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?

"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.
Ianson'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 alone, in herself including alike all her pleasure 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 reply. She took her brother-in-law's
offered arm, offered with a mechanical courtesy that survived 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, 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 content 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 h