My Friend the Chauffeur

Sir Ralph Moray owns a Riviera newspaper and uses it to rescue a friend. He plants an advertisement offering a titled English motorist and his car to conduct American ladies about Europe, then leaves the paper where the ruined Lord Terence Barrymore will find it. Three answer: a Denver widow who has just bought a Dalmatian estate and the title Countess Dalmar with it, her daughter Beechy, seventeen but kept in pigtails so her mother can look younger, and her orphaned niece Maida Destrey. Terry drives as a hired chauffeur and says nothing about the car being his own. The route climbs from Cap Martin up the Roya valley into Italy, on to Milan, the lakes, Verona and Venice, then east toward the castle. Five narrators take it in turn, and a rival prince forces a chase at the end.