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Agatha, worn out with bodily fatigue and the great tension of her mind during so many hours, laid her head down on her pillow, closed her aching eyes, and never opened them till near upon broad noon. Then she found breakfast was long over in the early house of the Dugdales, and that Nathanael had left her and gone out some hours before.
She wished she had not refused so hastily such a simple request; she began to think herself a wretch for ever contradicting him in anything. The little party started again, increased by the arrival of the family carriage from Kingcombe Holm, wherein sat Mary and Eulalie. To these were speedily added the three young Dugdales, all in high glee.
The little Dugdales had talked of him incessantly all day, communicating their expectations concerning him in such a funny fashion that Agatha was ready to die with laughing, and even Anne, who had insisted on having the children about her, was heard to laugh sometimes. She let little Brian climb about her sofa, and answered all sorts of eccentric questions from the others, never seeming weary.
When her own husband came up, she, unwilling to talk, and dreading above all that his quick eye should detect anything amiss in her, pushed her horse forward, and calling to Nathanael to follow, rode on after the Dugdales. Ere they had ridden far, all her wild spirits came back again, and all her wifely feelings too, for her husband seemed as happy as herself, and entered into all her frolics.
Harper, as they drove through a little town, which Agatha, half blinded by the wind, scarcely opened her eyes to look at. "My sister, Mrs. Dugdale, lives here. I thought they might have met us at the station; but the Dugdales are always late. Ah, there he is!" "Who?" "My brother-in-law, Marmaduke Dugdale or 'Duke Dugdale, as everybody about here calls him. Holloa, Duke!"
One or two voices, especially the Dugdales, seconded this, and eagerly proposed to wait for Uncle Brian. "Impossible!" Major Harper said, hastily. "I have engagements. I cannot wait for any one." "But" "Nathanael don't argue. Remember, I am the elder brother. Give me my father's will." Nathanael paused a moment, and gave it.
The Squire's household did not attend this church, nor the Dugdales either; so that the young people walked home without speaking to a soul, and scarcely to each other. They were both very grave. A word, perhaps, from either would have unlocked a heart flood; but the word was not spoken. They met at the gate of the cottage Mrs. Dugdale and her boys.
Towards evening the suspense of expectation grew less, from the mere fact of its having lasted so many hours. Agatha went down in the course of dinner. The dining-table looked as usual, only fuller, from the presence of the Dugdales and Miss Valery. Mary had of necessity taken her father's place, but not his chair it was put aside against the wall, and nobody looked that way.
She would try to meet everything do everything. She felt already calm and brave. The first thing necessary was to send for medical aid. This she did; having the forethought to write a few clear lines, lest the messenger should fail. She despatched word likewise to the Dugdales. She felt quite composed; everything right to be remembered came clearly into her head.
Then, with all outward observance, he linked his wife's arm in his, and they proceeded onwards. At the end of East Street they met Harriet Dugdale the Dugdales seemed always wandering about Kingcombe after one another, and turning up at intervals at odd corners. "Here you both are! I was looking for my husband. Has anybody seen Duke. Oh, where on earth is Duke gone to?
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