ected that she was bowled over like a rabbit in two
shakes. I jammed on the brakes and we sprang out, and saw she was under
the car in between the wheel and the chassis. Luckily she was a small
thin woman, and as Gaspard has so eloquently expressed it on another
occasion, _platte comme une punaise_ (flat as a drawing-pin). I was
horrified, the whole thing had happened so suddenly. A crowd of French
and Belgian soldiers collected, and I rapidly directed them to lift the
front of the car up by the springs, as it seemed the only way of getting
her out without further injury. I turned away, not daring to look, and
as I did so my eye caught sight of some hair near one of the back
wheels! That finished me up! I did not stop to reason that of course the
back wheels had not touched her, and thought, "My God, I've scalped
her!" and I leant over the railings feeling exceedingly sick. A friendly
M.P. who had seen the whole thing, patted me on the arm and said, "Now,
then, Miss, don't you take on, that's only her false 'air," as indeed
it proved to be! The woman was yelling and groaning, "_Mon Dieu, je suis
tuee_," but according to the "red hat" she was as "right as rain,
nothing but 'ysteria." I blessed that M.P. and hoped we would meet
again. We helped her on to the front seat, where Thompson supported her,
while I drove to hospital to see if any damage had been done. Singularly
enough, she was only suffering from bruises and a torn skirt, and of
course the loss of her "false 'air" (which I had refused to touch, it
had given me such a turn). I can only hope her husband, who was with her
at the time, picked it up. He followed to hospital and gave her a most
frightful scolding, adding that of course the "Mees" could not do
otherwise than knock her down if she so foolishly sprang in front of
cars without warning; and she might think herself lucky that the "Mees"
would not run her in for being in the way! It has always struck me as
being so humorous that in England if you knock a pedestrian over they
can have you up, while in France the law is just the reverse. She sobbed
violently, and I had to tell him that what she wanted was sympathy and
not scolding.

It took me a day or two to get over that scalping expedition (of course
the story was all round the camp within the hour!) and for some time
after I slowed down crossing the bridge. This was the one and only time
anything of the sort ever happened to me, thank goodness!

Our camp