172 THE POCKET AND THE STUD. 



reason, wishes to sell him ; now " pussy jumps 

 out of the bag " 407. is all he can get for him 

 as a blemished horse. He will now be sure to 

 find fault with the vet. or his friend, or both, for 

 advising him to take all the trouble and expense, 

 and then to find his horse only worth 40Z. Here 

 is just shown the difference between his really 

 being a valuable horse, or merely one for which a 

 considerable sum had been paid. The friend and 

 the vet, of course, took the owner's word as to 

 his value ; and supposing what they were told 

 could be borne out, their advice was judicious, 

 for 271. would be very little consideration in get- 

 ting a really valuable horse upright; and such 

 horses as have gone under Sir Bellingham Gra- 

 ham, Lord Plymouth, or Forester, would not be 

 brought down to quite 407. because their legs 

 were a little disfigured. But such horses are 

 really of known value ; the value of the one in 

 question probably only existed in the opinion of 

 the owner. Supposing, on being accused of hav- 

 ing given interested or injudicious advice, the vet. 

 or the friend beginning to suspect how the thing 

 stood should take the liberty of asking in what 

 the value of the horse consisted, and found out 

 the truth, it is by no means improbable they 

 might say, " Hearing you say he was a valuable 

 horse, and judging only by what we could see, we 

 of course thought he was one of known character 



