to let a train go by, and Bertie
availed himself of the opportunity to get out.

"Sir Samuel's going' to let me try my hand at drivin'," said he. "I
don't think much of your form, and I've been tellin' him so. My best pal
is a director of the Aigle company, and I've driven his car a lot of
times. Her ladyship will let Elise sit inside, and I'll watch your style
a bit before I take the wheel."

Not a word said Jack. He didn't even look at me as he helped me down
from the seat which had been mine for so many happy days. I crept
miserably into the stuffy glass cage, where, in the folding chair, I sat
as far forward as my own shape and the car's allowed; Sir Samuel's fat
knees in my back, Lady Turnour's sharp voice in my ears. And for
scenery, I had Bertie's aggressive shoulders and supercilious
gesticulations.

The road to Nevers I scarcely saw. I think it was flat; but Bertie's
driving made it play cup and ball with the car in a curious way, which a
good chauffeur could hardly have managed if he tried. We passed Riom,
Gannat, Aigueperse, I know; and at Moulins, in the valley of the Allier,
we lunched in a hurry. To Nevers we came early, but it was there we were
to stop for the night, and there we did stop, in a drizzle of rain which
prevented sight-seeing for those who had the wish, and the freedom, to
go about. As for me, I was ordered by Lady Turnour to mend Mr. Stokes's
socks, he having made peace by offering to "give her a swagger dinner in
town."

Bertie's cleverness was not confined to ingratiating himself with her
ladyship. He contrived adroitly to damage the steering-gear by grazing a
wall as he turned the Aigle into the hotel courtyard, and by this feat
disposed of the chauffeur's evening, which was spent in hard work at the
garage. Such dinner as Jack got, he ate there, in the shape of a furtive
sandwich or two, otherwise we should not have been able to leave in the
morning at the early hour suggested by Mr. Stokes.

Warned by the incidents of yesterday, Sir Samuel desired his chauffeur
to take the wheel again from Nevers to Paris. But--no doubt with the
view of keeping us apart, and devising new tortures for his
enemy--Bertie elected to play Wolf to Jack's Spartan Boy, and sit beside
him. This relegated me to the cage again, with back-massage from Sir
Samuel's knees.

Before Fontainebleau, I found myself in a familiar land. As far as
Montargis I had motored with the Milvaines more than once, conducted b