turned from a
fortnight's visit to some friends at the seashore, and she had been home
a very little while, when she became convinced that her most important
duty was to go to see that young girl at Cobhurst. It seemed very
strange that so long a time had passed since the arrival of the
Haverleys into the neighborhood, and she had never yet seen his sister.
In Miss Bannister's mind there was a central point, about which
clustered everything connected with Cobhurst: that point was a young
man, and the house was his house, and the fields were his fields, and
the girl was his sister.

It so happened, the very next day, that Herbert Bannister found it
necessary to visit a lady client, who lived about four miles beyond
Cobhurst, and when Dora heard this she was delighted. Her brother should
take her as far as Cobhurst with him; they should start early enough to
give him time to stop and call on Ralph Haverley, which he most certainly
ought to do, and then he could go on and attend to his business, leaving
her at Cobhurst. Even if neither the brother nor the sister were at home,
she would not mind being left at that charming old place. She would take
a book with her, for there were so many shady spots where she could sit
and read until Herbert came back.

Herbert Bannister, whose mind was devoted to business and the happiness
of his sister, was well pleased with this arrangement, and about three
o'clock in the afternoon the buggy containing the two stopped in front of
the Cobhurst portico.

The front door was open, and they could see through the hall and the open
back door into the garden beyond.

Dora laughed as she said, "This is just what happened when I came here
before,--everything wide open, as though there were no flies nor dogs nor
strangers."

Herbert got out and rang the bell: he rang it twice, but no one came.
Dora beckoned him to her.

"It is of no use," she said; "that also happened when I came before.
They don't live in the house, at least in the daytime. But Herbert,
there is a man."

At this moment, the negro Mike was seen at a little distance, hurrying
along with a tin pitcher in his hand. Herbert advanced, and called to
him, and Mike, with his pitcher, approached.

"The boss," he said, in response to their inquiries, "is down in the big
meadow, helpin' me get in the hay. We tried to git extry help, but
everybody's busy this time o' year, an' he an' me has got to step along
pretty sharp to git that