me to tell her. Of course,
the sooner you send her the address, the better."

"The boy shall take it to her as soon as I get home," said Dora.

She very much disliked scoldings, and had not now a word to say against
the old body who would frighten the horses. Desirous of turning the
conversation in another direction without seeming to force it, "It seems
to me," she said, "that Mr. and Miss Haverley ought to have somebody
better to cook for them than old Phoebe. I have always looked upon her as
a sort of a charwoman, working about from house to house, doing anything
that people hired her to do."

"That's just what those Haverleys want," said Miss Panney. "At present,
everything is charwork at their place, and as to their food, I don't
suppose they think much about it, so that they get enough. At their age
they can eat anything."

"How old is Miss Haverley?" asked Dora.

"Miss Haverley!" repeated Miss Panney, "she's nothing but a girl, with
her hair down her back and her skirts a foot from the ground. I call
her a child."

A shadow came over the soul of Miss Bannister.

Would it be possible, she thought, to maintain, with a girl who did not
yet put up her hair or wear long skirts, the intimacy she had hoped to
maintain with Mr. Haverley's sister?

Very much the same idea was in the mind of Miss Panney, but she thought
it well to speak encouragingly. "I wish, for her brother's sake, the girl
were older," said she: "but housekeeping will help to mature her much
more quickly than if she had remained at school. And as for school," she
added, "it strikes me it would be a good thing for her to go back
there--after awhile."

Dora thought this a good opinion, but before she could say anything on
the subject, she lifted her eyes, and beheld Ralph Haverley walking down
the street toward them. He was striding along at a fine pace, and looked
as if he enjoyed it.

"I declare," ejaculated Miss Bannister, "here he is himself. We shall
meet him."

"He? who?" and Miss Panney looked from side to side of the road, and the
moment she saw the young man, she smiled.

It pleased her that Dora should speak of him as "he," showing that the
brother was in her mind when they had been talking of the sister.

Miss Panney drew up to the sidewalk, and Ralph stopped.

He was greatly pleased with the cordial greeting he received from
the two ladies. These Thorbury people were certainly very sociable
and kind-hearted. The sunlight was