“Oh, let us go up there,” said Dora; “that is just where we ought to find her.”

There was not the least affectation in Dora’s delight, as she stood on the wide upper floor of the barn.  Its great haymows rose on either side, not piled to the roof as before, but with enough hay left over from former years to fill the air with that delightful scent of mingled cleanliness and sweetness which belongs to haylofts.  At the back was a wide open door with a bar across it, out of which she saw a far-stretching landscape, rich with varied colors of spring, and through a small side door at the other end of the floor, which there was level with the ground, came a hen, clucking to a brood of black-eyed, downy little chicks, which she was bringing in for the night to the spacious home she had chosen for them.

Whether or not Dora would have enjoyed all this as much had she been alone is a point not necessary to settle, but she was a true country girl, and had loved chickens, barns, and hay from her babyhood up.  She stepped quickly to the open door, and she and Ralph leaned upon the bar and looked out upon the beautiful scene.

“How charming it will be,” she said, “for your sister to come here and sit with her reading or sewing.  She can look out and see you, almost wherever you happen to be on your farm.”

“I don’t believe Miriam will be content to sit still and watch anybody,” replied Ralph.  “I wonder where she can be;” and twice he called her, once directing his voice up toward the haymows and once out into the open air.  Dora still leaned on the bar and looked out.

“It would be nice if we could see her walking somewhere in the fields,” she said, and she and Ralph both swept the landscape with their eyes, but they saw nothing like a moving girl in shade or sunshine.

Miss Bannister was not in the least embarrassed, as she stood here with this young man whom she had met such a little time before.  She did not altogether feel that she was alone with him.  The thought that any moment the young man’s sister might make one of the party, produced a sensation not wholly unlike that of knowing she was already there.

The view of the far-off hills with the shadows across their sides and their forest-covered tops glistening in the sunshine was very attractive, and there was a blossomy perfume in the outside air which mingled charmingly with the hay-scents from within; but Dora felt that it would not do to protract her pleasure in these things, especially as she noticed signs of a slight uneasiness on the face of her companion.  Probably he wanted to go and look for his sister, so they walked slowly over the floor of the great hayloft, and out of the little door where the hen and chickens had come in, and Ralph accompanied the young lady to her carriage.

“I am sure I shall find Thomas and the horses fast asleep,” said she, “for I have made a long call, or, at least, have tried to make one, and you must tell your sister that my stay proves how much I wanted to see her.  I hope she will call on me the first time she comes to Thorbury.”