"Win-ner, win-ner." The voice was coming towards them.
"If he has won, Bill and I is to marry…. Somehow I feel as if he hasn't."
"Win-ner."
"We shall soon know." Esther took a halfpenny from the till.
"Don't you think we'd better wait? It can't be printed in the papers, not the true account, and if it was wrong—" Esther didn't answer; she gave Charles the halfpenny; he went out, and in a few minutes came back with the paper in his hand. "Tornado first, Ben Jonson second, Woodcraft third," he read out. "That's a good thing for the guv'nor. There was very few what backed Tornado…. He's only lost some place-money."
"So he was only second," said Sarah, turning deadly pale. "They said he was certain to win."
"I hope you've not lost much," said Esther. "It wasn't with William that you backed him."
"No, it wasn't with William. I only had a few shillings on. It don't matter. Let me have a drink."
"What will you have?"
"Some whisky."