To their disappointment, they found that the young lady was not at home,
and the communicative maid informed them that she had gone to the city to
help Mrs. Tolbridge to get a new cook.

They went home by the way of the Witton house, and there they found
Miss Panney at home. The old lady was very much interested in Miriam,
whom she had not before seen out of bed. She scrutinized the girl from
hat to boots.

"What do you want me to call you, my dear?" she asked. "Don't you
honestly think you are too young to be called Miss Haverley?"

"I think it would be very well if you were to call me Miriam," said the
other, who was of the opinion that Miss Panney was old enough to call any
woman by her Christian name.

The conversation was maintained almost entirely by the old lady and
Ralph, for Miriam was silent and very solemn. Once she broke in with a
question:--

"What kind of a person is Miss Bannister?" she asked. Miss Panney gave a
short laugh.

"Oh, she is a charming person," she answered, "pretty, good-humored,
well educated, excellent taste in dress and almost everything, and very
lively and pleasant to talk to. I am very fond of her."

"I am afraid," said Miriam, "that she is too old and too fine for me,"
and turning to a photograph album she began to study the family
portraits.

"Your sister's ideas are rather girlish as yet," said Miss Panney, "but
housekeeping at Cobhurst will change all that;" and then she went on with
her remarks concerning the Haverley and Butterwood families, a subject
upon which Ralph was not nearly so well informed as she was.

When the brother and sister had driven away, Miss Panney reflected that
the visit had given her two pieces of information. One was that the
Haverley girl was a good deal younger than she had thought her, and the
other was that Mrs. Tolbridge was really trying to get a new cook. The
first point she did not consider with satisfaction.

"It is a pity," she thought, "that Dora and his sister are not likely to
be friends. That would help wonderfully. This schoolgirl, probably
jealous of the superiority of grown-up young ladies, may be very much in
the way. I am sorry the case is not different."

In regard to the other point the old lady was very well satisfied, and
determined to go soon to see what success Mrs. Tolbridge had had.

About the middle of the next forenoon, Miss Panney tied her horse in
front of the Tolbridge house and entered unceremoniously, as sh