The Girl at Cobhurst | Page 7

thirty years ago, when she had taken up
her abode with the Wittons, who at that time were a newly married
couple. They were now middle-aged people, but Miss Panney still lived
with them, and seemed to be much the very same old lady as she was
when she arrived. She was a woman who kept a good deal to herself,
having many resources for her active mind. With many people who
were not acquainted with her socially but knew all about her, she had
the reputation of being wicked. The principal reason for this belief was
the well-known fact that she always took her breakfast in bed. This was
considered to be a French habit, and the French were looked upon as
infidels. Moreover, she never went to church, and when questioned
upon this subject, had been known to answer that she could not listen
with patience to a sermon, for she had never heard one without thinking
that she could preach on that subject a great deal better than the man in
the pulpit.
In spite of this fact, however, the rector of the Episcopal church of
Thorbury and the Methodist minister were both great friends of Miss
Panney, and although she did not come to hear them, they liked very
much to go to hear her. Mr. Hampton, the Methodist, would talk to her

about flower-gardening and the by-gone people and ways of the region,
while Mr. Ames, the rector, who was a young man, did not hesitate to
assert that he frequently got very good hints for passages in his sermons,
from remarks made by Miss Panney about things that were going on in
the religious and social world.
But although Miss Panney took pleasure in the company of clergymen
and physicians, she boldly asserted that she liked lawyers better.
"In the law," she would say, "you find things fixed and settled. A law is
a law, the same for everybody, and no matter how much people may
wrangle and dispute about it, it is there, and you can read it for yourself.
But the practice of medicine has to be shifted to suit individual cases,
and the practice of theology is shifted to suit individual creeds, and you
can't put your finger on steady principles as you can in law. When I put
my finger down, I like to be sure what is under it."
Miss Panney had other reasons for liking lawyers, for her first real
friend had been her legal guardian, old Mr. Bannister of Thorbury. She
was one of the few people of the place who remembered this old
gentleman, and she had often told how shocked and pained she had
been when summoned from boarding-school to attend his funeral, and
how she had been impressed by the idea that the preparations for this
important event consisted mainly in beating up eggs, stemming raisins,
baking cakes and pies, and making all sorts of provision for the
sumptuous entertainment of the people who should be drawn together
by the death of the principal citizen of the town. To her mind it would
have been more appropriate had the company been fed on bread and
water.
Thomas Bannister, who succeeded to his father's business, had been
Miss Panney's legal friend and counsellor for many years. But he, too,
was dead, and the office had now devolved on Herbert Bannister, the
grandson of the old gentleman, and the brother of Miss Dora.
Herbert and Miss Panney were very good friends, but not yet cronies.
He was still under thirty, and there were many events of the past of
which he knew but little, and about which he could not wholly

sympathize with her. But she believed that years would ripen him, and
that the time would come when she would get along as well with him
as she had with his father and grandfather.
She was not supposed to be a rich woman, and she had not been much
engaged in suits at law, but it was surprising how much legal business
Miss Panney had, as well as business of many other kinds.
When Mrs. Tolbridge had left her, the old lady put away her
scrap-book, and prepared to go downstairs.
"It is a great pity," she said to herself, "that one of the bodily ailments
which is bound to show itself in the family in the course of the spring,
should not have turned up to-day. I want very much to talk to the
doctor about the young man at Cobhurst, and I cannot drive about the
country in such weather as this."

CHAPTER III
BROTHER AND SISTER
There were other people in and around Thorbury, who very much
wanted to know something about the young man at Cobhurst, but this
desire was interfered with