Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/219

Rh Now Brenda had tried, without much success, on her return from that bicycle trip, to make her father realize  that she had been in great danger. For some reason or other, he had not seemed to her sufficiently sympathetic,  although Nora had confirmed her story.

“I dare say that you were in more or less danger, and I hope that this will be a lesson to you. No one can afford to take risks when on a wheel in an unfamiliar locality. You say yourself that you had never been down that hill before. Then I can only say that you were almost criminally careless in starting to ride down it.”

“But I did n’t know that it was so steep.”

“That is the very thing that I should like to impress on you. ‘Did n’t know’ is probably responsible for more accidents than any other single phrase used by careless  young persons like yourself. Your mother and I have given you considerable liberty in the matter of bicycling,  because we have always thought that you had sufficient  common sense to avoid such risks as you have just described. There is n’t likely to be a courageous foreigner waiting to rescue you on every road, and so perhaps we  shall have to forbid your riding about the country unless  accompanied by an older person.”

“Oh, papa!”

“Remember, that if such a rule is made, it will be your own fault.”

Although Mr. Barlow had spoken thus severely to Brenda, he was not really unappreciative of what the  foreigner had done. He told Mrs. Barlow that he should