This last point had its effect upon Miriam.  She wanted to see Dr. Tolbridge to ask if he could not stop in and quiet the mind of Cicely, who really wanted to see him about her work, but who did not like, as Miriam easily conjectured, to ask Ralph to send her to town.  Miriam wished to make things as pleasant as possible for Cicely, and Mrs. Tolbridge had not, so far, meddled in the least with her concerns.  If, inadvertently, Ralph had proposed a consultation with Mrs. Bannister, there would have been a hubbub in the gig.

The doctor and his wife were both at home, and when the business of the Haverleys had been stated to them, Mrs. Tolbridge clapped her hands.

“Truly,” she cried, “this is a piece of rare good fortune; we will lend them La Fleur.  Do you know, my dear girl,” she said to Miriam, “that the doctor and I are going away?  He will attend a medical convention at Barport, and I will visit my mother, to whom he will come, later.  It will be a grand vacation for us, for we shall stay away from Thorbury for two weeks, and the only thing which has troubled us is to decide what we shall do with La Fleur while we are gone.  We want to shut up the house, and she does not want to go to her friends, and if she should do so, I am afraid we might lose her.  I am sure she would be delighted to come to you, especially as the Dranes are with you.  Shall I ask her?”

Miriam jumped to her feet, with an expression of alarm on her countenance, which amused the doctor and her brother.

“Oh, please, Mrs. Tolbridge, don’t do that!” she exclaimed.  “Truly, I could not have a great cook like La Fleur in our kitchen.  I should be frightened to death, and she would have nothing to do anything with.  You know, Mrs. Tolbridge, that we live in an awfully plain way.  We are not in the least bit rich or stylish or anything of the sort.  If Cicely had not told me that she and her mother lived in the same way, we could not have taken them.  We keep only a man and a woman, you know, and we all do a lot of work ourselves, and Molly Tooney was always growling because there were not enough things to cook with, and what a French cook would do in our kitchen I really do not know.  She would drive us crazy!”

“Come now,” said the doctor, laughing, “don’t frighten yourself in that way, my little lady.  If La Fleur consents to go to you for a couple of weeks, she will understand the circumstances, and will be perfectly satisfied with what she finds.  She is a woman of sense.  You would better let Mrs. Tolbridge go and talk with her.”

Miriam sat down in a sort of despair.  Here again, her affairs were being managed for her.  Would she ever be able to maintain her independence?  She had said all she could say, and now she hoped that La Fleur would treat the proposition with contempt.

But the great cook did nothing of the kind.  In five minutes, Mrs. Tolbridge returned with the information that La Fleur would be overjoyed to go to Cobhurst for a fortnight.  She wanted some country air; she wanted to see the Dranes; she had a great admiration for Miss Haverley, being perfectly able to judge, although she had met her but once, that she was a lady born; she looked upon her brother as a most superior gentleman; and she would be perfectly content with whatever she found in the Cobhurst kitchen.