more too, and now you can go along, and Mr. Ralph will tell you
that he is the happiest man in the world, and your secretary will tell
you that she is the happiest young woman, and the cook you are going to
lose will vow that she is the happiest old woman, and if you stay until
Mrs. Drane and Miriam come back, the one will tell you that she is the
happiest middle-aged woman, and the other that she is the happiest girl,
and if you give Mike a half dollar, he will tell you that he is the
happiest negro in the world. Click!"

The doctor went on to Cobhurst, where Mrs. Drane and Miriam soon arrived,
and he heard everything that Miss Panney told him he would hear.

CHAPTER XLIII

THE SIREN AND THE IRON

The summer, the Dranes, La Fleur, and Miriam had all left Cobhurst. The
summer had gone south for an eight months' stay; the Dranes had gone to
their old Pennsylvania home to settle up their affairs, and prepare for
the marriage of the younger lady, which was to take place early in the
coming spring; La Fleur had returned to the Tolbridges' to remain until
the new Cobhurst household should be organized; and Miriam, whose
association with Dora and Cicely had aroused her somewhat dormant
aspirations in an educational direction, had gone to Mrs. Stone's school
for the winter term.

November had come to Cobhurst, and there Ralph remained to get his farm
ready for the winter, and his house in order for the bride who would come
with the first young leaves. He did not regret this period of solitary
bachelorhood, for not having very much money, he required a good deal of
time to do what was to be done.

He had planned a good deal of refitting for the house, although not so
much as to deprive it of any of those characteristics which made it dear
old Cobhurst. And there were endless things to do on the farm, the most
important of which, in his eyes, was the breaking of the pair of colts,
which task he intended to take into his own hands. Mrs. Browning and the
gig were very well in their places, but something more would be needed
when the green leaves came.

Seraphina, Mike's sister, now ruled in the kitchen, but Ralph's thoughts
had acquired such a habit of leaving the subject on which he was engaged
and flying southward, that even when he took a meal with the Tolbridges,
which happened not infrequently, he scarcely noticed the difference
between their table and his own. Nothing stronger than this could be said
regardi