ions."

He made no reply.

"Pardon my inquiry, but do you still keep to your plan of leaving next
week for Dorsetshire?"

"If you are willing."

"I willing?" And she thought how, two hours before, she had rejoiced
in the prospect of seeing her husband's ancestral home--her
father-in-law--her new sisters. Her heart failed her--the poor girlish
heart that as yet knew not either the world or itself. She burst into
tears.

Instantly Mr. Harper caught her in his arms.

"Oh, Agatha, forgive me!--Have patience with me, and we may still
be happy; at least, you may. Only trust your husband, and love him a
little--a very little--as much as you can."

"How can I trust you, whom I do not thoroughly understand? how can
I--love"--

Her hesitation--her pride warring with the expression of that feeling
which her very anger taught her was there--seemed to pierce her husband
to the soul.

"I see," he said, mournfully. "We are both punished, Agatha; I for the
selfishness of my love towards you, and you--Alas! how can I make you
happier, poor child?" Her tears fell still, but less with anger than
emotion. "I know now, we ought never to have been married. Yet, since we
are married"--

"Ay, since we are married, let us try to be good to one another, and
bear with one another. I will!"

She kissed his hand, which held up her drooping head, and Nathanael
pressed his lips on her forehead. So outward peace was made between
them; but in sadness and in fear, like a compact sealed tremblingly over
a newly-closed grave.

CHAPTER XII.

"And this is Dorsetshire! What a sharp bleak wind!" said Agatha,
shivering.

Her husband, who was driving her in a phaeton which had met them at the
railway station, turned to wrap a cloak round her.

"Except in the height of summer it is always cold across these moors.
But we shall soon be safe at Kingcombe Holm. Are you very tired?"

She answered "No," which was hardly the truth. Yet her heart was more
weary than her limbs.

During the few days that elapsed between Major Harper's visit and their
quitting London, she had scarcely seen her husband. He had been
out continually, coming home to dinner tired and exhausted, though
afterwards he always tried to talk and be cheerful. To her surprise,
Major Harper never again called, nor, except in the brief answer to
her question, "that Frederick was gone from home," did Nathanael ever
mention his brother's name.

"This is Kingcombe," said Mr.