"So, have just come up from Barminster," said Shelton presently, "How is
the Castle looking?"
Adrien, busily satisfying a vigorous appetite, merely nodded and smiled
in reply; but Jasper Vermont answered for him.
"Beautiful!" he said, with a smile which showed his white, even teeth.
"Beautiful! It's a charming view; but we saw little of it this visit.
Ah, Shelton, you are really an epicure! We don't get clear turtle like
this at the Pallodeon--eh, Adrien?"
"No," replied the young man, looking up. "We ought to have Shelton on
the committee. No wonder they love you here, Shelton! And so the colt
has lost the steeplechase? I saw the news as I came along."
"And you have lost, how much--two thousand?" queried Parselle.
"Five," said Vermont, not quickly, but just before Adrien could speak.
"Is it five?" asked Leroy indifferently. "I thought I'd backed 'Venus'
for more."
"I backed her myself for a couple of hundred," put in Lord Standon
ruefully. "She's a beautiful creature, though, and I'd like to buy her."
"You can have her, my dear Stan, for a mere song," said Leroy cordially.
"I'm afraid that's impossible," interposed Jasper with suavity. "She's
sold."
Adrien looked up in surprise.
"Sold! To whom?" he asked.
"To the knacker," was the calm reply. "Don't you remember, Adrien, that
she threw Fording and broke her leg over the last hurdle?"
Leroy's race resumed its usual air of bored indifference.
"Ah, yes, so you told me. My dear Stan, I'm awfully sorry! I had
completely forgotten." He looked round the table. "Any of you seen the
papers?" he inquired. "Last night was the first of the new comedy at the
Casket--how did it go?"
Frank Parselle laughed. "I was there," he admitted. "Ada played finely,
but they hissed once or twice."
"Lost on my horse and on my new play. That is bad luck!" exclaimed
Adrien, looking, however, very little disturbed by the news. "It must be
withdrawn."
"Certainly," agreed Vermont amiably. "Certainly."
"By Jove! what did you tell me the mounting cost?" asked Parselle,
addressing Vermont, but glancing significantly at the others.
"Three thousand pounds," answered Vermont glibly, while Adrien ate his
fish with the most consummate indifference.
"Three thousand for four nights, that's about it. The public ought to be
grateful to you," said Shelton with a tinge of sarcasm in his voice, as
he nodded across at Leroy.