“I will,” he repeated; “I promise you I will. Only be content--and in token that you are so, give me your hand.” She gave him both, and then leaned back again on Miss Valery's shoulder. “Tell him--I will go with him--anywhere--at any time--if it will only make him happy.” The same night, when Nathanael and Anne Valery had left her, Agatha sat thinking, almost in a dream, yet without either sorrow or dread--that all uncertainty was now over--that this day week would be her wedding-day. CHAPTER VIII. “I wish, as I stated yesterday, that Miss Bowen's property should be settled entirely upon herself. This is the only course which to my thinking can reconcile a man to the humiliation of receiving a large fortune with his wife.” “An odd doctrine, truly! Where did you learn it?” laughed Major Harper, who was pacing the Bedford Square drawing-room with quick, uneasy steps; while his brother stood very quiet, only looking from time to time at the closed door. It was the Saturday before the marriage; and Agatha's trustee had come to execute his last guardianship of her and her property. There was lying on a corner-table, pored over by a lawyer-like individual--that formidable instrument, a marriage-settlement. “Where did I learn it?” returned Mr. Harper, smiling. “Why, where I learned most of my opinions, and everything that is good in me--with Uncle Brian. Poor Uncle Brian!” and the smile faded into grave anxiety. “Are you really going on that mad expedition?” said the elder brother, with the air of a man who, being perturbed in his own mind, is ready to take a harsh view of everything. “I do not think it mad--and anything short of madness I ought to undertake, and shall--for him.” “Ay,” muttered the other, “there it is, Brian always made everybody love him.” “But,” continued Nathanael, “as I said last night to Miss Bowen, I shall do nothing foolishly. We must hold ourselves prepared for the worst; still, if better tidings should come--though that is scarcely possible now--then perhaps----” “You would not go!” cried Major Harper, eagerly. “Which would of course delay your marriage. How very much better that would be.” “Why so?” said the bridegroom, with a piercing look. Frederick appeared confused, but threw it off with a laugh. “Oh, women like a little longer courtship. They are never caught all in a minute, unless they are quite indifferent as to who catches them. And even then--'marry in haste'--you know the proverb--nay, don't be angry,” he added, as his brother turned abruptly away. “I was only jesting; and a happy fellow like you can afford to be laughed at by a miserable old bachelor like me.” The momentary annoyance passed. Nathanael was, indeed, too happy to be seriously vexed at anything.