36 i STABLE SECRETS. 



CHAPTEE VL 



In tlie fulness of time, and long before the early village cock 

 had made his usual matin request for the drowsy milkmaid to 

 " k ope-the-dairy-do-or" with all convenient dispatch, Puffy 

 Doddles shook off as feverish a slumber as ever mocked the 

 effects of " Nature's sweet restorer." Robert Top's " best lad" 

 bore the outward appearance of being far removed from the 

 smallest perceptible right to that enviable distinction. He 

 looked, indeed, as having conducted himself in a manner most 

 likely to produce a name anything but the superlative of " good." 

 To allege that Puffy Doddles illustrated that physical and men- 

 tal condition well-known among " loose fish " as " seedy," barely 

 comes up to the mark of a faithful description of the state of his 

 inward and outward feelings upon the morning of that eventful 

 day when Sunshine was to realise or disappoint the hopes of his 

 " party ; ' for the Two Thousand Guineas ; to say nothing of fill- 

 ing with joy or breaking — in a figurative sense — the sensitive 

 heart of his attendant. The dream, it is true, ended brilliantly, 

 in the son of Glitter and Comet winning in " a walk ; " but 

 Puffy Doddles recollected, the moment he became conscious of 

 being awake, to have heard that visions of the night were 

 governed by laws emanating from adverse causes. If, therefore, 

 his dream was not directed by exceptional influences, " winning 

 in a walk " clearly signified " beaten in a trot." The deduction 

 proved anything but soothing to the already dejected feeling of 

 Puffy Doddles. His breast heaved with a long-drawn sigh, and 

 the air drawn quickly between his tightly-clenched teeth hissed 

 with the sound of an irritated goose. 



Robert Top's best lad combed his hair backwards through 

 the medium of his fingers, and, having got it in a bunch from 

 the forehead, held it in a vice-like grasp, as he stared at 

 nothing, although looking into the hazy future with the " mind's 

 eye," which often stretches far beyond the best of telescopes or 

 most powerful of lens. 



