Page:A M Williamson - The Motor Maid.djvu/105

 SUPPOSE we'll meet by-and-by at dinner?" I said (I 'm afraid rather wistfully) to the chauffeur as he drove the car up a steep hill to the door of La Reserve, on The Corniche.

"Well, no," he answered, "because you needn't fear anything disagreeable here, and I 'm going to stop at a less expensive place. You see, I pay my own way, and as I really have to live on my screw, it does n't run to grand hotels. This one is rather grand; but you will be all right, because, although it 's a famous place for food, at this season few people stop overnight, and I 've found out through the telephone that the Turnours are the only ones who have taken bedrooms. That means you 'll have your dinner and breakfast by yourself."

"Oh, that will be nice!" I said, trying to speak as if I delighted in the thought of solitude and reflection. "I wish I were paying my own way, too; but I could n't do it on fifty francs a month, could I?"

"Fifty francs a month!" he echoed, astonished. "Is that your compensation for being a slave to such a woman? By Jove, it makes me hot all over, to think that a girl like you should ⸺"

"Well, this trip is thrown in as additional compensation," I reminded him. "And thanks to you and your Rh