336 



An Over-reach 



devoid of any points on which the eye of the impartial 

 critic could dwell with pleasure ; but the owner of a 

 steed that has carried him to victory after a long succes- 

 sion of failures to get first past the post is not quite an 

 unprejudiced judge. Harry had been very happy since 

 Sanfield Meeting, although he had derived a somewhat 

 mitigated satisfaction from the papers. Most of them 

 had seemed to him culpably deficient in comment. 





mm 



iltjWuiuy 



He looks well, doesn't he ? ' 



Their announcements, as a rule, had been far too bare. 

 They had merely, for the most part, said that the race 

 was won by Beanfeast, ridden by his owner ; one had 

 indeed declared that ' after a most energetic attempt to 

 throw the race away, Mr. Montague had gained an 

 entirely unmerited victory,' and another had referred to 

 the owner's ' admirably successful imitation of a wind- 

 mill in a gale ' ; but a more amiable writer had said that 



