“I am not so sure. Sometimes I wonder if the automobile hasn't an uncanny sort of brain itself. Sometimes I wonder how far men can go with the invention of machinery without putting more of themselves into it than they bargain for,” said Alice. Her smooth face did not contract in the least, but was brooding with speculation and thought.
Then the horse stumbled again, and Daisy screamed, and again tapped the window.
“He won't go way down,” said Alice. “I think he is too stiff. Don't worry.”
“There is no stumbling to worry about with an automobile,” said Daisy.
“You couldn't use one on this hill without more risk than you take with a stumbling horse,” replied Alice. Just then a carriage drawn by two fine bays passed them, and there was an interchange of nods.
“There is Mrs. Sturtevant,” said Alice. “She isn't using the automobile to-day.”
“Doctor Sturtevant has had that coachman thirty years, and he doesn't chew, he drives,” said Daisy.
Then they drew up before the house which was their destination, Mrs. George B. Slade's. The house was very small, but perkily pretentious, and they drove under the porte-cochère to alight.
“I heard Mr. Slade had been making a great deal of money in cotton lately,” Daisy whispered, as the carriage stopped behind Mrs. Sturtevant's. “Mr. and Mrs. Slade went to the opera last week. I heard they had taken a box for the season, and Mrs. Slade had a new black velvet gown and a pearl necklace. I think she is almost too old to wear low neck.”
“She is not so very old,” replied Alice. “It is only her white hair that makes her seem so.” Then she extended a rather large but well gloved hand and opened the coupé door, while Jim Fitzgerald sat and chewed and waited, and the two young women got out. Daisy had some trouble in holding up her long skirts. She tugged at them with nervous energy, and told Alice of the twenty-five cents which Fitzgerald would ask for the return trip. She had wished to arrive at the club in fine feather, but had counted on walking home in the dusk, with her best skirts high-kilted, and saving an honest penny.