e. And my daughters"--here he turned to
two ladies, of whom Agatha at first distinguished nothing, save that
one was very pretty, the other much older, and plain--"my daughters,
receive your new sister." Here the ladies aforesaid approached and shook
hands, the plain one very warmly.--"You also can tell her how truly glad
we are to receive--Mrs. Harper."

He hesitated a little before the latter word, and pronounced it with
some tremulousness, as though the old man were thinking how many years
had passed since the name "Mrs. Harper" had been unspoken at Kingcombe
Holm.

His daughters looked at one another--even Harriet observing a grave
respect No one spoke, or took outward notice of the circumstance; but
from that time the subject of much secret conjecture was set at rest,
and Agatha was called by every one "Mrs. Harper."

During the somewhat awkward quarter of an hour that followed, in which
the chief conversation was sustained by "the Squire," and occasionally
by Nathanael--Mrs. Dugdale having vanished--the young girl observed
her two sisters-in-law. Neither struck her fancy particularly, perhaps
because there was nothing particular to strike it. The Misses Harper
were, like most female branches of "county families," vegetating on
their estates from generation to generation in uninterrupted gentility
and uniformity. Of the two, Agatha liked Mary best; for there was great
goodnature shining through her fearless plainness--a sort of placid
acknowledgment of the fact that she was born for usefulness, not
ornament. Eulalie, on the contrary, carried in her every gesture a
disagreeable self-consciousness, which testified to her long assumption
of one character--the beauty of the family. Despite Agatha's admiration
of handsome women in general, she and the youngest Miss Harper eyed one
another uncomfortably, as if sure from the first that they shall never
like one another.

All this while Nathanael spoke but little to his wife, apparently
leaving her to nestle down at her own will among his family. But he kept
continually near her, within reach of a word or glance, had she given
him either; and she more than once felt his look of grave tenderness
reading her very soul. She could not think why, in spite of all his
efforts to the contrary, he should be continually so serious, while she
was quite ready to be happy and at ease.

There was one thing, however, which gave her keen satisfaction--the
great honour in which her h