CHAPTER VIII. 



AT clumber's — INTERVIEWING THE COB — SQUINTING 

 GROOM — POINTS— UNDECIDED. 



HE Cob is brought out into Clumber's Stable- 

 yard. We — Mr. Spoker, Clumber, and myself 

 — eye it in silence. Being nervous about com- 

 mitting myself on the subject, I do not intend 

 to be the first to speak. 



" Beautiful Cob, that ! " says Mr. Clumber, finding that 

 he must say something. He is standing by me, with his 

 legs wide apart, his hands clasped behind his back, and his 

 head very much on one side, eyeing the mare, not me. 

 " Be-auty, she is ! Be-auty ! " he repeats, as if he really 

 couldn't get over the fact of her overwhelming loveliness. 



The Ostler, who is holding the mare's head in a rope 

 halter, sniffs assent, and relieves his feelings in a slight 

 cough. He squints so horribly that I don't know whether 

 he has his eye on me, or Clumber, or Spoker ; or one eye 

 on Clumber and myself, on the left-hand side of the horse, 

 and the other on Spoker, who is on the horse's right. 



He is a capital man for Clumber to have out to show the 

 horse, as it is impossible to tell from either of the Groom's 



