ather might--yet with a frank
independence nobler than the pride of all the Harpers--his honest right
hand. Anne Valery took it, the tears rising in her eyes.

"I could never have offered you this, Nathanael; but since you are so
steadfast, so wise----Yes! it is indeed, considering all things, the
wisest course you can pursue. Only, I will agree to nothing unless your
wife consents."

"I will not consent," said Agatha, determinedly.

There was an uncomfortable pause.

"I see in your plan no reason--no right," continued she, forgetting
in her annoyance even the outward deference with which her sense of
conjugal dignity led her invariably to treat her husband. "Why was I
never told this before?"

"Because I never thought of it myself until this morning."

The exceeding gentleness of his tone surprised her, and restrained many
more words, not over-sweet, which were issuing from her angry lips.

"The fact is, Agatha--I may speak before Anne Valery whom we both
love"--

"And who loves you both as if you had been her own kindred."

These words, so tremulously said, swept away a little bitterness that
was rising up in Agatha's heart against Miss Valery.

"It is necessary," Mr. Harper went on--"imperatively so, for my
comfort--that I should at once do something. And in choosing
one's work, it always seemed to me there was great wisdom in the
rule--'Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.' Many
things I could not do; this I can, well and faithfully, as Anne will
find. Nor need I feel ashamed of being steward to Miss Valery."

Agatha felt her spirit of opposition quaking on its throne. "But your
father--your sisters. What will they all say at Kingcombe Holm?"

"Nothing that I cannot combat. My father will be glad of our settling
near him in Dorsetshire."

"In Dorsetshire!" echoed Mrs. Harper dolefully; and thereupon fled her
last visions of a gay London home. Yet she already liked her husband's
county and people well enough to bear the sacrifice with tolerable
equanimity.

"And whatever he says, whatever any one else says, I have no fear, if
my wife will only stand by me, and trust that I do everything for the
best."

His wife listened, not without agitation, for she remembered their first
dispute, only a few days ago. Here was rising another storm. Yet either
she felt weaker to contend, or something in Nathanael's manner lured
her to believe him in the right. She listened--only half-convinced,