ciple of the standstill, of side-riding, of the "swan," of the
"frog." And,--quickly!--the indefatigable Pa went back to Lily, made her
begin a trick ten times, twenty times over, so great was his rage at the
lost time, the elephants, the Hauptmanns, Roofer. He pulled faces,
clenched his fists:

"Why don't you do as I say when I tell you, damn it!"

"But, Pa, I can't!" protested Lily.

"You can, if you like," said Pa, exasperated this time and unbuckling his
belt.

Crash! A heap behind him, a medley of limbs and steel fittings! Maud, who
was still trying, on her bike, startled by Pa's threatening movement, had
fallen flat down.

"Maud again! That damned Jonah!" cried Pa, going up to her. "Well, Miss
Woolly-legs, do you mean to stay there all night?"

But she did not move; and, when they had disentangled her from the bike,
Pa saw an eye that was quite red and a little stream of blood trickling
down her cheek.

"Let's look!" said Pa anxiously.

A spoke sprung from the felly had scratched her eye.

It was a serious accident. Sprained wrists, barked shins didn't count; but
a spoke in the eye.... Luckily, Maud had no relations; there was no claim
to be feared: not a vestige of old sheep on the mother's side. Pa said all
this to himself as he ran to the chemist, and Lily consoled poor Maud as
best she could, said that, after all, it was part of the game: she'd know
better another time, eh? She'd be a great star yet, eh, Maud?

The poor maimed thing lifted her face to Lily, stammered through her tears
that it was nothing ... all right again now ... Pa's fault, with his
belt.

"For a little thing like that!" said Lily, laughing. "Fancy falling from
your bike for that! Why, I'd rather have twenty 'contracts on the back'
than lose an eye."

For that was what it amounted to. Pa realized it, after he had dressed the
wound. Clifton's mind was not at ease: a glass eye was not a very
difficult matter ... but, who knows, some callous person might inform
Harrasford, who stood no nonsense on that subject. Fortunately the
artistes present had not paid much attention ... had hardly noticed
anything, in the dim light of the stage....

And soon after the New Zealanders were walking back to Rathbone place with
Maud in their midst, her head a roll of bandages, leaning on Lily's arm.

It was a pathetic home-coming. Ma had told them what would happen! That
would teach them to take in vagabonds from the streets. Mrs. Clifton
tho