They came out of the narrow path they had been following into a broader one, and presently they turned aside from that at the foot of a steep and pathless bank. The Twins started up it as if it were neither here nor there to them; as, indeed, it was not.
But the princess stopped short, and said in a tone of dismay:
“Am I to climb this?”
The Terror stopped, looked at her dismayed face, set his bicycle against the trunk of a tree, and said:
“I’ll help you up.”
With that, dismissing etiquette from his mind, he slipped his arm round the slender waist of the princess, and firmly hauled her to the top of the bank. He relieved her of most of the effort needed to mount it; but none the less she reached the top panting a little.
“You certainly aren’t in very good training,” he said rather sadly.
“Training? What is training?” said the princess.
“It’s being fit,” said Erebus in a faintly superior tone.
“And what is being fit?” said the princess.