al;
then we can spend a few hours in Bath too."

"Daddy and Johnson always like to tear along at about a hundred miles an
hour," said Sheila. "Except as a means of getting along the road, I hate
motoring! I always think Johnson is going to run into everybody. He
shaves his corners so narrowly, and doesn't give conveyances enough
room. I call him very reckless."

"Nonsense! He's an excellent driver!" declared her father. "One of the
best chauffeurs we've ever had, though he's only a young chap. He's
wonderfully intelligent too. I'd trust him with repairs as well as any
man at a garage. A civil fellow, too."

"Yes, his manners are really quite superior," agreed Mrs. Rogers,
stepping on to the balcony and watching the smart, good-looking figure
of the young chauffeur, who was opening the bonnet of the car for some
last inspection. "Personally I feel perfectly safe when Johnson is
driving me. I'm never nervous in the least!"

"And I'm in such a perpetual panic that I often read so as not to look
at the road," confessed Sheila. "I do wish you'd ask him to sound his
horn oftener in these narrow roads. The banks and hedges are so high,
you can't see anything that's coming till it's almost upon you."

"Well, it certainly might be a wise precaution," said Major Rogers. "In
motoring you have to guard against the stupidity of other people, and
that fellow in the gray two-seater nearly charged straight into us
yesterday. A regular road-hog he was!"

If Johnson had hitherto been a little slack in respect of sounding his
horn, it was the only fault of which his employers could complain. He
kept the fittings of the car at the very zenith in the matter of polish,
he was punctuality personified, and most skilful at the tedious business
of repairing or changing tires; he rarely spoke addressed, but when
questioned he seemed to have a good acquaintance with the country, knew
which were the best roads, and what sights were worth visiting in the
various places through which they passed. All of which are highly
desirable qualities in a chauffeur, and a satisfaction to all
concerned.

It was the general plan of the holiday to start about ten or eleven
o'clock, take a picnic-basket with them, lunch somewhere in the woods,
arrive at their next halting-place about three or four, and spend the
remainder of the day in sight-seeing, or in Major Rogers' case resting,
if he were suffering from a severe attack of pain.

As they motored acros