8 THE LIFE OF A RACEHORSE. 



was held straight out, almost level with her shoulders ; and 

 although she blinked and winked in a lazy, listless, dreamy 

 mood, an ear thrown back, while its fellow remained pricked 

 stiffly forward, gave an indication that the buzz of a beetle's 

 wing might cause her to lea^D from the ground like a stag from 

 its lair. Upon her sleek, shot-silk coat, large full veins stood 

 out like fibres upon a vine-leaf, and within them ran the 

 untainted blood of centuries. Godolphin's mingled there, 

 the only stock from which we trace the best and purest of our 

 breed. Even now, I feel a spark glowing brightly within me, 

 when I think of the root from which I sprung — ^worn-out, 

 friendless, and forgotten as I am. But it was not always, so, 

 as my story, plainly told, shall tell. 



"Well, Sir Digby, what do you think of the colt?" is the 

 first question — even the first words — I can remember being 

 applied to myself. 



They were spoken by a long-waisted, diminutive man, 

 dressed in the airy costume of a linen jacket, drab-coloured 

 *' knees," gaiters, and roomy, square-toed shoes. Round his 

 short, thick throat — bearing a strong tendency to apoplexy — a 

 snow-white roll of cambric was twisted in the form of a limp 

 wisp ; and in a knot, tied with scrupulous care, a plain gold 

 pin of horse-shoe shape drew the observer's attention with 

 unerring certainty. A badger-pied fur cajD, stuck carelessly 

 upon one side of his round head, gave him a jaunty, swagger- 

 ing air, and this was somewhat increased by the way in which 

 he stood, with both arms buried to the elbows in the depths of 

 his breeches pockets, and his legs separated beyond the common 

 order of division. The features of which his countenance was 

 made up consisted of the ordinary ones belonging to his class, 

 with the exception, perhaps, of a pair of small, gray, piercing 

 eyes, placed obliquely in their sockets like those of a fox. 

 These sharp, restless gray eyes, ever rolling from side to side, 

 produced the striking impression that "our head groom" 

 entertained a naturally quick perception of men and manners, 

 combined with a familiar knowledge of the world, its myths 



