"
He did not care to go on after that; to recall the mortification of
his father, whose pride was hurt and whose hopes were dashed by this
sudden, mad freak of fortune, nor how he railed at it and provoked him
until the boy rebelled and went back to the courses, where he was a
celebrity and a king.
The rest is a very common story. Fortune and greater fortune at first;
days in which he could not lose, days in which he drove back to the
crowded inns choked with dust, sunburnt and fagged with excitement, to
a riotous supper and baccarat, and afterward went to sleep only to see
cards and horses and moving crowds and clouds of dust; days spent in a
short covert coat, with a field-glass over his shoulder and with a
pasteboard ticket dangling from his buttonhole; and then came the
change that brought conscience up again, and the visits to the Jews,
and the slights of the men who had never been his friends, but whom he
had thought had at least liked him for himself, even if he did not
like them; and then debts, and more debts, and the borrowing of money
to pay here and there, and threats of executions; and, with it all,
the longing for the fields and trout springs of Surrey and the walk
across the park to where she lived.
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