turning upon him, hit him sharply over the head with one of its handles.

At a quarter to one, dirty and dishevelled, cut and breeding, he said: "I
think that will do;" and rose and wiped his brow.

The bicycle looked as if it also had had enough of it. Which had
received most punishment it would have been difficult to say. I took him
into the back kitchen, where, so far as was possible without soda and
proper tools, he cleaned himself, and sent him home.

The bicycle I put into a cab and took round to the nearest repairing
shop. The foreman of the works came up and looked at it.

"What do you want me to do with that?" said he.

"I want you," I said, "so far as is possible, to restore it."

"It's a bit far gone," said he; "but I'll do my best."

He did his best, which came to two pounds ten. But it was never the same
machine again; and at the end of the season I left it in an agent's hands
to sell. I wished to deceive nobody; I instructed the man to advertise
it as a last year's machine. The agent advised me not to mention any
date. He said:

"In this business it isn't a question of what is true and what isn't;
it's a question of what you can get people to believe. Now, between you
and me, it don't look like a last year's machine; so far as looks are
concerned, it might be a ten-year old. We'll say nothing about date;
we'll just get what we can."