Toot-toot" sounded from the street in
front of the main entrance to the hotel. Norah ran to the window and saw
two splendidly-appointed Napier cars--although, of course, she didn't
know a Napier from a Darracq. Something in female shape with peaked cap
and goggles, gauntleted and covered from head to foot in a heavy fur
coat, got out of the first car, and another shape, rather shorter but
almost similarly clad, got out of the second. Five minutes later there
was a knock at the door of the breakfast-room. It opened, and Norah saw
what the cap and the goggles and the great fur coat had hidden. During
the next few seconds, two of the most beautiful girls in the two
hemispheres looked at each other, as only girls and women can look. Then
Auriole put out both her hands and said, quite simply:

"You are Norah Castellan. I hope we shall be good friends. If we're not,
I'm afraid it will be my fault."

Norah took her hands and said:

"I think it would more likely be mine, after what Mr Lennard has been
telling us of yourself and your father."

At this moment Lennard saved the situation as far as he was concerned by
making the other introductions, and Mrs O'Connor took the hand which
wielded the terrible power of millions and experienced a curious sort of
surprise at finding that it was just like other hands, and that the
owner of it was bending over hers with one of those gestures of simple
courtesy which are the infallible mark of the American gentleman. In a
few minutes they were all as much at home together as though they had
known each other for weeks. Then came the preparation of Norah and her
aunt for the motor ride, and then the ride itself.

The sun had risen clearly, and there was a decided nip of frost in the
keen Northern air. The roads were hard and clean, and the
twenty-five-mile run over them, winding through the valleys and climbing
the ridges with the heather-clad, rock-crowned hills on all sides, now
sliding down a slope or shooting along a level, or taking a rise in what
seemed a flying leap, was by far the most wonderful experience that
Norah and her aunt had ever had.

Auriole drove the first car, and had Norah sitting beside her on the
front seat. Her aunt and the mechanician were sitting in the tonneau
behind. Mr Parmenter drove the second car with Lennard beside him. His
tonneau was filled with luggage.

At the end of the eighteenth mile the cars, going at a quite illegal
speed, jumped a ridge betw