She had meant to go down to the offices of her employer after breakfast, to borrow some of the salary that would be due to her next week.

But then she found that she had left her broomstick somewhere.

As a rule Harold--for that was the broomstick's name--was fairly independent, and could find his way home alone, but when he got mislaid and left in strange hands, and particularly when kindly finders took him to Scotland Yard, he often lost his head.

You, in your innocence, are suggesting that his owner might have borrowed another broomstick from stock.

But you have no idea what arduous work it is, breaking in a wild broomstick to the saddle.