United States or Vanuatu ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"I'm afraid of Cordts," replied Lucy, with a shiver. "You should have seen him look at me race-day. It made me hot with anger, yet weak, too, somehow. But Dad says I'm never in any danger if I watch out. And I do. Who could catch me on Sarch?" "Any horse can be tripped in the sage. You told me how Joel tried to rope Sage King. Did you ever tell your dad that?" "I forgot.
Long reflection was impossible; suddenly he felt carried away by a fierce and mad longing to fight it out he felt as he had felt on a race-day in the hippodrome, when he had driven his own quadriga ahead of all the rest. Onwards, then, onwards; and if the chariot were wrecked, if the horses were killed, if his wheels maimed his comrades overthrown in the arena-still, onwards, onwards!
Bostil walked into the village, grimly conscious that the presence of the Indians and riders and horses, the action and color and bustle, the near approach of the great race-day these things that in former years had brought him keen delight and speculation had somehow lost their tang. He had changed. Something was wrong in him.
About noon the day following, on board the steam-yacht of the Countess of Menai, Cecil was very much astonished to see Mr. Romfrey descending into a boat hard by, from Grancey Lespel's hired cutter. Steam was up, and the countess was off for a cruise in the Channel, as it was not a race-day, but seeing Mr. Romfrey's hand raised, she spoke to Cecil, and immediately gave orders to wait for the boat.
When race-day arrived, there was quite a merry party at the homestead. Carew was making himself very attentive to Ellen Harriott, Mary was flirting very openly with Charlie Gordon, to Hugh's intense misery; and it was whispered about the station that the younger brother would be deposed in favour of the elder.
The gentlemen went about among the carriages, said tu without any preamble to the women, and squeezed their hands, while their men-servants sat stolid, like wood, seeming neither to hear nor see. This race-day was the last under the Empire. It is the one described in Zola's Nana. The prize for the third race was 100,000 francs.
"May your sins be forgiven you!" cried Chesterfield, the apostle of training, as he and the Seraph came up to the table where Cecil and Cos Wentworth were breakfasting in the garden of the Stephanien on the race-day itself. "Liqueurs, truffles, and every devilment under the sun? cold beef, and nothing to drink, Beauty, if you've any conscience left!"
His Royal Highness is not forgetful of the duties of his position. When he is at Chantilly on a race-day he gracefully does the honors of his reserved stand to all the little Orleanist court.
He lost his head and wore out his nerve. But the horses that had been woolly in February grew sleek in May, and being trained in the open grew used to the sights, and for them every day was a race-day. In August they were hard and cool and level-headed, and always had one link left when called upon at the home-stretch. The covered track was all right in theory, but false in practise.
Had Chaucer spent his whole life in seeking, he could not have selected a better contemporary circumstance for securing variety of character than a pilgrimage to Canterbury. It comprises, as we see, all kinds and conditions of people. It is the fourteenth-century England in little. In our time, the only thing that could match it in this respect is Epsom down on the great race-day.
Word Of The Day