"Oh, you're given to wandering, are you? Don't you think I'd better take you home in the motor?"
"And Thor?" Paul asked anxiously. "He mustn't run with it. Motors go too fast for dogs. Father says so."
"And Thor," said the man. "He can come inside with us."
They had coffee, which pleased Paul greatly, and he confided to his friend that he had never had a cup all to himself before, only the sugar at the bottom of other people's cups if he could get at them before they were cleared away.
Motors were something of a novelty then, and Paul thought it very exciting to go in one. Thor was suspicious and refused to go in before his master, but followed him obediently when Paul got in first.
"We can't have a motor," he remarked, as they slid down the drive, "it would break Button's heart, father says, and we're very fond of horses, though I like the dogs best myself. Did your coachman mind very much?"
"My coachman got so frail and ill he couldn't drive any more, and it would have broken his heart to have any one else drive his horses, so I had to get a motor, because I'm such a long way from the station. He didn't mind that so much."
"It's the same reason really," said Paul. "Did he get better?"
"He'll never be any better, but I think he's pretty comfortable."
Paul was certain he was.