"What is it?"
"Will you lend me the carriage for an hour or so to-morrow morning? It's to go to Purford."
"To Purford! Why that's where I have just been. I dare say you may have it. I will ask my father."
"But that is just what I don't want you to ask. I have to go there on a little private business of my own, and I don't wish it known that I have gone."
William hesitated. Only son, and indulged son though he was, he had never gone the length of lending out his father's carriage without permission; and he very much disliked the idea of doing so now. Robert Carr did not give him much time for consideration.
"You will be rendering me a service which I shan't forget, Arkell. If Philip will drive me over——"
"Philip! Do you want Philip with you?"
"Philip must go to bring back the carriage; I shan't return until the afternoon. Why, he will be there and home again almost before Mr. Arkell's up. I must go pretty early."
This, the going of Philip, appeared to simplify the matter greatly. To allow Robert Carr or anyone else to take the carriage off for a day without permission was one thing; for Philip to drive him to Purford early in the morning, and be back again directly, was another. "I think you may have it, Carr," he said; "but if my father misses the carriage and Philip—as he is sure to do—and asks where they are——"
"Oh, you may tell him then," interrupted Robert Carr.