62 The Great Downshire Handicap 



so very frequently, thinks that he cannot be beaten if all 

 goes well ; for ' there's always an " if," ' as Chattress is ac- 

 customed to remind those who enjoy the benefit of his 

 advice. Chattress is on the back of Lord Beverwycke's 

 horse— his lordship is Cecil Auburn's elder brother, 

 takes little interest in his horses, never bets, and races 

 no one, probably including himself, understands why ; 

 but Cecil is keen, and devotes himself with delight to 

 managing the horses, which Beverwycke gladly leaves in 

 his hands, watching them run, lose, or win on the 

 infrequent occasions when he ' goes racing,' looking 

 very much bored all the time. As for Cecil, his means 

 forbid much speculation, for the thousand a year his 

 brother allows him for looking after the horses, added to 

 little more than the same sum of his own, is all his 

 income, and that does not go far if one deals much with 

 the ring. 



Here, however, the horses come, or rather three of 

 them, for a mealy chesnut mare cannot live at the pace, 

 and young Chattress, who is riding, judiciously eases his 

 mount. One of the others also has to be driven a bit to 

 hold his own ; but Fortunatus, a superb-looking golden 

 chesnut without a white mark on him, sweeps along not 

 extended, his rider and trainer, Dick Chattress, still 

 standing in his stirrups and bending in a graceful pose 

 peculiar to himself over his horse's powerful neck. A 

 little six -stone boy is on the bay mare by his side, and 

 as they near the place where the two observers are wait- 

 ing he sits down and finishes with his hands, his master 

 watching him and saying something, apparently in the 

 way of counsel or encouragement, which does not reach 

 the spectators. 



' 'Pon my word J never saw a better mover ! ' Howard 



