"I thought myself quite sure to win!" exclaimed Harry, still looking with angry astonishment after Peter, who was making odd grimaces, and holding up the half-crown in a most teazing manner. "I would rather have thrown my money into the sea than given it to Peter." "Think, too, how many pleasanter and better ways there are, in which you might have spent it!" added Lady Rockville. "Look at that poor blind man whom you could have relieved, or consider what a nice present you should have given to Laura! But there seem to be no more brains in your head, Harry, than in her thimble!" "Peter is quite a little black-leg already," observed Miss Perceval. "I never saw such a boy! So fond of attracting notice, that he would put on a cap and bells if that would make him stared at. Last Saturday he undertook for a bet to make a ceremonious bow to every lamp-post along Prince's Street, and I wish you could have seen the wondering crowd that gradually collected as he went along, performing his task with the most perfect composure and impudence." "For cool assurance, I hope there are not many boys equal to him," said Lady Rockville. "He scattered out of the window lately several red-hot half-pence, among some beggars, and I am told they perfectly stuck to the poor creatures' fingers when trying to pick them up; and he was sent a message, on his pony, one very cold day lately, to Lady De Vere's, who offered, when he was taking leave, to cut him one of her finest camellias, to which he replied, 'I would much rather you offered me a hot potatoe!'" "Peter feels no sympathy in your disappointment, Harry," added Miss Perceval; "but we might as well expect wool on a dog, as friendship from a gambler, who would ruin his own father, and always laughs at those who lose." "Go and cut your wisdom teeth, Harry!" said Captain Digby, smiling. "Any one must have been born blind not to observe that the grey horse was falling behind; but you have bought half-a-crown's worth of wisdom by experience, and I hope it will last for life. Never venture to bet even that your own head is on your shoulders, or it may turn out a mistake." "Harry is now the monkey that has seen the world, and I think it will be a whole year of Saturdays before he ever commits such a blunder again," continued Lady Rockville. "We must for this once, not complain of what has occurred to Lady Harriet, because she would be exceedingly displeased, but certainly you are a most ingenious little gentleman for getting into scrapes!"