given him an extraordinary welcome.  For the very reason that she has so many advantages over you, being so much with him, you should be very careful to make use of the advantages you have over her.  And your advantages are that you are ten times better fitted to be his wife than she is; and the great thing necessary to be done is to let him see it.  But her chances must come to an end.  Those Dranes must be got away from Cobhurst.”

“I don’t like that way of looking at it,” said Dora, leaning back in her chair, with a sigh.  “It’s the same thing as fishing for a man, though I suppose it might have been well to see him when he came.”

Now Miss Panney felt encouraged; her patient was showing good symptoms.  Let her keep in that state of mind, and she would see that the lover came.  She had made a mistake in speaking so bluntly about getting the Dranes out of Cobhurst.  Although she would not say anything more to Dora about that important piece of work, she would do it all the same.

This little visit had been an important one to Miss Panney; it had enabled her to understand Dora’s character much better than she had understood it before; and she perceived that in this case of matchmaking she must not only do a great deal of the work herself, but she must do it without Dora’s knowing anything about it.  She liked this, for she was not much given to consulting with people.

Miss Panney had another call to pay in the neighborhood, and she had intended, for form’s sake, to spend a little time with Mrs. Bannister; but she did neither.  She went back by the way she had come, wishing to learn all she could about the movements of the Cobhurst gig.

Approaching the Tolbridge house, she saw that vehicle standing before the door, with the sleepy Mrs. Browning tied to a post, and as she drew nearer, she perceived Ralph Haverley sitting alone on the vine-shaded piazza.  The old lady would not enter the Tolbridge gate, but she stood on the other side of the street, and beckoned to Ralph, who, as soon as he saw her, ran over to her.

Ralph walked a little way with Miss Panney, and after answering her most friendly inquiries about Miriam, he explained how he happened to be sitting alone on the piazza; the doctor and Miss Drane, whom he had brought to town, were at work at some manuscript, and he had preferred to wait outside instead of indoors.

“I called on Miss Bannister,” he said, “but she was not at home, so I came back here.”

“It is a pity she was out,” said Miss Panney, carelessly, “and now that you have mentioned Miss Bannister, I would like to ask you something; why does not your sister return her visits?  I saw Dora not very long ago, and found that her feelings had been a little hurt—­not much, perhaps, but a little—­by Miriam’s apparent indifference to her.  Dora is a very sensitive girl, and is slow to make friends among other girls.  I never knew any friendship so quick and lively as that she showed for Miriam.  You know that Dora is still young; it has not been long since she left school; there is not a girl in Thorbury that she cares anything about, and her life at home must necessarily be a lonely one.  Her brother is busy, even in the evenings, and Mrs. Bannister is no companion for a lively young girl.”