Mrs. Drane was sent for, but Miriam did not know where her brother and Miss Drane should be looked for.  She had seen them walk by the back piazza, but did not notice in what direction they had gone.  At this moment there ran through Dora a sensation similar to that occasioned by a mild galvanic shock, but as she was looking out of the open door, the rest of the company saw no signs of this.

“Excuse me,” said Mrs. Bannister, in a low voice, and speaking rather rapidly, “but I thought that Miss Drane was working for Dr. Tolbridge, copying, or something of that kind.”

“She is,” answered Miriam, “but she has her regular hours, and stops at five o’clock, just as she did when she was in the doctor’s house.”

When Mrs. Drane had appeared and the visitors had been presented, Miriam said that she would go herself and look for Ralph and Miss Drane.  She thought now that it was very likely they were in the orchard.

“Let me go with, you,” exclaimed Dora, springing to her feet, and in a moment she and Miriam had left the house.

“I heard her say,” said Miriam, “that she wanted some summer apples, fresh from the tree, and that is the reason why I suppose they are in the orchard.  You never knew anybody so wild about country things as Miss Drane is.  And she knows so little about them too.”

“Do you like her?” asked Dora.

“Ever so much.  I think she is as nice as can be.  She is a good deal older than I am, but sometimes it seems as if it were the other way.  I suppose one reason is that she wants to know so much, and I think I must like to tell people things—­nice people, I mean.”

Dora’s mind was in a state of lively receptivity, and it received an impression from Miriam’s words that might be of use hereafter.  But now they had reached the orchard, and there, standing on a low branch of a tree, was Ralph, and below was Miss Drane.  Her laughing face was turned upward, and she was holding her straw hat to catch an apple, but it was plain that she was not skilled in that sort of exercise, and when the apple dropped, it barely touched the rim of the hat and rolled upon the ground, and then they both laughed as if they had known each other for twenty years.

“What a little thing,” said Miss Bannister.

“She is small,” answered Miriam, “but isn’t she pretty and graceful?  And her clothes fit her so beautifully.  I am sure you will like her.”

Ralph came down from the tree, the straw hat was replaced on the head of Miss Drane, and then came introduction and greeting.  Never before had Dora Bannister found it so hard to meet any one as she found it to meet these two.  She was only eighteen, and had had no experience in comporting herself in an ordinary way when her every impulse prompted her to do or say something quite extraordinary.  But she was a girl who could control herself, and she now controlled herself so well, that had Miss Panney or Mrs. Tolbridge been there they would instantly have suspected what was meant by so much self-control.  She greeted Miss Drane with much suavity, and asked her if she liked apples.