"I think it would be very well if you were to call me Miriam," said the other, who was of the opinion that Miss Panney was old enough to call any woman by her Christian name. The conversation was maintained almost entirely by the old lady and Ralph, for Miriam was silent and very solemn. Once she broke in with a question:-- "What kind of a person is Miss Bannister?" she asked. Miss Panney gave a short laugh. "Oh, she is a charming person," she answered, "pretty, good-humored, well educated, excellent taste in dress and almost everything, and very lively and pleasant to talk to. I am very fond of her." "I am afraid," said Miriam, "that she is too old and too fine for me," and turning to a photograph album she began to study the family portraits. "Your sister's ideas are rather girlish as yet," said Miss Panney, "but housekeeping at Cobhurst will change all that;" and then she went on with her remarks concerning the Haverley and Butterwood families, a subject upon which Ralph was not nearly so well informed as she was. When the brother and sister had driven away, Miss Panney reflected that the visit had given her two pieces of information. One was that the Haverley girl was a good deal younger than she had thought her, and the other was that Mrs. Tolbridge was really trying to get a new cook. The first point she did not consider with satisfaction. "It is a pity," she thought, "that Dora and his sister are not likely to be friends. That would help wonderfully. This schoolgirl, probably jealous of the superiority of grown-up young ladies, may be very much in the way. I am sorry the case is not different." In regard to the other point the old lady was very well satisfied, and determined to go soon to see what success Mrs. Tolbridge had had. About the middle of the next forenoon, Miss Panney tied her horse in front of the Tolbridge house and entered unceremoniously, as she was in the habit of doing. She found the doctor's wife standing by the back-parlor window looking out on the garden. When the old lady had seated herself she immediately proceeded to business. "Well, Kitty," said she, "what sort of a time did you have yesterday?" "A very discouraging and disagreeable one," said Mrs. Tolbridge. "I might just as well have stayed at home." "You don't mean to say," asked Miss Panney, "that nobody answered your advertisement?" "When I reached the rooms of the Non-Resident Club, where the applicants were to call--" "That's the first time," interrupted Miss Panney, "that I ever heard that that Club was of the slightest use."