Aunt Patty's Paying Guests by Eglanton Thorne

THERE were several other persons in the carriage with Agneta, and they observed me curiously as I slowly recovered from the effects of the rush I had made.

"Nan," said Agneta, leaning forward and speaking in an angry whisper, "what is the meaning of this? Why are you here?"

"It is I who should put such questions," was my reply. "Why are you, Agneta, running away thus? How could you dare to send such a false excuse to Aunt Patty?"

"It is true enough! " she said defiantly. "My head does ache; and I could not go to the Hall because I had promised to go to London."

"To meet Ralph Marshman, I suppose? " I said, carefully subduing my voice.

She nodded.

"Of course; but it is all right, Nan. He has procured a special licence, and we shall be married almost as soon as I reach London."

"Oh, will you? " I said to myself. "Not if I can prevent it!"

"It is perfectly mad of you to come away thus," she went on, "and you will do no good. How could you be so foolish as to leave the garden party? What will Mrs. Canfield say?"

"I do not care," I said doggedly; but it was hardly true. I did care. The thought of Aunt Patty's anxiety and Mrs. Canfield's astonishment made me uneasy. It was not pleasant to think of the remarks people were probably making about me at that moment; but I believed I was doing right. Better that I should be misunderstood and misjudged than that Agneta, on the threshold of womanhood, should bring upon herself a lifelong misery. I might not succeed in thwarting her purpose; but it should not be my fault if she threw herself away upon a bad man.

"How you managed to get here so quickly I cannot think," Agneta continued. "You could not have done it if the train had not been late, I know, for I made a calculation. To think it should be late to-day of all days! Not that it will make any difference. You need not think that you are going to stop me! My mind is quite made up! I mean to marry him!"

"You shall not marry him in this wrong and secret manner if I can help it! " was my reply. "I tell you that frankly!"

Then aware that our fellow travellers were watching us, and doubtless wondering what caused the altercation we were carrying on in undertones, I became silent, and Agneta, after a few indignant and cutting comments on my behaviour, to which I made no reply, also ceased to speak.

I felt far from comfortable as the train bore us rapidly towards London. I dreaded the thought of another encounter with Ralph Marshman. I had but the vaguest ideas of what action I ought to take in the strange situation into which I was thus thrust. I could only resolve that I would not quit my cousin. I would witness her marriage if I could not hinder it; but I believed that no clergyman would perform the ceremony if I told him that Agneta was under age, and about to marry in defiance of her parents' will.

At the last station before we reached Liverpool Street most of the people in our compartment got out. Agneta seized the opportunity to make another attempt to shake my resolution.

"It is of no use, Nan," she said. "You had better take the next train back to Chelmsford. You will only make yourself ridiculous. You cannot prevent us from doing as we please."

"I am not so sure of that," I said. "Anyhow, I mean to try."

"I never knew such folly! " she said so passionately that I felt sure she was not so confident of carrying out her plans as she wished to appear.

"The folly is yours, Agneta! " I replied. "You are worse than foolish! You are a wicked, ungrateful girl, and if you get your own way in this you will be a miserable woman!"

That she responded with angry and offensive words was no sign that she did not feel my words to be true. Her face grew very white as the train began to slow into the terminus. I expect I was pale too. I know I felt faint, and trembled all over as I rose and grasped Agneta's arm, determined that she should not slip away. As we glided past an array of porters, I caught sight of Ralph Marshman peering eagerly into each compartment. The next moment he saw Agneta, and, darting forward, opened the door and helped her out almost before the train stopped. He looked amazed as I sprang after her and clung to her side.