hour habit. I'm going to exchange the speedometer for a vacuum bottle."

He smiled. "I don't think you're fair to yourself. Mostly--if you'll
forgive me--I can tell a woman's driving as far off as I can see the
machine; but you are a very fine driver. The way you brought that car
in here impressed me considerably."

"She need not pretend she crawls along the road," I said with some
sarcasm. "The bills she complains of are mostly fines for speeding."

"No!" said the young man, delighted. "Good! I'm glad to hear it. So are
mine!"

After that we got along famously. He had his car there--a low gray thing
that looked like an armored cruiser.

"I'd like you ladies to try her," he said. "She can move, but she is as
gentle as a lamb. A lady friend of mine once threaded a needle as an
experiment while going sixty-five miles an hour."

"In this car?"

"In this car."

Looking back, I do not recall just how the thing started. I believe Tish
expressed a desire to see the car go, and Mr. Ellis said he couldn't let
her out on the roads, but that the race-track at the fair-ground was
open and if we cared to drive down there in Tish's car he would show us
her paces, as he called it.