urself, sir----" the chauffeur reproached him. The truth
was that Peter hadn't a car of his own and Gilmore knew it. There was an
electric runabout which had gone down to Bloombury with Ellen, and a
serviceable roadster which was part of the office equipment, but the
rich Mr. Weatheral had never taken the pains to own a private car. Now,
as he hastily drew out his watch, it occurred to him that Lessing's
chauffeur was a fellow of more perspicuity than he had given him credit
for. The two men communicated wordlessly across the cool width of the
terrace steps.

"At what hour," Peter wished to know, "would we have to leave here to
reach Maplemont in good time? Then if you can be ready to leave the
moment my car gets here...." He excused himself to go to the telephone;
half an hour later when he joined the family at breakfast he had
discovered some of the things that, besides making more money with it,
can be done with money.

The knowledge suited him like his own garment, as if it had been lying
ready for him to put on when the occasion required it, and now became
him admirably. He perceived it to be a proper male function to produce
easily and with precision whatever utterly charming young ladies might
reasonably require. He appreciated Miss Goodward's acceptance of it as
she came down from the house bewilderingly tied into soft veils for the
afternoon's drive, as a part of her hall-marked fineness. If she
couldn't help knowing, taking in the car's glittering newness from point
to point, that its magnificence had materialized out of her simple wish
for it, she at least didn't allow him to think it was any more than she
would have expected of him. So completely did he yield himself to this
new sense of the fitness of things that it came as a shock to have her,
as soon as they had joined themselves to the holiday-coloured crowd that
streamed and shifted under the bright boughs of Maplemont, reft from him
by friendly, compelling voices, and particularly by Burton Henderson,
who played singles and went about bareheaded and singularly
self-possessed. It was unthinkable to Peter that, in view of her
recently discovered importance in putting him at rights with himself,
that he hadn't arranged with her that they were to be more together. For
the moment it was almost a derogation of her charm that she shouldn't
herself have recognized by some overt act her extraordinary opportunity.
And then in a moment more he perceived that she