e held me
round the neck with her left arm; I was soon glad to beg her pardon on my
knees, which she gave me in a moment when she saw me in that condition,
being the most placable creature in the world, and not only her pardon,
but one of the hairs which I longed for, which I put through a shilling,
with which I have on evenings after fairs, like this, frequently worked
what seemed to those who looked on downright witchcraft, but which is
nothing more than pleasant deception. And now, Mr. Romany Rye, to
testify my regard for you, I give you the shilling and the hair. I think
you have a kind of respect for Miss Berners; but whether you have or not,
keep them as long as you can, and whenever you look at them think of the
finest woman in England, and of John Dale, the jockey of Horncastle. I
believe I have told you my history,' said he--'no, not quite; there is
one circumstance I had passed over. I told you that I have thriven very
well in business, and so I have upon the whole: at any rate, I find
myself comfortably off now. I have horses, money, and owe nobody a
groat; at any rate, nothing but what I could pay to-morrow. Yet I have
had my dreary day, ay, after I had obtained what I call a station in the
world. All of a sudden, about five years ago, everything seemed to go
wrong with me--horses became sick or died, people who owed me money broke
or ran away, my house caught fire, in fact, everything went against me;
and not from any mismanagement of my own. I looked round for help,
but--what do you think?--nobody would help me. Somehow or other it had
got abroad that I was in difficulties, and everybody seemed disposed to
avoid me, as if I had got the plague. Those who were always offering me
help when I wanted none, now, when they thought me in trouble, talked of
arresting me. Yes, two particular friends of mine, who had always been
offering me their purses when my own was stuffed full, now talked of
arresting me, though I only owed the scoundrels a hundred pounds each;
and they would have done so, provided I had not paid them what I owed
them; and how did I do that? Why, I was able to do it because I found a
friend--and who was that friend? Why, a man who has since been hung, of
whom everybody has heard, and of whom everybody for the next hundred
years will occasionally talk.

'One day, whilst in trouble, I was visited by a person {279} I had
occasionally met at sporting dinners. He came to look after a Suf