It would enable him to make a plausible story, as he had done in that other case of Lord Lufton.
"Are you going to have Dandy ?" Sowerby said to him again.
"I can't say that I will just at present," said the parson.

"What should I want of him now the season's over ?" "Exactly, my dear fellow; and what do I want of him now the season's over?
If it were the beginning of October instead of the end of March, Dandy would be up at two hundred and thirty instead of one: in six months' time that horse will be worth anything you like to ask for him.

Look at his bone." The vicar did look at his bones, examining the brute in a very knowing and unclerical manner.

He lifted the animal's four feet, one after another, handling the frogs, and measuring with his eye the proportion of the parts; he passed his hand up and down the legs, spanning the bones of the lower joint; he peered into his eyes, took into consideration the width of his chest, the dip of his back, the form of his ribs, the curve of his haunches, and his capabilities for breathing when pressed by work.

And then he stood away a little, eyeing him from the side, and taking in a general idea of the form and make of the whole.