278 In Scarlet and Silk 



Tom is already mounted (somewhat to your 

 disappointment, you confess, as it postpones 

 your own promised enjoyment for a brief 

 space of time), and turning to you, Mr. 

 Nemo says — 



*' You'd like to see liow he moves, sir ? 

 We'll just walk through this gate. Tom, 

 take him into the lower paddock." 



And as the chestnut, who carries a beautiful 

 coat in spite of the time of year, moves lightly 

 off down the yard, you pass through a very 

 white painted gate, and find yourself in a 

 smooth-turfed enclosure of some three or 

 four acres, erected on which are obstacles of 

 almost every description under the sun — 

 swinging gates, gorsed hurdles, here a bank, 

 there a ditch, and a little further dowm a 

 somewhat sharply cut, shallow (you know it 

 is shallow because you put your stick into 

 it whilst Mr. Nemo was looking the other 

 way !) brook, the water for which was supplied 

 by means of a big garden hose. In obedience 

 to a wave of the dealer's hat Tom now puts 

 the horse into a slow canter, and you watch 



