mistress of our fate. "I never was in such a
dreary, God-forsaken waste! Are there no decent hotels to get at?"

Patiently he explained to her, as he had to me, how the better hotels
which the Gorge of the Tarn could boast were not yet open for the
summer. "If we had not had such a chapter of accidents we should have
run through as far as this early in the day, and could then have
followed the good motoring road down the gorge, seeing its best sights
almost as well as from the river; but--"

"Whose fault were the accidents, I should like to know?" demanded the
lady. But obviously there was no answer to that question from a servant
to a mistress.

"Shall I inquire about rooms?" the chauffeur asked, calmly.

And it ended in Sir Samuel going in with him, conducted by a smiling and
somewhat excited young person who had been holding open the door.

They must have been absent for ten minutes, which seemed half an hour.
Then, when Lady Turnour had begun muttering to herself that she was
freezing, Sir Samuel bustled back, in a cheerfulness put on awkwardly,
like an ill-fitting suit of armour in a pageant.

"My dear, they're very full, but two French gentlemen were kind enough
to give up their room to us, and the landlady'll put them out
somewhere--"

"What, you and I both squashed into one room!" exclaimed her ladyship,
forgetful, in haughty horror, of her lodging-house background.

"But it's all they have. It's that or the motor, since you won't risk--"

"Oh, very well, then, I suppose it can't _kill_ me!" groaned the bride,
stepping out of the car as if from tumbril to scaffold.

What a way to take an adorable adventure! I was sorry for Sir Samuel,
but dimly I felt that I ought to be still sorrier for a woman
temperamentally unable to enjoy anything as it ought to be enjoyed. Next
year, maybe, she will look back on the experience and tell her friends
that it was "fun"; but oh, the pity of it, not to gather the flowers of
the Present, to let them wither, and never pluck them till they are
dried wrecks of the Past!

I was ready to dance for joy as I followed her ladyship into the
miniature hall which, if not quite so alluring when viewed from the
inside, had a friendly, welcoming air after the dark mountains and cold
white moonlight. I didn't know yet what arrangements had been made for
my stable accommodation, if any, but I felt that I shouldn't weep if I
had to sit up all night in a warm kitchen with a purry cat