by Louis Tracy · 1910
Romance · Classics
When a chauffeur's motorcar meets with disaster on Derby Day, a quick-witted aristocrat steps in with an outrageous impulse: to take the wheel himself and masquerade as a driver for hire. What follows is a breezy Edwardian romp of mistaken identities, motorcars, and a headstrong American heiress touring England—all set against the glamour and gadgetry of the brand-new motoring age.
THE HIRED CAR
Derby Day fell that year on the first Wednesday in June. By a whim of the British climate, the weather was fine; in fact, no rain had fallen on southern England since the previous Sunday. Wise after the event, the newspapers published cheerful “forecasts,” and certain daring “experts” discussed the probabilities of a heat wave. So London, on that bright Wednesday morning, was agog with excitement over its annual holiday; and at such a time London is the gayest and liveliest city in the world.
And then, wholly independent of the weather, there was the Great Question.
From the hour when the first ’bus rumbled Citywards until some few seconds before three o’clock in the afternoon the mass of the people seemed to find delight in asking and answering it. The Question was ever the same; but the answer varied. In its way, the Question formed a tribute to the advance of democracy. It caused strangers to exchange opinions and pleasantries in crowded trains and omnibuses. It placed peers and commoners on an equality. During some part of the day it completely eclipsed all other topics of conversation.
