onsent to return to
Montreal until it seems to me good.

"Therefore, stay in Europe as long as, or longer than, you planned, and
God prosper you, Nathanael, my good boy.

"Your affectionate uncle,

"Brian Locke Harper.

"I trust earnestly that this scrawl will reach Kingcombe Holm. Possibly,
no more news of me may ever reach there.--Yet I fear not, for He who is
everywhere is likewise in the wild western prairies; and life is not so
sweet that I should dread its ending. Still, if it does end, remember me
to my brother, my nieces, and all old friends, including Anne Valery. If
living, I shall reappear sometime, somewhere. B. L. H."

"This is indeed happy news;--so far;" said Agatha, "though he seems in
no cheerful mood."

"Melancholy was always his way at times."

"What a strange man he must be!" she continued, still thinking more
of the letter than of anything else. "But"--and she turned to
Nathanael--"your mind is now at rest? You will not need to go to
America?"

"Not just yet."

She looked at him a moment in surprise, for there was something peculiar
in his manner. She felt half angry with him for sitting so still, and
speaking so briefly, while she herself was trembling with delight. "Have
you told Miss Valery?" He shook his head. "Ah, then, go at once and tell
her, so happy as she will be! Do go."

"Presently. Come and sit down here. I want to talk to you, Agatha."

She let him place her by his side. He took her hands, and regarded her
earnestly.

"Do you remember what day this was to have been?"

"Was to have been?" she repeated, and instinctively guessed what he had
doubtless come to say. Her heart began to beat violently, and her eyes
dropped in confusion.

"I say '_was_,' because, if you desire it, it shall not be. I see the
very idea is a relief to you. I saw it in your sudden joy."

Agatha was amazed--she had till this moment never thought of such a
thing. Mr. Harper's whole manner of speech and proceeding was so very
incomprehensible--like a lover's--that she told the entire truth in
simply saying "that she did not understand him."

"Let me repeat it in plainer words." But the plainer words would
not come; after one or two vain efforts, he sat with averted face,
speechless. At last he said abruptly, "Agatha, do you wish to defer our
marriage?"

As he spoke, his grasp of her hand was so fierce that it positively hurt
her. "Oh, let me go--you are not kind," she cried, shrinking from th