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 deep drop on either side, and for the fact that we didn't go down it no thanks are due to Berengaria. Now although I own up to getting a bit of a fright sometimes, I always make a point of not showing it. It's so 'Arry and 'Arriet like to squeak. So I clung on to the handrail of that tum-tum, and got my feet free to jump if necessary, and interspersed Berengaria's conversation with 'Yes' and 'No,' 'Did you?' and 'Really' whenever it seemed necessary. But when the pony finally got its tail over the left rein, and the road narrowed with a good twenty-foot drop on my side, and Berengaria went on talking volubly and took no notice whatever, I felt it wouldn't be just right to go silent without a protest to a real right-down smash-up at the bottom of that embankment. 'Berengaria,' I said in as quiet and even a voice as I could, 'don't you think it would be as well to take the reins from under the pony's tail?'

'Oh, that's all right, this pony knows me,' said Berengaria, pausing for a moment in her flow of gossip and then starting off again full tilt. 'And as I was just telling you, the long feud between Mrs. Binks and Mrs. Hicks reached its climax on the chaboutra at the club last night. They had both been playing badminton, and I notice that that's always bad for people's tempers. Mrs. Hicks came out on to the chaboutra flushed and angry, Mrs. Binks followed flushed but triumphant. I saw that there was electricity in the air, but I never thought it would be as bad as it turned