His reward was to be three thousand pounds,--and he got his money.
The money was very much to him,--would perhaps have been almost
enough to comfort him in his misery, had not those other rascals
got so much more. When he heard that the groom's fee was higher
than his own, it almost broke his heart. Green and Villiers, men
of infinitely lower standing,--men at whom the Beargarden would not
have looked,--had absolutely netted fortunes on which they could
live in comfort. No doubt they had run away while Tifto still
stood his ground,--but he soon began to doubt whether to have run
away with twenty thousand pounds was not better than to remain
with such small plunder as had fallen to his lot, among such faces
as those which now looked upon him! Then when he had drunk a few
glasses of whisky-and-water, he said something very foolish as to
his power of punishing that swindler Green.
An attempt had been made to induce Silverbridge to delay the
payment of his bets;--but he had been very eager that they should
be paid. Under the joint auspices of Mr Lupton and Mr Moreton the
horses were sold, and the establishment was annihilated,--with
considerable loss, but with great despatch.
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