Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1894-03-01
A Fortune on -Four Legs.
CHAPTER Y

some anxiety for the telegram which
would ii - US the result Of the City and
Z Suburban. Natty went up TO see the
mare run in this her first race of i'm
portance lat was unable to. so many
Of ours being on leave at the time.
Nat Wire gave: Cork Jacket, first;
Retrenchmtnt, second; Lady Comely,
third Your mare ran we'll Ran
well. cunfUund her! How did she run
well when she didn't even get place:
That WAS always their story, Nat 5 and
Pearce'S Perhaps they would have
/ been less satisfied if they had had to
pay her training bill at the end of the
year. However, there WAS no need to
/ bother about that, for | had the money
III hand, and. moreover, she soon won
small race again ut Leicester and
another 1T Derby This was all very
/ well, but it would not enable me to
marry Ella. | wanted to pull off Il coup
and have done with it.
1t appeared from Natty's letter that
the mare did run extremely we'll at Ep
som. although had been disconnected,
finishing in fact close NJ behind the
leaders. She WIS very nearly first class,
-NGbtN Sll't. anu tllN XII II NCu4N NtlIN
I before long. hut must not Let her win
too many small races lest she should
lttratt too much attention from the
/ nandicappcrs. Acting ON this idea, we
ran h,r Int a few times during the
summer months when the ground --as
hard. hoping TO get her we'll in for some
of the autg.Im handicaps. So there was
no Ascot for me with Ella in the blue
and gold. Eut no matter All | as
pircd to NOW was tie winning of some
good handicap which would bring me Il
couple Of thousands or so to put in FL
la : svttlem,nt.
learned lot about racing from
Nat-cnough 10 see very plainly what
an awful moss ! should have made of
my unclr's legacy hut for his superior
knowledge. OF course | knew that tia
classic races. 50 to speak Derby. Oaks,
St. Lcg,r and so on-wcre the great
things to win and did not understand
much about these handicaps. | had
heard our fellows talking about cup
horses, handicap horses and platcrs,
etc. and WAS under In" impression that
the animals which I.n in handlCaps
N'.lA' tit ne Eill illi' Ii'l (ItI>S- lIo,
Nattv assured nv. WAS Y no means the
case; that nowadays horses of the high
st class c.nnI't 1 il such races, and
rtrd ISo- ,;-.y. >.-.a: Il l.,;,lr his rep
utati1n in t. "a. So :;1:i.'u. Il Ter
Icy winner. N.o... { T. rfCrmance
had Eecn t. GARY Il ;. 4 N:,IIht sue
rcSSfully in the t.~.. l...,h These he
considered tin 81 ; ia-r horses since
Blair Athol sklt.i,.,. Ia ; ,iI. had beat
I'll Il lot OF uefII animals i'll her first
essay with tn" cracks. incIuding Pc
dungtcr her former trial nag. and il
WIS quit. an the cards that She wOulG
one day pull oil Il good lace fer me.
I'm this hope | YRS To keep on running
her ut the discretion of himself and
Pcarcr.
McauwhtIc my relations with Ella
remained in Statu quo. | could seldom
Il" her now in consequence of the az
tIun taken hv her parents. who CUntin.
u,'l to press pukyn upon her with what
seemed 10 me al uminahly bad taste,
:or, though thtre might he nothing
against my cousin Richard. yet girl
Of Elias sensc might he supposed 10
know with which of her suitors she had
thr lest hcl.c of happiness. and she had
already >l-uiiiCd her choice. Neverthe-
less ii came hard ON me that, while he
WIS allowed free access to my lady
love, | WIS never permitted To see her,
50 that whatever communications pass
ed between Us We're necessarily of
>,mitlandc>tiue character, and this was
10th irksume and undignified to persons
of full age aud possessed of their fair
share Of common sense. Had | been
in parliament ut this time, should GER
tainlv have cudcavored to bring in Il
bill for the limitation of parental au-
thuritv in respect of grown up daugh-
ters. WIS particularly annoyed about
it for my mother sake. who, while
fully approving of Ella. resented this
treatment Of her son as an Indignity to
his family. which she naturally held to
h. quite rs good Il one as the CholmOn-
drlv- DaVCuUurtS. In consequence she
urged me to give mp Ella, and | was
daily in dread of her making; it point
of duty to herself that | should do so
There are few more disagreeablc situa-
tiuns for an honorable man to be in
than t. he engaged TO a girl under such
circumstances. There WAS no valid
reason for giving it up and little salts
faction in continuing the engagement.
Happily NY interview with Ella at the
ball had removed from me all doubts
a. tu her consistency. as we'll as any jcal-
ou>y mi-ht have felt toward my rival.
With what amount of honor my cuus-
in Richard behaved toward INC at this
tim" | have never quite known We
did not often meet, but when we did
We were civil enough to each other,
and no word about Ella ever passed Ee-
tween rs. Some one however, I'M
doubtedly did at this time spread a very
nasty report concerning me, that was
running myself by betting, as my uncle
had done who left me the horses, and
that, having been poor man to start
with, | was already on my last legs.
Now, this report, although absolutely
untrue, was calculated to do me serious
mischief under my present Circum-
stances. | felt sure that it must have
reached the ears of the DavenpOrts be-
fore it came round to me, and no doubt
they would make use of it to prejudice
me with Ella. | had no misgivings as
to her waiting for an explanation from
lIlts buL lAAtill W Ililc IL NOuIC uldh6 utT
anxious, and could not remember that
| had ever told her of my resolution to
have nothing to do with the bookmak-
ers, although l had entered upon their
domain. The report, at any rate, gained
ground, and at length the colonel,
seeing me perhaps more gloomy and re-
,erved than l was wont to be, asked me
about it and appeared greatly relieved
when l told him there was not the
slightest foundation for such a report.
But he said kindly enough:
Il am deuced glad to hear it. L don't
like to interfere in matters of a private
nature, but | do wish, Martindale, you
could see your way to getting rid of
those race horses. If you don't bet