"Certainly, if Miss Raymond will trust me with Bella Donna."
Isabel's eyes sparkled--so brilliantly! as she answered, "I should like it, of all things."
"Now, Puss," Guy went on, "you ought to have something on it. There is a certain set of turquoises and pearls that I meant to give you whenever you had been good for three weeks consecutively; it is no use waiting for such a miracle, so I'll bet you these against that sapphire and diamond ring you have taken to wearing lately."
His cousin looked distressed and confused. "Any thing else, Guy," she said. "I can not risk that; it was a present from--from Mrs. Molyneux."
"I don't think," Charley suggested, very quietly, "Mrs.--Molyneux, was it not?--could object to your investing her present on such a certainty. I really believe we shall bring it off; and if not--" He checked himself with a smile.
"Oh, if you think so," answered Isabel, blushing more than ever, "I will venture my ring. But you _must_ win; I don't know what I should do if I lost it." So it was settled.
"You seem confident," I remarked to Livingstone, later in the evening. I remember the peculiar expression of his face, though I did not then understand it, as he answered gravely,
"Bella ought to be; for--she has laid long odds."
There was great excitement in the neighborhood when the match, and the farmers' race to follow, became known. Half the county was assembled on the appointed morning, an off-day with the Pytchley. Godfrey Parndon was judge, and had picked the ground--a figure of 8, with 17 fences, large but fair for the most part; the horses were to traverse it twice, missing the brook (16 feet of clear water) the second time.
I wish they were not getting so rare, those purely country meetings, where three wagons with an awning make the grant stand; where there are no ring-men to force the betting and deafen you with their blatant proffers--"to lay agin any thing in the race;" where the bold yeomen, in full confidence that their favorite will not be "roped," back their opinions manfully for crowns.
Livingstone's great local renown, and the reputation of the Axeine for strength and speed (though no one knew how fast he _could_ go), made the betting 5 to 4 on him; but takers were not wanting, calculating on the horse's truly Satanic temper. Miss Bellasys, who, with her mother, had arrived at Kerton the night before, laid half a point more--_not_ in gloves--on the heavy-weight.