tand a Grayles-Grice. He looked a smart fellow, and a lesson or
two went off well, according to what I heard in Mrs. Shuster's room.
Miss Moore sometimes comes in when I am there, with news from the front,
so to speak: what new guests have arrived, what they are like, how they
get on together--or don't get on; for Kidd's Pines as a hotel is already
a going concern.

Three days after Castnet's arrival Miss Moore gave up having her lesson
in order to give Count von Falm and his wife a spin. They happened to be
the only guests--except my boss--without a car of their own, and von
Falm pointedly alluded to an advertisement promising an automobile for
the service of visitors. Thereupon the bomb exploded. Young Castnet,
like a sprat defying a sturgeon, refused to drive an enemy of his
country. The sturgeon demanded the sprat's discharge. Miss Moore sought
her father. "Larry" was teaching the Russian Countess tennis, and gaily
gave his daughter _carte blanche_. She, overwhelmed by responsibility,
temporized. France, you see, is her second home! The Austrian was in no
mood to stand half measures, and gave notice of departure. Meanwhile,
Castnet departed without this ceremony, unaware that Providence was at
work in his behalf. Behold Kidd's Pines with its best room empty and
minus a chauffeur! But Miss Moore was undaunted. At any moment somebody
else might clamour for the car. She determined to be her own chauffeur,
and on the strength of her half-dozen lessons, set out alone to
experiment with the forty horsepower Grayles-Grice.

That was when I met her on her second excursion, I think. I was taking a
walk, and she was stranded in the middle of the "king's highway," about
two miles from Huntersford. Another car equally large and powerful was
drawn up almost nose to nose with the Grayles-Grice, and the road was
becoming congested with vehicles of various sorts. The Grayles-Grice
blocked the way. It was impossible for anything else wider than a
bicycle or a skeleton to proceed in either direction; consequently you
would have supposed that a big reception or an automobile race was
taking place in the neighbourhood.

You can imagine what language would ordinarily, in such circumstances,
have belched from the serried ranks of fiery Pierce Arrows, dashing
Cadillacs, and even from peace-loving Fords; but what should you say was
happening in the present instance? If you refuse to commit yourself to
an opinion, it's only because you've