hen she bounded out of the carriage and ran
after the old lady. Throwing her arms around her neck, she kissed her
on the cheek.

"I am awfully sorry I did that," she said, "and I beg your pardon. I
don't mind the thing a bit, and won't you let me take you home in the
carriage?"

Dora might as well have embraced a milestone and talked to it, for
the moment she could release herself, Miss Panney stalked away
without a word.

When she was again driving toward Cobhurst, Dora took from the front of
the carriage a little hand mirror, and carefully arranged her hat, her
feathers, her laces and ribbons. Then having satisfied herself that her
features were in perfect order, she put back her glass.

"I am not going to let any of them see," she said, "that I mind it in
the least."

CHAPTER XLI

PANNEYOPATHY AND THE ASH-HOLE

Neither Ralph nor his sister nor either of the Drane ladies had the least
reason to believe that Dora minded the news contained in Miriam's note,
except that it had given her a heartfelt delight and joy, and that it had
made her unable to wait a single moment longer than was necessary to come
and tell them all how earnestly she congratulated them, and what a
capital good thing she thought it was. She caught Ralph by himself and
spoke to him so much like a sympathetic sister that he was a little,
just the least little bit in the world, pained.

As Cicely had never had any objection to Miss Bannister, excepting her
frequent appearances in Ralph's conversation, she received Dora's
felicitations with the same cordiality that she saw in her lovely eyes
and on her lips. And Mrs. Drane thought that if this girl were a sample
of the Haverleys' friends and neighbors, her daughter's lot would be even
more pleasant than she had supposed it would be. As for Miriam, she and
Dora walked together, their arms around each other's waists, up and down
in the garden, and back and forward in the orchard, until the Bannister
coachman went to sleep on his box.

During this long interview, the younger girl became impressed, not only
with the fact that Dora thought so well of the match, that, if she had
been looking for a wife for Ralph, she certainly would have selected Miss
Drane, but with the stability of Miss Bannister's affection for her,
which did not seem to be affected in the least by the changes which would
take place in the composition of the Cobhurst household. Dora had said,
indeed, that she had no doub