A Good Day 43 



local Hunt Steeplechases were the only events I had 

 ever attended. I had casually read the racing news now 

 an4 then, knew the names of some of the principal 

 owners, and so forth ; but that was the limit of my 

 information. The anxiety of Wennington and the others 

 for the special '' Standard " was extreme, and when it 

 came they began all over again a discussion about next 

 day's sport. They were all members of the Club. I 

 was not, of course ; but the idea of anybody doing any- 

 thing else next day except going to Sandown obviously 

 struck them as inconceivable, and so it was arranged 

 that I was to meet them on the platform at Waterloo 

 next morning at 12.15 ; and though I could not go into 

 the Club Stand, I could see the races from the reserved 

 enclosure, and meet Wennington in the paddock between 

 times, to be posted up in all the latest information. 



* I went down in the Members' train — no, I ought not 

 to have done so, but as a matter of fact I still see people 

 who have no business there doing so now — and it was 

 agreed by Wennington and the others that the card was 

 regularly laid out for backers — they couldn't go wrong. 

 One cautious man in the corner of the carriage pro- 

 pounded the suggestion that cards of this sort were the 

 most dangerous : something unexpected always happened, 

 and the good things w^ere upset ; but it couldn't be so 

 to-day, they declared. Anyhow^ I was to meet my friend 

 at an appointed place in the paddock before each race, 

 and he would tell me what conclusions he had come to, 

 he promised. The w^hole process of betting was strange 

 to me ; and understanding this, when we got down he 

 thoughtfully introduced me to a prominent bookmaker, 

 Mr. Eoaster, with the intimation that I was solvent 

 and had a permanent address. 



