Patty knew that she had just about time to cross the track, but no more.

Instead of worrying her, this sudden last responsibility seemed to steady her nerves, and she said quietly: 

“It’s all right, Rosamond.  Don’t speak, please, we’ve just time to cross the track safely,—­safely.  See, I’ll open up the throttle,—­just a little more power,—­and here we go, bounding over the track!”

They seemed to jump over the track, and with a round turn, Patty made the corner, put on the brake and came to a full stop at the station just as the funny little French train wheezed in.

But the girl could do no more; as the car came to a standstill Patty’s hands dropped from the wheel, and she promptly fainted away.

With no notion of losing the game at the last moment, Rosamond sprang from the car, calling to the groom to look out for Patty, and then ran, panting, to the train.

She grasped the old Ma’amselle as she was about to step on the train, and forcibly pulled her away.

Owing to the old lady’s angry and excited exclamation at being thus detained, she could not understand what Rosamond was trying to tell her.

“Make her comprehend!” she cried to the maid, who was accompanying her mistress, “make her understand, quick! she must not go to Paris!  Monsieur Henri is at the Chateau!”

But the French maid could understand no English, and in despair Rosamond turned to the group of people who had gathered about them.

Her dignity suddenly returned, and her common sense with it.

“Will somebody who can talk French,” she said, “explain to this lady that she need not go to the house of her nephew with the broken arm, because he is already at the Chateau of his aunt.”

The moment she had uttered this sentence, its resemblance to the Ollendorff exercises struck Rosamond as very funny, and she began to giggle.

But the old Ma’amselle at last understood the state of the case, and, her face beaming with smiles, she turned away from the train and back to the station.

Patty had come to herself after her momentary unconsciousness, and was all right once more, though physically tired from her exciting exertions.

Ma’amselle’s own chauffeur was overcome with amazement when he learned what Patty had done, and took off his cap to her, with the air of one offering homage to a brave heroine.

As for Ma’amselle, she petted Patty, and cried over her, and thanked her, and blessed her, to an extent that could not have been exceeded had Patty saved her from the guillotine.

Then Patty was packed into the back seat of the big car, with Ma’amselle on one side of her and Rosamond on the other.  And with this precious freight the chauffeur started off, leaving the groom who had gone with the first party to bring home the other car.

Though there was not much talking done on the way home, Ma’amselle held Patty’s hand closely clasped in her own, and the girl felt well repaid by the old lady’s unspoken gratitude for the trouble and danger she had undergone.