134 THE ADVENTURES OF A GENTLEMAN 



years been a Newmarket jockey,' and to do him 

 justice, found me a very serviceable and showy 

 animal. It was a large chestnut gelding, nearly 

 sixteen hands high, with excellent action, and the 

 price was but twenty-five pounds : he had a slight 

 blemish on one knee, but so slight as not to be 

 observable without close inspection. When he 

 showed me the animal, I was at once satisfied that 

 there was something wrong, for it was a fair sixty- 

 guinea horse; and to have deducted ten for so 

 slight a blemish, and in a harness horse, would 

 have been liberal. I told him my suspicions, and 

 he answered, with a very knowing look, that he 

 was blemished in both eyes, but would probably 

 retain his sight during the season, and then would 

 fetch my money for a leader in the mail. I inspected 

 his eyes, but in vain : the little jockey tried again 

 and again to make me understand the cloudy 

 aspect of them — " all like a blue haze. Sir." I 

 modestly set it down to my own ignorance, and 

 was well satisfied to take my chance. The horse 

 had his faults, sure enough : but blindness was 

 never one of them ; his heels were flat, tender, 

 and contracted, and I was eventually obliged 



