see her new car? And, of course, Miss Hardy, went out, and Mr.
Hardy went out, and my, aunt went out, and the five guests that
were staying with us went out, and the servants went out--and you
never saw such a mix-up in all your life, nor such excitement and
hurrah-boys generally. For papa was ordering it off the place,
and I was explaining about Great Western Preferred, and my aunt
was trying to make us listen about a friend who had been burned
to death with a gasoline stove, and the guests were taking my
part and fighting for the first ride, and the expert was showing
off the double vertical cylinders, and explaining splash
lubrication to the butler, whom he must have mistaken for papa,
and--

"When it had settled down a bit and the battle-smoke drifted away
and showed who had won--which was me, naturally--and I had
promised aunt to be, oh, so careful, and papa that I'd cross my
heart never to go into stocks again, and rides, of course, to the
guests, and everything to everybody--then they all went back to
breakfast while I had mine brought out on the veranda--mine and
the expert's--and I guess I talked four speeds ahead while he ate
his on the low gear--for he had come ninety miles and wasn't much
of a talker at any time--and I just sat there and gloated over my
Manton.

"We had a perfectly delirious week together--the expert and I
--for the Manton turned out perfectly splendid and everything they
said it was, except for the rear tires blowing up three times,
and a short circuit in the coil owing to a faulty condenser; and
though it was all I could do to hold it down on the low speeds,
you ought to have seen me on the forty-mile clip--till they said