the
Dranes, of as good blood, family, and position, as any one within the
circle of his acquaintance, and then to remember that she had been called
a working-girl, and spoken of in a manner that was almost contemptuous.

Ralph always took the side of the man who was down, and, consequently,
very often put himself on the wrong side; and although he did not
consider that Miss Drane was down, he saw that Miss Panney had tried to
put her down, and therefore he became her champion.

"There could not be any one," he said to himself, "better fitted to be
the friend and companion of Miriam than Cicely Drane is, and the next
time I see that old lady, I shall tell her so. I have nothing to say
against Miss Bannister, but I shall stand up for this one."

And now, feeling that it was not polite to treat a young lady with
seeming inattention, because he happened to be earnestly thinking about
her, he began to talk to Cicely in his liveliest and gayest manner, and
she, not wishing him to think that she thought that there was anything
out of the way in this, or in his previous preoccupation, responded
just as gayly.

Ralph delivered Miss Panney's message to his sister, and Miriam, giving
much more weight to the advice and opinion of the old lady, whom she knew
very slightly and cared for very little, than to that of her brother,
whom she loved dearly, said she would go to see Miss Bannister the next
afternoon if it happened to be clear.

It was clear, and she went, and Ralph drove her there in the gig, and
Dora was overwhelmed with joy to see her, and scolded Ralph in the most
charming way for not bringing her before; Miriam was taken to see Congo,
because Dora wanted her to begin to love him, and they were shown into
the library, because Dora said that she knew they both loved books, and
her father had gathered together so many. In ten minutes, Miriam was in
the window seat, dipping, which ended in her swimming, far beyond her
depth in Don Quixote, which she had so often read of and never seen, and
Dora and Ralph sat, heads together, over a portfolio of photographs of
foreign places where the Bannisters had been.

There were very few books at Cobhurst, and Miriam had read all of them
she cared for, and consequently it was an absorbing delight to follow the
adventures of the Knight of La Mancha.

Ralph had not travelled in Europe, and there were very few pictures at
Cobhurst, and he was greatly interested in the photographs, b