rper, could drive through Kingcombe without the fact being speedily
circulated throughout the whole town? Why, my dear, if you must know,
the grocer told Mrs. Edwards' nursemaid, and Mrs. Edwards' nursemaid
told it to Mrs. Jones at the Library, and Mrs. Jones told Miss
Trenchard, who was coming to call on me; so I asked Duke to give the
children their dinner, and off I started, tracking you as cleverly as
one of Nathanael's Red Indians. And here I am."

She stopped, breathless, her flounces, veil, and shawl flying abroad in
all directions. But she looked so hearty, natural, and good-humoured,
that her entrance was quite a relief to Agatha--more especially as, for
a great wonder, she asked no questions.

"So, I hear you have been showing Honeywood to Mrs. Harper. Pretty
place, isn't it! A pity it's not on your property, Anne, or you would
not let it go to ruin unlet. And here is poor Mr. Wilson's old house,
with all the furniture just as it was. How melancholy!"

She said "How melancholy!" just in the tone that she would have
said "How entertaining!" From circumstances, or from natural
peculiarity--that light easy temper which dances like a feather over the
troubled waters of life--she had evidently never learnt the meaning of
the word sorrow.

"But now," Harriet continued, "what I come for, is to carry you all off
to lunch--the children's dinner. My dear, you must see my boys, your
nephews."

Agatha stood aghast at the idea of having nephews!

"And such boys!" Miss Valery added, interposing. "'The Missus' has
good right to be proud of them. If there is one thing in which Harrie
succeeds better than another, it is in the management of her children."

"Bah! they manage themselves; I just leave them to nature," cried Mrs.
Dugdale; but her eye--the mother's eye--twinkled with pleasure all the
time, which greatly improved its expression, Agatha thought. She walked
off gaily with her sister-in-law, Nathanael following. Anne stayed
behind, conversing with the old woman who showed the house. She and Mr.
Harper had pointedly avoided any private speech with one another.

"I declare there is Duke!" cried Mrs. Dugdale suddenly. "Just look at
him, meandering up and down the town." (Agatha laughed at the word;
"meandering" seemed so perfectly expressive of Duke Dugdale.) "But
my husband always turns up everywhere, except where he's wanted. Does
yours? I beg your pardon--since you are watching him as if you thought
he were ru