He said thoughtfully: "I see."
He said nothing further until the cab drew up outside the main gate of Millstead School. He was going to tell the driver to proceed inside as far as the porch of the Head's house, but she said she would prefer to get out there and walk across the lawns. He smiled and helped her out. As he looked inside the cab again to see if he had left any papers behind he saw that the gaudily-coloured novelette had fallen out of her pocket and on to the floor. He picked it up and handed it to her. "You dropped this," he said merely. She stared at him for several seconds and then took it almost sulkily.
"I suppose I can read what I like, anyway," she exclaimed, in a sudden hot torrent of indignation.
He smiled, completely astonished, yet managed to say, blandly: "I'm sure I never dreamt of suggesting otherwise."
He could see then from her eyes, half-filling with tears of humiliation, that she realised that she had needlessly made a fool of herself.
"Please—please—don't come with me any further," she said, awkwardly. "And thanks—thanks—very much—for—for bringing me back."
He smiled again and raised his hat as she darted away across the wet lawns. Then, after paying the driver, he walked straightway into the school and down into the prefects' bathroom, where he turned on the scalding hot water with jubilant anticipation.
VII
The immediate result of the incident was an invitation to dine at the Head's a few days later. "It was very—um, yes—thoughtful and considerate of you, Mr. Speed," said the Head, mumblingly. "My daughter—a heedless child—just like her to omit the—um—precaution of taking some—um, yes—protection against any possible change in the weather."
"I was rather in the same boat myself, sir," said Speed, laughing. "The thunderstorm was quite unexpected."