'He can't walk, my Lord,' said the groom in that authoritative
voice which grooms use when they desire to have their own way, and
to make their masters understand that they at any rate are not to
have theirs.
'Where is Pook?' asked Silverbridge. But Mr Pook was also still in
bed.
It was soon known to Lord Silverbridge as a fact that in very
truth the horse could not run. Then sick with headache, with a
stomach suffering unutterable things, he had, as he dressed
himself, to think of his seventy thousand pounds. Of course the
money would be forthcoming. But how would his father look at him?
How would it be between him and his father now? after such a
misfortune how would he be able to break that other matter to the
Duke, and say that he had changed his mind about his marriage,--
that he was going to abandon Lady Mabel Grex and give his hand and
a future Duchess's coronet to an American girl whose grandfather
had been a porter.
A nail in his foot! He had heard of such things before. He knew
that such accidents had happened. What an ass must he have been to
risk such a sum on the well-being and safety of an animal who
might any day pick up a nail in is foot? Then he thought of the
caution which Lupton had given him.
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