“Dora,” said Miss Panney, speaking very gently, “you are wrong when you say that there was no chance of Ralph’s coming to Barport.  If some things had not gone wrong, I have reason to believe he would have been there before you left, and I am quite sure that if you had stayed there until now, you would have been walking on the sands with him at this minute.”

Dora looked at her in surprise, and the flush on her face subsided a little.

“What do you mean?” she asked.  “You do not think he would have gone there on my account?”

“Yes, I do,” said Miss Panney.  “That is exactly what I mean, and now, my dear Dora, do not let—­”

At this moment Mrs. Bannister walked into the room, and was very glad to see Miss Panney, and to know that she had returned in safety from the seashore.

When Dora went up to her room, after the visitor had gone, she shut the door and sat down to think.

“After all,” she said to herself, “I do not believe much in the thousand other men.  Not one of them is here, and none may ever come, and if Ralph really did intend to come to me at the seashore, I wish we had stayed there.  It is such a good place to find out just how people feel.”

In this frame of mind she sat and thought and thought, until a servant, who had been to the post office, came up and brought her a note from Miriam Haverley.

The next morning Dora Bannister, in an open carriage, drawn by the family bays, appeared at the door of the Witton mansion.  Miss Panney, with overshoes on and a little shawl about her, for the mornings were beginning to be cool, was walking up and down between two rows of old-fashioned boxwood bushes.  She hurried forward, for she knew very well that Dora had not come to call on the Wittons.

“Miss Panney,” said the young lady, “I am on my way to Cobhurst, and I thought you might like to go there, and so if you choose, I shall be glad to take you with me.”

“Now, my dear girl,” said Miss Panney, “you are a trump.  I always thought you were, but I will not say anything more about that.  I shall be delighted to go with you, and we can talk on the way.  If you will come in or take a seat on the piazza, I shall be ready in five minutes.”

As Miss Panney busied herself preparing for the drive and the call, her mind was a great deal more active than her rapid fingers.  She had been intending to go to Cobhurst, but did not wish to do so until she had decided what she should say to Ralph about the telegram she had sent him.  Until that morning, this had given her very little concern, but as the time approached when it would be absolutely necessary to speak upon the subject, she found that she was a good deal concerned about it.  She saw that it was very important that nothing should be said to rouse Ralph into opposition.