" Mr. Coaxyoram himself and many a young girl soft on him, but oh, what a gentleman and from a scion of gentlemen. I learned that it was his horse, Red River, that would be played for. He had given it to his friend Jacksie who had lost his all gambling, and the lady he’d been engaged to had jilted him and had not even returned the engagement ring that was his mother’s, which was an heirloom. "
― Edna O'Brien , The Light of Evening