THE SILVEB FOX 125 



" It's nothing to what you'll feel like 

 to-morrow," said Major Bunbury, encourag- 

 ingly, *'You rode into the pillar of the 

 gate so very hard last time." He looked 

 down at her from his position on the 

 hearthrug, and then glanced across to the 

 dusky, comfortable corner where the piano 

 was. " I wonder if you remember that you 

 said you were too tired this morning to play 

 that Impromptu ? " 



" My hands were, and are, permanently 

 hooked from holding on to the rail on the 

 engine," said Slaney, whose spirits had 

 risen as surprisingly as her colour with her 

 first experience on the bicycle, '* and no one 

 with a proper sense of how things ought to 

 be would have expected me to do anything 

 but lie on the sofa and faint. Instead of 

 which, I am asked to sit on a music-stool 

 and humiliate myself by playing things 

 that I don't know." 



" I think Susan looks more knocked out 

 of time than you do,'' remarked Bunbury, 

 after one of those comfortable pauses that 



