"Well, I mean to try it before long," said the Colonel. "One has to take to the infernal things in self-defence—what? I shall probably come down on you, now you've taken to making cars yourself. Sir Herbert Temple tells me they're excellent."
Nancy clapped her hands.
"Oh, Father, that will be delightful!" she said. "And can't you get Mr. Leslie to come and drive us?"
Leslie bit his lip to stop himself from smiling.
"My dear child," said the Colonel, "Mr. Leslie is much too busy a man for that sort of thing. It's very good of him to come to-day."
"I suppose the motor-car business is a very thriving industry," hazarded Mrs. Peyton vaguely. "Do you make them yourself, Mr. Leslie?"
"With a little assistance," answered Leslie. "It's rather complicated work, you know."
"It must be," said Mrs. Peyton sympathetically. "The tyres alone, for instance. I can't think how you cut all those funny patterns on the rubber. What a perfect day for a picnic, isn't it?"
Having taken this abrupt æsthetic turn, the conversation wandered away into general channels, until by a natural process it drifted back to the immediate surroundings of the party.
"I want to see the church," said Nancy, throwing a little sidelong glance at Leslie. "I believe it's most awfully interesting. Cardinal Wolsey did something or other in it."