'Ah, here you are!' said Captain Le Mesurier. 'Now we're ready. Drake, you are coming back with us?'
Drake hesitated.
'You said you would at the Town Hall. So I have had your bag packed, and put in the waggonette.'
'Very well,' he assented; and the party went outside the hotel.
'Now, how shall we go?' asked the Captain. 'Mallinson, you of course in the waggonette,' and he chuckled with a cheery maliciousness. 'Clarice, will you get in?'
'No!' she said with an involuntary vehemence. The idea of driving back wedged in amongst a number of people, listening to their chatter, and forced to take her share in it, became suddenly repugnant to her. 'I would rather drive in the trap, if I might.'
'Very well! But who is to drive you?' Captain Le Mesurier turned to
Drake. 'You can drive, of course.'
Drake replied absently. 'I have driven the coach from Johannesburg to Pretoria, ten mules and a couple of ponies, and a man beside you swinging a sixty-foot lash.'
Captain Le Mesurier laughed out. 'Then there'll be no upset to-night.
Come along.'
The guests took their seats, while Drake stood on the pavement.