THE GREAT HANDICAP RACE. 113 



course — in time^ thoug'li, to lay out a fifty for tlie stable^ 

 on the best terms I could. To accomplish this, I was 

 introduced to a professional g-entlemanj who appeared 

 to consider laying- and taking the odds but the proper 

 courtesies of civilized life. I never saw a man, in such a 

 scene, so elaborately calm and studiously polite. In 

 place of the restless, hyena-tramp of " the leviathan," the 

 defiant clamour of my former friend the undertaker, or 

 the " mock-auction " air and tone of too many others, he 

 met you with the collected manner and stately attention of 

 a Chesterfield. There was something- all the more grateful 

 in this, from his personal appearance scarcely leading you 

 to expect it ; for you must couple this g-entle breeding 

 with asquaTish, rather coarsely-made man — a little down 

 in one eye, I'm afraid, and looking- altogether like a west- 

 end pubhcan or highly respectable butcher, who had taken 

 to wearing his best clothes until he had at last got 

 thoroughly used to them. He regretted extremely tliat 

 he could not put me on at more than ten to one — about 

 four points, as I afterwards found, under the price at the 

 time ; as sincerely hoped we might have a turn, ^^ for my 

 man realty deserved it ;" and so left me with a bow and 

 a manner that made me feel under a deep obligation for 

 all he had done for me. 



I can't say much about the race myself, for I hardly 

 understand it now ; but something may be gathered from 

 the comments on it as I caught them up. Little Struggles, 

 for instance, as he waddled in to weigh, after it was over, 

 wished to know, in extreme disgust, " why he had been 

 brought all the way from home to ride such a rip as that ?" 

 The Lifcy again, devoted half-a-line to say that the 

 Kingston colt, overpaced all the way, was "absolutely 

 last ;" while my courtl}'" acquaintance, as he received the 



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