ss or melancholy
came over his face, but as he watched her it gradually faded off. There
seemed an enchantment in the young wife's sweet looks.

"You two are very happy?"

They exchanged a glance, which needed no words of confirmation; but
Agatha said, with a shy blush, and a womanly grace that made her
sweeter-looking than ever.

"We are all the happier now Uncle Brian has come home."

"Thank you, my dear. Thank your husband too, for me. I would have been
lying 'full fathom five' in the Channel now, if it were not for that
boy."

"That boy" sounded oddly enough, save for the world of tenderness in the
phrase, and the look which accompanied it. Any one could see at once the
strong attachment subsisting between the uncle and nephew. No more was
betrayed, however, and they soon began a conversation as natural and
unconcerned as if they had gone through no peril, and suffered no
emotion. Certainly, however strong their feelings, the Harpers were not
a "sentimental" family.

Agatha thought, as like a dutiful wife she sat still and listened, that
she had never seen any man--saving her husband of course--whose mien was
so simple, yet so truly noble, as Brian Locke Harper's. She watched him
with a pathetic curiosity, thinking what he must have been as a young
man, with many other thoughts besides, which came from the very depths
of her woman's heart.

Uncle Brian talked, though in a rather fragmentary and brief fashion, of
Kingcombe and of the changes he found. He never by any chance mentioned
any other place than Kingcombe, until Nathanael happened to ask him
where Duke was this morning?

"He has ridden out."

"But I wanted to see him, and thank him for being so kind to my poor
little wife. Where has he gone?"

"To Thornhurst." The word came out sharp, low, yet with a certain
tone that made it unlike other words. After saying it, Uncle Brian sat
moodily looking at the fire from under his eyebrows, until Agatha, with
womanly wisdom, broke the silence, by speaking to her husband.

"I think some time this afternoon I ought to go and see Anne Valery."

"You shall go, dear."

Uncle Brian observed, never moving his eyes from the fire, "Harriet said
that she--Miss Valery--was not quite strong this winter. Was that true?"

Agatha answered, "That it was only too true."

Something in her manner seemed to startle Mr. Locke Harper; he threw
towards her one of his flashing, penetrating looks.

"We have indeed been ver