He, watching her closely, betrayed himself 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 arm 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 familiar jesting now, and were laughing together like a couple of children--that she had not the least idea whether she were about to marry a prince or a beggar.

"No," answered her lover, smiling at her unworldliness, and thereby betraying that, innocent as he looked, his was not the innocence of ignorance. "No; but I am not exactly 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 inquired 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, fully 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?"

"No."

"And is he a very old man?" Miss Bowen asked, less interested in money matters than in this Uncle Brian, whose name so constantly floated across his nephew's conversation.

"Fifteen years in the colonies makes a man old before his time. And he was not very young, probably full 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 witching smile put an effectual stop to the chronicle of Brian Harper.

"And I have to go back to Canada so soon!" whispered Nathanael to himself, as his gaze, far less calm than heretofore, fell down like a warm sunshine over his betrothed, "The time of my stay here will soon be over, and what then--Agatha?"

She did not wholly comprehend the question, and so let it pa.s.s. She was quite content to keep him talking about things and people in whom her interest was naturally growing; of Kingcombe Holm, the old house on the Dorset coast, where the Harpers had dwelt for centuries; of its present owner, Nathanael Harper, Esquire, of that venerable name so renowned in Dorsetshire pedigrees, that one Harper had refused to merge it even in the blaze of a peerage. Of the five 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 behind the shadows of matrimony; of busy, housekeeping Mary, whom n.o.body could possibly 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 hesitated to ask many questions about Elizabeth. The one of whom she had it in her mind always to inquire, and whose name somehow 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 _au fait_ at all, caused the morning to pa.s.s swiftly by. Agatha thought 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 Th.o.r.n.y-croft 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 general sympathy in the scene, by flying at them both with bread-and-b.u.t.tery 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, however, she had the good taste to keep to herself, since occasionally a slight misgiving arose that either she was unreasonably harsh, or that the true type of infantile loveableness did not exist in the young Th.o.r.n.ycrofts.

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 promised 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 understand, my dear, we shall--now and always--be most happy to see Mr.

Harper in the evening."

CHAPTER VII.

Whether Mr. Harper, being a rather proud and reserved individual, was not "so happy to be seen in the evening" as an attendant planet openly following his sphered idol, or whether, like all true lovers, he was very jealous over the lightest public betrayal of love's sanct.i.ty, 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, too, met him rather meekly, fearing lest she had led him into a position distasteful to his feelings. She was relieved when, taking little notice of herself, he fell into conversation with Mr.

Th.o.r.n.ycroft--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 unfrequent lover-like fashion--"made a fool of himself" on her account.

While the two gentlemen still talked, Miss Bowen stood secretly listening, but apparently watching the rich twilight that coloured the long sweep of the Regent's Park trees--a pretty sight, even though in the land of c.o.c.kayne.

"There's a carriage at our door!" screamed Missy from the balcony, receiving a hurried maternal reproof for ill-behaviour. Mrs. Th.o.r.n.ycroft wondered who the inopportune 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 carriage and speak to her a moment?

Nathanael did so, looking not less surprised 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. Th.o.r.n.ycrofts hand from the bell; "Mr. Harper will doubtless tell me all that is necessary. He is perfectly able to conduct his own affairs."

It was speech implying more indifference than she really felt, for this mysterious interview did not quite please her. She tried vainly to go on talking with Mrs. Th.o.r.n.ycroft, and actually started when she heard the carriage drive off, and Nathanael come up-stairs.

His countenance was a good deal troubled, but he did not give the slightest explanation--not even when Mrs. Th.o.r.n.ycroft 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 was in a tone that put an end to any more jesting.

Nathanael sat down, and tried to take up the thread of politics just dropped with Mr. Th.o.r.n.ycroft, 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 home soon?"

"At once, if you wish it," she answered, perceiving that something was wrong, and feeling 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? Do it for 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."

"No, we must ride; I would not lose a minute," Nathanael answered, as he hurried her into a conveyance, and gave the order to drive to Bedford Square.

Miss Bowen felt a twinge of repugnance at this control so newly exercised over the liberty of her actions; but her good-heartedness 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 distrust, when he suddenly said, just as they were entering the square:

"I have used the dear right you lately 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!"