_Saturday afternoon_
I have had a terrible experience, which has upset me completely and
damaged my right knee, besides agitating me so much that I can
scarcely remember how it happened. I have read that a drowning man
sees his whole life before him in a flash of time. It is different
with women perhaps. I saw no flash of anything, and thought only of
myself,--remembering a horrible story I read somewhere about a horse
in the Crimea that bit the faces of the enemy. Sir Archibald _flung_
me against a gate. The intention was kind, I dare say, but even then I
could just hear the beads ripping off my mantle as I fell against the
bars. The lane seemed full of ponies, all screaming, as I didn't know
horses could scream, and kicking like so many grasshoppers.
'It's all right! Nothing has happened!' he called to the girl, when
the herd receded.
'I don't know what you two call happened,' I said, as soon as I could
speak. 'We have been nearly killed--all of us, especially me.'
I looked at Miss Pomeroy; so did Sir Archibald. She is an active girl,
and at the first suggestion of danger she had scrambled headlong up a
steep bank, where she clung to the roots of the hedge, entirely
forgetting all about me. She now came down, and required some
assistance in descending, although she had climbed up, which is more
difficult, all in a moment. She was certainly pale--really pale for
the first time since she came here, and did not seem to think about
her hat, which was hanging half-way down her back by this time. Poor
Mr. MacGill used always to say that when a pretty girl forgot her
appearance there was something really serious in the air. She seemed
to have forgotten, but I dare say she really was thinking that she
looked nicer that way. She came up to the young man, and held out her
hand to him, saying, 'Thank you, Sir Archibald.' Americans are very
forward, certainly. If I had said 'Thank you,' and offered to shake
hands with him, there might have been some reason for it, although I
never thought of doing so; it was decidedly Me that Sir Archibald had
rescued. This did not seem to make a bit of difference to them,
however. He took her hand and shook it, and then I must say had the
civility to give Me his arm, and we all walked back to the hotel. I
felt so shattered that I went to bed for the rest of the afternoon.