“It was a silly trifle, and I know I am a fool—but it made me hot—what you said about good milliners not associating with good people in this world. Emma Gainsborough is giving her life to God’s work as readily as the saints gave theirs—she’s a Crusader if you like—and you make paltry fun of her hat. There now! I suppose you won’t speak to me again.”
“Yes, I shall,” said Evangeline. “If you will not shut yourself up into that dreadful silence you may say anything—absolutely anything. You make me see such a long way when you talk. I read the papers by myself and get into such knots because I can’t see any connection between different things. But when you hurl me about from Emma’s hat to the Crusaders, who I thought were people who fought in nightgowns and red crosses with a feather in their helmets and defeated the heathen—why—let me see, where am I?—well you see how exhilarating it is! I feel as if my mind had been galloping miles in the fresh air in new places.”
“Great heavens, what a child you are!” he said, looking at her in wonderment. Then he smiled and held out his hand. “I’m sorry,” he said.
Evangeline shook it heartily. “So am I,” she assured him. “And will you show me how to take the car to pieces next time Father lets you off?”
“Nonsense, he won’t want it taken to pieces,” said Evan. “What’s the good of that?”
“Just to see the wheels,” she begged. “And then I should be so useful if anything went wrong.”
“No, you haven’t got any mechanical sense,” he argued. “I can see that. You understand a theory when I tell it you, but when it comes to putting it into practice you don’t think a bit. I’ve watched you learning to drive; you do it all by the book.”
“Well, what should I do it by?” she asked.
“Common sense and a thorough knowledge of the reason for everything. The fact that any part of a machine does so-and-so isn’t enough; you must know why, and what will be the result if it doesn’t act, and then you must treat it so that it will act.”
“Oh, dear,” she said. “There’s the sun coming out! Let’s gallop while there is grass.”