or added this fact) that there was
not the least necessity for his being so.

"Not the least, my dear. I always thought the same! You'll love him
heartily in a week--I did! Bless him for a dear, good, ugly, beautiful
old soul!"

Here Agatha, who stood listening, and nervously arranging the long curls
that _would_ fall uncurled and untidy, felt a renewal of her old girlish
enthusiasm for all true things; her eyes brightened, and her heart
warmed towards "Harrie." She would have liked to stay talking longer,
but for a vision of Mr. Harper waiting uncomfortably down-stairs.

"So you have finished adorning, and want to go! You can't bear to be ten
minutes away from your husband, that's clear! Well, my dear, you'll get
wiser when you have been married as long as I have. But I don't know,"
added Mrs. Dugdale laughing; "I'm always glad enough to get rid of Duke
for an hour or two; yet somehow, when he is away, I'm always wanting
him. By-the-by, did he happen to say what time he was coming over
here--only to see you, you know? He has quite enough of 'the Missus.'"

Agatha laughingly asked how long "the Missus" had borne that title.

"Couldn't possibly count! Look at Gus and Fred in jacket and trousers,
and little Brian learning to ride. Frightful antiquity! And yet when
I married I was a girl like you; only ten times wilder--the greatest
harum-scarum in the county! I often wonder poor Duke was not afraid to
marry me! Heigho! Well, here we are down-stairs, and here--take your
wife, most solemn brother Nathanael! If you were but a little more like
Frederick! By the way, have you seen Fred lately?"

"He has left town," said Mr. Harper, shortly, as he drew his young
wife's arm through his own, and led her to his father's presence.

Agatha was conscious of a tall, thin, white-haired gentleman--not unlike
Major Harper frozen into stately age--who rose and came to meet her.

"I am most happy to welcome my son's wife to Kingcombe Holm."

Agatha felt the withered fingers touching her own--the kiss of welcome
formally sealed on her forehead. She trembled exceedingly for a moment,
but recovered herself, and met old Mr. Harper's keen observant gaze with
one as clear and as composed as his own. One glance told her that he was
not the sort of man into whose fatherly arms she could throw herself,
and indulge the emotion brimming over in her heart. But his examination
of her was evidently favourable.

"You are most welcome, believe m