h, Mr. Holmes," said Eleanor, smiling at him.
"This is my new friend, Bessie King, Mr. Holmes. Mr. Holmes is one of
our family's oldest and best friends."

"Well, well, this is very nice!" he said. "I'd better be careful,
though, or I'll have all the young fellows in town down on me, when they
see an old codger like me driving two pretty young ladies around. Where
shall we go, eh?"

"If you're really not in a hurry, Mr. Holmes," said Eleanor, "I wish you
would take us down town by the long way around. I'd like Bessie to see
the river and the Kent Bridge."

"Splendid!" said Mr. Holmes. "That's fine! You see, they say I'm a back
number, now that I don't know how to run my store any more. I guess
they're right, too. I just seem to be in the way when I go down there.
So I stay away as long as I can find anything else to do."

Eleanor laughed, but Bessie somehow felt that the jovial words didn't
ring true. There was a strange look in the eyes of their kindly host,
and despite her attempts to convince herself that she was foolish, she
didn't like him. But she enjoyed the ride thoroughly. He took them
out of the town, and then, skirting the suburbs by a beautiful road,
approached the heart of the business section by a new road that Bessie
had not seen before. But then, though he had said, and, indeed, proved,
that he was in no hurry, Mr. Holmes began to increase the speed of his
car.

"He's going very fast if he's not in a hurry," suggested Bessie, sure
that the driver could not hear in the rush of the wind made by the car's
speed.

Eleanor laughed merrily.

"He always does everything in a hurry," she said. "This is the fastest
car in town, and before automobiles got so popular, Mr. Holmes had the
fastest horses. He just likes to go quickly. That's why his business was
so successful, they say."

Just then the car stopped, and Holmes, laughing, turned to them.

"I heard that," he said. "After all, what's the harm? It would have
taken you an hour to get down town if you'd walked all the way, wouldn't
it, Miss Eleanor?"

She nodded.

"All right, then, I'll get you there as soon as that, and have time for
a bit of a spin in the country, as well. We'll go pretty fast, so just
put on these goggles, young ladies, and you'll have no trouble getting
specks in your eyes. I'll do the same. I really intended to drive slowly
today--that's why I haven't got mine on. But somehow, when I get a wheel
between my hands, I can't dr