You Never Know Your Luck, Complete

effect of some music is to produce a divine quiescence of the senses, a suspension of motion and aggressive life; to reduce existe

e at the door, the murmur of insect life, the low, thudding beat of the steam-thresher out of sight hard by, the purring of the cat in the arms

not a vulgar intruder. It was far more impressive to her, and to the Young Doctor too, than the scene at the Logan Trial when a man was sentenced to death. It was strangely magnetic, this tale of a man's existence; and the clock which sounded so loud on the mantelpiece, as it mechanically ticked off

re being unfolded in the commonplace home of the widow Tynan. Yet the home too had its dignity. The engineer father had had tastes, and he had insisted on plain, unfigured curtains and wallpaper and carpets, when carpets were used; and though his

h as abounded in Askatoon, is better left to the imagination. It was not, therefore, in sordid, mean, or incongruous surroundings that Crozier told his tale; as

ce, capable, as it was, of much modulation, yet, except when he was excited, ha

as his

rt. As a boy I wasn't so bad a sort. I had one peculiarity. I always wanted 'to have something on,' as Jo

octor, for he had come from near Enniskillen years agone, and there is not s

nt to a horse-race I used to fasten my mind on the signal, and tried to see beforehand the number of the winner. Again sometimes I was very right indeed, and that deepened my confidence in myself. I was always at it. I'd try and guess-try and see-the number of the hymn which was on the paper in the vicar's hand before he gave it out, and I would bet with myself on it. I would bet with myself or with anybody available on any conceivable thing-the minutes late a train would be;

me to make myself at home, and I did so as soon as his back was turned. Almost the first thing with which I became sociable was a book which, at my first sight of it, had a fascin

thers were in a state of tension. Kitty Tynan's eyes were fixed on him as though hypnotised, and the Young Doctor was scarc

bec. Great men dead and gone long ago-near a hundred and fifty years ago-had put down their bets i

the "sports" assembled there. She had no idea what Thwaite's Club in St. James's Street would look

e oddest things as well as the most natural things in the world. Some of the bets made were as mad as the bets I made myself. Oh! ridiculous,

e French Canadians would join the colonists in what is now the United States if they revolted. This would be cheek-by-jowl with a bet that an heir would be born to one new-married pair before another pair. The very last bet made on

last there entered a gentleman whose picture I had so often seen in the papers-a man as well known in the sporting world as was Chamberlain in the political world. He was dressed spectacularly, but his face oozed good-nature, though his eyes were like bright bits of coal. He bred horses, he raced this, he backed that, he laid against the other; he was one of the greatest plu

am's fireplace and the ceiling like an architrave of Valhalla, and sai

cause as he hastily wrote-what a generous scrawl it was!-he said to

ver made here after my election to the club, and it was made with your grandfather. There's no age in the kingdom of sport, dear lad,' he added, laughing-'neither age nor sex nor position nor place. It's the one democratic thing in the modern world. It's a republic inside this old monarchy of ours. Look, here it is, my first bet with your grandfather-and I'm only sixty now!' He smoothed the page with his hand in a manner such as I have seen a dean do with his sermon-paper in a cathedral puplit. 'Here it is, thirty-six years ago.' He read the bet aloud. It was on the Derby, he himself having bet that the Prince of Wale's horse would win. 'Your grandfather, dear lad,' he repeated, 'but you'

t good-humour and pride. 'So so, so so, and I am a hero then, with one follower! Well, well, dear lad, I don't often go wrong, or anyhow I

possessions, he was familiar to society. 'I've put it down,' he said. 'Sign it, if it's all in order.' This the duke did, after apologizing for disturbing me. He looked at me keenly as he turned away. 'Not the most elevating literature in the library,' he said, smiling ironically. 'If you haven't got a taste for it beyond control, don't cultivate it.' He nodded kindly, and left; and again, till my father came and found me, I buried mysel

d against the favourite, and I won five hundred pounds. What he won-to my youthful eyes-was fabulous. There's no use saying what you think-you kind friends, who've always done something in life-that I was a good-for-nothing creature to give myself up to the turf, to horses and jockeys, and the janissaries of sport. You must remember that for generations my family had run on a very narrow margin of succession, there seldom, if ever, being more than two born in any generation of the family, so that there was always enough for the younger son or daughter; and to take up a profession was not nece

jected the Young Doctor involuntarily. "I

g a show of courage, not to say rashness, in following my leader. He gave me luck for a time, indeed so great that I could even breed horses of my own. But the luck went against him at last, and then, of course, agai

in a lawsuit; and on the verdict in the lawsuit depended the two hundred dollars and more. When she

ut it wasn't the thing to do, for I wasn't secure in my position. I might go on the rocks; but was there ever a gambler who didn't believe that he'd pull it off in a big way next time, and that the turn of the wheel against him was only to tame his spirit? Was there ever a gambler or sportsman of my class who didn't talk about the 'law of chances,' on the basis that if red, as it

something very like reverence in his face, and deprecating submission

g Doctor to himself, not erroneously reading the expression of Croz

though she had great expectations, but not immediate; and she was a girl of great character. She was a

times what his wife was like. She had pictured to herself a gossamer kind of woman, delicate, and in contour like one of the fashion-plate figures she saw in the picture-papers. She had imagined her wi

of life. So she imagined Crozier's wife to have been a sort of Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, who swept up the dust of the universe with her skirts, and gave no chance at all to the children of nature like Kitty, who wore skirts scarcely lower than their ankles. She almost sniffed, and she became angry, too, that a man like Crozier, who had faced the offensive Augustus Burlingame in the w

or brocade, or poplin-yes, something stiff and overbearing, like grey poplin. Kitty looked at herself suddenly in the mirror-the half-length mirror on

s; and she saw him now almost breathless as he spoke of a great wild-cat of a woman who ought to be by his side now. What sort of a woman was she anyhow, who could let him go into exile as he had done and live apart from her all these years, while he "slogged away"-that was the Western phrase which came to her mind-

ips, "here, courage, soldier. You don't need

said for a thousand dollars. It was fortunate that Crozier was scarcely conscious of what she wa

for your friends, is i

there was at hand," she answered with a little laugh, an

wife wanted from the start, I shouldn't have been here. I'd have s

ed Kitty softly, and Crozier did not

mortgaged up to the eyes. I knew the money-lenders from Newry to Jewry and Jewry to Jerusalem. Then it was I promised her I'd bet no more-never again: I'd give up the turf; I'd try and start again. Down in my sou

n both. They both knew that here was the real tragedy of Crozier's life. If he had had less reverence

t, too. I bet heavily on Flamingo, intending it for my last fling, and, to save what I had left, to get back what I had lost. I could get big odds on him. It was good enough. From what I knew, it was like picking up a gold-mine. And I was right, right as could be. There was

was, once more, a new and sudden look of comprehension in the ey

ed it, that when I showed her what I had won, she would shut her eyes to the broken promise, and I'd make another, a

hich transformed him. The naturally grave mediaeval face became fired, the eyes blazed, the skin shone, the mouth almost trembled with agitation. He was

st. I was happy. I meant to pouch my winnings and go straight to my wife and say, 'Peccavi,' and I should hear her say to me, 'Go and sin no more.' Yes, I was happy. The sky, the green of the fields, the still, home-like, comforting trees, the mass of glorious colour, th

his eyes; as though he was watching the fateful race that bore him down. He was te

nt it to be for me. The race was all Flamingo's own, and the mob was going wild, when all of a sudden a woman-the widow of a racing-man gone suddenly mad-rushed out in front of the horse, snatched at its b

her eyes like topaz suns, her hands wringing.

ul best, as though he knew so much depended on him, stretching himself with the last ounce of energy he could summon, feeling the psalm of success in his heart-yes, he knows, he knows what he has done, none so well!-and out comes a bla

he night of the race. He said his sister had been in the country-down at Epsom-and that she bitterly resented my having broken my promise and lost all I had. He said he had never seen her so angry, and he gave me a letter from her. On her return to town she had been obliged to go away at once to see her sister taken suddenly ill. He added, with an unfee

ur wife?" asked Kitty T

r temerity, but Crozier only smiled gently. "It is

ook it, turned it over, examined it carefully as thoug

he said. "There it is, jus

t?" asked Kitty in a shocked

"Her brother's confidences were enough. I d

cowardly," re

the hurting could do no good. I can hear

msically. Then he handed it back to

You have got my story, and it's bad enough, but

s beneath notice," rejoined

d leaned over him. The look of a mother was in her eyes. Somehow she seemed to herself t

you've had it you must get your sleep

ing first, if you don't mind,"

u," Crozier remarked ruefully. "It will see

'" said Kitty with gentle scorn. "I'll lik

Doctor, "you ought to be more resp

papa!" she