Horse Dealing. 67 



of business to render success possible ; but we had a very 

 jolly time of it. Lynx was an amusing fellow. The world 

 had gone dreadfully hard with him, and his name no doubt 

 took some living up to. His heart and soul were in horse 

 dealing ; but, alas, without the money. In his direst straits, 

 his only thought was to make a ' bit ' by getting a horse for 

 a man. He was a good judge, and knew how to 'show' a 

 horse ; but he was too hard up to go * straight/ and had out- 

 lived or out-lasted his friends. The firm ate and drank of the 

 best, amused itself, and kept a ledger and day-book unsoiled 

 by ink. After three or four months' fooling I got sick of the 

 game, and said I'd play no more. I was sorry for Lynx ; 

 though he would not or could not work for the firm. He had 

 an inexhaustible fund of yarns, and talk about horses and 

 men he had met, and like a true Irishman, bore his misfortunes 

 with a light heart He was getting old and losing his nerve ; 

 yet his spirit was always buoyed up with day-dreams of 

 a house in the country, and a stable full of hunters. I 

 wondered, while I listened to his hopeful words ; for I knew 

 his * friends ' would have nothing to do with him one's 

 ' friends ' are always that way inclined when one's boots 

 imperfectly keep one's feet off the pavement. At the time 

 of our parting, my relations with him were strained ; because, 

 the day before, he had appeared in a new suit of clothes, and 

 with the air of having done himself particularly * well,' and 

 I knew that his statement about a remittance from his 

 ' friends ' was figurative. I naturally thought that he had 

 ' done a deal ' which had not passed through the firm ; yet, 

 I believe, I wronged him. A year passed by and I had 

 almost forgotten all about my whilom partner, when I 

 suddenly met him at Tattersall's looking dreadfully ill in 

 a magnificent fur coat and got up regardless of expense. 

 You could have knocked me down well, not quite with a 

 feather ; but with a small-sized pillow. His day-dreams had 

 at last come true. He had a nice house in the country, and 

 a stable full of horses ; but his fortune came too late. He 



