and made it be with me in three hours, but it did not rouse him and he did not come; and before that silly Mrs. Bannister got back with the two girls, the mischief was done, and that little Drane had taken advantage of the opportunity I had given her to trap Mr. Ralph.  Oh, she is a sharp one! and with you and me to help her, she could do almost anything.  You take off her rival, and I send away the interfering sister; and all she has to do is to snap up the young man, while her mother and that illustrious cook of yours stand by and clap their hands.  But I do not give you much credit.  You are merely an inconsiderate blunderer, to say no more.  You did not plan anything; I did that, and when my plans don’t work one way, they do in another.  This one was like a boomerang that did not hit what it was aimed at, but came banging and clattering back all the same.  And now I will remark that I have given up that sort of thing.  I can throw as well as ever, but I am too old to stand the back-cracks.”

“You are not too old for anything,” said the doctor, “and you and I will do a lot of planning yet.  But tell me one thing; do you think that this Haverley-Drane combination is going to deprive me of La Fleur?”

“Upon my word!” cried the old lady, springing to her feet, “never did I see a man so steeped in selfishness.  Not a word of sympathy for me!  In all this unfortunate affair, you think of nothing but the danger of losing your cook!  Well, I am happy to say you are going to lose her.  That will be your punishment, and well you deserve it.  She will no more think of staying with you, after the Dranes set up housekeeping at Cobhurst, than I would think of coming to cook for you.  And so you may go back to your soggy bread, and your greasy fries, and your dishwater coffee, and get yellow and green in the face, thin in the legs, and weak in the stomach, and have good reason to say to yourself that if you had let Miss Panney alone, and let her work out that excellent plan she had confided to you, you would have lived to a healthy old age, with the best cook in this part of the country making you happy three times a day, and satisfied with the world between meals.”

“Deal gently with the erring,” said the doctor.  “Don’t crush me.  I want to go to Cobhurst this morning, to see them all, and find out my fate.  Wouldn’t you like to go with me?  I have a visit to make, two or three miles above here, but I shall be back soon, and will drive you over.  What do you say?”

“Very good,” said Miss Panney.  “I have been thinking of calling on the happy family.”

As soon as the doctor had departed Miss Panney ordered her phaeton.

“I intended going to Cobhurst to-day,” she said to herself, “but I do not propose to go with him.  I shall get there first and see how the land lies, before he comes to muddle up things with his sordid anxieties about his future victuals and drink.”

CHAPTER XLII