When the expedition was about to start into the wilds, and Miss Dennison broke down against all calculation, Mrs. Stanhope was heavily hampered by the nature of her own engagements. It was an impossibility for her to sacrifice herself and them, so far as to undertake to chaperon Agneta and countenance Harry and Horace, even for the matter of a couple of days, in their yeoman establishment, where she knew her presence must create the greatest disturbance. She could not attempt another compensating alteration in the programme. She did not see herself warranted in anticipating Agneta’s entrance on the great world, and her career, by carrying her niece with her for the gaieties of a race week, to which Mrs. Stanhope and the General were pledged. Mrs. Stanhope, in the hurry of the dilemma, seemed to see herself compelled to send Agneta, to the girl’s unbounded delight, to Copley Grange Farm, under no more qualified escort than that of a steady old waiting-maid. Mrs. Stanhope’s chief dependence was on the brothers’ having sufficient _esprit de corps_, where their sister was concerned, to look after her when she was with them. Then Agneta, in her own person, was not so destitute of dawning discretion as to run straightway into mischief for the short interval of time during which she was to be Harry and Horace’s guest. The very first use which Harry made of his guardianship was to carry Agneta to Friarton Mill. ‘I have brought over my sister Aggie to you, Miss Constable, that you may be a friend to her also,’ said Harry in his winning way, which was not so much graciously affable as frankly confiding in the friendliness of his kind. Fan was more than proud and pleased, she was deeply gratified by the trust, and grateful for it. It raised her in her own estimation, and she was satisfied it would elevate her in that of others. If Harry Stanhope chose to commit his young sister to the care of Fan—of all people—during Agneta Stanhope’s stay at the Farm, it showed not only his conviction of Fan’s claims to be a gentlewoman, it proved to Fan that her own instincts of ladyhood had been correct and genuine. As for Agneta, she went into still greater raptures over lovely old Friarton Mill than over the quaint antiquated farmhouse. She privately included Miss Constable, who had been so good to Agneta’s ‘boys,’ who was such a nice, pretty, quiet-looking little woman in her mourning, in her enthusiastic admiration. Miss Constable was quick to guess her—Agneta’s—wishes, and was evidently going to be very kind to her. With regard to the big, awkward, but gentlemanlike—Agneta knew a gentleman when she saw him—master of the house, whom Harry was so impertinent as to call to his face ‘the Miller,’ he was even a more wonderful novelty than his sister.