“It is not right,” she said to herself.  “I will not do it.  I will not hang like an apple on a tree for any one to pick who chooses, or if nobody chooses, to drop down to the chickens and pigs.  A woman has as much right to try to do the best for herself as a man has to try to do the best for himself.  I can’t really trample on customs as a man can, but I can do it in my mind, and I do it now.  I love him, and I will get him if I can.”

With this Dora sat down, and left the bit of moon to shed what luminousness it could over the landscape.

Her resolution shed a certain luminousness over Dora’s soul.  To determine to do a thing is nearly always inspiriting.

“Yes,” she thought, “I will do what I can.  He has promised to come very soon, and he shall not have Congo the first time he comes.  He shall come, and I shall go, and I shall be great friends with Miriam.  There will be nothing false in that, for I like her ever so much, and I shall remember to think more of what she likes.  No one shall see me break down any customs of society,—­especially, he shall not,—­but out of my mind they are swept and utterly gone.”

Having thus shaped her course, Dora thought she would go to bed.  But suddenly an idea struck her, and she stood and pondered.

“I believe,” she said, speaking aloud in her earnestness, “I believe that that is what Miss Panney meant.  She has spoken so well of him to me; she has heard about that girl, and she said, yes, she certainly did say, ‘It shall be done.’  She wants it, I truly believe; she wants me to marry him.”

For a few minutes she stood gazing at her ring, and then she said,—­

“I will go to her; I will tell her everything.  It will be a great thing to have Miss Panney on my side.  She does not care for customs, and she will never breathe a word to a soul.”

Dr. Tolbridge was not mistaken in his estimate of the sort of mind Dora Bannister would have when she should shed her old one.

CHAPTER XXVII

“It couldn’t be better than that”

The Haverleys could not expect that the people of Thorbury would feel any general and urgent desire to recognize them as neighbors.  They did not live in the town, and moreover newcomers, even to the town itself, were usually looked upon as “summer people,” until they had proved that they were to be permanent residents, and the leading families of Thorbury made it a rule not to call on summer people.

But the example of the Tolbridges and Bannisters had a certain effect on Thorbury society, and people now began to drive out to Cobhurst; not very many of them, but some of them representative people.  Mr. Ames, the rector of Grace Church, came early because the Haverleys had been to his church several times, and Mr. Torry, the Presbyterian minister, came afterwards because the Haverleys had stopped going to Grace Church, and he did not know that it was on account of the gig shafts.