“Your brother was not very well pleased when you expressed your opinion to him, I suppose—blamed you, probably?”
“When people are vexed, they usually blame the person nearest them at the time,” was Alick’s philosophic reply.
“You suspected nothing of this when I spoke to you in the paddock. If I had bought her then, that is, if your brother had taken my offer then, you could have sent her to me with a clear conscience.”
“Yes, my lord. There was certainly nothing wrong with her then; at least, nothing that I could see,” Alick answered.
“And there is nothing your brother can see the matter now?”
“Nothing.”
“Then I will take her,” said his lordship; and Alick breathed a sigh of intense relief.
“You shall have her the first thing on Monday morning,” he said, rising, “and the letter, too.”
“What letter?”
“My brother’s undertaking to return you the money, in case she prove unsound.”