210 THE HAUGHTYSHIRE HUNT. 



first vehicles to arrive here was that conveying The Chase 

 party ; it was followed, at a brief interval, by the Catchem 

 Court carriage. Miss Lucretia desiring to keep a strict eye 

 on Travers's movements. Somehow or other, Lucretia had 

 always entertained a vague sense of mistrust ever since 

 that first sign of ' jibbing ' exhibited by her swain (' swine,' 

 Jack called him), and liked to keep him well up to the 

 mark by being constantly at his side. She had made him 

 a silk racing-jacket — green, a most appropriate colour, with 

 big yellow spots on it, the size of an archery target — and 

 this article, together with a silk jockey-cap, considerably too 

 small for his fat — or more politel}' speaking, massive — head, 

 reposed at that moment, in a brown leather kit-bag, at the 

 bottom of the Binkie carriage. 



Eonald, knowing perfectly well what was Travers's object 

 in riding, had tried to persuade him to run his old horse 

 in one of the smaller races ; but with the persistence of a 

 weak man, Mr. Binkie was deaf to all arguments and insisted 

 upon entering the field for the big event of the day, the 

 Duke of Haughtyshire's Cup, a prize presented each year by 

 His Grace, who did this, as he did all things, well. The 

 cup was something worth winning, and very difterent to the 

 ' nominal value ' silver-gilt atrocities so unblushingl}^ offered 

 at some meetings we wot of now. On this occasion, it took 

 the form of a two-handled loving-cup, with wreaths of roses 

 embossed on it, and a space, cunningly left by the silver- 

 smith's art, for the name of the winning horse and owner to 

 be engraved thereon. It was exhibited on its ebony pedestal 

 in the front of the Grand Stand, and formed the cynosure 

 of all eyes. 



