“They say he has been very lucky on the turf, and has made a pot of money.”

“So I have heard,” Frank said; “but, you see, one generally hears of men’s good luck, and not of their bad.  Besides, many men do most of their real betting through commissioners, especially if they own horses themselves.  He is a fellow I don’t much care for, and I hope that whomever Miss Greendale may marry, he will not be the man.”

“I thought, when you first asked me down last year, that you had got up the party specially for her, Mallett, and that you were going in for the prize yourself.  But of course I soon saw that I was mistaken, as you were altogether too good chums for that to come about.  I have often noticed that men and girls who are thrown a lot together are often capital friends, but, although just the pair you would think would come together, that they hardly ever do so.  I have noticed it over and over again.  Well, she is an uncommonly nice girl, whoever gets her.”

Frank did not return to town until the end of June.

“I have to congratulate you upon the Osprey’s victory,” Bertha said, the first time he called to see them.  “You may imagine with what interest I read the accounts of the yacht races.  I saw you won two on the Thames, and were first once and second once at Southampton.”

“Yes, the Osprey has shown herself to be, as I thought, an uncommonly fast boat.  We should have had two firsts at Southampton, if the pilot had not cut matters too fine and run us aground just opposite Netley; we were a quarter of an hour before we were off again.  We picked up a lot of our lost ground and got a second, but were beaten eight minutes by the winner.”

“Have you entered for the Queen’s Cup at Ryde?”

“I have not entered yet, but I am going to do so,” he said.

“Mamma and I will be down there.  Lord Haverley—­he is first cousin to mamma, you know—­has taken a house there for the month, and he is going to have a large party, and we are going down for Ryde week.”

“Yes, and there will be the Victoria Yacht Club ball, and all sorts of gaieties.  I have not entered yet, but I am going to do so.  The entries do not close till next Saturday.”

“You will call and see us, of course, Frank?” Lady Greendale said.  “Haverley has a big schooner yacht, and I dare say we shall be a good deal on the water.”

“I shall certainly do myself the pleasure of calling, Lady Greendale.”

“I warn you, Frank, that Bertha and I will be very disappointed if the Osprey does not win the cup.  We regard ourselves as being, to some extent, her proprietors; and it will be a grievous blow to us if you don’t win.”

“I do not feel by any means sure about it,” he said.  “I fancy there will be several boats that have not raced yet this season, and as two of them are new ones, there is no saying what they may turn out.”

Frank only stayed two days in town.  He learned from Jack Hawley that it was reported that Lord Chilson and George Delamore had both been refused by Bertha Greendale.