kind, she thought. " Go away now — 
 we are engaged, you see." 
 
 " But dinner," she added. " Will not your 
 brother stay and dine with us ?" 
 
 Major Harper turned with an imploring 
 look to his brother's wife. 
 
 " No," said Mr. Harper, emphatically ;
 
 316 Agatha's husband. 
 
 held the door open for Agatha to retire, and 
 closed it after her. Never in all her life had 
 she been treated so unceremoniously. 
 
 The newly-married wife returned to her 
 room, her cheeks burning with no trifling 
 displeasure. She began to feel the tightening 
 pressure of that chain with which her life was 
 now eternally bound. 
 
 But, after five minutes of silent reflection, 
 she was too sensible to nourish serious indigr- 
 
 o 
 
 nation at being sent out of the room like a 
 mere child. There must have been some good 
 reason^ which Mr. Harper would surely ex- 
 plain when his brother left. The whole con- 
 versation was probably some personal affair of 
 the Major's, with which she had nothing to do. 
 Yet why did her brother-in-law regard her so 
 imploringly ? It was, after all, rather extraor- 
 dinary. So, genuine female curiosity getting 
 the better of her, never did Blue Beard's
 
 Agatha's husband. 317 
 
 Fatima watch with greater anxiety for " any- 
 body coming" than did Agatha Harper watch 
 at her window for somebody going — viz., 
 Major Harper. She was too proud to hsten, 
 or to keep any other outpost, and sat with 
 her chamber-door resolutely closed. 
 
 At length her vigil came to an end. She 
 saw her late guardian passing down the 
 street — not hastily or in humiliation, but with 
 his usual measured step and satisfied air. 
 Nay, he even crossed over the way to speak 
 to an acquaintance, and stood smiling, talking, 
 and swinging his cane. There could not be 
 anything very wrong, then. 
 
 Agatha thought, having been once sent out 
 of the room, she would not re-enter it until 
 her husband fetched her — a harmless ebul- 
 lition of annoyance. So she stood idly before 
 the mirror, ostensibly arranging her curls, 
 though in reality seeing nothing but listening
 
 318 agatha's husband. 
 
 with all her ears for the one footstep — which 
 did not come. Not, alas ! for many, many 
 minutes. 
 
 She was still standing motionless, though 
 her brows were knitted in deep thought, and 
 her mouth had assumed the rather cross ex- 
 pression which such rich, rare lips always 
 can, and which only makes their smihng the 
 more lovely — when she saw in the mirror 
 another reflection beside her own. 
 
 Her husband had come softly behind her, 
 and put his arms round her waist. 
 
 " Did you think I was a long time away 
 from you? I could not help it, dear. Let 
 us go down-stairs now." 
 
 Agatha was surprised that in spite of all 
 the tenderness of his manner, he did not at- 
 tempt the shghtest explanation. And still 
 more surprised was she to find her own ques- 
 tions, wonderings, reproaches, dying away
 
 Agatha's husband. 319 
 
 unuttered in the atmosphere of silentness 
 which always seemed to surround Nathanael 
 Harper. This silentness had from the very 
 beginning of their acquaintance induced in 
 her that faint awe, which is the most ominous 
 yet most delicious feeling that a woman can 
 have towards a man. It seems an instinctive 
 acknowledgment of the much-condemned, 
 much-perverted, yet divine and unalterable 
 law given with the first human marriage — 
 " He shall i^ule over tlieer 
 
 After all that Agatha had intended to say, 
 she said — nothing. She only turned her face 
 to her husband, and received his kiss. Very 
 soft it was — even cold — as though he dared 
 ^ not trust himself to the least expression of 
 feeling. He merely whispered, " Now, come 
 down with me ;" and she went. 
 
 But on the staircase she could not forbear 
 saying, " I thought you two would never have
 
 320 Agatha's husband. 
 
 done talking. Is it anything very serious ? 
 I trust not, since your brother walked down 
 the street so cheerfully." 
 
 " Did he ? — and — were you watching 
 him ?" 
 
 "Yes indeed," returned Agatha, inno- 
 cently, for she had no notion of doing any- 
 thing that she would be afterwards ashamed 
 to confess. ^* But what put him into such a 
 state of mind, and made him behave to me 
 so strangely ?" 
 
 " How did he behave ?" asked the husband, 
 with quickness, then stopped. '' Forgive me. 
 You know, I have never inquired — I never 
 shall inquire." — Again he paused, seeing how 
 his mood alarmed her. His violence melted 
 into compassion. " Do not be afraid of me ! 
 Poor child — poor little Agatha !" 
 
 Waitinglfor no reply, he led her in to dinner. 
 
 While the servants waited, Mr. Harper
 
 Agatha's husband. 321 
 
 scarcely spoke, except when necessary. 
 Only in his lightest word addressed to 
 Agatha was a certain tremulousness — in his 
 most careless look a constant tender observ- 
 ance, which soothed her mind, and quite re- 
 moved from thence the impression of his 
 hasty and incomprehensible words. She laid 
 all to the charge of Major Harper and his 
 business. 
 
 At dessert, Nathanael sat varying his long 
 silences with a few commonplace remarks 
 which showed how oblivious he was of all 
 around him, and how sedulously he tried 
 to disguise the fact, and rise to the sur- 
 face of conversation. Agatha's curiosity 
 returned, not unmingled with a feeling ten- 
 derer, more woman-like, more wife-like, which 
 showed itself in stray peeps at him from 
 under the lashes of her brown eyes. At 
 length she took courage to say, lightening 
 the question by a jest : 
 
 VOL. I. Y
 
 322 Agatha's husband. 
 
 " Now — since we seem to have nothing to 
 talk about, will you tell me what you and 
 your brother were plotting together, that 
 you kept poor little me out of the room so 
 long?" 
 
 ^* Plotting together ? Surely, Agatha, you 
 did not mean to use that word ?" 
 
 She had used it according to a habit she 
 had of putting a jesting form of phrase upon 
 matters where she was most in earnest. She 
 was amazed to see her husband take it so 
 seriously. 
 
 *' Well, blot out the offending word, and 
 put in any other you choose ; only tell me ?" 
 
 " Why do you wish to know, little Curio- 
 sity ?" said he, recovering himself, and 
 eagerly catching the tone his wife had 
 adopted. 
 
 " Why ? Because I am a little Curiosity, 
 and like to know everything." 
 
 " That is both presumptuous and impos-
 
 Agatha's husband. 323 
 
 sible, your ladyship ! If one half the world 
 were always bent on knowing all the secrets 
 of the other half, what a very uncomfortable 
 world it would be." 
 
 ^' I do not see that, even if one half in- 
 cluded the wives, and the other half the hus- 
 bands ; which is apparently what you mean to 
 imply." 
 
 " I shall not plead guilty to anything by 
 implication." 
 
 They went on a few moments longer in 
 this skirmish of assumed gaiety, when Agatha, 
 pausing, leant her elbows on the table, and 
 looked seriously at her husband. 
 
 '' Do you know we are two very foolish 
 people ?" 
 
 " Wherefore ?" 
 
 " We are pretending to make idle jests, 
 when all the time we are both of us very much 
 in earnest." 
 
 y2
 
 324 Agatha's husband. 
 
 *' That is true !" And he sighed, though 
 within himself, as though he did not wish 
 her to hear it. " Agatha, come over to me." 
 He held out both his hands ; she came, and 
 placed herself beside him, all her jesting sub- 
 dued. She even trembled, at the expectation 
 of something painful or sorrowful to be told. 
 But her husband said nothing — except to 
 ask if she would like to go anywhere this 
 evening ? 
 
 Agatha felt annoyed. " Why do you put 
 me off in this manner, when I know you have 
 something on your mind ?" 
 
 " Have I ?" he said, half-mournfully. 
 
 '' Then tell it to me." 
 
 " Nay. Often it is wisest, kindest, for a 
 man to bear the burden of his own cares." 
 
 Nathanael had spoken in his most gentle 
 tone, and slowly, as if impelled to what he 
 said by hard necessity. He was not pre-
 
 Agatha's HUSBAND. 325 
 
 pared to see the sudden childish burst of 
 astonishment, anger, and resistance. 
 
 " From this, I understand, what you might 
 as well have said plainly, that I am not to in- 
 quire what passed between you and your 
 brother ?" 
 
 He moved his head in assent, and then 
 sunk it on his left hand, holding out the other 
 to his wife, as though talking were impossible 
 to him, and all he wished were silence and 
 peace. Agatha was too angry for either. 
 
 '' But if I do not choose at nineteen to 
 be treated like a mere child — if I ask, nay, 
 
 insist " She hesitated, lest the last word 
 
 might have irritated him too far. Vague 
 fears concerning the full meaning of the 
 word " obey" in the marriage-service rushed 
 into her mind. 
 
 Nathanael sat motionless, his fingers 
 pressed upon his eyelids. This silence 
 was worse than any words.
 
 326 Agatha's husband. 
 
 '' Mr. Harper !" 
 
 " I hear." And the grave, sad eyes — sad 
 without any displeasure — were turned upon 
 her. Agatha felt a sting of conscience. 
 
 " I did not mean to speak rudely to my 
 husband ; but I had my own reasons for in- 
 quiring about Major Harper, from something 
 Emma said to-day." 
 
 "What was that?" 
 
 " How eager you look ! Nay, I can keep a 
 secret too. But no, I will not." And the ge- 
 nerous impulse burst out, even accompanied 
 by a few childish tears and childish blushes. 
 " She told me he had probably lost money. 
 I wished to say that if such a trifle made him 
 unhappy he might take as much as he liked 
 of mine. That was all !" 
 
 Her husband regarded her with mingled 
 emotions, which at last all melted into one — 
 deep tenderness. "And you would do this, 
 even for him? Thank God! I never doubted
 
 Agatha's husband. 327 
 
 your goodness, Agatha. And I trusted you 
 always." 
 
 Wondering, yet half-pleased, to see him so 
 moved, Agatha received his offered hand. 
 " Then all is settled. Now, tell me every- 
 thing that passed between you." 
 
 "I cannot." 
 
 Gentle as the tone was, there was some- 
 thing in it which implied that to strive with 
 Nathanael's firm resolve would be like beatinof 
 against a marble wall. A great terror came 
 over Agatha — she, who had lived like a 
 wild bird, knowing no stronger will than 
 her own. Then all the combativeness of 
 her nature, hitherto dormant because she 
 had known none worthy to contend against, 
 awoke up, and tempted her to struggle 
 fiercely with her chain. 
 
 She unloosed her hands — nay, writhed 
 them out of his hold — and sprung from
 
 328 Agatha's husband. 
 
 him. " Mr. Harper^ you are teaching me 
 early how men rule their wives." 
 
 " I only ask mine to trust me. She 
 would, if she knew how great was the 
 sacrifice." 
 
 " What sacrifice ? How many more mys- 
 teries am I to be led through blindfi)ld ?" 
 
 And her crimson cheek, her quick, wild 
 step across the room, showed a new picture 
 to the husband's eyes — a picture that all 
 young wives should be slow to unveil, fov the 
 first sight is often that of future doom. 
 
 Nathanael drew his hand across his brow — • 
 was it to shut out that vision ? — then spoke, 
 steadily, sorrowfully: 
 
 '' We have scarcely been married a month. 
 Are we beginning to be angry with one 
 another already ?" 
 
 She made him no answer. 
 
 " Will you listen to me — if for only two 
 minutes ?"
 
 Agatha's husband. 329 
 
 She felt his step approaching, his hand 
 fastening on hers, and replacing her in her 
 chair. Resistance was impossible. 
 
 " Agatha, had I trusted you less than I do, 
 I might easily have put off your questions, or 
 told you what was false. I shall do neither, 
 I shall tell you truth." 
 
 '' That is all I wish." 
 
 Nathanael said, with a visible effort, " To- 
 day I learnt from ray brother several rather 
 painful circumstances — some which I was 
 ignorant of — one" — his voice grew cold and 
 hard — '* one which I already knew, and knew 
 to be irremediable." 
 
 His wife looked much alarmed ; seeing it, 
 he forced a smile. 
 
 " But what is irremediable can and must 
 be borne. I can bear things better, perhaps, 
 than most people. The other cares may be 
 removed by time and — silence. To that end
 
 330 Agatha's husband. 
 
 I have promised Frederick to keep his con- 
 fidence secret from every one, even from 
 my own v^ife, for a year to come. A sacri- 
 fice harder than you think ; but it must be 
 made, and I have made it." 
 
 Agatha turned away, saying bitterly : 
 " Your wife ought to thank you! She was 
 not aware until now how wondrously well 
 you loved your brother." 
 
 There was a heavy silence, and then Mr. 
 Harper said, in a hoarse voice, *' Did you 
 ever hear the story of a man who plunged 
 into a river to save the hfe of an enemy, and 
 when asked why he did it, answered, ' It was 
 because he was an enemy ?' " 
 
 " I do not understand you," cried Agatha. 
 
 " No" — her husband returned hastily — 
 " nor does it signify that you should. A 
 foolish story, without any meaning. What 
 were we talking about ?"
 
 . Agatha's husband. 331 
 
 He — when her heart was bursting with 
 vexation and wounded feeling — he pre- 
 tended to treat all so lightly that he did 
 not even remember what they were saying ! 
 It was more than Agatha could endure. 
 
 Had he been irritated like herself — had he 
 shown annoyance, pain — had they even come 
 to a positive quarrel — for love will sometimes 
 quarrel, and take comfort therein — it would 
 have been less trying to a girl of her tempe- 
 rament. But that grave superior calm of 
 unvarying kindness — her poor angry spirit 
 beat against it like waves against a shining 
 rock. 
 
 " We were talking of what, had I con- 
 sidered the matter a montli ago, I might 
 possibly have saved myself the necessity of 
 discussing or practising — a wife's blind obe- 
 dience to her husband." 
 
 ** Agatha!"
 
 332 Agatha's husband. 
 
 " When I married," she recklessly pur- 
 sued, " I did not think what I was doing. It 
 is hard enough blindly to obey even those 
 whom one has known long — trusted long — 
 loved long — but you '^ 
 
 "I understand." His head dropped be- 
 tween his hands. " Hush ! there needs not 
 another word." 
 
 Agatha began to hesitate. She had only 
 wished to make him feel — to shake him from 
 that rigid quietude which to her was so 
 trying. She had not intended to wound 
 him so. 
 
 " Are you angry with me ?" she asked at 
 length. 
 
 " No, not angry. No reproaches can be 
 more bitter than my own." 
 
 She was just about to ask him what he 
 meant — nay, she even considered whether 
 her woman's pride might not stoop to draw
 
 Agatha's husband. 333 
 
 aside the tight-pressed hands, entreating him 
 to look up and forgive her and love her, — 
 when in burst Mrs. Thorny croft. 
 
 " Oh — so glad to catch you — have not a 
 minute to spare, for James is waiting. 
 Where is your husband ?" 
 
 Mr. Harper had risen, and stood in the 
 shadow, where his face was not easily visible. 
 Agatha wondered to see him so erect and 
 calm, while her own cheeks were burning, 
 and every word she tried to utter she had 
 to gulp down a burst of tears. 
 
 " Mr. Harper, it was you I wanted — to 
 ask your decision about the house. A mere 
 formality. But I thought I would just call as 
 we went to grandmamma's, and then I can 
 settle everything for you to-morrow morn- 
 ing." 
 
 " You are very kind, but " 
 
 "Oh, perhaps you would rather see the
 
 334 agatha's husband. 
 
 house yourself. Quite right. Of course 
 you will take it ?" 
 
 " I fear not." 
 
 Agatha, as well as Mrs. Thornyeroft, was 
 so utterly astonished, that neither of them 
 could make any observation. To give up 
 the house, and all her dear home-visions ! 
 She v^as aghast at the idea. 
 
 " Bless me, v\^hat does your husband mean ? 
 Mr. Harper, what possible objection ?" 
 
 '' None, except that we have changed 
 our plans. It is quite uncertain how long 
 we may stay at Kingcombe Holm, or 
 v^here v^e may go from thence." 
 
 '^ Not to America, surely ? You would not 
 break your word to poor dear Agatha ?" 
 
 " I never break my v^ord." 
 
 " Well, Mr. Harper, I declare I can't 
 understand you," cried Emma, sharply. 
 " I only hope that Agatha does. Is all this
 
 Agatha's husband. 335 
 
 with your knowledge and consent, my poor 
 child?" 
 
 She said this, eyeing the husband with 
 doubt and the wife with curiosity, as if dis- 
 posed to put herself in the breach between 
 the two, if breach there were. 
 
 Agatha heard Nathanael's quick breathing 
 — caught her friend's look of patronising 
 compassion. Something of the dignity of 
 marriage, the shame lest any third party 
 should share or even witness aught that 
 passes between those two who have now 
 become one — awoke in the young girl's 
 spirit. The feeling was partly pride, yet min- 
 gled with something far holier. 
 
 She put Emma gently aside. 
 
 " Whatever my husband's decision may be, 
 I am quite satisfied therewith." 
 
 Mrs. Thornycroft was mute with amaze- 
 ment. However, she was too good-natured
 
 336 Agatha's husband. 
 
 to be really angry. " Certainly, you are the 
 most extraordinary, incomprehensible young 
 couple ! But I can't stay to discuss the 
 matter. Agatha, I shall see you to-morrow ?" 
 
 " Yes ; I will bring her to you to-morrow," 
 said Mr. Harper cheerfully, as their visitor 
 departed. 
 
 The husband and wife regarded one an- 
 other in silence. At last he said, taking her 
 hand : 
 
 " I owe you thanks, Agatha, for " 
 
 " For merely doing my duty. I hope I shall 
 never forsret that." 
 
 At the word " duty," so coldly uttered, Mr. 
 Harper had let her hand fall. He stood mo- 
 tionless, leaning against the marble chimney- 
 piece, his face as white as the marble itself, 
 and, in Agatha's fancy, as hard. 
 
 '^ Have you, then, quite decided against 
 our taking the house ?" she asked at length.
 
 Agatha's husband. 337 
 
 " I find it will be impossible." 
 
 <•<■ Why so ? But I forget ; it is useless to 
 ask you questions." — He made no reply. 
 
 " Pardon my inquiry, but do you still keep 
 to your plan of leaving next week for Dorset- 
 shire?" 
 
 " If you are willing." 
 
 " I, willing ?" And she thought how, two 
 hours before, she had rejoiced in the prospect 
 of seeing her husband's ancestral home — her 
 father-in-law — her new sisters. Her heart 
 failed her — the poor girlish heart that as yet 
 knew not either the world or itself. She 
 burst into tears. 
 
 Instantly Mr. Harper caught her in his arms. 
 
 " Oh, Agatha, forgive me ! — Have pa- 
 tience with me, and we may still be happy ; 
 at least, you may. Only trust your hus- 
 band, and love him a little — a very little — 
 as much as you can." 
 
 " How can I trust you, whom I do not tho- 
 roughly understand? — how can I — love '' 
 
 Her hesitation — her pride warring with the 
 
 VOL. I. z
 
 338 Agatha's husband. 
 
 expression of that feeling which her very 
 anger taught her was there — seemed to 
 pierce her husband to the soul. 
 
 " I see," he said mournfully. " We are both 
 punished, Agatha; I for the selfishness of my 
 
 love towards you, and you Alas! how can 
 
 I make you happier, poor child?" Her tears 
 fell still, but less with anger than emotion. 
 " I know now, we ought never to have been 
 married. Yet since we are married " 
 
 " Ay, since we are married, let us try to 
 be good to one another, and bear with one 
 another, my husband!" 
 
 She kissed his hand, which held up her 
 drooping head, and Nathanael pressed his 
 lips on her forehead. So outward peace was 
 made between them ; but in sadness and in 
 fear, like a compact sealed tremblingly over 
 a half-closed grave. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 WHITING, BEAUFORT HOUSE, STRAND.