lery, guiding her by an under-current deeper even than her
judgment.

"Ay," she said in a whisper, "I will trust you. Let us go down." And she
turned with him to say good-bye to Miss Harper.

The excitement of talking had been too much for "poor Elizabeth." One
of her "dark hours" was upon her. The eyes were closed, and the face
sharpened under keen physical pain. Agatha could hardly bear to see her;
but Nathanael bent over his sister with that soothing kindness which in
a man is so beautiful.

"Shall we stay with you? at least, shall I?"

Elizabeth motioned a decided negative.

"I know," Miss Valery said, apart, "she had rather be alone. No one can
do her good, and it is too much for this child, who is not used to it as
we are."

Calling Elizabeth's maid from the inner room, Anne hurried Agatha away.
She, clinging to her husband's arm, heard him say, half to himself:

"And yet we think life hard, and murmur at that we have, and grieve for
that we have not! We are very wicked, all of us. Poor Elizabeth!"

The three went very silently down-stairs.

At the dining-room door Mrs. Harper let go her husband's arm.

"Why are you leaving me, Agatha?"

"Because I thought--I imagined, perhaps you wished"--

"I wish to have you with me always. Anne knows," and he looked pointedly
at Miss Valery, "that I shall never respond to, and most certainly never
volunteer, any confidence to either her or my father that I do not share
with my wife. She has the first claim, and what is not hers no other
person shall obtain."

Anne looked puzzled. At last she said, in an under tone, "I think I
understand, and you are quite right. I shall remember."

The old Squire was sitting in his arm-chair, the dessert and wine still
before him. The cheerfulness of the dinner-circle over, he looked very
aged now--aged and lonely too, being the only occupant of that large
room. He raised his head when Miss Valery entered, but seemed annoyed at
the entrance of his daughter-in-law.

"Mrs. Harper! I did not mean to encroach on _your_ leisure."

"No, father; it was I who wished her to come. Forgive me, but I could
not bring Miss Valery into our family councils and exclude my own wife.
She is not a stranger now."

Saying this, Nathanael placed Agatha in a chair and stood beside her,
taking her cold hand, for with all her power she could not keep herself
from trembling. She had never known anything of those formidable affairs
which are called "