“Unhappy? I?”
“I would try that you should not be. I can earn quite enough to give you many comforts. We should not be any more content if we claimed our rights and lived in prosperity at Kingcombe Holm.”
“Oh, no!”
“Besides, I am not sure that these are our rights, morally speaking. I think, if my father had lived long enough, he would have undone what he did in a moment of passion, and let the first will stand. This is what I have said to myself, when considering that I have duties towards my wife as well as towards others, and that this would restore what was taken from her. 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.' But, Agatha, we would not urge that law?”
“Never! God forbid! And Major Harper was so kind to me when I was an orphan.”
“Only kind? Did he never—No, I am getting foolish. Say on, Agatha. Come, sit here; we can talk, and nobody can see or hear us.” And he led his wife to a sheltered arbutus-bower. “Well, was my brother so kind to you?”
“He was, indeed. For the sake of that time I would forgive him anything; I have already forgiven him a good deal.”
“Indeed? Tell me or not, as you choose; I urge no right to pry into your secrets.”
“Oh, don't look, don't speak in that way! Why should I not tell you? I would have told you before, had you asked. It was nothing—indeed nothing. But I was a proud girl, and he made me angry with him.”
“For what cause?”