She looked anxiously at every turning, for fear she might miss her way.  Her object was to regain the main road, where she might find some passing motorist, and implore help.  Yes, there was the sign-post where Aunt Harriet had halted, she must keep to the left by that ruined cottage—­she remembered noticing its broken roof as they had passed it.  How interminably long the lanes were!  They had seemed far shorter when Aunt Harriet was driving!  Oh! thank goodness, there was the big oak tree—­it could not be far now.  A few minutes more and Winona had reached the sign-post, and swung round the corner into the Crowland Road.  She felt as if her nerves would not stand very much more.  Would help never come?  A distant hooting behind her made her heart leap.  She stopped the car beside the hedge, and standing up, waved her handkerchief as a signal of distress.  A splendid Daimler came into sight.  Would the chauffeur notice and understand her plight?  She shrieked in desperation as it whizzed past.  Oh!  It was stopping!  A gentleman got out, and walked quickly back towards her.  She jumped down, and ran to meet him.

“Can I be of any assistance?” he asked politely.

“Oh, please!  My aunt is very ill, and I don’t know how to drive properly yet.  How am I going to get back to Seaton?” blurted out Winona, on the verge of tears.

She never forgot how kind the stranger was.  With the aid of his chauffeur he lifted poor Aunt Harriet into his own car, and told Winona to take her place beside her.

“Now tell me exactly where you want to go,” he said, “and I’ll run you straight home as fast as I can.  My man shall follow with your car.  You can manage this little two-seater, Jones?”

“Yes, Sir,” grinned the chauffeur, inspecting the levers.

The stranger made his big Daimler fly.  Winona never knew by how much he exceeded the speed limit, but it seemed to her that they must be spinning along at the rate of nearly fifty miles an hour.  Aunt Harriet had recovered a little, though she still moaned at intervals.  The hedges seemed to whirl past them, they went hooting through villages, and whizzed over a common.  At last the familiar spires and towers of Seaton appeared in the distance.  Their good Samaritan drove them to their own door, helped Miss Beach into the house, and volunteered to take a message to the doctor, then, evading Winona’s thanks, he sprang into his car, and started away.

The chauffeur arrived later with Miss Beach’s car, and considerately offered to run it round to the garage.

Aunt Harriet was laid up for several days after this episode, and Dr. Sidwell forbade any long expeditions in the immediate future.  He encouraged the idea of Winona learning to drive.

“You could be of the greatest help in taking your aunt about,” he said to her.  “You must have a capital notion of it, or you couldn’t have brought the car three miles entirely on your own.  But of course you’ll need practice before you can be trusted to mix in traffic.  You’ll have to apply for a license, remember.  You’ll be getting into trouble if you drive without!”