164 MY FIRST AND LAST STEEPLE-CHASE 



was the signal for a general departure. One by one 

 our fair guests drove away, leaving 



" The banquet-hall deserted." 



The last man to go was the priest. As he 

 mounted his horse I saw him hand Dick a sheaf of 

 dingy-looking bank-notes, and they parted, hoping 

 to meet again the following season, when the latter 

 pledged himself to bring something out of his own 

 stable to race against the mare. But we only 

 appeared there once since in public, and that was at 

 a wedding. Before the next autumn came round 

 we had settled down into steady married men. I 

 still hunt, but have grown stouter, and the old mare 

 has given place to a weight-carrier. The mare 

 draws my wife and children to church regularly, 

 however, and though rather matronly-looking, is as 

 full of life and spirit as when she started with her 

 master to win his first and " last " steeple-chase. 



