said or not. She
decided she would wait awhile, and watch how he acted. She thought she
could soon tell. So when Robert came, she was as nearly herself as
possible, but when he began to talk about being married soon, the most
she would say was that she would begin to think about it at Christmas,
and tell him by spring. Robert was bitterly disappointed. He was very
lonely; he needed better housekeeping than his aged mother was capable
of, to keep him up to a high mark in his work. Neither of them was
young any longer; he could see no reason why they should not be married
at once. Of the reason in Kate's mind, he had not a glimmering. But
Kate had her way. She would not even talk of a time, or express an
opinion as to whether she would remain on the farm, or live in Nancy
Ellen's house, or sell it and build whatever she wanted for herself.
Robert went away baffled, and disappointed over some intangible thing
he could not understand.

For six weeks Kate tortured herself, and kept Robert from being happy.
Then one morning Agatha stopped to visit with her, while Adam drove on
to town. After they had exhausted farming, Little Poll's charms, and
the neighbours, Agatha looked at Kate and said: "Katherine, what is
this I hear about Robert coming here every day, now? It appeals to me
that he must have followed my advice."

"Of course he never would have thought of coming, if you hadn't told
him so," said Kate dryly.

"Now THERE you are in error," said the literal Agatha, as she smoothed
down Little Poll's skirts and twisted her ringlets into formal
corkscrews. "Right THERE, you are in error, my dear. The reason I
told Robert to marry you was because he said to me, when he suggested
going after you to stay the night with me, that he had seen you in the
field when he passed, and that you were the most glorious specimen of
womanhood that he ever had seen. He said you were the one to stay with
me, in case there should be any trouble, because your head was always
level, and your heart was big as a barrel."

"Yes, that's the reason I can't always have it with me," said Kate,
looking glorified instead of glorious. "Agatha, it just happens to
mean very much to me. Will you just kindly begin at the beginning, and
tell me every single word Robert said to you, and you said to him, that
day?"

"Why, I have informed you explicitly," said Agatha, using her
handkerchief on the toe of Poll's blue shoe. "He mentioned going