her saying farewell to some hotel acquaintances she had scraped up, and
went out to put her ladyship's rugs into the car.

I had not seen it yet, nor the dreaded chauffeur, my galley-companion;
but as the front door opened, _voilà_ both; the car drawn up at the
hotel entrance, the chauffeur dangling from its roof.

Never did I see anything in the way of an automobile so large, so azure,
so magnificent, so shiny as to varnish, so dazzling as to brass and
crystal.

Perhaps the windows aren't really crystal, but they were all bevelly and
glittering in the sunshine, and seemed to run round the car from back to
front, giving the effect of a Cinderella Coach fitted on to a motor.
Never was paint so blue, never was crest on carriage panel so large and
so like a vague, over-ripe tomato. Never was a chauffeur so long, so
slim, so smart, so leathery.

He was dangling not because he fancied himself as a tassel, but because
he was teaching some last piece of luggage to know its place on the roof
it was shaped to fit.

"Thank goodness, at least he's not fat, and won't take up much room," I
thought, as I stood looking at the back of his black head.

Then he jumped down, and turned round. We gave each other a glance, and
he could not help knowing that I must be her ladyship's maid, by the way
I was loaded with rugs, like a beast of burden. Of my face he could see
little, as I had on a thick motor-veil with a small triangular talc
window, which Lady Kilmarny had given me as a present when I bade her