Dora looked inquiringly.

“That is the name that Miriam has given to the mare.”

Dora laughed.

“If Mrs. Browning is one of your sister’s favorite poets,” she said, “that will be a bond between us, for I like her poems better than I do her husband’s, at least I understand them better.  I wonder if your sister will ever ask me to take a drive with her in the gig?  I could show her so many pretty places.”

“Indeed she will,” said Ralph; “but you mustn’t think we are going to confine ourselves to that sedate conveyance and the old mare.  The colts are old enough to be broken, and when they are ready to drive we shall have a spanking team.”

“That will be splendid,” exclaimed Dora.  “I cannot imagine anything more inspiriting than driving with a pair of freshly broken horses.”

Miss Panney gave a little sniff.

“That sort of thing,” she said, “sometimes exalts one’s spirit so high that it is never again burdened by the body; but all horses have to be broken, and people continue to live.”

She smiled as she thought that the pair of young colts which she had taken in hand seemed to give promise of driving together most beautifully.  But it would not do to stop here all the morning, and as there was no sign that Dora would tire of asking questions or Ralph of answering them, the old lady gathered up the reins.

“You mustn’t be surprised, Mr. Haverley,” she said, “if the ladies of Thorbury come a good deal to Cobhurst.  We have more time than the gentlemen, and we all want to get well acquainted with your sister, and help her in every way that we can.  Miss Bannister is going to drive over very soon and stop for me on the way, so that we shall call on her together.”

When the young man had bowed and departed, and the old roan was jogging on, Dora leaned back in the phaeton and said to herself, that, without knowing it, Miss Panney was an angel.  When they should go together to Cobhurst, the old lady would be sure to spend her time talking to the girl.

CHAPTER IX

JOHN WESLEY AND LORENZO DOW AT LUNCHEON

Two days after her lecture to Mrs. Tolbridge, Miss Panney was again in Thorbury, and, having finished the shopping which brought her there, she determined to go to see the doctor’s wife, and find out if that lady had acted on the advice given her.  She had known Mrs. Tolbridge nearly all that lady’s life, and had always suspected in her a tendency to neglect advice which she did not like, after the adviser was out of the way.  She did not wish to be over-inquisitive, but she intended, in some quiet way, to find out whether or not the letter about which she had spoken so strongly had been written.  If it had not, she would take time to make up her mind what she should do.  Kitty Tolbridge and she had scolded each other often enough, and had had many differences, but they had never yet seriously quarrelled.  Miss Panney did not intend to quarrel now, but if she found things as she feared they were, she intended to interfere in a way that might make Kitty uncomfortable, and perhaps produce the same effect on herself and the doctor; but let that be as it might, she assured herself there were some things that ought to be done, no matter who felt badly about it.