over Fred’s respectable though broken-winded
steed long enough to show that he thought it worth
consideration, and it seemed probable that he would
take it, with five-and-twenty pounds in addition,
as the equivalent of Diamond. In that case Fred,
when he had parted with his new horse for at least
eighty pounds, would be fifty-five pounds in pocket
by the transaction, and would have a hundred and thirty-five
pounds towards meeting the bill; so that the deficit
temporarily thrown on Mr. Garth would at the utmost
be twenty-five pounds. By the time he was hurrying
on his clothes in the morning, he saw so clearly the
importance of not losing this rare chance, that if
Bambridge and Horrock had both dissuaded him, he would
not have been deluded into a direct interpretation
of their purpose: he would have been aware that
those deep hands held something else than a young
fellow’s interest. With regard to horses,
distrust was your only clew. But scepticism,
as we know, can never be thoroughly applied, else life
would come to a standstill: something we must
believe in and do, and whatever that something may
be called, it is virtually our own judgment, even
when it seems like the most slavish reliance on another.
Fred believed in the excellence of his bargain, and
even before the fair had well set in, had got possession
of the dappled gray, at the price of his old horse
and thirty pounds in addition—only five
pounds more than he had expected to give.
But he felt a little worried and wearied, perhaps
with mental debate, and without waiting for the further
gayeties of the horse-fair, he set out alone on his
fourteen miles’ journey, meaning to take it
very quietly and keep his horse fresh.
“The offender’s
sorrow brings but small relief
To him who wears the
strong offence’s cross.”
—SHAKESPEARE:
Sonnets.
I am sorry to say that only the third day after the
propitious events at Houndsley Fred Vincy had fallen
into worse spirits than he had known in his life before.
Not that he had been disappointed as to the possible
market for his horse, but that before the bargain
could be concluded with Lord Medlicote’s man,
this Diamond, in which hope to the amount of eighty
pounds had been invested, had without the slightest
warning exhibited in the stable a most vicious energy
in kicking, had just missed killing the groom, and
had ended in laming himself severely by catching his
leg in a rope that overhung the stable-board.
There was no more redress for this than for the discovery
of bad temper after marriage— which of
course old companions were aware of before the ceremony.
For some reason or other, Fred had none of his usual
elasticity under this stroke of ill-fortune:
he was simply aware that he had only fifty pounds,
that there was no chance of his getting any more at
present, and that the bill for a hundred and sixty
