aghast, and their questions died on their lips.  Policemen put up their hands against it,—­it ran over them.  It even learned the trick of avoiding the nimble business man by a cunning little skid just as he thought he had caught it.  You will hardly believe me, but that ’bus ran seven times round Trafalgar Square, until the lions’ tails twisted for giddiness, and Nelson reeled where he stood.  I don’t know where it went to that day, certainly not to Barnes, but late in the evening it burst into another ’bus’s burrow at Tooting, its sides heaving, its tyres worn to the quick, its windows streaming with perspiration, and a great bruise on its forehead where a chance bomb had struck it.  I believe the poor thing had to be put out of its misery in the end.  And what was the reason of all this?  It was found that a wizard, called Innocent, of Stoke Newington, had been asleep on the top all the time, having forgotten to alight the night before, on his return from the City.

Sarah Brown, on the night of Lady Arabel’s supper party, was unaware of the risk she ran in entering a public conveyance in company with a witch.  But she was spared to a merciful extent, for nothing happened on any of the ’buses they boarded, except that, as they crossed the Canal, a cloud of sea-gulls swooped and swirled into the ’bus, resting awhile on the passengers’ willing shoulders before disappearing again.  Also the passengers on the Baker Street stretch sang part-songs, all the way down to Selfridge’s.  The conductor turned out to have rather a pleasing tenor voice.

The witch and Sarah Brown knocked at the Higgins’ door five minutes before supper-time.  Lady Arabel herself opened it.

“My dears, isn’t it too dretful.  All our servants are gone.  It’s an extraordinary thing, they never can stand Rrchud and his ways.”

The tactful Sarah Brown nudged the witch.  “Better not stay,” she murmured.

“Of course we’ll stay,” replied the witch loudly.  “I’m horribly hungry, and there’s sure to be some supper.”

“Certainly there is,” added Lady Arabel.  “I cooked it myself.  Do you know, I’ve never seen a cookery book before, and the little pictures of animals with the names of joints written all over them shocked me dretfully.  I feel I could have a too deliciously intimate conversation with a bullock now.”

The house of Higgins had an enormous hall to which a large number of high windows gave the impression of a squint.  I should think two small Zeppelins could have danced a minuet under its dome.  Sarah Brown and the witch put on their cathedral look at once, by mistake, and propping their chins upon their umbrellas gazed reverently upward.

“Too dretful, a house of this size without servants,” said Lady Arabel.  “The fourth footman was the last to go.  He said even the Army would be better than this.  He liked spooks, he said, at second hand, but not otherwise.  Too funny how people take dear Rrchud seriously.  I’m glad to say the orchestra has stayed with us.  Come into Rrchud’s study, won’t you, while I just go and help the first violin to dish up the soup.”