After a loud-lamenting adieu, especially from the Dugdale boys, Miss Valery mounted her little carriage and drove away into the gathering shadow--Agatha knew not where. “What a good woman she is! I wish we were all like her!” she said, thoughtfully. “My dear, nobody can be, especially with a husband and four children. It is a blessing to society in general that Anne Valery never married.” “But people do marry late in life sometimes. So may she. Do you think she will?” “Can't say! Don't know! Very mysterious!” ejaculated Harrie. “My brother Fred once hinted--and Fred was a very fascinating young fellow when I was a child--But all that belongs to the year One. I'll hold my tongue.” Agatha had too much delicacy to inquire further. Still, it seemed very odd that there should be a general impression of Anne's early attachment to Major Harper, in contradistinction to the old Squire's regretful hint that she had refused his eldest son. But these scraps of romance, so far back in the past, were useless searching. “An excellent woman is Anne Valery,” continued Harrie--“really excellent: but sometimes rather a bore to her friends who have families. My Duke often forgets he has four children to provide for, when he listens to her charitable schemes. 'Twas but the other day he and she were mad about some starving Cornish miners that she sent poor Mr. Wilson to look after.” “Ah, I remember,” cried Agatha, now interested in things which she had before heard indifferently. She was thirsting for some opportunity of doing good--of redeeming the long waste of idle years and unemployed fortune. “Do tell me about those miners.” “Little to tell, my dear. Only philanthropic ideas about helping poor wretches that had been thrown out of work by some cheating speculators shutting up the mines. Anne sent Wilson to find out who the man was, and what could be done. After that I never heard any more of it, nor did my husband either.--Stop--don't run and question him! For goodness' sake let the nonsense drop out of his poor dear head.” Agatha, thus rebuffed, ceased her inquiries, but she inwardly resolved to find out all about the Cornish miners, and consult with her husband about assisting them. He could not object to this good deed--it should be done as privately as ever he liked--she would take care not even to make mention of it before anybody, as in the matter of the subscription. And surely, though he was strange and had his peculiar notions, Nathanael was generous at heart, and would not thwart her in anything really essential, especially when she only wished to follow in the steps of Anne Valery, and use worthily her large fortune. With these thoughts elevating and cheering her mind, she sat and watched for her husband until he came. She was so glad to see him that she quite forgot to inquire about the house. He seemed at first expectant of her questions, and rather grave, but at last gave himself up to the general merry mood.