elegant grey-clad figure on our return, she could not resist
exclaiming, "See how wrong your suspicions were."

The crowd, set loose after the tension of the race, impeded our
progress, so that by the time we reached him he was alone. Apparently
he had paid off all the other winners, and we were the last claimants
to arrive.

"Ah, I was waiting for you," he said in his easy well-bred fashion.
"You will think it very strange, perhaps, but for the moment I am
unable to pay you. Most absurd. My losses have been rather more than I
calculated, and I have unfortunately disbursed all my available cash.
You need be under no apprehension, however; if you will kindly give me
your address you shall have a cheque by the first post to-morrow."

I tried to recall what one did to welshers. I seemed to remember that
one raised a hue-and-cry, that one tarred and feathered them, and rode
them on a rail to a pond. I am, however, constitutionally timid
about making my voice heard in public, and I was as short of tar and
feathers as he was of ready cash. I had therefore no alternative but
to draw out my pocket-case and present him with a card.

"Ah, thanks," he said, and with a neat little silver pencil he
scribbled on the back a hieroglyph of some sort, doubtless to jog his
memory. Then he wished me good-day with many apologies and, politely
taking off his hat to Selina, sauntered leisurely in the direction of
the railway-station.

I confess that this _contretemps_ somewhat dashed my spirits. Nor
was my chagrin lessened by observing, during the remainder of the
afternoon, my corpulent friend, notwithstanding the closeness of his
eyes to each other, paying off regularly, at the end of each race, a
host of customers with the greatest good grace, enlivened by coarse
jocularities. I followed the rest of the sport with little zest, and
my cup of enjoyment was not filled to overflowing when, possessing
first-class return tickets, we had to stand, Selina as well as myself,
in a crowded third-class smoker.

Selina however preserved both her spirits and her confidence.
Bookmakers, she had heard, were, as a class, most honourable. Their
losses could not be recovered by law, but they regarded them as debts
of honour. There were exceptions, of course, but the gentleman in grey
was not one of them. Something told her so. I should see that she was
right.

At breakfast next morning we scanned our post for a letter in an
unfamiliar handwriting.