ending a fortnight with
Mrs. Drane and Cicely, and with that noble gentleman, the master of the
estate, and to pass these weeks in the country. She was a great lover of
things rural: she liked to see, pecking and scratching, the fowls with
which she prepared such dainty dishes. In her earlier days, the sight of
an old hen wandering near a bed of celery, with a bed of beets in the
middle distance, had suggested the salad for which she afterwards became
somewhat famous.

She knew a great deal about garden vegetables, and had been heard to
remark that brains were as necessary in the culling of fruits and roots
and leaves and stems as for their culinary transformation into
attractions for the connoisseur's palate. She was glad, too, to have the
opportunity of an occasional chat with that intelligent negro Mike, and
so far as she could judge, there were no objections to the presence of
Miriam in the house.

Ralph did not come back until after La Fleur had arrived, and he returned
hungry, and a little more out of humor than when he started away.

"I had hoped," he said to Miriam, "to get enough birds to give the new
cook a chance of showing her skill in preparing a dish of game for
dinner; but these two, which I may say I accidentally shot, are all I
brought. It is impossible to shoot without a dog, and I think I shall go
to-morrow morning to see Miss Bannister and ask her to let me take Congo
home with me. He will soon learn to know me, and the woodcock season does
not last forever."

"But Dora will not be at home," said Miriam; "she goes to Barport to-day
with the Tolbridges."

Ralph opened his mouth to speak, and then he shut it again. It was of no
use to say anything, and he contented himself with a sigh as he went to
the rack to put up his gun. Miriam sighed, too, and as she did so, she
hoped that it was the dog and not Dora that Ralph was sighing about.

The next morning there came to Cobhurst a man, bringing a black setter
and a verbal message from Miss Bannister to the effect that if Mr.
Haverley would tie up the dog and feed him himself for two or three
days and be kind to him, she had no doubt Congo would soon know him as
his master.

"Now that is the kind of a girl I like," said Ralph to his sister. "She
promises to do a thing and she does it, even if the other party is not
prompt in stepping forward to attend to his share of the affair."

There was nothing to say against this, and Miriam said nothing, but