“Your behaviour towards me, Mr. Tirrett, was of a nature neither easily to be forgotten, nor calculated to make me desirous of cultivating your further acquaintance. I have the honour of wishing you good morning.”
Saying this with the hauteur and dignity of the whole House of Peers combined, Lord Alfred turned his head away from his unwished-for acquaintance and rode on; but Tirrett had an object in view, and was, therefore, not to be so easily shaken off.
“I won’t deny,” he said coolly, “that your Lordship has good reason to be angry with me, for I played you a trick that, if I’d been a gentleman, and your Lordship’s equal, I should consider a very dirty one; but, if your Lordship will consider a minute, you’ll perceive the difference between us.”
Amused, in spite of his anger, at the fellow’s cool audacity, Lord Alfred replied, with a sarcastic laugh—
“I should scarcely imagine that would require any very deep thinking to discover!”
“Your Lordship is sharp upon me this afternoon,” observed Tirrett, in no way disconcerted, “but I was going to remark that horse-dealing, and horse-racing, which you gentlemen enter into for amusement, is the regular business by which such men as myself gain our livelihood; it’s a ticklish sort of trade at the best of times, for we’re liable to be deceived and cheated on all sides as well as other people; so a fellow’s obliged to look out, and never throw away a chance. Now your job was just this,—the Don was recovering from a bad sprain in the off-foreleg when I sold him to you.”
“Pleasant intelligence for the Honourable Billy!” murmured Lord Alfred.
“I thought he’d stand training, but expected he’d break down in the race, and as I never like to ride a losing horse if I can help it, I made my book to win on Black Eagle, but I was obliged to promise to ride Don Pasquale for you, or else you wouldn’t have bought him. I don’t say I acted right by you; but I mean to say that I didn’t act any worse than others that call themselves gentlemen, and your friends too!”
“Do you allude to any one in particular, may I ask?—it is as well to know one’s friends from one’s foes,” inquired Lord Alfred, his curiosity beginning to awaken.
“I allude to Horace D’Almayne. Your Lordship best knows whether you consider him your friend,” was the reply.