Harper!
Sir! Mr. Locke Harper." He ran a little way in vain pursuit of the
retreating figure; then Agatha saw him sit down on a stone, hide his
face in his shaking old hands, and cry for joy.

While, far over the hill-side, in very sight of the closed blinds of
Anne's room, the returned wanderer strode away, and disappeared.

It was some time before Agatha could summon courage to walk up-stairs.
All things seemed so strange. She could hardly realise the fact that she
had been driven from Kingcombe by Uncle Brian's own self, and that she
was now going to tell Anne Valery that he was here.

At last, calmed by faith in heaven, and in that next holiest faith,
love, she opened the door of Anne's bedroom.

It was silent, solemn, and peaceful. There was a prayer-book by the
bedside, open at one of the Christmas-day psalms. No one lingered in the
room, or about the couch, with sisterly or friendly care; all was serene
but lonely, as Anne's whole life had been. At the opening of the door, a
faint voice asked, "Who is there?"

"Only I! Oh, Anne, dearest Anne!"

There was a pause of weeping silence, though one only wept. Miss Valery
soothed the girl in all sorts of tender ways.

"You have suffered much, my poor child, but it is over now. Forget it.
You will be very happy now."

"And you too--you too, Anne! But why do you lie here so drearily, with
no one near you?"

"I like it."

"But you will rise soon? You must get well now they are come home. You
little think how anxious all are about you."

"That is kind. Everybody was always very kind to me."

After a few moments, during which Anne lay with her eyes shut, and
Agatha watched, with an unaccountable dread, the wonderful, spiritual
calm of her features, she suddenly said:

"You have seen him, have you not?"

"Uncle Brian? Yes."

"How does he look? Was he harmed by that--that awful three days at sea?

"No; he seems quite well. He drove me to Thornhurst."

"Then he is here?" And there came a slight trembling over the placid
face.

"He had to go back to Kingcombe, I believe," said Agatha, hesitating.
"But he told me to say, if you liked to see an old friend--He does not
know how ill you have been," she added, with irrepressible vexation, "or
else I should have felt very, very angry, even with Uncle Brian."

"Hush! You do not understand him yet," said Anne, gently, as she once
more closed her eyes. Many thoughts seemed to sweep over her, but none
left a trac