“My hair is quite dry,” said Juliet.  “It won’t take me long to put it up.  I should like to come with you very much.”

“I can’t wait,” said Mrs. Fielding plaintively.  “This heat is so fearful—­and the glare!  I will go for a short round, and come back for you if you like.”

“Thank you,” said Juliet.  “I can be ready in five minutes.”

“I should be grilled by that time,” declared Mrs. Fielding.  “Jack, we will go round by the station and back by the church.  It is only three miles.  We can do that easily.  In five minutes then, Miss Moore!”

“Look out for the schoolchildren!” exclaimed Juliet almost involuntarily.  “They are sure to be all over the road.”

“Oh, really!” said Mrs. Fielding, sinking back into the car, as it swooped away.

Juliet and Mrs. Rickett looked at one another.

“That young Jack Green fair riles me,” remarked the latter.  “I can’t abide him.  He’s not a patch on his brother, and never will be.  It’s funny, you know, how members of a family vary.  Now you couldn’t have a more courteous and pleasant spoken gentleman than Dick.  But this Jack, why, he hasn’t even the beginnings of a gentleman in him.”

Juliet’s thoughts were more occupied with Mrs. Fielding at the moment, but she kept them to herself.  “I may be late back, Mrs. Rickett,” she said.  “Let me have a cold lunch when I come in!”

“Oh, dearie me!” said Mrs. Rickett.  “I do hope, miss, as young Jack’ll drive careful when he’s got you in the car.”

Juliet hoped so too as she hastened within to prepare for the expedition.  She did not feel any very keen zest for it, but, as she told Columbus, they need never go again if they didn’t like it.

It was nearly ten minutes before the Fielding car reappeared, and they were both waiting at the garden-gate as it drew up.

“Yes, we were delayed,” said Mrs. Fielding pettishly, “by those little fiends of children.  I do think Mr. Green might teach them to keep to the side of the road.  Pray get in, Miss Moore!  Oh, do you want to bring your dog?”

“He is used to motoring,” said Juliet.  “Do you mind if he sits in front?”

Mrs. Fielding shrugged her shoulders to indicate that if was a matter of supreme indifference to her, and Columbus was duly installed by the driver’s side.  Juliet took her place beside Mrs. Fielding, and in a few seconds they were whirling up the road again, leaving clouds of dust in their wake.

“It’s the only way one can breathe on a day like this,” said Mrs. Fielding.

Juliet said nothing.  She was watching the village children scatter like rabbits before their lightning rush.

In the schoolhouse garden she caught sight of a heavy, shambling figure, and waved a swift greeting as she flashed past.

“Oh, do you know that revolting youth?” said Mrs. Fielding.  “He’s half-witted as well as deformed.  His brother!” with a nod towards her chauffeur’s back.  “He’s a great trial to Jack, I believe.  My husband has offered a hundred times to have him put into a home, but the other brother—­Green, the schoolmaster—­is absolutely pig-headed on the subject, and won’t hear of it.”