The apparition, past the horse's blinkers, said:
"I can, at least, hold the horse for you. I went past to get you out of Claudine's sight."
"Damn good-natured of you," Tietjens said as rudely as he could. "You'll have to pay for the horse."
The General exclaimed:
"Damn it all! Why should I? You were driving your beastly camel right into my drive."
"You never sounded your horn," Tietjens said.
"I was on private ground," the General shouted. "Besides I did." An enraged, scarlet scarecrow, very thin, he was holding the horse's bridle. Tietjens was extending the half petticoat, with a measuring eye, before the horse's chest. The General said:
"Look here! I've got to take the escort for the Royal party at St. Peter-in-Manor, Dover. They're laying the Buff's colours on the altar or something."
"You never sounded your horn," Tietjens said. "Why didn't you bring your chauffeur? He's a capable man. . . . You talk very big about the widow and child. But when it comes to robbing them of fifty quid by slaughtering their horse . . ."
The General said: