Tietjens addressed Miss Wannop:
"What hands your mother's got," he said, "it isn't often one sees a woman with hands like that on a horse's mouth. . . . Did you see how she pulled up? . . ."
He was aware that, all this while, from the road-side, the girl had been watching him with shining eyes: intently even: with fascination.
"I suppose you think that a mighty fine performance," she said.
"I didn't make a very good job of the girth," he said. "Let's get off this road."
"Setting poor, weak women in their places," Miss Wannop continued. "Soothing the horse like a man with a charm. I suppose you soothe women like that too. I pity your wife. . . . The English country male! And making a devoted vassal at sight of the handy man. The feudal system all complete. . . ."
Tietjens said:
"Well, you know, it'll make him all the better servant to you if he thinks you've friends in the know. The lower classes are like that. Let's get off this road."
She said:
"You're in a mighty hurry to get behind the hedge. Are the police after us or aren't they? Perhaps you were lying at breakfast: to calm the hysterical nerves of a weak woman."