The Trotter. 147 



the guvnor was coming home from Retford fair, and the guvnor 

 did say when he come home that old Morgan's stockings were tied 

 tighter to shake him off than ever they were in his life before. The 

 guvnor was not half pleased about it, and could not rest easy till he 

 found out who it was." 



"Well, and who was it?" 



"Oh, why, a dealing chap on the other side of the county. It 

 was a mare he was riding. The guvnor's seen her." 



"And what did he think of her?" 



"Why, he rather liked her; but he did not seem to think a deal 

 on her, for I heard him say to the captain as they were looking at 

 old Morgan, after they came home, 'That little Welsh mare's a 

 neat little thing, and not half a bad 'un for a mile, but I should like to 

 get a match on between her and old Morgan for two. It was a 

 deep trick of that chap's turning up the lane when he found he was 

 beaten. He's no fool, that fellow, anyhow.'" 



I never listened so eagerly in my life to any conversation as I did 

 to this ; and if the man had given me ten pounds, I should not have 

 felt half so gratified as I did when I learnt so unexpectedly and by 

 chance the "guvnor's" opinion of my mare. But he was a little 

 out in his reckoning this time, for we had tried the mare to be quite 

 as good at six miles as at one; beyond that we had never gone. I 

 was now in high spirits, for, to tell the truth, I had begun to "funk" 

 a little when I saw those stables and their appointments, for I then 

 knew I had to deal with a man who, whatever irregularities could 

 be laid to his charge, was not very likely to make a mistake in any- 

 thing about horses, and a man, moreover, on whom the experience 

 of every phase in sporting life for thirty years was not likely to have 

 been thrown away. At first I felt as if I had come on a foolhardy 

 errand; and, as Mr. West was out in the village and was not 

 expected back for an hour or two, I had half resolved to sneak 

 home again, and leave old Morgan to the quiet enjoyment oi the 

 honours he had so bravely won and so manfully maintained. 

 Directly, however, I heard what the groom said, I began, like Nick 

 Bradshaw in "The Clockmaker," to feel "quite encouraged like," 



L 2, 



