' ''
``Most of your readers will think `punkah' is a kind of
iced drink or half-time at polo,'' said Bertie, and
disappeared into the steam.
*
The _Smoky Chimney_ duly published the ``Recessional,''
but it proved to be its swan song, for the paper never
attained to another issue.
Loona Bimberton gave up her intention of attending the
Durbar and went into a nursing-home on the Sussex Downs.
Nervous breakdown after a particularly strenuous season was
the usually accepted explanation, but there are three or
four people who know that she never really recovered from
the dawn breaking over the Brahmaputra river.
A MATTER OF SENTIMENT
It was the eve of the great race, and scarcely a member of
Lady Susan's house-party had as yet a single bet on. It was
one of those unsatisfactory years when one horse held a
commanding market position, not by reason of any general
belief in its crushing superiority, but because it was
extremely difficult to pitch on any other candidate to whom
to pin ones faith. Peradventure II was the favourite, not
in the sense of being a popular fancy, but by virtue of a
lack of confidence in any one of his rather undistinguished
rivals.
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