She really was a very capable girl, and she was not unfamiliar with motor cars; but the chauffeur doubted.
“I don’t believe I can do it, Miss,” he said. “I’ll sit here——”
Suddenly the car stopped. The engine was still running, but the car did not move.
“Now what’s the matter?” snapped Hester. “Hop out and see, Joseph.”
The man did so and immediately she turned the switch again and the machine darted ahead, leaving the chauffeur in the middle of the road.
“I’ll be back after a little!” she called to him, coolly, over her shoulder, and the next moment rounded a turn safely and shut the amazed and angry chauffeur out of view.
[CHAPTER XIII—THE WIND VEERS]
The car purred along so easily and it was such a delight to manage the wheel without the interference of the chauffeur that Hester did not note the distance she traveled. Nor was she at first aware of the speed. Then she suddenly realized that she had shifted the gear to the highest speed forward, and that a picket fence she passed was merely a blur along the roadside.
But this was a road on which there were few houses, and most of them were back in the fields, in the middle of the farms that bordered the pike.
“This will never do,” thought Hester, and she began to manipulate the levers and finally brought the car to a stop. The roadway was narrow and she would have to back to turn. But this was one of the very things she desired to learn how to do; and that officious Joseph was always fussing when he was beside her.