axi, an antediluvian one,
but she must not be critical. If a chariot offered one a lift out of
hell, one would not stop to inquire its horse-power. The apache helped
her in and closed the door. She turned grateful eyes on him through
the open window and with an expressive gesture showed him she had no
purse.

"_Pas de quoi, mademoiselle,_" he responded gruffly, and her opinion of
the French rose several points.

The chauffeur, a septuagenarian who smelled of wine, had a bulbous nose
and was so deaf that it took her several seconds to make him understand
where she wanted to go. When finally he grasped the address, he tapped
his most conspicuous feature with a horny finger, and, his engine
having by this time stopped, descended with creaks and groans to crank
it up. He was so long over the operation that she began to be alarmed.
However, he was not drunk, only senile. Of the two, his taxi was far
worse--rickety, spavined, with every evidence of decrepitude. It
started with a jerk which threw its occupant off her seat.

"At any rate I'm moving," she told herself with real relief. "I'm
getting there at last. That's something."

Any sort of motion might be better than none, yet when she realised the
pace at which she must crawl she suffered strong misgivings. To jog
along like this when speed was a prime essential! Moreover they did
not always jog, frequently they stopped dead still, while the ancient
driver fumbled with the gear and eventually hit upon something which
sent them forward again with a fresh spasm. It was so completely
maddening that after the fifth attack she could bear it no longer.
Thrusting her head out of the window she shouted shrilly:

"_Vite! Vite! Je suis tres presse! Vite!_"

She regretted her lack of expletives, but she need not have done so.
The sole result, amid mumblings and grumblings, was an abortive spurt
which ended in a breakdown more disastrous than any preceding. Minutes
were lost while the septuagenarian got down for another cranking up,
and then in the old fashion they chugged on again. At this rate it
would take them more than half an hour to reach the villa, during which
time anything might happen--would happen, in all probability. Still,
she resolved not to risk another exhortation to speed, but to trust to
luck to send another taxi in her way. She had no money to pay for this
one if she abandoned it, but she reflected that she could give the old
man her wrist