borhood of seventy-five, I suppose you
thank her kindly for a good slap in the face."

The doctor laughed heartily.

"Precisely," said he. "And now tell me what has happened. You are all
right, I see. How are the Cobhurst people getting on?"

"Oh, well enough," said Miss Panney. "The young man and that Cicely Drane
of yours have agreed to marry each other, and I suppose the old lady
will live with them, and Miriam will have to get down from her high horse
and agree to play second fiddle, or go to school again. She is too young
for anything else."

The doctor stared. "You amaze me!" he cried.

"Oh, you needn't be amazed," said Miss Panney; "I did it!"

"You?" said the doctor, "I thought you wanted him to marry Dora."

"If you thought that," said Miss Panney, flashing her black eyes upon
him, "why did you lend yourself to such an underhanded piece of business
as the sending of that Drane girl there?"

"Oh, bless my soul!" exclaimed the doctor, "I did not lend myself to
anything. I did not send her there to be married. Let us drop that, and
tell me how you came to change your mind."

"I have a rule about dropping things," said the old lady, "and with
people of vigorous intellect, I never do it, but when any one is getting
on in years and a little soft-minded, so that he does what he is told to
do without being able to see the consequences of it, I pity him and drop
the subject which worries his conscience. I have not changed my mind in
the least. I still think that Dora would be the best wife young Haverley
could have, and after I found that you had added to your treacheries or
stupidities, or whatever they were, by carrying her off to Barport, I
intended to take advantage of the situation, so I got Dora to invite
Miriam there, feeling sure that the Drane women would have sense enough
to know that they then ought to leave Cobhurst; but they had not sense
enough, and they stayed there. Then I saw that the situation was
critical, and went to Barport myself, and sent the young man a telegram
that would have aroused the heart of a feather-bed and made it be with me
in three hours, but it did not rouse him and he did not come; and before
that silly Mrs. Bannister got back with the two girls, the mischief was
done, and that little Drane had taken advantage of the opportunity I had
given her to trap Mr. Ralph. Oh, she is a sharp one! and with you and me
to help her, she could do almost anything. You take off her rival, a