"It's all right, Patty," said Rosamond, in a quiet voice, for she knew that the greatest danger that threatened Patty was her own over-excitement. "You're all right, Patty; keep on just as you are; be careful of this down grade, and you can easily take the next hill."
"Good for you, Rosamond," said Patty, with a really natural laugh; "you're a brick! My nerves ARE strained, but I won't think of that, I'll think only of my car. Oh Rosamond, if only the road isn't bad in any place!"
"It isn't, Patty, the road is perfect. Steady, now, dear, there's a motor coming, but you can easily pass it. Don't you reverse or something?"
"Keep still, Rosamond, do keep still! I know what to do!"
Rosamond kept still.
On they flew, the wind in their faces cutting like a cold blast; their hair became loosened as it streamed back from their foreheads.
It was the excitement of danger, and 'way down in their hearts both girls were enjoying it, though they did not realise it at the moment. What the statuesque groom who sat up behind felt, nobody will ever know. He kept his head up straight, and his arms folded, and his face showed a brave do-or-die expression, though there was nobody to notice it.
"Oh, Rosamond," Patty went on, still in that breathless, gasping voice, "if I only knew what time it was. There's no use whizzing at this break-neck speed if we're not going to make the train after all! If I thought it would be of any use I'd coast down this hill, but why should we kill ourselves if we don't accomplish our object?"
"Patty, don't be a goose!" and again Rosamond's cool, common-sense tones acted as a dash of cold water on Patty's overstrung nerves. "I'll tell you what time it is. You keep right on with your knitting, and I can get out my watch as easily as anything, and the next time we pass a light I'll inform you the hour."
Reassured by Rosamond's sense and nonsense, Patty drove steadily on.