Mr Rayner stood immediately behind, but his "Please go on!" showed that he understood her hesitation, and was annoyed at the suggestion of help. She seated herself, therefore, and tried in vain to look at ease while he followed. For two or three steps he managed to support himself on his crutches with marvellous agility; on the fourth they slipped, and if he had not been seized from behind by Mr Bertrand and pulled forward by Hilary's outstretched hand, he must have had a serious fall. Hilary literally dare not look at his face for the first ten minutes of the drive, for with an instinctive understanding of another person's feeling which was a new experience to this self-engrossed little lady, she realised that he was smarting beneath the consciousness of having made himself an object of general commiseration. Whatever happened, he must not think that she was pitying him. She racked her brain to think of something to say--some amusing stories to tell. "I wish we were going on a coach instead of a char-a-banc. I love to see the drivers in their white hats and red coats, and to hear the horns blowing. There is something so cheerful about a horn! We are getting to know all the drivers quite well now. I say `getting to know,' because it takes quite three years to know a North-countryman. They are so terribly reserved! Last year I was on the box seat of a coach sitting next to the driver whom we knew best of all. There were some American ladies behind who kept worrying him with questions all the while. `Driver, will you show us Wordsworth's house?' `Driver, you won't forget Wordsworth's house?' `Driver, hev you passed by Wordsworth's house?' He just sat like a statue and took no notice whatever. Poor man! I wonder how many thousand times he has been asked those questions! One of the horses had bandages round his front leg, and at last I said--I believe I was trying to show off a little bit, you know, just to let them see how polite he would be with me--I said, `Oh, Robert, why has the off leader got gaiters on to-day?' His face was just as blank as if I had never spoken. We drove along in silence for about ten minutes, while I got hotter and hotter. Then he cleared his throat deliberately, and said, `Well, in the first place--he needs 'em! and in the second place--he likes 'em! and in the third place--he can't do without 'em!' I felt so small!" A forced "Humph!" being the only reception which the story received, Hilary braced herself to fresh efforts. Two or three experiences of North-country manners were suggested by the last; she related them in her liveliest manner, and even forced herself to laugh merrily at the conclusion. "So funny, wasn't it? Don't you think it was good?" The char-a-banc had now reached Bowness, and, for the first time, she ventured a glance into her companion's face. He met her eyes and smiled, the slow, sweet smile that transformed his expression.