e them. But the chief mystery now seems to be,
where are we to go? If Emma may not be troubled, surely Mrs. Ianson, or
your brother"--

"My brother is out of town."

"Indeed!" And Agatha looked as she felt, neither glad nor sorry, but
purely indifferent. 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!"

How strange seemed that recollection!--how little she had then thought
she was walking with her future husband!

Yet, when a few hours after she trod the well-known streets, 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 unhappy, 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 which
was a great act of self-denial on his part--word was sent to the
Thornycrofts of the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Locke Harper.

Very trembling, 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 embrace between the two women. Mr.
Harper stood and looked on--he played the young husband as composedly
as he had done the lover and the bridegroom, except for a slight jealous
movement as he saw the clinging, the kisses, the tears, which, with
the warmth of a heart thrilled by new emotions and budding out into all
manner of new tendernesses, Agatha lavished on her friend.

Yet, whatever he felt, no one could observe but that Nathanael was
extremely polite and kind to Mrs. Thorny-croft. She on her part admired
him extremely--in whispers.

"How well he looks! Really quite changed! No one would ever think of
calling him a 'boy' now. You must be quite proud of your husband, my
dear."

Agatha smiled, and a light 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.

Emma Thornycroft was a person not likely to