"Don't be silly, old thing. I haven't won the Derby yet," Tony proclaimed, in a hurt voice.
"Don't be afraid, my lord; you can't lose it next year, not if you tried. Of course I'm not going to say yet for certain whether it'll be with the colt or with the filly; but I think it'll be with the filly."
"Which reminds me," said Tony. "We haven't given the lady a name yet."
"Why not Vanity Girl?" Houston suggested.
"Of course," Tony shouted, gleefully. "Vanity Girl she is."
Dorothy protested that the name would bring bad luck and begged for Mignonette instead.
"Mignonette won a race at Liverpool only yesterday," said the trainer.
"But there must be plenty of other names that haven't been used," Dorothy insisted. "As we've got the Full Moon of Clare, why shouldn't we call the filly Supporting Angel?"
"Well," said Mr. Starkey, "with her ladyship's permission, I prefer Vanity Girl. It sounds like a winner."
Tony and Houston were emphatically in favor of Vanity Girl, and the filly was named accordingly. Dorothy stayed behind to contemplate the beautiful creature in her box, the fair, shimmering creature lately anonymous and now burdened with what was surely a title of ill omen.