"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 agreeable, and talks so beautifully--I am sure you 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 pa.s.sion sank to a dead calm. She sat down again composedly, turning 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 nutsh.e.l.l, my dear. Oh, how glad I am that you take it so quietly. 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 with 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,--n.o.body--n.o.body"----

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 floodgates of her pa.s.sion, and became herself again.

Herself--as she could not have been, were 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 circ.u.mstance 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"--

"Compa.s.sionate, doubtless! Said 'he had reason to believe, that is to fear, I did not 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. Th.o.r.n.ycroft, 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 confidential he must have been to you!"

"Nay, he hardly said anything plainly; I a.s.sure 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 I always told you, Agatha, Major Harper is a settled bachelor--too old to change. Besides, 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 Nathanael!" 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 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. Th.o.r.n.ycroft 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, 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 G.o.d 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, n.o.ble man did but love me, and I could marry, and get out of this friendless desolation, this contemptible, scheming, match-making set, where I and my feelings are talked of, speculated on, bandied 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 upstairs, and how all that time Emma's transparent disposition and love of talk might have laid her and her whole affairs open before the Iansons, she quickly put the epistle in her pocket unread, 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 p.a.w.nee face in the mirror--alas! the poor face now seemed browner and uglier than ever!--that Agatha recollected this same letter.

"It may give me something to think about, which will be well," sighed she; and carelessly pushing her hair behind her ears, she drew the candle nearer, and began leisurely to read.

[Ill.u.s.tration: She began leisurely to read p036]

The commencement was slightly abrupt:

"A month ago--had any one told me I should write this letter, I could not have believed it possible. But strange things happen 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 them. 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, pa.s.sionate and strong.

Into that heart I 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 watched 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 have the least interest in 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 better, you should suffer me to ask for another t.i.tle, 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 Harper."

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 Harper was the sort of being very likely to fall in love with anybody--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." "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.