There's a good stretch of pike out here and I'll show you what this team can do." This promised demonstration was the least bit terrifying to Sylvia.

Her knowledge of horses was the slightest, and in reading of horse races she had not imagined that there could be such a thrill in speeding along a stretch of good road behind a pair of registered roadsters, the flower of the Estabrook stock, driven by so intrepid and skillful a whip as Mrs.Sally Owen.
"I guess that mile would worry the boys some," observed Mrs.Owen with satisfaction as she brought the team to a walk.
This was wholly cryptic to Sylvia, but she was glad that Mrs.Owen was not disappointed.

As they loitered in a long shady lane Mrs.Owen made it possible for Sylvia to talk of herself.

Sally Owen was a wise woman, who was considered a little rough and peculiar by some of her townspeople, chiefly those later comers who did not understand the conditions of life that had made such a character possible; but none had ever questioned her kindness of heart.

And in spite of her frank, direct way of speech she was not deficient in tact.