Lady Adela and I studiously avoided all reference to gardening or diet upon our six-mile drive to Laxley, and reached the course in a condition of comparative amicability. We arrived just in time to hear the roar that greeted the result of the first race. "I wonder what has won," I said, as the victoria bumped over the grass. "I have never been greatly interested in racing," said Lady Adela majestically. "My father was devoted to it, and so is my brother Rumborough. But I never know one horse from another. For instance, I have not the faintest notion which of the two animals now drawing us is Romulus and which is Remus, although Dick says it is impossible to mistake them. But then Dick has a name for every animal in the estate. Ah! there is the motor, against the railings! That is rather a relief. Dear Constance is an excellent driver, Dick says, but she is inclined to be venturesome." "Miss Damer appears to be a lady of exceptional talents," I observed. "Yes, indeed!" agreed Lady Adela, with, for her, quite remarkable enthusiasm. "It is a pity she has no money." I do not know whether the last remark was intended as a lamentation or an intimation. But I understood now why Miss Damer was only First Reserve. I changed the subject. "I suppose you do not bet, Lady Adela?" "I make it a rule," replied my hostess precisely, "to put half-a-sovereign on any horse whose owner we happen to know. One should always support one’s friends, should not one?" I was still pondering in my heart Lady Adela’s system of turf speculation, wondering whether if every animal in the race had belonged to a friend she would have backed it, and in any case what benefit or otherwise (beyond shortening the price) one confers upon an owner by backing his horses at all, when the victoria, rolling heavily, came to anchor astern of the motor, and Hilda Beverley, Sylvia, and Crick, who had been standing upon the seats to view the race, turned to greet us. "I had no idea racing was so exciting, dear Lady Adela," exclaimed Miss Beverley. "I came armed with a copy of ’The Nation,’ prepared to spend the afternoon in the back seat of the car, and here I am quite thrilled." "I am so glad, dear Hilda," said Lady Adela graciously. "Dick would have been disappointed if you had not enjoyed yourself. Where is that boy, by the way?" "He and Connie have gone to collect Mr. Carmyle’s winnings," said Sylvia. "Has--ha! h’m!--Plumstone won, then?" I enquired, timorously avoiding Lady Adela’s eye. "Yes, worse luck!" replied Mr. Crick lugubriously. "We were all on Mercutio. But Miss Damer stuck to it that Plumstone was the right horse, and made Dicky put on five shillings for her and five for you. They got three to one, I believe." At this moment Dicky and Miss Damer returned from the ring, and I was duly presented with six half-crowns. "Three-quarters of an hour till the next race," announced Dicky. "Better have lunch."