of billiards, or to chat
over the racing events of the next day.

Loud greetings were exchanged as each fresh contingent arrived, for many
newcomers had come into the station only that afternoon. Every table in
the whist room was occupied, black pool was being played in the billiard
room upstairs, where most of the younger men were gathered, while the
elders smoked and talked in the rooms below.

"What will you do, Bathurst?" the Doctor asked his guest, after
the party from the Major's had been chatting for some little time
downstairs. "Would you like to cut in at a rubber or take a ball at
pool?"

"Neither, Doctor; they are both accomplishments beyond me; I have not
patience for whist, and I can't play billiards in the least. I have
tried over and over again, but I am too nervous, I fancy; I break down
over the easiest stroke--in fact, an easy stroke is harder for me than
a difficult one. I know I ought to make it, and just for that reason, I
suppose, I don't."

"You don't give one the idea of a nervous man, either, Bathurst."

"Well, I am, Doctor, constitutionally, indeed terribly so."

"Not in business matters, anyhow," the Doctor said, with a smile. "You
have the reputation of not minding in the slightest what responsibility
you take upon yourself, and of carrying out what you undertake in the
most resolute, I won't say high handed, manner."

"No, it doesn't come in there," Bathurst laughed. "Morally I am not
nervous so far as I know, physically I am. I would give a great deal if
I could get over it, but, as I have said, it is constitutional."

"Not on your father's side, Bathurst. I knew him well, and he was a very
gallant officer."

"No, it was the other side," Bathurst said; "I will tell you about it
some day."

At this moment another friend of Bathurst's came up and entered into
conversation with him.

"Well, I will go upstairs to the billiard room," the Doctor said; "and
you will find me there, Bathurst, whenever you feel disposed to go."

A pool had just finished when the Doctor entered the billiard room.

"That is right, Doctor, you are just in time," Prothero said, as he
entered. "Sinclair has given up his cue; he is going to ride tomorrow,
and is afraid of shaking his nerves; you must come and play for the
honor of the corps. I am being ruined altogether, and Doolan has retired
discomfited."

"I have not touched a cue since I went away," the Doctor said, "but I
don't mind adding to the lis