with the rush of the great engines, as by a handbreadth they
plunged past her. She knew they were driven by men and half-grown
boys, joyous with victory, piqued by defeat, reckless by one touch too
much of liquor, and that the young man at her side was driving, not
only for himself, but for them.

Each fraction of a second a dazzling light blinded him, and he swerved
to let the monster, with a hoarse, bellowing roar, pass by, and then
again swept his car into the road. And each time for greater
confidence she glanced up into his face.

Throughout the mishaps of the day he had been deeply concerned for her
comfort, sorry for her disappointment, under Brother Sam's indignant
ironies patient, and at all times gentle and considerate. Now, in the
light from the onrushing cars, she noted his alert, laughing eyes, the
broad shoulders bent across the wheel, the lips smiling with excitement
and in the joy of controlling, with a turn of the wrist, a power equal
to sixty galloping horses. She found in his face much comfort. And in
the fact that for the moment her safety lay in his hands, a sense of
pleasure. That this was her feeling puzzled and disturbed her, for to
Ernest Peabody it seemed, in some way, disloyal. And yet there it was.
Of a certainty, there was the secret pleasure in the thought that if
they escaped unhurt from the trap in which they found themselves, it
would be due to him. To herself she argued that if the chauffeur were
driving, her feeling would be the same, that it was the nerve, the
skill, and the coolness, not the man, that moved her admiration. But
in her heart she knew it would not be the same.

At West Haven Green Winthrop turned out of the track of the racing
monsters into a quiet street leading to the railroad station, and with
a half-sigh, half-laugh, leaned back comfortably.

"Those lights coming up suddenly make it hard to see," he said.

"Hard to breathe," snorted Sam; "since that first car missed us, I
haven't drawn an honest breath. I held on so tight that I squeezed the
hair out of the cushions."

When they reached the railroad station, and Sam had finally fought his
way to the station master, that half-crazed official informed him he
had missed the departure of Mrs. Taylor Holbrooke's car by just ten
minutes.

Brother Sam reported this state of affairs to his companions.

"God knows we asked for the fish first," he said; "so now we've done
our duty by Ernest, who has shamef