“There is no lovelier garden in England than at Wells Palace.”


CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I.The Hired Car[1]
II.The First Day’s Run[23]
III.Some Emotions—without a Moral[47]
IV.Shadows—with Occasional Gleams[72]
V.A Flurry on the Mendips[94]
VI.A Midsummer Night’s Vagaries[119]
VII.Wherein Cynthia Takes Her Own Line[143]
VIII.Breakers Ahead[167]
IX.On the Wye[191]
X.The Hidden Founts of Evil[216]
XI.The Parting of the Ways[239]
XII.Masques, Ancient and Modern[260]
XIII.Wherein Wrath Beguiles Good Judgment[283]
XIV.—And Good Judgment Yields To Folly[307]
XV.The Outcome[324]
XVI.The End of One Tour: the Beginning
Of Another
[344]

CYNTHIA’S CHAUFFEUR

CHAPTER I

THE HIRED CAR

Derby Day fell that year on the first Wednesday in June. By a whim of the British climate, the weather was fine; in fact, no rain had fallen on southern England since the previous Sunday. Wise after the event, the newspapers published cheerful “forecasts,” and certain daring “experts” discussed the probabilities of a heat wave. So London, on that bright Wednesday morning, was agog with excitement over its annual holiday; and at such a time London is the gayest and liveliest city in the world.