in cold blood,
Randy was forced to admit that his chances of beating George Dalton in a
race for Becky were small.

There seemed some slight hope, however, in the fact that Becky was a
Bannister and ought to know a gentleman when she saw one.

"And Dalton's a--a bounder," said Randy to Nellie Custis.

Nellie Custis, who was as blue-blooded as any Bannister, cocked a
sympathetic ear. Cocking an ear with Nellie was a weighty matter. Her
ears were big and unmanageable. When she got them up, she kept them
there for some time. It was a rather intriguing habit, as it gave her an
air of eager attention which wooed confidence.

"He's a bounder," said Randy as if that settled it.

But it did not settle it in the least. A man with an Apollo head may not
be a gentleman under his skin, but how are you to prove it? The world,
spurning Judy O'Grady, sanctions the Colonel's lady, and their
sisterhood becomes socially negligible. Randy should have known that he
could not sweep George Dalton away with a word. Perhaps he did know it,
but he did not care to admit it.

He and Nellie Custis were in the garage. It had once been a barn, but
the boarders had bought cars, so there was now the smell of gasoline
where there had once been the sweet scent of hay. And intermittently the
air was rent with puffs and snorts and shrieks which drowned the music
of that living chorus which has been sung in stables for centuries.

There were three cars. Two of them have nothing to do with this story,
but the third will play its part, and merits therefore description.

It was not an expensive car, but it was new and shining, and had a perky
snub-nosed air of being ready for anything. It belonged to the genial
gentleman who used it without mercy, and thus the little car wove back
and forth over the hills like a shuttle, doing its work sturdily, coming
home somewhat noisily, and even at rest, seeming to ask for something
more to do.

The genial gentleman was very proud of his car. He talked a great deal
about it to Randy, and on this particular morning when he came out and
found young Paine sitting on a wheelbarrow with Nellie Custis lending
him a cocked ear, he grew eloquent.

"Look here, I've been thinking. There ought to be a lot of cars like
this in the county."

To Randy the enthusiasms of the genial gentleman were a constant source
of amazement. He was always wanting the world to be glad about
something. Randy felt that at this moment any