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554, which Froude threw into the fire unopened. A few days later came a second letter, then a third, and all shared the same fate.

Finally, one day an angry man drove up from Tiverton—it was Houlditch himself. "You don't seem to care to reply to my letters, Mr. Froude," said he, "so I have come in person to ask you whether or not you will take back your horse which you sold me ten days ago, for he is blind."

"Sir," said Froude, "you asked me for a hunter, and one that could jump, and I sold you a hunter that could jump. You saw the horse, and it was a bargain. You did not ask me if it could see. Jump he can, as you observed. When you ride him, carry a knife with you, and when you come to a fence you just jump off his back and cut a furze-bush. Put that down before the fence and canter the old horse up and speak sharp to him, same as Babbage did, and so soon as he feels the prickles about his legs he will jump."

"Will you take the horse back? " roared Houlditch.

"Certainly I will."

"And repay me my £50?"

"Certainly not. I cashed your cheque, sir, last week, and with the money paid my butcher. A deal is a deal."

The story comes with the authority of Jack Babbage, confirmed by Mrs. Froude, after her husband's death. The incident occurred late in the rector's life, after he was married.

Froude's shamelessness was phenomenal. On one occasion he sold some keep on the glebe at Knowstone by auction, and a neighbouring farmer purchased a field of swede turnips under condition that he should remove them before a stated day.

The time limit was nearly expired, when Froude