adies' seats, which meant disturbing them every time one
wanted anything. How different to my beautifully planned Napier, where
every part is easily accessible!

The mending of that third speed-belt took me half an hour, and after
that we made some progress; but dusk coming on, I suggested to the
ladies that as there was very little fun in travelling in the dark, I
thought they had better stay the night at Versailles, going on to
Orleans the next day. They agreed.

I had thought out plans for my own comfort. I knew that at some of the
smaller country inns there would be no rooms for servants, and that I
should have to eat with the ladies, which suited me exactly. In the
larger towns, rather than mess with the couriers, valets, and maids, I
should simply instal my employers in one hotel, then quietly go off
myself to another. That is what I did at Versailles. I saw the ladies
into the best hotel in the town, drove the car into the stable-yard, and
went out to watch for Almond. He had followed us warily and had stopped
the Napier in a side street two hundred yards away. I joined him, and we
drove to a quiet hotel about a quarter of a mile from Miss Randolph's. I
had my luggage taken in, bathed, changed, and dined like a prince,
instructing Almond to be up at six next morning and thoroughly clean and
oil the German car, making a lot of new fastenings in spare belts. Later
in the day he is to follow us to Orleans with the Napier. Thus I live
the double life--by day the leather-clad _chauffeur_; by night the
English gentleman travelling on his own car. The plans seem well laid;
I cover my tracks carefully; I don't see how detection can come.

With a good deal of inward fear and trembling I drove the car at eight
the next morning to the door of Miss Randolph's hotel. She and her
masked and goggled aunt appeared at once, and in five minutes the
luggage was strapped on behind.

"Now please understand," said the girl, with a twinkle of merriment, in
her eyes, "that this is to be a pilgrimage, not a meteor flight. Even if
this car's capable of racing, which I guess it isn't, I don't want to
race. I just want to glide; I want to see everything; to drink in
impressions every instant."

This suited me exactly, for it gave me a chance of humouring and
studying the uncouth thing that I was called upon to drive. I had come
out to Versailles to avoid the direct route to Orleans by Etampes, which
is _pave_ nearly all the way, and pr