“Not a doubt of it, my dear mother,” replied he; “this has been my worst year for a long time, and you know I never holloa before I’m hurt. Goodwood _ought_ to have pulled me through, if ‘Sennacherib’ hadn’t failed at the last stride. I am afraid to say, and I can believe you had rather not hear, what that odd six inches cost me. No, mother, I can’t go on much longer; I don’t see my way a bit. If a general election comes I shall have to bolt.” “Listen to me, Mount,” said her ladyship. “I have a plan that may save us all yet. I shall take a house at Bubbleton for the winter, and wherever I have a roof over my head you know I am too happy to give you a home. You can send down two or three horses, and hunt quietly in the neighbourhood, instead of going off to Melton with eight or ten, and losing a fortune at whist; and of all places I know, Bubbleton is the most likely for something to _turn up_--then _if_ we should arrange matters with Miss Kettering, everything will go smoothly; but there is one thing I must beg of you, my dear Mount, and that is to give up the turf. It is all I ask,” said her ladyship, with tears in her eyes--“all I ask in return for my devotion to your interests is to sell those horrid race-horses, and give the thing up altogether.” Mount made a wry face--“Sennacherib,” notwithstanding his defeat, which, as usual, was from no lack of speed or stamina, but entirely in consequence of _the way the race was run_--“Sennacherib” was the very darling of his heart; and he had, besides, amongst his yearlings, _such_ a filly, that promised, as far as babies of that age can promise, to have the speed of the wind. Must these treasures go to Tattersall’s? Must the hopes of Olympic triumphs and future mines of wealth be all knocked down to the highest bidder, as the stud of a nobleman declining racing? It was a bitter pill; but he knew his mother was a strong-minded woman--he knew that if she insisted on the sacrifice being made a part of the bargain, nothing would induce her to fulfil her share unless he fulfilled his. He recollected how, in his father’s time, crabbed as that respectable nobleman undoubtedly was, my lady always got her own way in the long-run, and he determined to make a virtue of necessity and give in, consoling himself with the reflection that, when all was arranged, he could easily buy some more horses with his wife’s money. So he promised with a good grace, and his mother kissed him, and called him “her own dear boy”; and the pair separated--my lord to get upon “Trictrac” and ride down to Richmond, whither there is no occasion for us to follow him--my lady to write sundry little notes to her friends, to consult with her agent about letting her house in London--and then, with a good book upon her knee, to indulge in dreamy castle-building schemes for upholding the integrity of the house of Mount Helicon, not unmixed with rosier visions as regarded her own prospects for the future.