64 A TROT, AND A DINNER TARTY. 



shako as he spoke, and at his word the two clever 

 nags got under way at once, his long, straight whip 

 standing erect in its socket, as i^ they had been actu- 

 ated by a single impulse, taking precisely the same 

 stroke, and lifting their legs with bent knees and 

 square action, as truly and precisely as if they had 

 been lounged and trained for months to go together, 

 and stepping rather like the duplicate of one fine trot- 

 ter, than the best pair that were ever lapped in horse- 

 hide. As they wheeled into the back lane by which 

 the party had walked up to the stables, already going, 

 though they had not started many seconds, at the rate 

 of nine or ten miles the hour, so quickly did the true 

 and fleet little animals get to their work, half a dozen 

 or more of the grooms and supernumeraries, who were 

 lounging about on that comparatively leisure day, 

 paused and turned to look after them, with many a 

 whispered comment on the speed, style and appearance 

 of the clippers, and many a murmured note of admi- 

 ration as to who the strange gentleman might be who 

 was tooling the duke ; for with the kindest and most 

 popular man in Melton, if not in all England, there 

 were none there who were not well acquainted. 



By the time they had got to the end of the bye-lane, 

 where it turned round the corner of Fairfax's lodging, 

 at the distance of perhaps a mile from his stables, into 

 the main street, they were going well together at the 

 most slapping pace that ever had been seen in the 

 streets of Melton Mowbray, not less certainly than at 

 the rate of a mile in three minutes or twenty miles an 

 hour, as was very evident from the fact that Matus- 

 chevitz and Cheshire, though both mounted on thor- 

 ough-breds, and no bad ones either, had about as much 

 as they could do to keep side by side with them ; for 

 tlie lane having a firm sandy soil, which had been ren- 

 dered compact by late rains, without being made deep 

 or heavy, was, indeed, as Fairfax said, very nearly 



