In regard to the other point the old lady was very well satisfied, and determined to go soon to see what success Mrs. Tolbridge had had.

About the middle of the next forenoon, Miss Panney tied her horse in front of the Tolbridge house and entered unceremoniously, as she was in the habit of doing.  She found the doctor’s wife standing by the back-parlor window looking out on the garden.  When the old lady had seated herself she immediately proceeded to business.

“Well, Kitty,” said she, “what sort of a time did you have yesterday?”

“A very discouraging and disagreeable one,” said Mrs. Tolbridge.  “I might just as well have stayed at home.”

“You don’t mean to say,” asked Miss Panney, “that nobody answered your advertisement?”

“When I reached the rooms of the Non-Resident Club, where the applicants were to call—­”

“That’s the first time,” interrupted Miss Panney, “that I ever heard that that Club was of the slightest use.”

“It wasn’t of any use this time,” said the other; “for although I found several women there who came before the hour appointed, and at least a dozen came in the course of the morning, not one of them would do at all.  I was just now looking out at our asparagus bed, and wondering if any of those beautiful heads would ever be cooked properly.  The woman in our kitchen knows that she is to depart, and she is in a terribly bad temper, and this she puts into her cooking.  The doctor is almost out of temper himself.  He says that he has pretty good teeth, but that he cannot bite spite.”

Miss Panney now appeared to be getting out of temper.

“I must say, Kitty,” she said, in a tone of irritation, “that I do not understand how it was that out of the score or more of applicants, you could not find a better cook than the good-for-nothing creature you have now.  What was the matter with them?”

“Everything, it seemed to me,” answered Mrs. Tolbridge.  “Now here is Dora.  She was with me yesterday, and you can ask her about the women we saw.”

Miss Panney attached no value whatever to the opinions, in regard to domestic service, of the young lady who had just entered the room, and she asked her no questions.  Miss Bannister, however, did not seem in the least slighted, and sat down to join the chat.

“I suppose,” said Miss Panney, sarcastically, “that you tried to find that woman that the doctor used to say he wanted:  a woman who had committed some great crime, who could find no relief from her thoughts but in constant work, work, work.”

Mrs. Tolbridge smiled.

“No, I did not look for her; nor did I try to find the person who was of a chilly disposition and very susceptible to draughts.  We used to want one of that sort, but she should be a waitress.  But, seriously, there were objections to every one of them.  Religion was a great obstacle.  The churches of Thorbury are not designed for the consciences of city servants.  There was no Lutheran Church for the Swedes; and the fact that the Catholic Church was a mile from our house, with no street-cars, settled the question for most of them.  The truth is, none of them wanted to come into the country, unless they could get near Newport or some other suitable summer resort.”