life bear to be told. The money is English gold, with King
George the Something's head on it: and _that_ you can't deny, try as
you may."

"All the more reason why it shouldn't come through a German lottery,"
replied Mrs Polsue, examining the coin.

"I tell you for the last time that I only threw lotteries out as a
suggestion. There's many ways to come into a fortune besides
lotteries. You can have it left to you by will, for instance--"

"Dear, dear! . . . But never mind: go on. How one lives and learns!"

"And the other day the papers were full of a man who came into tens
of thousands through what they call a Derby sweep. I remember
wondering how cleaning chimneys--even those long factory ones--could
be so profitable in the north of England, until it turned out that a
sweep was some kind of horse-race."

"The Derby, as it is called," said Mrs Polsue, imparting information
in her turn, "is the most famous of horse-races, and the most
popular, though not the most fashionable. It is called the Blue
Ribbon of the Turf."

"Indeed? Now that's very gratifying to hear," said Miss Oliver.
"I didn't know they ran _any_ of these meetings on teetotal lines."

"As I was saying," her friend continued, "the gowns worn are not so
expensive as at Ascot, and I believe there is no Royal Enclosure.
But the Derby is nevertheless what they call a National Institution.
As you know, I disapprove of horse-racing as a pastime: but my
brother-in-law in the Civil Service used to attend it regularly, from
a sense of duty, with a green veil around his hat."

"I suppose he didn't want to be recognised?" Miss Oliver hazarded.

"He didn't go so far as to say that Government Officials were
compelled to attend: though he implied that it was expected of him.
There's an unwritten law in most of these matters. . . . But after
what I've told you, Charity Oliver, do you look me in the face and
suggest that the Derby horse-race--being run, as every one knows,
early in the London season and somewhere towards the end of May, if
my memory serves me--can be made to account for a man like Nanjivell,
that humanly speaking shouldn't know one end of a horse from another,
starting to parade his wealth in the month of August?"

"You've such a knack of taking me up before I'm down, Mary-Martha!
I never said nor implied that Mr Nanjivell had won his money on a
horse-race. I only said that some people did."

"Oh, well, if _that_'s your piece of news,