s Aggie entered the drawing-room,

Now, the girl was demure in seeming almost beyond belief, a childish
creature, very fair and dainty, guileless surely, with those untroubled
eyes of blue, those softly curving lips of warmest red and the more
delicate bloom in the rounded cheeks. There were the charms of innocence
and simplicity in the manner of her as she stopped just within the
doorway, whence she regarded Mary with a timid, pleading gaze, her
slender little form poised lightly as if for flight

"Did you want me, dear?" she asked. There was something half-plaintive
in the modulated cadences of the query.

"Agnes," Mary answered affectionately, "this is Mr. Irwin, who has come
to see you in behalf of General Hastings."

"Oh!" the girl murmured, her voice quivering a little, as the lawyer,
after a short nod, dropped again into his seat; "oh, I'm so frightened!"
She hurried, fluttering, to a low stool behind the desk, beside Mary's
chair, and there she sank down, drooping slightly, and catching hold of
one of Mary's hands as if in mute pleading for protection against the
fear that beset her chaste soul.

"Nonsense!" Mary exclaimed, soothingly. "There's really nothing at all
to be frightened about, my dear child." Her voice was that with which
one seeks to cajole a terrified infant. "You mustn't be afraid, Agnes.
Mr. Irwin says that General Hastings did not promise to marry you. Of
course, you understand, my dear, that under no circumstances must you
say anything that isn't strictly true, and that, if he did not promise
to marry you, you have no case--none at all. Now, Agnes, tell me: did
General Hastings promise to marry you?"

"Oh, yes--oh, yes, indeed!" Aggie cried, falteringly. "And I wish he
would. He's such a delightful old gentleman!" As she spoke, the girl let
go Mary's hand and clasped her own together ecstatically.

The legal representative of the delightful old gentleman scowled
disgustedly at this outburst. His voice was portentous, as he put a
question.

"Was that promise made in writing?"

"No," Aggie answered, gushingly. "But all his letters were in writing,
you know. Such wonderful letters!" She raised her blue eyes toward
the ceiling in a naive rapture. "So tender, and so--er--interesting!"
Somehow, the inflection on the last word did not altogether suggest the
ingenuous.

"Yes, yes, I dare say," Irwin agreed, hastily, with some evidences of
chagrin. He had no intention of dwelling on that fe