t as for us (I suppose you can't conceive the
satisfaction to a poor _chauffeur_ of bracketing his lady and himself
familiarly as "us"), we were intoxicated by the heavy balsam of the
turpentine, for which every tree we passed was being sliced. On each a
great flake of the trunk had been struck off with an axe, and a small
earthen cup affixed to catch the resin, which is the heart's blood of
the wounded tree. There was something Dante-esque in the effect of these
bleeding wounds, among old, scarcely healed scars; and that effect was
intensified by the shadowy gloom of the dense forest, and the
never-ceasing sound of the wind among the high, dark branches, like the
beating of surf upon an unseen shore.

At last, when the feeling was strong upon us that the ocean of pines had
engulphed us, like Pharaoh's chariot in the Red Sea, we came upon a
rambling village, called Parentis. As if to announce the arrival of the
first motor car ever seen in the dim, forgotten Landes, the off front
tire began to hiss. "I _told_ you so!" said Aunt Mary. My eyes and Miss
Randolph's met, and we both burst out laughing. It was a great liberty
in me, and though I couldn't have helped it to save my neck, and became
preternaturally solemn afterwards as a penance, I don't believe that the
lady I should like to have for an aunt-in-law will ever forgive me. She
ought, however, as this was our first accident with the Napier, while
with poor little Miss Randolph's late esteemed Dragon, one breakfasted,
lunched, dined, and supped on horrors. Besides, the Dragon invariably
schemed to do its worst, far from human aid, while my long-suffering
Napier had brought us to the very courtyard of the village inn before
(as Miss Randolph expressed it) "sitting down to rest."

Inside this convenient courtyard I set about doing the repairs, jacking
up the car, taking off the tyre, patching it, and getting it on again in
twenty minutes; not bad for an amateur _mecanicien_. All the people of
the inn and many of the villagers gathered round to see the great sight,
and Aunt Mary consoled herself by showing off her somewhat eccentric
French to the landlady and her family.

There were three generations in this group, I took time to notice. A
bowed and wrinkled old dame; her daughter, a strong, sad-faced woman in
black; and a golden-haired granddaughter, about the prettiest creature I
ever saw--bar one. And it was charming to see my Goddess laying herself
out to be nice