ns of a long and useless
struggle with an engine; but he was too well bred to smile. He also
noticed that the girl was pretty, slight of figure, and fair, with
twinkling eyes.

This consoled him a little. Succouring a stranger in distress on a
lonely road towards the close of a winter afternoon is not pleasant, but
it is distinctly less unpleasant if the stranger is a pretty girl.

"Do you know anything about motors?" said the girl.

To Geoffrey the question was almost insulting. He was a young man who
particularly prided himself on his knowledge of mechanics and his skill
in dealing with engines. Also the girl spoke abruptly, not at all in the
manner of a helpless damsel seeking charitable assistance. But Geoffrey
was a good-humoured young man and the girl was very pretty indeed. He
was prepared to make allowances for a little petulance. No temper is
exactly sunny after a struggle with a refractory engine.

"I ought to know something about motors," he said. "I'm driving one."

He looked round as he spoke at his own large and handsome car. The
girl's car in comparison, was insignificant.

"It doesn't in the least follow that you know anything about it," said
the girl. "I was driving that one." She pointed to the car in the middle
of the road. "And I haven't the remotest idea what's wrong."

This time Geoffrey felt that the girl, though pretty, deserved a snub.
He was prepared to help her, at some personal inconvenience, but he felt
that he had a right to expect politeness in return.

"I don't think you ought to have drawn up right in the middle of the
road," he said. "It's beginning to get dark and if anything came down
the road at all fast there'd be an accident."

"I didn't draw up in the middle of the road," said the girl.

Geoffrey looked at her car. It was in the middle, the very middle of the
road.

"I didn't draw up at all," said the girl. "The beastly thing just
stopped there itself. But I don't mind telling you that if I could, I'd
have turned the car across the road so as to block the way altogether.
I'd rather there wasn't any room to pass. I wanted anyone who came along
to stop and help me."

Geoffrey remained polite, which was very much to his credit

"I see she's a Ford," he said, "and Fords are a bit hard to start
sometimes, especially in cold weather. I'll have a try."

He went to the front of the car and seized the crank handle. He swung
it, jerked, it, pulled at it with his full strengt