ppose that I should have been satisfied as long as you
were prosperous, but I do not believe I would have been; at least, not
entirely so. In this world we do want people to do what we think they
ought to do."

"Yes," said Ralph, knowingly, "I see. But now, Miss Panney, don't you
really think that Boston would have been too rich a place for me? That it
would have expected too much of me, and that perhaps it would have done
too much for me? Boston is a good enough place, but if you only knew how
much lovelier Nantucket is--"

"Stop, stop, boy!" said the old lady. "I am getting so old now, that I am
obliged to stop happy people and disappointed people from talking to me.
If I listened to all they had to say, I should have no time for anything
else. By the way, have you heard any news from the Bannister family? That
sedate Herbert is going to be married, and he intends to live with his
wife in the Bannister mansion."

"And how will his sister like that?" asked Ralph.

"She won't like it at all. She has told me she is going away."

"I am sorry for that," he said. "That is too bad."

"Not at all. She could not do better. A girl like that in a town such as
Thorbury, with nobody to marry her but the rector, is as much out of
place as a canary bird in a poultry yard. I have advised her to visit her
relatives in town, and go with them to Europe, where I hope she will
marry a prince. Good conscience! Look at her! Imagine that girl in a
sweeping velvet robe with one great diamond blazing on her breast."

Ralph turned quickly, and as his eyes fell upon Dora, as she entered the
store, it struck him that no royal gowns could make her more beautiful
than she was at that moment.

"Now, my dear," said Miss Panney, "what did you come here for? Do you
want a saw or a pitchfork?"

"I came," said Dora, with her most charming smile, "because I saw you two
in here, and I wanted to speak to you. It is a funny place for this sort
of thing, but I do not see either of you very often, now, and I thought I
would like to tell you, before you heard it from any one else, of my
engagement."

"To whom?" cried Miss Panney, in a voice that made the ox-chains rattle.

Dora looked around anxiously, but there was no one in the front part of
the store.

"To Mr. Ames," she replied.

"The rector!" exclaimed Ralph.

"Yes," said Dora; "I want to write to Miriam about it, and do you know I
have lost her address."

"Dora Bannister," interrupted M