Supper was already prepared for such passengers as were going to sleep
in the hotel; but Ralph was too sleepy to want to eat, and had made a
good meal when the coach stopped at six o'clock for twenty minutes to
allow the passengers time for refreshments. At eight o'clock next
morning he breakfasted. When he had finished the waiter told him that
the trap had arrived a few minutes before, and that the horse had been
taken out to have a feed, but would be ready to start by nine. Ralph
took a stroll for half an hour by the sea and then returned. The trap
was at the door, and his trunk had already been placed in it. The
driver, a man of twenty-three or twenty-four, was, as he presently
told Ralph, stable-helper at Penfold Hall.

"I generally drive this trap when it is wanted," he said. "The
coachman is pretty old now. He has been in the family well-nigh fifty
years. He is all right behind the carriage-horses, he says, but he
does not like trusting himself in a pair-wheel trap."

"How far is it?"

"A matter of fifteen miles. It would be a lot shorter if you had got
off last night at the nearest point the coach goes to; but the master
told the coachman that he thought it would be pleasanter for you to
come on here than to arrive there tired and sleepy after dark."

"Yes, it will much more pleasant," Ralph said. "The road was very
dirty, and I should not like to arrive at a strange house with my
clothes all covered with dust, and so sleepy that I could hardly keep
my eyes open, especially as I hear that Mr. Penfold's sisters are
rather particular."