was smiling in such a sinister, mysterious way?

"My services? Really, Mrs. Harper, this is very amusing. You surely must
be aware that your husband has not the slightest occasion for anybody's
services in the management of his affairs. One can't make something out
of nothing, and when there is not a halfpenny left"--

"Explain yourself."

"My dear young lady, is it possible you don't know the unfortunate
circumstance, at least one of the unfortunate circumstances which
brought me here? Why, Mr. Locke Harper knew it months ago. He and I had
several conferences together on the subject. But we husbands are
obliged to be uncommunicative, as my wife would tell you, if you had the
pleasure of knowing Mrs. Grimes"--

"Will you keep to the point, sir?" said Agatha, sternly. She felt
very stern--very bitter. The old wound was reopening sorer than ever.
Nathanael had "held conferences" with this fellow--confided to him
secrets which he had not told to her--his own wife! Here was a new
pang--a new indignity. In its sharpness she forgot everything else; even
the silent room overhead. She had just self-possession and pride enough
not to question; she would have been more than human had she not paused
to hear.

"Well, Mr. Grimes!" she said, confronting him, her hand still on the
door, where she had placed it as a mute signal which he refused to
understand.

"I own, Mrs. Harper, it is a hard case. At the time I really felt as
sorry for you as if you had been my own daughter. All to happen so soon
after your marriage, too! Some persons might blame me for consenting to
keep back the facts, but I assure you Major Harper compelled me to draw
up the settlement exactly according to his orders."

"Sir--will you hasten--my time is occupied."

"So is mine, madam; fully occupied. I shall waste no more of it in
giving advice to young women who are as proud as peacocks, and as poor
as church-mice. If it wasn't for that highly respectable young man, your
husband, I should say it served you right."

"What?" said Agatha, beneath her breath.

"Mr. Locke Harper found out, a month after his marriage, that somebody
had made ducks and drakes of all his wife's property. So, as I hear,
the poor young man has had to turn land-steward just to keep his kitchen
fire burning. That's all. Very odd you don't know it."

"I do now."

"Well, you take it quietly enough. You seem quite satisfied."

"I am so."

Mr. Grimes regarded her in perfect bewi