CHAPTER VII

DORA BANNISTER TAKES TIME AND A MARE BY THE FORELOCK

Very early that afternoon Miss Dora Bannister was driven to Cobhurst to call upon the young lady who had been taken sick, and who ought not to be neglected by the ladies of Thorbury.  Dora had asked her stepmother to accompany her, but as that good lady seldom made calls, and disliked long drives, and could not see why it was at all necessary for her to go, Dora went alone.

When the open carriage with its pair of handsome grays had bumped over the rough entrance to the Cobhurst estate, and had drawn up to the front of the house, Miss Dora skipped lightly out, and rang the door-bell.  She rang twice, and as no one came, and as the front door was wide open, she stepped inside to see if she could find any one.  She had never been in that great wide hall before, and she was delighted with it, although it appeared to be in some disorder.  Two boxes and a trunk were still standing where they had been placed when they were brought from the station.  She looked through the open door of the parlor, but there was no one there, and then she knocked on the door of a closed room.

No answer came, and she went to the back door of the long hall and looked out, but not a soul could she see.  This was discouraging, but she was not a girl who would willingly turn back, after having set out on an errand of mercy.  There was a door which seemed to lead to the basement, and on this she knocked, but to no purpose.

“This is an awfully funny house,” she said to herself.  “If I could see any stairs, I might go up a little way and call.  Surely there must be somebody alive somewhere.”  Then the thought suddenly came into her mind that perhaps want of life in the particular person she had come to see might be the reason of this dreadful stillness and desertion, and without a moment’s hesitation she stepped out of the back door into the open air.  She could not stay in that house another second until she knew.  Surely there must be some one on the place who could tell her what had happened.

Approaching the gardener’s house, she met Phoebe just coming out of the door.

“Bless my soul!” exclaimed the woman of color.  “Is that you, Miss Dora?  Mike hollered to me that a kirridge had come, and I was a-hurryin’ up to the house to see who it was.”

“I came to call on Miss Haverley,” said Dora.  “How is she, Phoebe, and can I see her?”

“Oh, she’s well enough, and you can see her if you can find her; but to save my soul, Miss Dora, I couldn’t tell you where she is at this minute.  You never did in all your life see anybody like that Miss Miriam is.  Why, true as I speak, the very sparrers in the trees isn’t as wild as she is.  From sunrise this morning she has been on the steady go.  You’d think, to see her, that the hens and the cows and the colts and even the old apple trees was all silver and gold and diamonds in her eyes, she takes on so about ’em.  I can’t keep up with her, I can’t.  The last time I see her, she was goin’ into the barn, and I reckon she’s thar yit, huntin’ hens’ nests.  If you like, I’ll go look for her, Miss Dora.”