for a silk petticoat, which struck Roland as simply indecent. Frank and
Percy took theirs mostly in specie. It was Muriel who struck the worst
blow by insisting on a hired motor-car.

Roland hated motor-cars, especially when they were driven by Albert
Potter, as this one was. Albert, that strong, silent man, had but one
way of expressing his emotions, namely to open the throttle and shave
the paint off trolley-cars. Disappointed love was giving Albert a good
deal of discomfort at this time, and he found it made him feel better
to go round corners on two wheels. As Muriel sat next to him on these
expeditions, Roland squashing into the tonneau with Frank and Percy,
his torments were subtle. He was not given a chance to forget, and the
only way in which he could obtain a momentary diminution of the agony
was to increase the speed to sixty miles an hour.

It was in this fashion that they journeyed to the neighboring town of
Lexingham to see M. Etienne Feriaud perform his feat of looping the
loop in his aeroplane.

It was Brother Frank's idea that they should make up a party to go and
see M. Feriaud. Frank's was one of those generous, unspoiled natures
which never grow _blasé_ at the sight of a fellow human taking a
sporting chance at hara-kiri. He was a well-known figure at every wild
animal exhibition within a radius of fifty miles, and M. Feriaud drew
him like a magnet.

"The blighter goes up," he explained, as he conducted the party into
the arena, "and then he stands on his head and goes round in circles.
I've seen pictures of it."