ld woman's
ears. They made a bet of you, dear, they did."

"I hope the lady won," said Robert, scarce hearing.

"And it was she who won, dear. She was to get you to meet her, and give
up, and be beaten like, as far as I could understand their chatter;
gentlefolks laugh so when they talk; and they can afford to laugh, for
they has the best of it. But I'm vexed; just as if I'd felt big and had
burst. I want you to be peaceful, of course I do; but I don't like my
boy made a bet of."

"Oh, tush, mother," said Robert impatiently.

"I heard 'em, my dear; and complimenting the lady they was, as they
passed me. If it vexes you my thinking it, I won't, dear; I reelly
won't. I see it lowers you, for there you are at your hat again. It is
lowering, to be made a bet of. I've that spirit, that if you was well
and sound, I'd rather have you fighting 'em. She's a pleasant enough
lady to look at, not a doubt; small-boned, and slim, and fair."

Robert asked which way they had gone.

"Back to the stables, my dear; I heard 'em say so, because one gentleman
said that the spectacle was over, and the lady had gained the day; and
the snow was balling in the horses' feet; and go they'd better, before
my lord saw them out. And another said, you were a wild man she'd tamed;
and they said, you ought to wear a collar, with Mrs. Lovell's, her
name, graved on it. But don't you be vexed; you may guess they're not
my Robert's friends. And, I do assure you, Robert, your hat's neat,
if you'd only let it be comfortable: such fidgeting worries the brim.
You're best in appearance--and I always said it--when stripped for
boxing. Hats are gentlemen's things, and becomes them like as if a title
to their heads; though you'd bear being Sir Robert, that you would; and
for that matter, your hat is agreeable to behold, and not like the run
of our Sunday hats; only you don't seem easy in it. Oh, oh! my tongue's
a yard too long. It's the poor head aching, and me to forget it. It's
because you never will act invalidy; and I remember how handsome you
were one day in the field behind our house, when you boxed a wager
with Simon Billet, the waterman; and you was made a bet of then, for my
husband betted on you; and that's what made me think of comparisons of
you out of your hat and you in it."

Thus did Mrs. Boulby chatter along the way. There was an eminence a
little out of the road, overlooking the Fairly stables. Robert left
her and went to this point, from w