"Every penny I possess in the world is on Paulus. I’ve backed it at ’sevens’ already, you know. It’ll cost a couple of pounds to get on to the stand. We shall have to train it, my dear, and walk down the course." Ruby glanced ruefully at her long narrow shoes and silk stockings. "Right ho! I believe I’d walk through your Devonshire bogs if you asked me. But I say, Rupert, suppose Paulus doesn’t win? What on earth are we going to do?" Rupert shrugged his shoulders. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. If I pass my final—well, I suppose I shall get a job somewhere and the old man will be so pleased that he’ll forgive me.... I’ll manage somehow. Find tin in an old disused mine we’ve got on our property, and float a company." He spoke lightly, but a shadow crossed his face. He looked at Ruby again and found himself wondering how much her clothes had cost, how much money they had managed to waste together during the happy months they had known one another. And then, again, he saw the queer eerie little farmhouse lying tucked between the granite tors: on one side of it the Dart purred to the sea; stretching away to the left a few fields surrounded by stone walls and the cattle standing in the green grass. And beyond, the vast peat bogs with the rushes flinging their white seed to the wind, and creeping up the hills the purple heather with patches of wild gorse; and little Marjorie milking the cows, scalding the cream, and making the butter. If he had failed in his final examination? His body grew suddenly cold, he shuddered. He could not face his father then. "What’s the matter?" Ruby stepped forward and took Rupert’s hand. "I was wondering, if Paulus didn’t win?" he stammered. "But, of course it will. Come along, or we shall miss the train!" Rupert slung his race-glasses over his shoulder, put on his hat, and together they ran downstairs. At the front door the landlady of the lodgings met him. She drew Rupert aside and reminded him that his bill was three weeks overdue. "You said you would let me have something to-day, sir. I’m sorry to trouble you, but——" "Of course, I forgot. I’ll pay you to-night without fail," he cried cheerfully. Then, slamming the front door behind him, he slipped his arm through Ruby’s. Hailing a passing taxi-cab they drove to Waterloo Station. * * * * * Epsom Downs looked like a vast ant-hill. The very air seemed to shake and quiver with the cries of the multitude. The great race of the day was due to start. Paulus was a hot favourite. It was difficult to get bookmakers to lay two to one against it. "By gad, it can’t lose," Rupert kept on saying. "I shall win enough, Ruby, to pay my debts, with a little to spare." Ruby slipped her hand into his. She looked into his face a trifle uneasily: "You mean if it were to win? Would it be very serious for you if Paulus were to lose?"