Mrs. Markland’s letter from her husband was very brief, and rather vague as to his purposes: 

“I will be home, if possible, this week; but may be kept here, by important business, over Sunday.  If so, I will write again.  Every thing is progressing to my fullest satisfaction.  Little danger, I think, of my dying from ennui in the next twelve months.  Head and hands will both be pretty well occupied for that period, if not longer.  There is too much vitality about me for the life of a drone.  I was growing restless and unhappy from sheer idleness and want of purpose.  How does our dear Fanny seem?  I feel no little concern about her.  Mr. Lyon makes no direct proposition for her hand, but it is evidently his purpose to do so.  I wish I knew him better, and that I had, just now, a freer mind to consider the subject.  Weigh it well in your thoughts, Agnes; and by all means observe Fanny very closely.  Dear child!  She is far too young for this experience.  Ah, me!  The more I think of this matter, the more I feel troubled.

“But good-by, for a little while.  I am writing in haste, and cannot say half that is in my thoughts.”

CHAPTER XXVI.

IT was not until the middle of the succeeding week that Mr. Markland returned from New York.  He had a look of care that did not escape the observation of his wife.  To her inquiries as to the cause of his prolonged absence, he replied vaguely, yet with reference to some business of vast magnitude, in which he had become interested.  Two days passed without allusion, on either side, to the subject of their daughter’s relation to Mr. Lyon, and then, to some question of Mrs. Markland, her husband replied in so absent a way, that she did not press the matter on his attention.  Fanny was reserved and embarrassed in the presence of her father, and evidently avoided him.

More than a week went by in this unsatisfactory manner, when, on returning one day from the city, Mr. Markland showed an unusual elation of spirits.  As soon as there was an opportunity to be alone with his wife, he said—­

“I may have to be absent several weeks.”

“Why so?” she asked, quickly, as a shadow fell over her face.

“Business,” was briefly answered.

Mrs. Markland sighed, and her eyes fell to the floor.

“I have been a drone in the world’s busy hive long enough, Agnes; and now I must go to work again, and that in right good earnest.  The business that took me to New York is growing daily in importance, and will require my best thought and effort.  The more thoroughly I comprehend it, the more clearly do I see its vast capabilities.  I have already embarked considerable money in the enterprise, and shall probably see it to my interest to embark more.  To do this, without becoming an active worker and director, would neither be wise nor like your husband, who is not a man to trust himself on the ocean of business without studying well the charts, and, at times, taking fast hold upon the rudder.”