"What! No Cowes?"

"We wouldn't give a day on the car for a cycle of Cowes."

And so the plan of my consolation tour was settled, in the supreme
court beyond which there is no appeal. But man can do no more than
propose; and woman--even American woman--cannot invariably "dispose"
to the extent of remaking the whole world of mules and men according
to her whim.

[Illustration]




CHAPTER II

Mercédès to the Rescue

"What is more intellectually exhilarating to the mind, and even
to the senses, than . . . looking down the vista of some great
road . . . and to wonder through what strange places, by what
towns and castles, by what rivers and streams, by what mountains
and valleys it will take him ere he reaches his destination?"--_The
Spectator_.


That Locker should have come in at the moment when I was trying on my
new automobile get-up was more than a pin-prick to my already ruffled