r doubted 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 everything that passed
between you."

"I cannot."

Gentle as the tone was, there was something in it which implied that
to strive with Nathanael would be like beating 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 and sprang from him. "Mr. Harper, you are
teaching me early how men rule their wives."

"I only ask my wife to trust me. She would, if she knew how great was
the sacrifice."

"What sacrifice? How many more mysteries am I to be led through
blindfold?"

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 let any man see, for it is often a fatal vision.

Nathanael closed his eyes--was it to shut it out?--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?"

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 my
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 I have promised Frederick to keep his
confidence secret from every one, even from my own wife, for a year to
come. A sacrifice 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