HORSEMANSHIP 



107 



his usual bloody cold." He was consequently 

 forced to renounce all hope of ambassadorial 

 fame, and reluctantly consented to occupy an 

 office stool in his father's bank in the City. 

 In the nursery Leopold had long ago evinced 



that excessive fondness for equine society 

 which ultimately proved his undoing. His 

 passionate attachment to a certain dapple-grey 

 rocking-horse was pathetic in its intensity, and 

 he could scarcely bear to be separated for a 

 moment from his favourite. So high, indeed, 

 was his opinion of this animal's powers that 

 he once laid his brother Rupert ten to four (in 



