nd, the name Cobhurst had always called up visions of wide halls
and lofty chambers, broad piazzas, sunny slopes and lawns, green meadows,
and avenues bordered with tall trees--a grand estate in fact, with woods
full of nuts, streams where a boy could fish, and horses that he might
ride. Had these ideas existed in Miriam's mind, the brother and sister
would have visited Cobhurst the day after he brought her the letter from
the lawyer; but her conceptions of the place were vague and without form,
except when she associated it with the homes of girls she had visited.
But as none of these suited her very well, she preferred to fall back
upon chaotic anticipation.

"When I think of Cobhurst," she wrote to her brother, "I smell marigolds,
and think of rather poor blackberries that you pick from bushes. Please
do not put in your letters anything that you know about it, for I would
rather see everything for myself."

CHAPTER IV

THE HOME

It was late in the afternoon when Ralph and Miriam Haverley alighted at
the station at Thorbury. Miss Dora Bannister, who had come down to see a
friend off, noticed the two standing on the platform. She did not know
who they were, but she thought the one to be a very handsome young man,
and the other a nice-looking girl who seemed to be all eyes.

"What a queer-looking colored man!" said Miriam. "He looks mashed on
top."

The person alluded to was getting down from a wagon drawn by a mournful
horse, and now approached the platform.

"Is you Mr. Hav'ley, sir?" he said, touching his hat. "Thought so; I'm
the man in charge o' yer place. Got any baggage, sir?"

On being informed that the travellers had brought three trunks with them,
and that some boxes would be expected on the morrow, Mike, who with his
worn felt hat pressed flat upon his head, might give one the idea of a
bottle with the cork driven in, stood for a moment in thought.

"I can take one trunk," he said, "the one ye will want the most tonight,
and ye'd better have the others hauled over tomorrow with the boxes. Ye
can both go in the wagon, if ye like. The seat can be pushed back, and I
can sit on the trunk myself, or ye can hire a kerridge."

"Of course we will take a cab," said Ralph. "How far is it to Cobhurst?"

"Well, some says three miles, and some says four. It depends a good deal
on the roads. They're pretty good today."

Having engaged the services of a country cabman, who declared that he
had known Co