"Or boxing."

"And, anyhow, you must come with me when I drive again. I'm going
to start a trotter."

"If I miss another drive may I be--lost for ever," said Billy, with
the utmost sincerity. "Never more will I get down, Benham, wherever
you may take me. Short of muffing my fellowship I'm with you
always. . . . Will it be an American trotter?"

"It will be the rawest, gauntest, ungainliest brute that ever scared
the motor-bicycles on the Northampton Road. It will have the legs
and stride of an ostrich. It will throw its feet out like dealing
cards. It will lift its head and look the sun in the eye like a
vulture. It will have teeth like the English spinster in a French
comic paper. . . . And we will fly. . . ."

"I shall enjoy it very much," said Prothero in a small voice after
an interval for reflection. "I wonder where we shall fly. It will
do us both a lot of good. And I shall insure my life for a small
amount in my mother's interest. . . . Benham, I think I will, after
all, take a whiskey. . . . Life is short. . . ."

He did so and Benham strolled to the window and stood looking out
upon the great court.

"We might do something this afternoon," said Benham.

"Splendid idea," reflected Billy over his whiskey. "Living hard and