t run and question him! For goodness' sake
let the nonsense drop out of his poor dear head."

Agatha, thus rebuffed, ceased her inquiries, but she inwardly resolved
to find out all about the Cornish miners, and consult with her husband
about assisting them. He could not object to this good deed--it should
be done as privately as ever he liked--she would take care not even to
make mention of it before anybody, as in the matter of the subscription.
And surely, though he was strange and had his peculiar notions,
Nathanael was generous at heart, and would not thwart her in anything
really essential, especially when she only wished to follow in the steps
of Anne Valery, and use worthily her large fortune.

With these thoughts elevating and cheering her mind, she sat and watched
for her husband until he came. She was so glad to see him that she quite
forgot to inquire about the house. He seemed at first expectant of her
questions, and rather grave, but at last gave himself up to the general
merry mood.

Once only, when they were riding homeward side by side, the fading
sunset before them, and the low moon hiding herself behind the great
black hill of Corfe, Nathanael suddenly said:

"My dear Agatha, perhaps you would like me to tell you"--

"No," she cried, with a quick instinct of reluctance. "Tell me nothing
to-night. Let us be happy for this one day."

Her husband sighed, and was silent.

CHAPTER XVII.

"Agatha, will you come out and walk with me?"

"Do you not see it is raining?"

He had not indeed, though he had stood at the window in meditation ever
since breakfast-time. As for Agatha, she had been so tired with her
excursion the previous day that she had done nothing but sleep, and
had scarcely opened her lips to her husband or to any one. Now, on this
rainy day, she felt the reaction of her high spirits--was dull, dreamy;
wished her husband would come and talk to her, and "make a baby" of
her. She could not think why he stood at that odious window, pondering,
counting rain-drops apparently, and then made the unaccountable
proposition of a walk.

"Raining, is it?" He looked up at the murky sky. "What a change from
last night."

"I did not know you were so subject to elemental influences?"

"We all are, more or less; but I was just then thinking about other
things than what I spoke of. My dear wife, I want to talk to you very
much. Where shall we go, so as not to be interrupted?"

"Anywhere you l