ments too," said I hurriedly, in a low
voice, when Sir Samuel and Lady Turnour had gone to the inn door to
revive themselves with blood-warming cordials after their thrilling
experience. "I should like to, only--it seems to go beyond compliments."

"I hate compliments, even when I deserve them, which I don't now,"
replied the young man whom I'd been comparing sentimentally in my mind
with the sun-god, steering his chariot of fire up and down the steeps of
heaven from dawn to sunset. "And I'd hate them above all from my--from
my little pal."

Nothing he could have named me would have pleased me as well. During the
wild climb, and wilder drop, we had hardly spoken to each other, yet I
felt that I could never misunderstand him, or try frivolously to
aggravate him again. He was too good for all that, too good to be played
with.

"You are a man--a real _man_," I said to myself. I felt humble compared
with him, an insignificant wisp of a thing, who could never do anything
brave or great in life; and so I was proud to be called his "pal." When
he asked if I, too, didn't need some cordial, I only laughed, and said I
had just had one, the strongest possible.

"So have I," he answered. "And now we ought to be going on. Look at
those shadows, and it's a good way yet to Florac, at the entrance of the
gorge."

Already night was stretching long gray, skeleton fingers into the late
sunshine, as if to warm them at its glow before snuffing it out.

It was easier to say we ought to go, however, than to induce Lady
Turnour to get into the car again, after all she had endured, and after
that "bearding" which evidently rankled still. She had not forgiven the
chauffeur for the courage which for her was merely obstinacy and
impudence, nor her husband for encouraging him; but the glow of the
cordial in her veins warmed the cockles of her heart in spite of herself
(I should think her heart was _all_ cockles, if they are as bristly as
they sound); and as it would be dull to stop on this _col_ for the rest
of her life, she at last agreed to encounter further dangers.

"Come, come, that's my brave little darling!" we heard Sir Samuel coo to
her, and dared not meet each other's eyes.

The road, from which we ought never to have strayed, was splendid in
engineering and surface, and we winged down to earth in a flight from
the clouds. Ice and snow were left behind on the heights, and the Aigle
gaily careered down the slopes like a wild thing