They had accomplished nearly half the distance when a sudden jerk, more violent then any preceding, nearly threw the carriage over on its side. The coachman swore and stopped the horses. He and the footman both dismounted from the box, and then a lively discussion went on between them out in the road.
"What is the matter?" asked Eugénie, leaning forward uneasily.
Arthur, for his part, did not seem much to care what was the matter. He would no doubt have quietly waited until some announcement on the subject had been made to him, but he felt himself called on now to let down the window and to repeat his wife's question.
"Don't be alarmed, sir," said the coachman, stepping up to the door with the reins in his hand. "We have had a very lucky escape, we were within a hair of upsetting. Something must have snapped in the hind-wheel. Frank has gone to see what it is."
The report, which Frank brought back after due examination, was not precisely of a consoling nature. The wheel was so much injured that it was clearly impossible to move the carriage on even a hundred paces in that state. Both the men looked at their master helplessly.
"I am afraid, under these circumstances, we must give up the intended visits," said Arthur coolly, turning to his wife. "By the time Frank has gone back to the house and brought us back another carriage it will be too late to drive as far as the town."
"I am afraid so too. There is nothing to be done then but to get out and turn back."
"Get out?" said Arthur in amazement "Do you think of going back on foot?"
"Do you think of sitting in this carriage until Frank has returned with another?"
Arthur appeared to have entertained the idea; he would probably have preferred to wait two hours, stretched in his comfortable corner where he was sheltered from wind and weather, than to undertake a pedestrian tour through the cold wet woods. Eugénie noticed this, and her lips curled disdainfully.