ht be gradually explained, nay, healed, between her and her husband.
She was on the whole not sorry to go "home."

"I see you two are quite agreed," laughed Harrie. "Marvellous union,
Mrs. Locke Harper. You'll be really a pattern couple soon, and throw
Duke and me cruelly in the shade. Now, dress like lightning, and I'll
drive you and the children over to grandpapa's. Most likely well meet Pa
and Nathanael somewhere about the town."

But, with the general vagueness of the Dugdale habits, that meeting did
not arrive, nor was Mr. Harper anywhere to be seen.

"I dare say he is at the cottage, where I was bid not to take you upon
any account. Charming little mysteries, I suppose, attendant on bringing
home the bride. Very nice. Heigh-ho! I remember how happy I was when my
poor dear Duke brought me home for the first time!"

"Where was that?" They were dashing over the moors, Agatha sitting
rather silent, and Harrie's tongue galloping as fast as Dunce, her
steed. Little Brian was perched on his mother's knee, holding the
reins--a baby Phaeton, though with small danger of setting the world on
fire--at least just yet.

"Where was it, my dear? Why, to the same old house we live in, empty
and gloomy then, though it's full enough now. And I had been
married--(hold your tongues, Fred and Gus! you can't have the whip,
simpletons!)--married only three weeks, and it was queer coming back to
my native place; and my father was rather cross that I had married Duke
at all, and--I was foolish enough to cry."

Here Harrie laughed, and gave Dunce a lash that quite discomposed his
pony faculties, and made Brian scream with delight.

"And what did your husband say?"

"Say? Nothing. He never speaks when he's vexed or hurt; only, a little
while afterwards he came beside me, and said something about my being
such a young girl, so gay-hearted and pretty--(bah!--though I was pretty
then)--too young, he said, to marry such an elderly man, etc. etc. etc."

"And what did _you_ say?"

"Likewise nothing. I just jumped on his knee, and took him round the
neck, and--But that isn't of the slightest consequence to anybody. Tuts!
On with you, Dunce!" And Harrie leaned forward, her eyelashes glittering
wet in spite of her fun.

"I know I don't deserve him," she continued. "I never did. Nobody could.
There are a lot of bad men in the world, but when a man is really good,
there's hardly a woman alive that is good enough for him. And I'm not
half g