t that?" asked Miriam.

"Not a word!" he cried. "I like it, I am charmed with it, and I will
drive you into Thorbury to-morrow. And as to Mike's sister, you can have
all his relations if you like, provided they do not charge too much. If
we had a lot of darkies here, that would make us more truly ramshackle
and jolly than we are now."

"Ralph," said Miriam, with dignity, "stop pulling my ears. Don't you see
Mrs. Drane coming?"

The next day Miriam and Ralph jogged into Thorbury. Miriam, not wearing
the teaberry gown, but having its spirit upon her, had planned to inquire
of the grocer with whom she dealt, where she might find a woman such as
she needed, but Ralph did not favor this.

"Let us first go and see Mrs. Tolbridge," he said. "She is one of our
first and best friends, and probably knows every woman in town, and if
she doesn't, the doctor does."

This last point had its effect upon Miriam. She wanted to see Dr.
Tolbridge to ask if he could not stop in and quiet the mind of Cicely,
who really wanted to see him about her work, but who did not like, as
Miriam easily conjectured, to ask Ralph to send her to town. Miriam
wished to make things as pleasant as possible for Cicely, and Mrs.
Tolbridge had not, so far, meddled in the least with her concerns. If,
inadvertently, Ralph had proposed a consultation with Mrs. Bannister,
there would have been a hubbub in the gig.

The doctor and his wife were both at home, and when the business of the
Haverleys had been stated to them, Mrs. Tolbridge clapped her hands.

"Truly," she cried, "this is a piece of rare good fortune; we will lend
them La Fleur. Do you know, my dear girl," she said to Miriam, "that the
doctor and I are going away? He will attend a medical convention at
Barport, and I will visit my mother, to whom he will come, later. It will
be a grand vacation for us, for we shall stay away from Thorbury for two
weeks, and the only thing which has troubled us is to decide what we
shall do with La Fleur while we are gone. We want to shut up the house,
and she does not want to go to her friends, and if she should do so, I am
afraid we might lose her. I am sure she would be delighted to come to
you, especially as the Dranes are with you. Shall I ask her?"

Miriam jumped to her feet, with an expression of alarm on her
countenance, which amused the doctor and her brother.

"Oh, please, Mrs. Tolbridge, don't do that!" she exclaimed. "Truly, I
could not have a great