1879—80.] 



MARCH SUN AND SCENT. 



327 



ment is in one instance having a fair trial; and the good 

 quadruped who is called upon to submit himself as the subject 

 submits very placidly to the trial. He is housed amid damask 

 hangings, stretclies himself on a Turkey carpet, and a velvet 

 ottoman supports his manger. And this is how the idea sug- 

 gested itself to young Melton's fertile brain. It was before 

 breakfast, some hours, that a rider came up the drawing-room 

 stairs. Had he ridden down again, he would have been tlie 

 richer by an honest penny. But his trusted steed refused the 

 office ; his wager was lost; and all he could do was to make 

 the best of his failure by selling his horse upstaks for a 

 century less than he had refused for him on terra firma. The 

 winner of the bet was the buyer ; and he thus finds himself in a 

 position to afford scaffolding and crane, by means of which his 

 new purchase will eventually return to humbler quarters. At 

 present the latter appears to be very much at his ease, ap- 

 parently feehng in no degi'ee abashed by the novelty and 

 grandeur of his position. The occasion of his descent is to be 

 held as high holiday by the townsfolk, and will be considered 

 as the vdnding-up event of the Melton season. 



