Harper, as they drove through a little
town, which Agatha, half blinded by the wind, scarcely opened her eyes
to look at. "My sister, Mrs. Dugdale, lives here. I thought they might
have met us at the station; but the Dugdales are always late. Ah, there
he is!"

"Who?"

"My brother-in-law, Marmaduke Dugdale--or 'Duke Dugdale,' as everybody
about here calls him. Holloa, Duke!"

And Agatha, through her blue veil, "was ware," as old chronicles say,
of a country-looking gentleman coming down the street in a mild, lazy,
dreamy fashion, his hat pushed up at a considerable elevation from his
forehead, leaving a mass of light hair straggling out at the back, his
eyes bent thoughtfully on the pavement, and his hands crossed behind
him.

"Holloa, Duke!" cried Nathanael, for the second time, before he caught
the attention of this very abstracted personage.

"Eh--is it you? You don't say so! E--h!"

Agatha was amused by the long, sweet-sounding drawl of the last
monosyllable, which seemed formed out of all the five vowels rolled
into one. It was said in such a pleasant voice, with such a simple,
child-like air of delighted astonishment, that Agatha, conquering her
shyness at this first meeting with one of her husband's family, peeped
behind Nathanael's shoulder at Mr. Dugdale.

She saw--what to her keen sense of beauty was a considerable shock--the
very plainest man she thought she had ever beheld!

"Mr. Dugdale--my wife."

"Indeed! Very glad to see her." And Agatha who was intending merely to
bow, felt her hand buried in another thrice its size, which gave it a
shy, gentle, but thoroughly cordial shake. "And really, now I think of
it, I was coming to meet you. The Missus told me to do it."

"How is 'the Missus?'" asked Mr. Harper.

"Quite well--they're all waiting for you. So make haste--the Squire is
very particular as to time, you know!"

Nodding to them both with a smile which diffused such an extraordinary
light over the uncomely face that Agatha was quite startled and began to
reconsider her first impression regarding it,--"Duke" Dugdale turned to
walk on; but just as the horse was starting, came back again.

"Nathanael, you are here just in time--general election coming. You're a
Free-trader of course?"

"Why, I never thought much about the matter."

"Eh!--What a pity! But we'll convert you, and you shall convert your
father. Ah, yes--I think we'll get the Squire on our side at last
Good-bye."

"Who is