u wouldn't have stayed if it hadn't been for me.
And now, _this!_"

"It cost only a few francs," he tried to reassure me. "We'll sell it
again--afterward, if that will make you happier. But sufficient for the
day is the rug thereof--at least, I hope it will be. And don't flaunt
it, for if her ladyship sees there's an extra rug of any sort on board
she'll be clamouring for it by and by."

Northward we started, in the teeth of the wind, which made mine chatter
until I began to tingle with the rush of ozone, which always goes to my
head like champagne. Our road was a mere white thread winding loosely
through a sinuous valley, and pulled taut as it rose nearer and nearer
to the cold, high level of _les Causses_, the roof of that gnome-land
where we had journeyed together yesterday. From snow-covered billows
which should have been sprayed with mountain wild-flowers by now, a
fierce blast pounced down on us like a swooping bird of prey. We felt
the swift whirr of its wings, which almost took our breath away, and
made the Aigle quiver; but like a bull that meets its enemy with lowered
horns, the brave car's bonnet seemed to defy the wind and face it
squarely. We swept on toward the snow-reaches whence the wind-torrent
came. Soon we were on the flat plateau of the Causse, where last year's
faded grass was frosted white, and a torn winding-sheet wrapped the
limbs of a dead world. There was no beauty in this death, save the wild
beauty of desolation, and a grandeur inseparable from heights. Before us
grouped the mountains of Auvergne, hoary headed; and looking down we
could see the twistings of the road we had travelled, whirling away and
away, like the blown tail of a kite trailed over mountain and foothill.

"The people at Millau told me I should get up to St. Flour all right, in
spite of the fall of snow," said the chauffeur, his eyes on the great
white waves that piled themselves against a blue-white sky, "but I begin
to think there's trouble before us, and I don't know whether I ought to
have persisted in bringing you."

"Persisted!" I echoed, defending him against himself. "Why, do you
suppose wild horses would have dragged Lady Turnour in any other
direction, now that she's actually invited to be the guest of a marquis
in a real live castle?"

"A railway train could very well have dragged her in the same direction
and got her to the castle as soon, if not a good deal sooner than she's
likely to get in this car, if we