know all about."

"Seems to me, Miss Panney," said the colored woman, "that 'twould be a
mighty good thing for Mr. Hav'ley to get married. An' thar's that Miss
Drane right thar already."

"What stupid nonsense!" exclaimed Miss Panney. "I thought you had more
sense than to imagine such a thing as that. She is not in any way
suitable for him. She is a poor little thing who has to earn her own
living, and her mother's too. She is not in the least fit to be the
mistress of that place."

"Don't see whar he'll get a wife, then," said Phoebe. "He never goes
nowhar, and never sees nobody, except p'r'aps Miss Dora Bannister; an'
she's too high an' mighty for him."

"Phoebe, you are stupider than I thought you were. No lady is too high
and mighty for Mr. Haverley. And if he should happen to fancy Miss Dora,
it will be a capital match. What he needs is to marry a woman of position
and means. But that is not my business, or yours either, and by the way,
Phoebe, since you are here, I will get you to take a letter to the
post-office for me. I will go back into this shop and write it. You can
take these two cents and buy an envelope and a sheet of paper, and bring
them in to me."

With this Miss Panney walked into the shop, and having asked the loan of
pen and ink, horrified the girl at the counter by proceeding to the table
she had left, which, in a corner favored by all customers, had just been
prepared for the next comer, and, having pushed aside a knife and fork
and plate, made herself ready to write her letter, which was to a friend
in Barport, informing her that the writer intended making her a visit.

"I shall get there," she thought, "about as soon as it does, but it looks
better to write."

Before the letter was finished, Phoebe was nearly as angry as the
shop-girl; but at last, with exactly two cents with which to buy a stamp,
she departed for the post-office.

"The stingy old thing!" she said to herself as she left the shop; "not a
cent for myself, and makes me walk all the way out to that Cobhurst, too!
I see what that old woman is up to. She's afraid he'll marry the young
lady what's out thar, an' she wants him to marry Miss Dora, an' git a lot
of the Bannister money to fix up his old house, an' then she expects to
go out thar an' board with 'em, for I reckon she's gittin' mighty tired
of the way them Wittons live. She's always patchin' up marriages so she
can go an' live with the people when they first begins ho