Part 18 (1/2)
Ralph arose, and took her hand, but she gave him no opportunity to say anything.
”Your sister and I got up this little bit of deception for you, Mr.
Haverley,” she continued, ”and we intended to carry it on a good deal further, but that gentleman has spoiled it all, and I want you to know that I stopped here to see your sister, and finding she had not a soul to help her, I would not leave her in such a plight, and we had a royal good time, getting the supper, and were going to do ever so many more things--I should like to know, doctor, how you knew me. I am sure I did not look a bit like myself.”
”You did not look like yourself, but you walked like yourself,” replied Dr. Tolbridge. ”I watched you when you first tried to toddle alone, and I have seen you nearly every day since, and I know your way of stepping about as well as I know anything. But I must really apologize for having spoiled the fun. I discovered you, Dora, before we had half finished supper, but I thought the trick was being played on me alone. I had no idea that Mr. Haverley thought you were the new cook.”
”I certainly did think so,” cried Ralph, ”and what is more, I intended to discharge you to-morrow morning.”
There was a lively time for a few minutes, after which Dora explained what had been said about her mind and a kitten.
”He was just twitting me with having once changed my mind--every one does that,” she said; ”and then I gave him a kitten. That is all. And now, before I change my dress, I will go and get some wood for the kitchen fire. I think you said, Mr. Haverley, that the woodhouse was not far away.”
”Wood!” cried Ralph; ”don't you think of it!”
Miriam burst into a laugh.
”Oh, you ought to have heard the lord of the manor declare that he would not carry fuel for the cook,” she cried.
Ralph joined in the laugh that rose against him, but insisted that Dora should not change her dress.
”You could not wear anything more becoming,” he said, ”and you do not know how much I want to treat the new cook as one of the family.”
”I will wear whatever the lord of the manor chooses,” said Dora, demurely, and was about to make reference to his concluding remark, but checked herself.
When the two girls joined the gentlemen on the porch, which they did with much promptness, having delegated the greater part of their household duties to Mike, who could take a hand at almost any kind of work, Dr.
Tolbridge announced that he must proceed to visit his patient.
”Are you coming back this way, doctor?” asked Dora. ”Because if you are, would it be too much trouble for you to look for our buggy on the side of the road, and to bring back the cus.h.i.+ons and the whip with you? Herbert may think that in this part of the country the people are so honest that they would not steal anything out of a deserted buggy, but I do not believe it is safe to put too much trust in people.”
”A fine, practicable mind,” said the doctor; ”cuts clean and sharp. I will bring the cus.h.i.+ons and the whip, if they have not been stolen before I reach them. And now I will go to the barn and get my horse. We need not disturb the industrious Mike.”
”If you are going to the barn, doctor,” cried Miriam, seizing her hat, ”I will go with you and put the mosquito net over my calf, which I entirely forgot to do. Perhaps, if it is light enough, you will look at its eye.”
The doctor laughed, and the two went off together, leaving Dora and Ralph on the piazza.
Dora could not help thinking of herself as a very lucky girl. When she had started that afternoon to make a little visit at Cobhurst, she had had no imaginable reason to suppose that in the course of a very few hours she would be sitting alone with Mr. Haverley in the early moonlight, without even his sister with them. She had expected to see Ralph and to have a chat with him, but she had counted on Miriam's presence as a matter of course; so this tete-a-tete in the quiet beauty of the night was as delightful as it was unantic.i.p.ated. More than that, it was an opportunity that ought not to be disregarded.
The new mind of Miss Dora Bannister was clear and quick in its perceptions, and prompt and independent in action. It not only showed what she wanted, but indicated pretty clearly how she might get it. Since she had been making use of this fresh intellect, she had been impressed very strongly by the belief that in the matter of matrimonial alliance, a girl should not neglect her interest by depending too much upon the option of other people. Her own right of option she looked upon as a sacred right, and one that it was her duty to herself to exercise, and that promptly. She had just come from the seaside, where she had met some earnest young men, one or two of whom she expected to see shortly at Thorbury. Also Mr. Ames, their young rector, was a very persevering person, and a great friend of her brother.
Of course it behooved her to act with tact, but for all that she must be prompt. It was easy to see that Ralph Haverley could not be expected to go very soon into the society of Thorbury, to visit ladies there, and as she wanted him to learn to know her as rapidly as possible, she resolved to give him every opportunity.
Miriam was gone a long time, because when she reached the barn, the calf was not to be found where she had left it, and she had been obliged to go for Mike and a lantern. After anxious search the little fellow had been found reclining under an apple tree, having gained sufficient strength from the ministrations of its fair attendants to go through the open stable door and to find out what sort of a world it had been born into.
It required time to get the truant back, secure it in its stall, and make all the arrangements for its comfort which Miriam thought necessary.
Therefore, before she returned to the piazza, Miss Bannister and Ralph had had a long conversation, in which the latter had learned a great deal about the disposition and tastes of his fair companion, and had been much interested in what he learned.
CHAPTER XIV