By this time the whole party had become infected with that fierce spirit of cupidity which assails respectable Britons when they find themselves in the neighbourhood of that singularly uncorrupt animal, the horse; and the succeeding half-hour was devoted by seven well-born and well-to-do persons to an elaborate consideration of the best means of depriving a hard-working and mainly deserving section of the community of as large a sum of money as possible. Our symposium resulted in a far from unanimous decision. Lady Adela, having studied the list of owners’ names upon the card, handed me a sovereign and instructed me to seek out a book-maker who should be both cheap and respectable, and back the Earl of Moddlewick’s Extinguisher and Mr. Hector McCorquodale’s Inverary. Mr. Crick, the expert of the party, let fall dark hints on the subject of a quadruped named The Chicken. Dicky and I decided to wait until the numbers went up. "Dick, you must positively back a horse for me this time," announced Miss Beverley. "You are getting on, Hilda!" replied The Freak, obviously pleased to find his beloved in sympathy with his simple pleasures. Miss Beverley handed him five shillings. "And if the horse does n’t win I shall never speak to you again," she concluded; and from the tone of her voice I could not help feeling that she meant what she said. "What is your selection this time, Connie?" asked Sylvia. Miss Damer produced a dirty pink envelope and began to open it. Dicky laughed. "Connie has been patronising a tipster," he said. "I got this," explained Miss Damer, "from a man on the course. His name was Lively. He was trying to earn an honest living, he said, by supplying reliable stable information to sportsmen; but he did n’t seem to be getting on very well, poor thing! People were standing all round him in a ring, laughing, and nobody would buy any of his envelopes, although he had given lots of them the winner of the first race for nothing. Just then he caught sight of Dicky and me standing on the edge of the crowd. He pushed his way towards us, and said that if I bought one of his tips, he knew it would bring him luck. He said," Miss Damer added with a smile of genuine gratification, "that I was a beautiful young lady. So I bought one of his envelopes, and after that a lot of other people did, too." Dicky grinned. "Yes; that was the point at which we ought to have passed along quietly," he said. "Did n’t you?" I asked. "Bless you, no! Connie had n’t nearly finished. She and her friend were as thick as thieves by this time. The conversation was just beginning to interest them." "What did you find to talk about, Miss Damer?" asked Hilda Beverley curiously. "I could n’t help wondering," Connie continued, "whether he had a wife and children to support; so I asked him if he was married. He said he was afraid he was, but if ever he became a widower he would let me know. We left after that."