WITH THE PROPHETS. 175 



affair there arose a police case, and although 

 Wingrave was able to convince the magistrate 

 that he had himself been a victim, and had been 

 more sinned against than sinning, he was deprived 

 of his license at the first opportunity, and was 

 unable to obtain possession of another house. 

 Luckily, although two days' drawings had been 

 confiscated by the enraged punters, the ill-used 

 landlord, after paying all claims, had still a few 

 pounds at his banker's, when he was compelled to 

 shut shop. 



Nothing in the public-house line of business 

 being likely to turn up, Wingrave, by the advice 

 of his shrewd wife (her father had been a pugilist, 

 and afterwards lessee of a gin-shop in the region 

 of Lambeth), turned tipster, and under the desig- 

 nation of " a retired club steward," offered to give 

 all who pleased to forward half-a-crown to his 

 house in Pemberton Row the name of a horse 

 which would win the Derby ; or to those who 

 entrusted him with double that amount, he pro- 

 mised, in addition, to give the name of a filly 

 that would be first in the Oaks, and so ensure a 

 remunerative double event. His Derby prophecy 

 proved a true one, the horse he gave being 

 Voltigeur. The filly prophesied for the Oaks, 

 however, only attained the rather barren honour of 

 a place ; still, the tip was considered a good one, 

 fair odds being attainable, which led to much 

 business being done in respect of the next two 

 or three tips. Voltigeurs, however, do not run 

 and win every day, and in time Wingrave came 

 to know by the falling off which took place in the 

 remittances that he would require to make a new 

 departure, which he at once did. 



