Esther Waters | Page 9

him right. 'Now what did he say I was to do?' says
Jim, the moment the Gaffer is out of hearing. But this morning we were
on ahead, and the Gaffer had Jim all to himself. As usual he says, 'Now
do you quite understand?' and as usual Jim says, 'Yes, sir; yes, sir.'
Suspecting that Jim had not understood, I said when he joined us, 'Now
if you are not sure what he said you had better go back and ask him,'
but Jim declared that he had perfectly understood. 'And what did he tell
you to do?' said I. 'He told me,' says Jim, 'to bring the colt along and

finish up close by where he would be standing at the end of the track.' I
thought it rather odd to send Firefly such a stiff gallop as all that, but
Jim was certain that he had heard right. And off they went, beginning
the other side of Southwick Hill. I saw the Gaffer with his arms in the
air, and don't know now what he said. Jim will tell you. He did give it
you, didn't he, you old Woolgatherer?" said Mr. Swindles, slapping the
boy on the shoulder.
"You may laugh as much as you please, but I'm sure he did tell me to
come along three-quarter speed after passing the barn," replied Jim, and
to change the conversation he asked Mr. Leopold for some more
pudding, and the Demon's hungry eyes watched the last portion being
placed on the Woolgatherer's plate. Noticing that Esther drank no beer,
he exclaimed--
"Well, I never; to see yer eat and drink one would think that it was you
who was a-wasting to ride the crack at Goodwood."
The remark was received with laughter, and, excited by his success, the
Demon threw his arms round Esther, and seizing her hands, said, "Now
yer a jest beginning to get through yer 'osses, and when you get on a
level----" But the Demon, in his hungry merriment, had bestowed no
thought of finding a temper in such a staid little girl, and a sound box
on the ear threw him backwards into his seat surprised and howling.
"Yer nasty thing!" he blubbered out. "Couldn't you see it was only a
joke?" But passion was hot in Esther. She had understood no word that
had been said since she had sat down to dinner, and, conscious of her
poverty and her ignorance, she imagined that a great deal of the
Demon's conversation had been directed against her; and, choking with
indignation, she only heard indistinctly the reproaches with which the
other little boys covered her--"nasty, dirty, ill-tempered thing,
scullery-maid," etc.; nor did she understand their whispered plans to
duck her when she passed the stables. All looked a little askance,
especially Grover and Mr. Leopold. Margaret said--
"That will teach these impertinent little jockey-boys that the servants'
hall is not the harness-room; they oughtn't to be admitted here at all."
Mr. Leopold nodded, and told the Demon to leave off blubbering. "You
can't be so much hurt as all that. Come, wipe your eyes and have a
piece of currant tart, or leave the room. I want to hear from Mr.
Swindles an account of the trial. We know that Silver Braid won, but

we haven't heard how he won nor yet what the weights were."
"Well," said Mr. Swindles, "what I makes out is this. I was riding
within a pound or two of nine stone, and The Rake is, as you know,
seven pounds, no more, worse than Bayleaf. Ginger rides usually as
near as possible my weight--we'll say he was riding nine two--I think
he could manage that--and the Demon, we know, he is now riding over
the six stone; in his ordinary clothes he rides six seven."
"Yes, yes, but how do we know that there was any lead to speak of in
the Demon's saddle-cloth?"
"The Demon says there wasn't above a stone. Don't you, Demon?"
"I don't know nothing! I'm not going to stand being clouted by the
kitchen-maid."
"Oh, shut up, or leave the room," said Mr. Leopold; "we don't want to
hear any more about that."
"I started making the running according to orders. Ginger was within
three-quarters of a length of me, being pulled out of the saddle. The
Gaffer was standing at the three-quarters of the mile, and there Ginger
won fairly easily, but they went on to the mile--them were the
orders--and there the Demon won by half a length, that is to say if
Ginger wasn't a-kidding of him."
"A-kidding of me!" said the Demon. "When we was a hundred yards
from 'ome I steadied without his noticing me, and then I landed in the
last fifty yards by half a length.