28 Phyllis and Ophell4 



bigger horse, and her colour was a thought darker. The 

 blazed faces varied very slightly. On the whole it was 

 really hard to tell which was w^hich when the pair were 

 not together, and anyone but an exceedingly careful 

 observer might readily have made a mistake even when 

 they were. 



When the two were seen out at work the difference 

 was distinct enough. Phyllis was a freer jumper, 

 galloped in better form, and was, all things considered, 

 a good 21 lb. in front of Ophelia. The two varied so 

 much that, there was no disguising it, a really good 

 horseman like Osborne might be led to suspect, or at 

 least to wonder at, the alteration in his mare's way of 

 galloping and jumping ; but for various reasons horses do 

 lose their action and jump indifferently at times ; and 

 to suspect and to prove are different things. Wetheral 

 was safe enough ; Sharpe and Thomas were implicated in 

 the fraud ; the other boys at Dossie's place knew nothing 

 and were not likely to learn anything — it was Dossie's 

 whim to try and have boys about him who could neither 

 read nor write; it might save trouble, he said, and, besides, 

 in this case there was no writing to show anything. Phyllis 

 was going to run in France, and once there (in the name 

 of Ophelia, of course) was not likely to be recognised ; if 

 she were, proof was again well-nigh impossible, even if 

 the suspicious person strove to arrive at facts. What 

 could be said ? Ophelia, b. m., aged, by Solon — Lady Jane, 

 simply took the place of Phyllis, b. m., aged, by Solon — 

 Aspasia. Who was to show that one was the other ? 

 If it came to hard swearing, Wetheral would have been 

 bad to beat ; and so the business was settled. Both took 

 their gallops together, for the race in France (which a 

 stealthy rumour declared was a good thing for Ophelia 



