"You can't do that, sir. You'll never get her to answer to a new name." "I mean to try, anyhow. Here"--and he slipped half a sovereign into the man's hand. "You make this mare answer to the name of _Ethelberta_, and I'll give you as much more when it's done." "Beg your pardon, sir," said the man, slipping the coin into his pocket--"Beg your pardon, sir, but there never was a 'oss with a name like that. It's not a 'oss's name at all, sir." "Never mind that. Do as I tell you, and you won't regret it. Ethelberta--don't forget." The groom touched his hat. Professor Scattergood left the stables, and presently the groom and his chief pal were rolling in laughter on a heap of straw. A fortnight later the groom said: "The mare answers wonderful well to that new name, sir. Stopped her kicking and biting altogether, sir. Why, the day before we give it her, she tore the shirt off my back and bit a hole in my breeches as big as a mangel-wurzel." "I'll pay for both of them," said Professor Scattergood. "Thank 'ee, sir. But since we give her the new name she's not even made as though she _wanted_ to bite anybody. And as for kicking, why, you might take tea with your mother-in-law right under her heels and she wouldn't knock a saucer over. I nivver see such a thing in all my life, and don't expect nivver to see such another! _Wonderful's_ what I calls it! Though, since I've come to think of it, there _was_ once a 'oss named Ethelberta as won the Buddle Stakes. Our foreman says as he remembers the year it won. Maybe as you had a bit yourself, sir, on that 'oss--though beg your pardon for saying so." "Yes," said the Professor, "I backed Ethelberta for all I was worth, and won ten times as much. Only, some fellow stole the winnings out of my--my inner pocket just before I got home. It was thirty-five years ago." "So it was a bit o' bad luck after all, sir?" "It was," said Scattergood, "extremely bad luck." "Did they ever catch the man, sir?" "They did. They caught him within a year after the theft." "I expect they give it 'im 'ot, sir?" "Yes. He got a life-sentence, the same as mi--the same as that man got who was convicted the other day." At this lame conclusion the groom looked puzzled, and Scattergood had to extricate himself. "You see, Tom," he went on, "the value of what I lost was enormous." "It must have been a tidy haul to get the thief a sentence like that," said Tom. "But maybe he give you a tap on the head into the bargain, sir." "He put a knife into me," said Scattergood, "and the wound aches to this day." For some reason he felt an unwonted pleasure in pursuing this conversation with the sympathetic groom, and inwardly resolved that he would give him a handsome tip.