Page:Sybil (1845 Volume 1).djvu/29

Rh you think that Phosphorus may after all have some chance?"

"I should be cursed sorry to be deep against him," said the peer.

Egremont with a quivering lip walked away. He consulted his book; he meditated anxiously. Should he hedge? It was scarcely worth while to mar the symmetry of his winnings; he stood "so well" by all the favourites; and for a horse at forty to one. No; he would trust his star, he would not hedge.

"Mr. Chippendale," whispered the peer in the white great coat, "go and press Mr. Egremont about Phosphorus. I should not be surprised if you got a good thing."

At this moment, a huge, broad-faced, rosy-gilled fellow, with one of those good-humoured yet cunning countenances that we meet occasionally on the northern side of the Trent, rode up to the ring on a square cob and dismounting entered the circle. He was a carcase butcher, famous in Carnaby market, and the prime councillor of a distinguished nobleman for whom privately he betted on commission. His secret