Americans -- England -- Fiction; England -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction
It was now beginning to get dark. Johnson drew up suddenly, and
declared that he must have taken the wrong road. There were no
sign-posts anywhere, and it had begun to rain heavily. We were
standing just at the foot of a steep hill where the road lay through a
thick wood. Above us was a tower of rock,--another 'tor,' I suppose,
if not a 'monolith.'
Johnson proposed to drive the machine on into the wood, and leave us
under shelter whilst he went to a cottage that we saw farther up, to
inquire about the road. This I decidedly objected to. Mrs. Pomeroy and
Cecilia seemed to think me foolish, and could not understand my being
afraid.
'But,' I said, 'I have good reason to refuse to enter that wood.
Indeed it will not be safe for Johnson to leave us there alone: I
recognise the place perfectly. In one of the books by that Mr.
Phillpotts, who, you have all told me, is most accurate in his
descriptions, I read about this place, and he said, 'The Wolf suckled
her young there yesterday.' Yes, Cecilia, laugh if you like; those
were the very words, and I examined the date of the publication, which
was not a year ago. _Yesterday_ was the word used.'
'Then the cubs will still be too small to attack us,' observed
Cecilia, who has no tact and is constantly trying to be facetious when
she should be endeavouring to allay my nervous terrors.
'He would be meaning foxes, ma'am,' said Johnson, who had been
listening whilst fright compelled me to quote the exact expression I
had read.
'It is possible that he meant foxes, Johnson,' allowed I, 'but three
ladies alone in a motor, in the dark, attacked even by wild foxes,
would be in some danger; so I hope that you will drive on directly,
and get us out of this horrid place as soon as possible.'
They tried to smooth over the situation, but I would listen to none of
them, and Johnson at last drove on. Half-way up the hill the motor
stuck. Something had gone wrong with it inside, and I felt that we
might stay there in the wilderness all night, which would have been
impossible, as I had taken very few remedies of any kind with me, and
cannot sleep sitting up. These stoppages occurred several times. How
we at length got home I scarcely remember. My velvet mantle was like a
sponge, my feet so cold that it was all I could do to dismount from
the motor when it ground up to the hotel door. There was Sir Archibald
standing smoking as if nothing extraordinary had occurred.
'Why, Mrs. MacGill,' he cried, 'you are even later than we were, and I
thought that blessed pony was going to her own funeral.'
I thought that in spite of his tone he looked rather pale and
agitated; he was of course anxious, and rightly so, about my safety.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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