‘Oh, no, I am not Lady Bowmant. I am only one of her visitors. I was driving with her, and she went into a cottage and left me with the carriage, and these two little brutes ran away with me. But how am I to get them home? I dare not take the reins again for my life. How far is it to the Hall?’
‘Oh, the Hall is only round the corner, madam,’ answered Nell; ‘I would help you to lead them, but—’ Here she hesitated, not knowing how to proceed; then, as if a sudden thought had struck her, she stood on tip-toe and looked over the hedge and called loudly, ‘Tom.’
‘Yes, miss,’ replied a hedger coming at her call.
‘Come round here at once and lead these horses up to the Hall for this lady. They are beyond her control.’ Then addressing Nora, she continued—‘You had better get in again, madam, and this man will see you safely to the Hall. You will want to send the carriage back for Lady Bowmant.’
‘Oh, yes, indeed. What will she think of my disappearing in this extraordinary manner? Thank you so much. I don’t know what I should have done without your assistance. But I am so troubled about your arm. I am sure you are horribly hurt,’ said Nora, as she mounted into the dog-cart.
‘Please don’t say anything more about it,’ replied Nell; ‘at the worst it will only be a bruise; you need not be afraid now, madam. This man is rough, but he understands horses, and is very steady.’
And so saying Nell slipped through a break in the hedge and was gone.
Lady Ilfracombe arrived safely at the Hall, and a groom was at once despatched to pick up Lady Bowmant, whom he met half-way between old Farley’s cottage and the house, laughing heartily to herself over the disappearance of her friend and her carriage, having made a shrewd guess that Beau and Belle had taken her home, whether she would or not. The occurrence formed the chief topic of conversation at the luncheon-table, and Nora was full of the beautiful country girl she had met and who had shown so much courage in stopping the runaway cobs.
‘I must make her some little acknowledgment of the service she rendered me, mustn’t I, Ilfracombe?’ she asked her husband. ‘I might have been killed, if it hadn’t been for her, and, or still worse, smashed Lady Bowmant’s pretty trap.’
‘Of course you must, darling,’ replied the earl. ‘We can never repay her for what she did for us.’