CHAPTER XVI
"KEEP HER TO HELP YOU"
It was about ten o'clock the next morning when Miss Panney drove over toCobhurst in her phaeton. She did not go up to the house, but tied herroan mare behind a clump of locust trees and bushes, where the animalmight stand in peace and shade. Then she walked around the house, andhearing the clatter of crockery in the basement, she looked down througha kitchen window, and saw Mike washing the breakfast dishes.
Going on toward the back of the house, she heard voices and laughter overin the garden. Behind a tangled mass of raspberries, she saw a pinksunbonnet and a straw hat with daisies in it. She knew, then, that Doraand Miriam were picking berries, and then her eyes and ears began tosearch for Ralph.
She went up on the back piazza and looked over toward the barn, whichappeared to be closed, and around and about the house, but saw nothingof the young man. But she would wait; it was scarcely likely that he wasat work in the fields by himself. He would probably appear soon, and, ifpossible, she wanted to speak to him before she saw any one else. Shewent into the house, and took a seat in the hall, where, through anarrow window by the side of the door, she had a good view of the gardenand the grounds at the back, and could also command the front entranceof the house.
Miss Panney had been seated but a very few minutes when the two girlsemerged from the bosky intricacies of the garden.
"Upon my word!" exclaimed the old lady, "she has got on Judith Pacewalk'steaberry gown. I could never forget that!"
At this moment there was a clatter of hoofs and a rattle of wheels, and abrown horse, drawing a very loose-jointed wagon, with Ralph Haverley, ina broad hat and light tennis jacket, driving, dashed up to the back doorand stopped with a jerk.
"Back so soon!" cried Miriam. "See what a lot of raspberries we havepicked. I will take them into the house, and then come out and get thethings you have brought."
As Miriam went around toward the kitchen, Ralph sprang to the ground, andDora approached him. Miss Panney could see her face under the sunbonnet.It was suffused with the light of a smiling, beaming welcome.
"You did go quickly, didn't you?" she said. "You must be a good driver."
"I didn't want to lose any time," answered Ralph, "and I made Mrs.Browning step along lively. As it was, I was afraid that your brothermight arrive before I got back and that I might find you were gone."
"It was a pity," said Dora, "that you troubled yourself to hurry back.You may have wanted to do other things in Thorbury, and if Herbert missedseeing you to-day he would have plenty of other opportunities."
Ralph laughed. "I should like to meet your brother," he said, "but I ambound to say that I was thinking more of the new cook. I did not want herto leave before I got back."
Dora raised her sunbonnet toward him. Miriam's steps were heardapproaching.
"You might have felt sure," she said, "that she would not have gonewithout seeing you again. You have been so kind and good to her that shewould not think of doing that." Then, as Miriam was very near, sheapproached the wagon. "Did you get the snowflake flour, as I told you?"she asked. "Yes, I see you did, and I am glad you listened to my advice,and bought only a bag of it, for you know you may not like it."
"If it is the flour you use, I know we shall like it," said Ralph; "butstill I am bound to follow your advice."
"You would better follow me, now," said Miriam, who had taken someparcels from the wagon, "and bring that bag into the pantry. I do notlike Mike to come into our part of the house with his boots."
Ralph shouldered the bag, and Dora stepped up to him.
"I will stay with the horse until you come out again," she said, notspeaking very loudly.
Miss Panney, who had heard all that had been said, smiled, and her blackeyes twinkled. "Truly," she said to herself, "for so short anacquaintance, this is getting on wonderfully."
Miriam, her arms full of parcels, and her mind full of household economy,walked rapidly by Miss Panney without seeing her at all, and, enteringthe dining-room, passed through it into the pantry. But when Ralphappeared in the open doorway, the old lady rose and confronted him, herfinger on her lip.
"I have just popped in to make a little call on your sister," shewhispered; "but I saw she was pretty well loaded as she passed, and I didnot wish to embarrass her--I do not mind embarrassing you. Don't put downthe bag, I beg. I shall step into the drawing-room, and you can say I amthere. By the way, who is that young woman standing by the horse?"
"It is Miss Bannister," answered Ralph, his face unreasonably flushing ashe spoke. "She is visiting Miriam and helping her."
When Miss Panney wished to influence a person in favor of or againstanother person, she was accustomed to go about the business in a verycircumspect way, and to accommodate the matter and the manner of herremarks to the disposition of the person addressed, and to the occasion.She wished very much to influence Ralph in favor of Miss Bannister, andif she had had the opportunity of a conversation with him, she knew shecould have done this in a very easy and natural way. But there was notime for conversation now, and she might not again have the chance ofseeing him alone, so she adopted a very different course, and with asmuch readiness and quickness as Daniel Boone would have put a rifle-ballinto the head of an Indian the moment he saw it protrude from behind atree, so did Miss Panney concentrate all she had to say into one shot,and deliver it quickly.
"Help Miriam, eh?" she whispered; "take my advice, my boy, and keep herto help you." And without another word she proceeded to the drawing-room,where she seated herself in the most comfortable chair.
Ralph stood still a minute with the bag on his shoulder. He scarcelyunderstood what had been said to him, but the words had been so wellaimed and sent with such force that before he reached Miriam and thepantry his mind was illumined by the shining apparition of Dora as hispartner and helpmate. Two minutes before there had been no suchapparition. It is true that his mind had been filled with misty,cloudlike sensations, entirely new to it, but the words of the old ladyhad now condensed them into form.
When Miriam was informed of the visitor in the drawing-room, she frowneda little, and made up a queer face, and then, taking off her long apron,went to perform her duty as lady of the house.
Ralph returned to Dora, and as he looked at the girl who was patting theneck of the brown mare, she seemed to have changed, not because she wasdifferent from what she had been a few minutes before, but because helooked upon her differently. As he approached, every word that she hadspoken to him that day crowded into his memory. The last thing she hadsaid was that she would wait until he returned to her, and here she was,waiting. When he spoke, his manner had lost the free-heartedness of alittle while before; there was a slight diffidence in it.
Hearing that Miss Panney was in the house, Dora turned her bonnetdownward, and she also frowned a little.
"Why should that old person come in this very morning?" she thought.
But in an instant the front of the bonnet was raised toward Ralph, andupon the young face under it there was not a shadow of dissatisfaction.
"Of course I must go in and see her," she said, and then, speaking as ifRalph were one on whom she had always been accustomed to rely forcounsel, "do you think I need go upstairs and change my dress? If this isgood enough for you and Miriam, isn't it good enough for Miss Panney?"
As Ralph gazed into the blue eyes that were raised to his, it wasimpossible for him to think of anything for which their owner was notgood enough. This impression upon him was so strong that he said, withblurting awkwardness, that she looked charming as she was, and needed notthe slightest change. The value of this impulsive remark was fullyappreciated by Dora, but she gave no sign of it, and simply said that ifhe were suited, she was.
They were moving toward the house when Dora suddenly laid her handupon his arm.
"You have forgotten the horse, Mr. Ralph," she said.
The touch and the name by which she called him for the first time madethe young man forget, for a
n instant, everything in the world, but thegirl who had touched and spoken.
"Have you anything to tie her with? Oh, yes, there is a chain onthat post."
As Ralph turned the horse toward the hitching-post, Dora ran before him,and stood ready with the chain in her hand.
"Oh, no," she said, as he motioned to take it from her, "let me hook iton her bridle. Don't you want to let me help you at all?"
As side by side Dora and Ralph entered the drawing-room, Miss Panneydeclared in her soul that they looked like an engaged couple, coming toask for her blessing. And when Dora saluted her with a kiss, and, drawingup a stool, took a seat at her feet, the old lady gave her her blessing,though not audibly.
As Miss Panney was in a high good humor, she wanted everybody else to beso, and in a few minutes even the sedate Miriam was chatting freely andpleasantly.
"And so that graceless Phoebe has left you," said the old lady; "to boardthe minister, indeed! I will see that minister, and give him a text for asermon. But you cannot keep up this sort of thing, my young friends; noteven with Dora's help." And she stroked the soft hair of Miss Bannister,from which the sunbonnet had been removed.
"I will see Mike before I go, and send him for Molly Tooney. Molly is agood enough woman, and if I send for her, she will come to you until youhave suited yourselves with servants. And now, my dear child, where didyou find that gay dress? Upstairs in some old trunk, I suppose. Standover there and let me look at you. It is a good forty years since I haveseen that gown. Do you know to whom it used to belong? But of course youdo not. It was Judith Pacewalk's teaberry gown."
"And who was Judith Pacewalk?" asked Dora; "and why was it teaberry? Itis not teaberry color."
"No," said Miss Panney; "the color had nothing to do with it, but I mustsay it has kept very well. Let me see," taking out her watch, "it is notyet eleven o'clock, and if you young people have time enough, I will tellyou the story of that gown. What does the master say?"
Ralph declared that they must have the story, and that time must not beconsidered.