They had got on to the road, and the hollow was already left some little distance behind, when the window over the driver's seat was opened, and Dorothy asked a question.
"Which way did he really go--that young man in the red shirt?"
"Frankly, between ourselves, I don't believe he went very far from the spot at which he introduced himself to us--the young scamp!"
"He can't be so very young if he has a wife."
"Gentlemen in his class of life marry while they're in their teens; and the ladies, some of them, apparently as soon as they're out of their cradles. How's that hat?"
"Thank you, it's--it's very nice. It's odd, if he didn't go far from where we were, that she shouldn't have seen him."
"Perhaps the young gentleman is lying low. I say. This establishment of mine doesn't need much driving. I can do all the driving that's required standing up; and if I were to stand up I could see inside that window, and be able to judge for myself what that hat really does look like. Do you think I might?"
"You--you can stand up if you like; only--take care of the horse.
"The horse will take care of us--never fear; she's a remarkable animal, this mare of mine." His face appeared on one side of the window, and the girl's on the other. "I say. I had a sort of feeling that that hat would suit you, but I never guessed it would suit you quite so well as that."
"Do you--do you think it does suit me--really?"
"If you were to ransack all Newcaster I doubt if you'd find another which, artistically, would be such a success."
"I am glad you like it; it was very good of you to buy it." There was a pause; then she added: "Would you mind sitting down again, so that I might see the country--it seems to be rather pretty."
He glanced at her out of the corners of his eyes, whimsically.
"It is rather pleasant hereabouts--am I so much in your way? Can't you see the country with me here?"
"Not so well as I should if you were sitting down."
So he sat down, where he could not see her: and the caravan went on.
Although for a vehicle of its sort it was of light construction, it still was cumbrous. The rate of progression was not fast; evidently the mare had her own idea of how fast it ought to be. Perhaps it was because she was such a sleek and well-fed animal that she objected to being pressed. One could not but feel that, when she hauled that house on wheels, with Mr Frazer at the reins, she was used to going as she pleased; that it was she who set the pace, not the driver and that the pace she preferred was a walking pace, of about five miles an hour. When she discovered, as she presently did, that, on that occasion, she was desired to go a little faster, she evinced her resentment in a fashion which was unmistakable. Occasionally Mr Frazer induced her to break into what was really a bad imitation of a trot; at the end of perhaps a hundred yards she would relapse into a walk, with an air which suggested that she had been forced to gallop a mile; and as it was plain that, where she was concerned, her driver could not bring himself to use strong measures and equally plain that the creature knew it, before they had gone very far the vehicle was being drawn along the highroad at a rate which suited the mare, if it suited no one else.