“With or without.  And you know you came back for me.”

“I came back for a basket of things I must get from the house.  Also, of course, to explain my detention.”

“Out selling books, I suppose?” he questioned, not caring much what he said, now that he had her to himself.  “You must make a great impression as a book agent.  If only you had tried that way in our town.  And I—­I took you in my car under the pleasant impression that I was giving you a treat—­on that first trip, you know.  By the second trip I had acquired a sneaking suspicion that motoring wasn’t such a novelty to you as I had at first supposed.”

They had flown around the remaining curves and were at a rear door of the house.  Anne jumped out, was gone for ten minutes or so, and emerged with a servant following with a great hamper.  This was bestowed at King’s feet, and the car was off again, Anne driving with the ease of a veteran.

“You see,” she explained, “late last evening I had news of the serious illness of a girl friend of mine.  I went to see her, but after I came back I couldn’t be easy about her, and so I got up quite early this morning and went again.  She was much better, precisely as Doctor Burns had assured me she would be.  By and by perhaps I shall learn to trust him as absolutely as all the rest of you do.”

“Burns!  You don’t mean to say you had him out to see a case last night—­after—­”

She nodded, and her profile, under the snug gray hat, was a little like that of a handsome and somewhat mischievous but strong-willed boy.  “Was that so dreadful of me—­as a hostess?  I admit that a doctor ought to be allowed to rest when he is away from home, but I knew that he was just back from a long voyage and was feeling fit as a fiddle, as he himself said.  And there is really no very competent man in the town where my friend is ill; it was such a wonderful chance for her to have great skill at her service.  And such skill!  Oh, how he went to work for her!  It made one feel at once that something was being done, where before people had merely tried to do things.”

King was making rapid calculation.  At the end of it, “Would you mind telling me whether you have had any sleep at all?” he begged.

She turned her face toward him for an instant.  “Do I look so haggard and wan?” she queried with a quick glance.  “Yes, I had a good two hours.  And I’m so happy now to know that Estelle is sleeping quietly that it’s much better than to have slept myself.”

“Do you do this sort of thing often?”

“Not just such spectacular night work, but I do try to see that a little is done to look after a few people who have had a terribly hard time of it.  But this is all—­or mostly—­since I came back from my year away.  I learned just a few things during that year, you know.”

“Your cousin—­do you mind?—­gave me just a bit of an idea why you went,” he ventured.

“Oh, Leila Stockton.”  Her lips took on an amused curl.  “Of course Leila would.  She—­chatters.  But she’s a dear girl; it’s just that she can’t easily get a new point of view.”