ur was therefore
very sweet, candid, and altogether pleasing.

Major Harper even forgot his benevolent precautions on Miss Bowen's
account, and tried to render himself as agreeable as heretofore, talking
away at a tremendous rate, and with most admirable eloquence, while his
brother sat silent in a corner. The contrast between them was never
so strong. But once or twice Agatha, wearied out with laughing and
listening, stole a look towards the figure that she felt was sitting
there; and encountered the only sign Nathanael gave,--the unmistakeable
"lover's eyes." They seemed to pierce into her heart and make it
quiver--not exactly with tenderness, but with the strange controlling
sense by which the love of a strong nature, reticent, and self-possessed
even in its utmost passion--at times appears to enfold a woman--and
any true affection, whether of lover or friend, to those who have never
known it, and are unconsciously pining for lack of it, comes at first
like water in a thirsty land.

Miss Bowen's frank gaiety died slowly away, and she fell into more
than one long reverie, which did not escape the benign notice of her
guardian. He grew serious, and made an attempt to remove from her his
own dangerous proximity.

"Come, N. L., it is time we vanished. You have never told me the least
fragment of news from home--that is, from Kingcombe."

"You were too much engaged, brother. But we have plenty of time."

"Kingcombe; is that the place your father lives at?" said Mrs. lanson,
who took a patronising interest in the young man. "What a pretty name!
Were you aware of it, Miss Bowen?"

Agatha, for her life, could not help changing colour as she answered
"Yes," knowing perfectly well who was watching her the while, and that
he and she were thinking of the same thing, namely, the brief note whose
date was her only information as to the family residence of the Harpers.

"Kingcombe is as pretty as its name," observed the elder brother,--"a
name more peculiar than at first seems. It was given by a loyal Harper
during the Protectorate. It had been St. Mary's Abbey, but he, with
pretended sanctimoniousness, changed the name, and called it _Kingcombe
Holm_; as a gentle hint from the Dorsetshire coast to Prince Charles
over the water. Ah! a clever fellow was my great-great-grandfather,
Geoffrey Harper!"

All laughed at the anecdote, and the Iansons looked with additional
respect on the man who thus carelessly counted his grandfa