FOR SALE— A THOROUGHBRED NAG. 



second best, as the sayin' is, an' she knows it. It's too late, sir ; 

 she's got off too long with it.' 



' Why, how old is she ?' 



' How old, sir ? Let me—' (' scratch my beard,' he might have 

 said, for that was what he did)—' she was dropped, sir, the year 

 Blenkiron won the Derby ; she's gettin' on for six, sir. Well, 

 sir, you may, after a while, manage to ride her, but ' 



The ellipsis of speech was made fully explicit by a portent- 

 ous nod. 



On our way home from market I retailed to father what I 

 had been told. ' And,' I concluded, ' he said we might get her 

 to be ridden, but as for harness — ' 



' You see, James,' said my father, ' these men have so mis- 

 managed her, that our work will be more difficult than if they 

 had never seen her.' 



' Yes ; that's just what he said.' 



' Who said ?' asked my father, looking at me keenly. 



I felt the rebuke to the full ; he needn't have said another 

 word ; though he did add, after I stammered in reply, ' The— 

 the man — ' 



' Do you usually accept as gospel all the gossip you may pick 

 up from this and that creature you know nothing of?' 



I was nettled. ' But surely, father, in this case— this gossip 

 — there is a probability — ' 



He saw I wished to entangle him in an argument. 



' Now, James,' said he. 



The tone and the gaze subdued me. I was dumb. 



It will thus be seen that my father still believed that the 

 mare, notwithstanding the many serious rents and holes in her 

 credit, had something of a character to lose ; and he was resolved 

 that, if she could not be rehabilitated with a new one, no one 

 should be encouraged by him to spy and point out other 

 blemishes in the old— not even his son. He seemed determined 

 to stick by her to the last. 



IV. 



I SAY seemed now ; but who then would ever have dreamt of 

 reading at Michaelmas in a catalogue of a neighbour's sale the 

 following entry by my father ?— ' A Thoroughbred Nag, four 

 years, with Foal; tinbroken: I was astonished, for I had over- 

 heard not the faintest whisper of an intention to sell her. I 



