"Well," said Dollie, later in the afternoon, "how do we stand? I personally am forty pounds down. Farrar here is fifteen pounds down. Falconer, having neglected my advice, is several pounds to the good. Mrs. Falconer and Mrs. Farrar, having had the good sense to ignore form and the prophets, and to bet entirely on combinations of colour, have made a little, and Ann saved her face. But if we are going to make anything we must do it now. You study the card while Farrar and I go and do some intelligent eavesdropping." On their returning they brought news of a likely outsider named Crumpet, ridden by one of the most successful jockeys of the day. "I've put my shirt on him," said Dollie, "both ways. If he wins I make a lot; if he's only placed I get back my dropped forty." "And if he loses?" I said. "We will draw a veil," Dollie replied. "But my favourite poison is prussic and apollinaris." "Here you are," said Ann Ingleside quietly. "Please put this half-sovereign for me on Witch Hazel to win." "Why Witch Hazel?" Dollie asked. "I fancy him," she said. "Any other orders?" Dollie asked. "Yes," I said, "here is a five pound note and a sovereign. Heaven knows I need both, but if they go it will make a picturesque topic on which to converse at dinners and such places, and if I win, I dare say I shall find something to do with it. I want you to put four pounds on Ratton's mount for a place, and two pounds to win." "Why Ratton's?" Dollie asked. Our independence was beginning to tell on him. "Because Ratton hasn't had a win to-day, and he is in the habit of doing better than that. He will ride like a demon this time because it's the last chance." "Very well," said Dollie. "But why I've been wasting my breath instructing you about racing, I shall never understand." Naomi produced ten shillings and asked for it to be put on my horse, five shillings each way. Downstairs ran Dollie, and we watched him moving from one group to another seeking the largest price--or at least we thought we did, for, from a box at Epsom, every young man in the ring looks alike. It was a race that I shall never forget. The other races Dollie had watched stolidly enough; but here, with so much at stake, he gave in and disappeared from the room. Men seem to be affected very differently. Some hate to see the horses at all, after the start, and at the close come out of retirement to know the result; others watch every step through their glasses, and either learn their fate early or do not know it till the post; some are silent; others shout instructions to the horses and their riders, quite oblivious to the fact that they are a mile away doing their best. The field in this race kept very closely together and the horses passed us in a mass of brown and silk from which our eyes could distinguish nothing definite. So we had to wait for the numbers, which went up like this 9 3 7