“Oh, I shall drive her over on purpose,” said Ralph, and, with a smile, Miss Bannister declared that would be charming.

When the carriage had rolled upon the smooth road outside of Cobhurst, Miss Dora drew off her left glove and looked at her wrist.  “Dear me!” said she to herself, “I thought he would have squeezed those buttons entirely through my skin, but I wouldn’t have said a word for anything.  I wonder what sort of a girl his sister is.  If she resembles him, I know I shall like her.”

CHAPTER VIII

MRS. TOLBRIDGE’S REPORT IS NOT ACCEPTED

A few days after Miss Bannister’s call at Cobhurst, it was returned by Ralph and Miriam, who drove to Thorbury with the brown mare and the gig.  To their disappointment, they found that the young lady was not at home, and the communicative maid informed them that she had gone to the city to help Mrs. Tolbridge to get a new cook.

They went home by the way of the Witton house, and there they found Miss Panney at home.  The old lady was very much interested in Miriam, whom she had not before seen out of bed.  She scrutinized the girl from hat to boots.

“What do you want me to call you, my dear?” she asked.  “Don’t you honestly think you are too young to be called Miss Haverley?”

“I think it would be very well if you were to call me Miriam,” said the other, who was of the opinion that Miss Panney was old enough to call any woman by her Christian name.

The conversation was maintained almost entirely by the old lady and Ralph, for Miriam was silent and very solemn.  Once she broke in with a question:—­

“What kind of a person is Miss Bannister?” she asked.  Miss Panney gave a short laugh.

“Oh, she is a charming person,” she answered, “pretty, good-humored, well educated, excellent taste in dress and almost everything, and very lively and pleasant to talk to.  I am very fond of her.”

“I am afraid,” said Miriam, “that she is too old and too fine for me,” and turning to a photograph album she began to study the family portraits.

“Your sister’s ideas are rather girlish as yet,” said Miss Panney, “but housekeeping at Cobhurst will change all that;” and then she went on with her remarks concerning the Haverley and Butterwood families, a subject upon which Ralph was not nearly so well informed as she was.

When the brother and sister had driven away, Miss Panney reflected that the visit had given her two pieces of information.  One was that the Haverley girl was a good deal younger than she had thought her, and the other was that Mrs. Tolbridge was really trying to get a new cook.  The first point she did not consider with satisfaction.

“It is a pity,” she thought, “that Dora and his sister are not likely to be friends.  That would help wonderfully.  This schoolgirl, probably jealous of the superiority of grown-up young ladies, may be very much in the way.  I am sorry the case is not different.”