Agathas Husband | Page 9

thought, personal yet excusable. "Had Emma lost the child, I should have felt like a murderess to the day of my death."
Nathanael shook his head, trying to smile; but seemed unable to speak.
"You have not hurt yourself?"
"Oh no. Very little. Only a strain," said he as he removed his hand from his side. "Go to your friend: I will come presently."
He did come--though not for a good while; and Miss Bowen fancied from his looks that he had been more injured than he acknowledged; but she did not like to inquire. Nevertheless he rose greatly in her estimation, less for his courage than for the presence of mind and common sense which made it Valuable, and for the self-restraint and indifference which caused him afterwards to treat the whole adventure as such a trifling thing.
It was, after all, nothing very romantic or extraordinary, and happened in such a brief space of time, that probably the circumstance is not noted in the traditionary chronicles of the Zoological Gardens, which contain the frightful legend carefully related that day by several keepers to Mrs. Thornycroft--how a bear had actually eaten up a child, falling in the same manner into the same den.
But the adventure, slight as it may appear, made a very great and sudden difference in the slender tie of acquaintanceship, hitherto subsisting between Agatha and Major Harper's brother. She began to treat Nathanael more like a friend, and ceased to think of him exactly as a "boy."
Master James's mamma, when she at last turned her attention from his beloved small self, was full of thanks to his preserver. Mr. Harper assured her that his feat was merely a little exertion of muscular strength, and at last grew evidently uncomfortable at being made so much of. Returning home with them, he would fain have crept away from the scene of his honours; but the good-natured, motherly-hearted Emma implored him to stay.
"We will nurse you if you are hurt, which I am afraid you must be--it was such a dreadful strain! Oh, Jemmie, Jemmie!" and the poor mother shuddered.
"Indeed you must come in," added Miss Bowen kindly, seeing that Emma's thoughts were floating away, as appeared this time natural enough, to her own concerns. "You shall rest all the evening, and we will talk to you, and be very, very agreeable. Pray yield!"
Nathanael argued no more, but went in "quite lamb-like," as Mrs. Thornycroft afterwards declared.
This acquiescence in him was little rewarded, Agatha thought--for the evening happened to be duller even than evenings usually passed at the Thornycrofts'. The head of the household, being detained in the City, did not appear; and Mrs. Thornycroft's tongue, unchecked by her husband's presence, and excited by the event of the afternoon, galloped on at a fearful rapidity. She poured out upon the luckless young man all the baby biography of her family, from Missy's christening down to the infant Selina's cutting of her first tooth. To all of which he listened with a praiseworthy attention, giving at least silence, which was doubtless all the answer Emma required.
But Agatha, whose sympathy in these things was, as before said, at present small, grew half ashamed, half vexed, and finally rather angry--especially when she saw the pale weariness that gradually overspread Mr. Harper's face. More than once she hinted that he should have the armchair, or lie down, or rest in some way; but he took not the least notice; sitting immovably in his place, which happened to be next herself, and vaguely looking across the table towards Mrs. Thornycroft.
At nine o'clock, becoming paler than ever, he bestirred himself, and talked of leaving.
"I ought to be going too. It is not far, and as our roads agree, I will walk with you," said Agatha, simply.
He seemed surprised--so much so, that she almost blushed, and would have retracted, save for the consciousness of her own frank and kindly purpose. She had watched him closely, and felt convinced that he had been more injured than he confessed; so in her generous straightforward fashion, she wanted to "take care of him," until he was safe at his brother's door, which she could see from her own. And her solitary education had been conducted on such unworldly principles, that she never thought there was anything remarkable or improper in her proposing to walk home with a young man, whom she knew she could trust in every way, and who was besides Major Harper's brother.
Nor did even the matronly Mrs. Thornycroft object to the plan--save that it took her visitors away so early. "Surely," she added, "you can't be tired out already."
Agatha had an ironical answer on the very tip of her tongue: but something in the clear, "good" eye of Na-thanael repressed her little wickedness. So she only whispered to Emma that for