"Very comfortable, thank you. It's ever so kind of you."
"Glad to do anything for Doctor Burns," King responded, taking his place beside her. "Now shall we go fast or slow?"
"Just as you like, please. I don't feel very ill just now, and this air is so good on my face."
CHAPTER IV
TWO RED HEADS
Jordan King set his own speed in the powerful roadster, reflecting that Miss Linton, to judge from her worn black clothes, was probably not accustomed to motoring and so making the pace a moderate one. Fast or slow, it would not take long to cover the twelve miles over the macadamized road to the hospital in the city, and if it was to be her last bath in the good outdoors for some time, as the doctor had said—King drew a long breath, filling his own sturdy lungs with the balmy yet potent April air, feeling very sorry for the unknown little person by his side.
"Would you rather I didn't talk?" he inquired when a mile or two had been covered in silence.
She lifted her eyes to his, and for the first time he got a good look into them. They were very wonderful eyes, and none the less wonderful because of the fever which made them almost uncannily brilliant between their dark lashes.
"Oh, I wish you would talk, if you don't mind!" she answered—and he noted as he had at first how warmly pleasant were the tones of her voice, which was a bit deeper than one would have expected. "I've heard nobody talk for days—except to say they didn't care to buy my book."