sed her two servants without expending a look on them.
Sir Samuel followed, telling his chauffeur to have the automobile ready
at the door again in an hour and a quarter; and we two Worms were left
to our own resources.

"I shan't garage her," said my fellow Worm of the car. "I'll just drive
her out of the way, where I can look over her a bit when I've snatched
something to eat. I'll take the fur rugs inside--you're not to bother,
they're big enough to swamp you entirely. And then you--"

"Yes, then I--" I repeated desolately. "What is to become of me?"

"Why, you're to have your lunch, of course," he replied. "I thought you
said you were hungry."

"So I am, starving. But--"

"Well?"

"Aren't you going to have a proper lunch?"

"A sandwich and a piece of cheese will do for me, because there are one
or two little things to tinker up on the car, and an hour and a quarter
isn't long. I think I shall bring my grub out of doors, and--But is
anything the matter?"

"I can't go in and have lunch alone. I simply can't," I confessed to the
young man whose society I had intended to avoid like a pestilence. "You
see, I--I never--this is the first time."

A look of comprehension flashed over his face.

"Yes, I see," he said. "Of course, the moment I heard your voice I
realized that this wasn't your sort of work, but I didn't know you were
quite so new to it as all that. You've never taken a meal in the
couriers' room of an hotel?"

"No," I confessed. "At the Majestic Palace Lady Kil--that is, I decided
to have everything brought up to my room, there."

"By Jove, we are a strange pair! This is my first job, too, and so far
I've been able to feed where I chose; but that's too good to last on
tour. One must accommodate oneself to circumstances, and a man easily
can. But you--I know how you feel. However, it's the first step that
costs. Do you mind much?"

"It's the stepping in alone that costs the most," I said.

"Well, I'm only too delighted if I can be of the least use. Let the car
rip! I'll see to her afterward. Now I'm going to take care of you. You
need it more than she does."

What would Lady Kilmarny have said if she had heard my deliberate
encouragement of the chauffeur, and his reckless response? What would
she have thought if she could have seen us walking into the couriers'
dining-room, side by side, as if we had been friends for as many years
as we'd really been acquaintances for minutes, leaving the car