The grays were very fresh, but the Earl gave no sign that the task of controlling them was imposing too great a strain upon his injured shoulder. As the curricle bowled along the avenue, Mr. Leek ventured to enquire what was their destination.
“I am going to Evesleigh, to visit my cousin,” replied the Earl.
Mr. Leek stroked his chin. “Well, now, is that so?” he said. “Evesleigh! Ah! Unless I’m mistook, which don’t often happen, that’s all of ten miles, guv’nor. Done to a cow’s thumb, that’s what you’ll be!”
“Oh, no!” the Earl said calmly.
Mr. Leek relapsed into silence, which remained unbroken until the grays turned into a narrow lane, when he was moved to point out to the Earl that this was not, according to his information, the road to Evesleigh.
“Not the most direct road to Evesleigh,” the Earl corrected.
“O’course I ain’t what you might call familiar with these parts,” said Mr. Leek. “I’m bound to say, however, that it queers me why a cove — why a gentleman as come as near to slipping his wind as what you done, me lord, should take and drive down a lane which is as rough as this here lane.”
“Why, I have a reason for doing so!” said the Earl amiably.
Mr. Leek, himself far from enjoying the rough surface, said severely: “Nice set-out it’ll be if that hole you’ve got in you was to open again, me lord! Asking your pardon, it’ll be bellows to mend with you, if the claret starts to flow.”
But the Earl only smiled. Through what seemed to his companion a network of country lanes he drove his horses, never seeming to be at a loss for the way. Mr. Leek said grudgingly that he must know the countryside very well to be able to take such a roundabout way to his destination. “I do,” the Earl replied. “I have lately ridden over every inch of this ground. One never knows when familiarity with the country will stand one in good stead.” He began to check his horses as he spoke, and as the curricle rounded a bend in what was little more than a cart-track Mr. Leek perceived that a farm-gate blocked the way. Knowing well who would have to climb down from the curricle to open this gate (and possibly several more gates), he cast an unloving look at the Earl’s profile.