192 The Best Fourteen-Hander in England. 



respect. Although he shook his head when he heard of 

 whom I had bought her, he declared that, as far as soundness 

 went, she was all right, and as to vice of any kind, if such a lamb- 

 like little thing was not to be trusted, all he could say was, he never 

 again would place faith in any horse's countenance. 



I must now explain lo the reader the project to which I have 

 above alluded. To use Joe's words, I certainly did " know a kind 

 young lady friend where I could place this little pet," and, perhaps, 

 advantageously for all parties. Moreover, upon serious considera- 

 tion, I did not feel quite sure wdiether I was not bound in honour 

 to the '^consumptive young lady" to place her late favourite in 

 hands which I felt certain would use her well instead of sending 

 her into a racing stable. There lived in a village about four miles 

 from us a young lady, into whose custody I could deliver my charge 

 with a safe conscience, and who, whenever we met, was continually 

 pressing me to buy her a pretty little pony for her own especial use. 

 She was the only daughter of an old, sun-dried Indian officer, who 

 had come to reside and end his days in the quiet of this little village, 

 and whom we young ones had irreverently christened " old MuUa- 

 gatawny." He was evidently "warm," judging from the style in 

 which he lived, and, as he was an hospitable old fellow after his 

 fashion (though desperately passionate and tyrannical in his own 

 house), he was always glad to see a friend to help him eat his curry, 

 smoke his cigars, listen to his tiger stories, and join him in the 

 evening at a quiet rubber at whist. His daughter was a fine, dash- 

 ing girl, with a goodish spirit of her own, rather fast, and very fond 

 of riding about the countr}' with an old groom behind her ; but 

 what I most liked in her was that she had a plain way of saying just 

 what she thought, without caring a pin whether it offended you or 

 not. I was a good deal at the old nabob's house, and, of course, 

 thrown a good deal into the society of the daughter, so that at last 

 I had the vanity to flatter myself that, as the novelists would say, I 

 was "not altogether indifferent to her." Moreover, I began to 

 think that Chunee Villa (as the nabob's residence was called), a 

 ftne, dark-eyed girl, and a lac of rupees (which was the very least 



