"Not at all, I think," said Desire.
Men, even clever men, are like that. The professor had seen no possible sting in his idly spoken words. But the sore, hot spot, which now seemed ever present in Desire's heart, grew sorer and hotter. To owe a car to the reminder of another woman! Naturally, Desire could do very well without it.
"But don't you miss a car terribly?" asked Mary with kind concern.
"I cannot miss what I have never had."
"Oh, in the west, I suppose one does have horses still."
"There may be a few left, I think." Desire's slow smile crept out as memory brought the asthmatic "chug" of the "Tillicum." "My father and I used a launch almost exclusively." In spite of herself she could not resist a glance at the professor. His eyes met hers with a ghost of their old twinkle.
"A launch?" Mary's surprise was patent. "Did you run it yourself?"
"We had a Chinese engineer," said Desire demurely. "But I could manage it if necessary."
Further conversation upon modes of locomotion on the coast was cut off by the precipitate arrival of John who, coming up the drive in his best manner, narrowly escaped a triple fatality at the steps.
"You people are careless!" he exclaimed indignantly. "What do you mean by standing on the drive? Some-one might have been hurt! Anyone here like to get driven to the garden party?"