. So I returned and somehow found myself pledged to
compete as a Progressive for the next London County Council--for a
constituency down Bethnal Green way. In all this, you see, my orbit
and Foe's wouldn't often intersect. But we dined together on
birthdays and other occasions. One year I took him down to the
Derby, on the ground that it was part of a liberal education. In the
paddock he nodded at a horse in blinkers and said, "What's the matter
with that fellow?" "St. Amant," said I, and began to explain why
Hayhoe had put blinkers on him. "Where does he stand in the
betting?" asked Foe. "Why, man," said I, "at 5 to 1. You can't risk
good money on a horse of that temper. I've put mine on the French
horse over there--Gouvernant--easy favourite--7 to 4 on." "Oh," said
he, in a silly sort of way, "I thought St. Amant might be your French
horse--it's a French name isn't it? . . . As for your Gouvernant, I
advise you to run for your life and hedge: the animal is working up
for a stage fright. A touch more and he's dished before the flag
drops. Now, whether the blinkers have done it or not, that St. Amant
is firm as a rock." "How the devil--" I began. "That's a fine
horse, too, over yonder," he said, pointing one out with his
umbrella. "John o' Gaunt," said I: "ran second to St. Amant for the
Guineas, and second to Henry the First in the Newmarket, with St.
Amant third. The running has been all in-and-out this season.
But how the devil you spotted him, when I didn't know you could tell
a horse's head from his stern--" "I don't profess to much more,"
said Foe; "but it's my job to read an animal's eye, and what he's fit
for by the quiver under his skin. Now, I'd only a glimpse of St.
Amant's eye, across his blinkers, and your John o' Gaunt is a stout
one--inclined, you tell me, to run in second place. But if your
money's on Gouvernant, hurry while there's time and set it right.
If you've thirty seconds to spare when you've done that," he added,
"you may put up a tenner for me on St. Amant--but don't bother. Your
book may want some arranging."

The way he said it impressed me, and I fairly shinned back to the
Ring. I hadn't made my book on any reasoned conviction, you
understand; for the horses had been playing at cat's-cradle all
along, and as I went it broke on me that, after all, my faith in
Gouvernant mainly rested on my knowing less of him than of the
others--that I was really going with the crowd.