uess the
machine don't."

"Hateful little beast!" exclaimed Angela.

"Who, me or the Model?" Sealman wanted to know.

"I meant the--_alleged_--Model. She's a fraud--a horror. If only I
get--somewhere--I don't care where--I'll never come out with you again,
never, never!"

"You're engaged to me till the end of the month," said Sealman as firmly
as if he alluded to a promise of marriage. "I've refused two other
gentlemen. If you don't use the machine, you'll pay, anyhow."

Angela would have given much if she had brought Kate. To be alone with
these two monsters in an uninhabited world under a blazing sun,
passionately hungry and futilely angry, was a dull adventure.

"You know perfectly well I engaged you only for three or four days," she
said. "That settles it! You shall not cheat me. And since you don't seem
to know what's to become of you or your car for the rest of the day, I
shall decide on my own movements. I'm going to walk."

She sprang out; and Nick, awaiting developments at a safe distance of a
hundred yards in the background, saw a slim gray figure separate itself
from the motionless Model.

"Now's my time, I reckon," he said to himself, and started the car, which
could be done from the chauffeur's seat. He drove at low speed, as if he
were out to enjoy the scenery, and slowed down gently beside Angela, who
was walking in the direction of Riverside. At that rate she might have
reached the nearest railway station in an hour and a half.

Nick's goggles and chauffeur's hat were off. "Why, how do you do, Mrs.
May?" he asked, in his pleasant voice. "Your machine's broke down for good
this time, I'm afraid. Now do let me give you a lift."

"Mr. Hilliard!" cried Angela, taken completely by surprise, as she looked
up from under her sunshade. "Where are you going?"

"I've no particular choice," said Nick. "I'm only in this part of the
country because this part of the country happens to be here. I'd be just
as pleased if 'twas anywhere else. Where are _you_ going?"

Angela began to laugh, and could not stop laughing. Nick, seeing this, and
seeing that she looked a schoolgirl of sixteen in her little motor-bonnet,
ventured to laugh too.

"I was taking to the desert," she said. "But I _wanted_ to go to
Riverside. Is--is this the same old story?"

She could not put her meaning more plainly, because of Mr. Hilliard's
chauffeur; but Nick understood. "I've been learnin' to drive, the last
few days," he said. "