"'twas
the parasol started him."

As he spoke, the black horse stumbled, the laden car ran on top of him
like a landslip, and, with an abortive flounder, he collapsed beneath
it. Once down, he lay, after the manner of his kind, like a dead thing,
and the covered car, propped on its shafts, presented its open mouth to
the heavens. Even as I sped headlong to the rescue in the wake of Robert
and Croppy, I fore-knew that Fate had after all been too many for us,
and when, an instant later, I seated myself in the orthodox manner upon
the black horse's winker, and perceived that one of the shafts was
broken, I was already, in spirit, making up beds with Julia for the
reception of the party.

To this mental picture the howls of Miss McEvoy during the process of
extraction from the covered car lent a pleasing reality.

Only those who have been in a covered car under similar circumstances
can at all appreciate the difficulty of getting out of it. It has once,
in the streets of Cork, happened to me, and I can best compare it to
escaping from the cabin of a yacht without the aid of a companion
ladder. From Robert I can only collect the facts that the door jammed,
and that, at a critical juncture, Miss McEvoy had put her arms round his
neck.

* * * * *

The programme that Fate had ordained was carried out to its ultimate
item. The party from the Deanery of Glengad spent the night at Wavecrest
Cottage, attired by subscription, like the converts of a Mission; I
spent it in the attic, among trunks of Aunt Dora's old clothes, and
rats; Robert, who throughout had played an unworthy part, in the night
mail to Dublin, called away for twenty-four hours on a pretext that
would not have deceived an infant a week old.

Croppy was firm and circumstantial in laying the blame on me and the
sketching umbrella.

"Sure, I seen the horse wondhering at it an' he comin' up the hill to
us. 'Twas that turned him."

The dissertation in which the Dean's venerable coachman made the entire
disaster hinge upon the theft of the breeching was able, but cannot
conveniently be here set down.

For my part, I hold with Julia.

"'Twas Helayna gave the dhrink to the Dane's coachman! The low cursed
thing! There isn't another one in the place that'd do it! I'm told the
priest was near breaking his umbrella on her over it."

"MATCHBOX"

It was the event of Mr. John Denny's life that he valued highest. It is
twenty