ustomed himself to
pitting his voice against machinery that even in moments of quiet he
hurled his words like the roar of a bull. So, as he spoke now to the
unknown person, I recognized an allusion to myself. The words which set
me to extricating myself as speedily as possible from my humble position
were as follows:

"Sure, ma'am, th' boss would be afther bein' more polite to yer, only
the car is layin' a little heavy on his stummick, and it gives him a bit
of a grouch."

The word which excited me was the "ma'am," and my excitement was no
means allayed when I stood clear in the road and saw just disappearing
around a curve a figure which I recognized. It could be no other figure,
for no other figure that I had ever seen could walk with the same
triumphant and lissome grace. Again the face was turned away from me,
and about her hat floated a confusing cloud of veil. But she had been
there within a few feet and possibly had even heard my surly responses
to her request for assistance. Possibly she had seen my wriggling feet
while I, who would have esteemed it the greatest possible privilege to
have assisted her in any way, had lain there surrounded by dust and
profanity. I was seized with a mad impulse to run after her, but I knew
that the return of my iron signified that their tire-mending was
finished and they were on their journey.

My own repairs were not finished, and I stood there with streaks of
grease across my face, caked with dust and by no means presenting the
appearance with which a man might hope to appear acceptable in the eyes
of divinity. Aunt Sarah and her bevy of young intellectuals, I found,
had withdrawn to the greater comfort of a near-by road-house, and could
give me no information, while Flannery's description was on the whole,
unsatisfactory. The idiot had not asked her name, and in answer to all
my questions could only assure me vaguely that the young lady was "a
peach." One thing he had noticed. The car, which had passed us a quarter
of an hour before was a large blue touring car, of high horse-power. It
is strange what details impress certain minds and what goes unseen. So
again I had missed my chance, and the incident had not served to
reconcile me to my serfdom.

Several days later I had succeeded in gaining a brief leave of absence
from my duties as courier, and was spending an interval of sadly needed
rest.

I had the hope that the unknown girl and her party would be stopping for
a wh