LORD AYRSHIRE AT TATTERS ALL'S. 355 



going at that price — going, gentlemen, for two hundred. 

 guineas — will nobody advance ? — for the last time, going at 

 two hundred guineas " — a pause for a moment, and the ham- 

 mer fell. 



" Well, Ayrshire," exclaimed Lord Henry, " you would have 

 that dark bay, notwithstanding my hints not to buy him." 



" I call him a light bay horse, Bayntun." 



"Very likely — doctors differ ; but I'll bet a pony, notwith- 

 standing, he is a dark bay." 



" How so, Bayntun? you want your spectacles this morning." 



"More likely you want yours, Ayrshire, for the horse you 

 have just bought is as blind as a bat, or will be •• " shortly." 



" I don't care if he is," replied the man <tiently ; 



"having resolved that fellow who bid against ***, oUould not 

 have him, for his insolence in running him up." 



" Ha, ha, ha ! " laughed Lord Henry ; " done, my lord, 

 done brown, as well as bay ; that was only a puffer." 



This little anecdote will suffice to show the animus by which 

 the marquis was actuated, when any one or anything ran 

 counter to his determination. We must now follow him from the 

 club-house, after his conversation with Lord Henry Bayntun, 

 and reveal what was passing in his mind, as he took his way 

 direct to Upper Brook Street. His thoughts were bent on re- 

 deeming the prestige he had lost by being set down as a rejected 

 man, and knowing Ivli\ Harcourt's weak points, he resolved to 

 re-open the negotiation about his ward. " It is not the ques- 

 tion whether her affections are wholly mine or not," he mut- 

 tered, as he rode along ; " that with me is now quite a secon- 

 dary consideration ; but having committed the error of pro- 

 posing, and rendered myself conspicuous by paying her more 

 attention than I ever did any other woman, she shall be mine at 

 any cost, if possible, and when once my wife, she may repent 

 her waywardness in declining my first overtures." 



As drowning men -will catch at straws, so Mr. Harcourt 

 caught at Lord Ayrshire's proposition, to bear the brunt of the 

 trial, and make good any deficiencies that could be legally 

 claimed, on the condition that he obtained the consent of his 

 ward to become Lord Ayrshire's wife. "I do not believe," 

 replied that worthy gentleman, " your lordship will incur much 

 risk, as counsel's opinion is decidedly in our favour, and posses- 

 sion is nine points of the law. But if you are really serious in 

 the matter, and choose to take the lady with her liabilities and 

 rights, as they stand, I will use all my influence with Lady 



w 9 



