“Wait till the entries are published and then I will tell you whether we shall win or no. The mare is fit enough as far as that goes, and she’s a good bit honester than most of her sex, but she is no wonder,” Marshall added.
“Oh, they won’t enter anything better than Lone Star—it wouldn’t be worth their while when the winner is to be sold for fifty pounds,” Warton said as he got up, and saying “good night” to his friend, walked up the street in the direction of the Shorts’ house.
As luck would have it, however, it chanced that he saw a man he knew, whom he wished to speak to, in the bar of a hotel he was passing. So he went in and said what he had to say to him, and was going to leave when a certain Mr Howlett appeared on the scene—who about the race meeting became an important individual on the Fields. He was called in the papers “our leading local bookmaker.” He came into the bar, and seeing Warton began to talk to him about the races.
“Is that mare of yours, Lone Star, going to go for anything this time? You were lucky to win with her last year,” Mr Howlett said, looking at Joe in a way that somehow or other annoyed him.
“Lucky! what do you mean by that?” Joe asked; “she won easy enough; what would you like to bet against her winning again?”
“Well, it’s full early to talk about betting, but I shouldn’t mind just backing my opinion as I gave it. Though it ain’t business, I will lay you fifty to twenty-five.”
It happened from one cause and another that Warton was in an half-irritable, half-excited humour—when it’s a relief to do anything. He thought to himself that at the start it would as likely as not be odds on Lone Star, so he took the bet. Mr Howlett booked it with a twinkle in his eye that annoyed Warton.
“You’re one of the sort who are always in a hurry; take the advice of one who knows a bit more than you do, and wait a bit in future,” Mr Howlett said.
The man’s manner irritated Warton strangely. “Like to go on with it, as it’s such a bad bet for me?” he said.
Mr Howlett at first said he didn’t want to go on with it. It wasn’t business to bet before he knew the horses entered. He only had offered a bit of advice to Warton which was meant to be friendly, and if he didn’t take it friendly he could take it how he chose.