For eight long years he had struggled and labored; changing his occupation several times, but always living in the city; always making his home in a boardinghouse or a hotel.  His pluck and energy had had its reward, and for the past three years he had held a responsible and well-paid position in a mercantile house.  But his life and his work had for him nothing but a passing interest; he had no sympathy with bonded warehouses, invoices, and ledgers.  All he could look forward to was a higher position, a larger salary, and, when Miriam should graduate, a little home somewhere where she could keep house for him.  In his dreams of this home, he would sometimes place it in the suburbs, where Sundays and holidays spent in country air would compensate for hasty breakfasts, early morning trains, and late ones in the afternoon.  But when he reflected that it would not do to leave his young sister alone all day in a thinly settled, rural place, at the mercy of tramps, he was forced to the conclusion that the thing for them to do was to live in a city apartment.  But there was nothing in either of these outlooks to create fervent longings in the soul of Ralph Haverley.

For some legal reason, probably connected with the fact that old Butterwood died at a health resort in Arkansas, Haverley did not learn until late in the winter that his mother’s uncle had left to him the estate of Cobhurst.  The reason for this bequest, as stated in the will, was the old man’s belief that the said Ralph Haverley was the only one of his blood relations who seemed to be getting on in the world, and to him he left the house, farm, and all the personal property he might find therein and thereon, but not one cent of money.  Where the testator’s money was bestowed, Ralph did not know, for he did not see the will.

When Ralph heard of his good fortune, his true life seemed to open before him; his Butterwood blood boiled in his veins.  He did not hesitate a moment as to his course, for he was of the opinion that if a healthy young man could not make a living out of a good farm he did not deserve to live at all.  He gave immediate notice of his intention to abandon mercantile life, and set himself to work by day and by night to wind up his business affairs, so that he might be free by the beginning of April.  It was this work which helped him to control his desire to run off and take a look at Cobhurst without waiting for his sister.

Of the place which was to be their home, Miriam knew absolutely nothing, but Ralph had heard his mother talk about her visits to her uncle, and, in his mind, the name Cobhurst had always called up visions of wide halls and lofty chambers, broad piazzas, sunny slopes and lawns, green meadows, and avenues bordered with tall trees—­a grand estate in fact, with woods full of nuts, streams where a boy could fish, and horses that he might ride.  Had these ideas existed in Miriam’s mind, the brother and sister would have visited Cobhurst the day after he brought her the letter from the lawyer; but her conceptions of the place were vague and without form, except when she associated it with the homes of girls she had visited.  But as none of these suited her very well, she preferred to fall back upon chaotic anticipation.