ll
social customs, and his feelings of courteous hospitality urged him to go
as rapidly as possible to greet the special visitor who was waiting for
him; but to desert that gentleman's sister, or make her walk quickly when
she did not wish to, was equally opposed to his ideas of courtesy, and so
it happened that Dora and Ralph entered the parlor so much later than the
others that a decided impression was made on the minds of Mrs. and Miss
Drane. And this was what Dora wished. She felt that it would be a very
good thing in this case to assert some sort of a preemption claim. It
could do no harm, and might be of great service.

After the manner of the country gentlemen who in mixed society are apt to
prefer their own sex for purposes of converse, Herbert Bannister
monopolized Ralph. His sister talked with Cicely Drane, and in spite of
her natural courage and the reasons for self-confidence which she had
just received, Dora's spirits steadily fell as she conversed with this
merry, attractive girl, who knew so well how to make herself
entertaining, even to other girls, and who was actually living in Ralph
Haverley's house.

Dora made the visit shorter than it otherwise would have been. She had
come, she had seen, and she wanted to go home and think about the rest of
the business. The drive home was, in a degree, pleasant because Herbert
had a great deal to say about Mr. Haverley, whom he had found most
agreeable, and because Mrs. Bannister spoke in praise of Ralph's manly
beauty, but it would depend upon future circumstances whether or not
remarks of this kind could be considered entirely satisfactory.

That evening, in her own room, in a loose dressing-gown, and with her
hair hanging over her shoulders, Dora devoted herself to an earnest
consideration of her relations with Ralph Haverley. At first sight it
seemed odd that there should be any relations at all, for she had known
him but a short time, and he had made few or no advances toward her--not
half so many or such pronounced ones as other men had made, during her
few visits to fashionable resorts. But she settled this part of the
question very promptly.

"I like him better than anybody I have ever seen," she said to herself.
"In fact, I love him, and now--" and then she went on to consider the
rest of the matter, which was not so easy to settle.

Cicely Drane was terribly hard to settle. There was that girl,--all the
more dangerous because, being charming and lit