"I'm sure I don't know," I answered; "and it doesn't much matter, for I shall only pass it on to someone else, please."
For once it wasn't an Army Form. Was I not, he ventured to ask, the proprietor of a small car?
"What was once a small car before it met what was once a large telegraph pole," I said thoughtlessly.
He was glad to hear this, as he too was the owner of a small car. We shook hands on that, though we knew all the time that H.M. Government was the owner of both. H.M. Government not being present, however, to insist on its rights, we were able to do a quiet swank. In the course of it he mentioned, quite by the way, the matter of shock-absorbers. He had reason to believe that my car could spare his car a couple of these.
I saw the need for hedging. "That telegraph pole I mentioned just now wasn't really very large," I explained, "and it came away quietly, offering no resistance."
He smiled knowingly at that.
"Were you," I continued, fixing a cold and relentless eye upon him—"were you equally lucky with your—your—?"
"Small lorry," he said, with a faint blush. "A tiny lorry, in fact."
"Not more than a dozen tons or so?" I suggested. "No doubt it passed quite gradually over you, frightening more than hurting you, and you were able to walk home with remainder of small motor in pocket of greatcoat?"
He didn't go into that subject. "By the way," he said, "I happened to be round at the workshops just now——"