Then, as though to punish Jack, Mlle. Nadiboff asked:

"You will hand me into the car, Mr. Hastings?"

Hal did so, taking the seat beside her in the tonneau. Jack Benson,
suppressing a twinkle that struggled to his eyes, closed the tonneau
door, then stepped in on the front seat beside the chauffeur.

Despite her own cleverness, the young woman gave a slight gasp of
astonishment over this swift arrangement.

"Decidedly, my young captain is not wholly, a fool," she told herself.
"When I seek to snub him, he puts it past my power. However, it may
be that this young engineer will be better suited to my purpose. I will
study him."

"Toot! toot!" The Farnum auto, getting away first, went past them,
sounding its whistle while Mr. Farnum and Eph lifted their hats.

"Our gallant friend, the captain, must feel out of conceit with me,"
laughed Mlle. Nadiboff to Hal. "He prefers the chauffeur's company to
mine. So we must console ourselves."

Though he had not been able to hear any of the conversation, M. Lemaire,
looking out from behind the lace curtains of a parlor window, had seen
what had happened.

"Sara is doing better this morning," he muttered to himself. "Though
why should she take two of the young men with her? Ah, I see that she
has the engineer at her side, while young Benson rides on the front