half authoritative. I hesitated; I was tired, it is true, but
I had left London bound on a pedestrian excursion, and I did not much
like the idea of having recourse to a coach after accomplishing so very
inconsiderable a distance. "Come, we can't be staying here all night,"
said the voice, more sharply than before. "I can ride a little way, and
get down whenever I like," thought I; and springing forward I clambered
up the coach, and was going to sit down upon the box, next the coachman.
"No, no," said the coachman, who was a man about thirty, with a hooked
nose and red face, dressed in a fashionably cut great-coat, with a
fashionable black castor on his head. "No, no, keep behind--the box
a'n't for the like of you," said he, as he drove off; "the box is for
lords, or gentlemen at least." I made no answer. "D--- that off-hand
leader," said the coachman, as the right-hand front horse made a
desperate start at something he saw in the road; and, half rising, he
with great dexterity hit with his long whip the off-hand leader a cut on
the off cheek. "These seem to be fine horses," said I. The coachman
made no answer. "Nearly thoroughbred," I continued; the coachman drew
his breath, with a kind of hissing sound, through his teeth. "Come,
young fellow, none of your chaff. Don't you think, because you ride on
my mail, I'm going to talk to you about 'orses. I talk to nobody about
'orses except lords." "Well," said I, "I have been called a lord in my
time." "It must have been by a thimble-rigger, then," said the coachman,
bending back, and half turning his face round with a broad leer. "You
have hit the mark wonderfully," said I. "You coachmen, whatever else you
may be, are certainly no fools." "We a'n't, a'n't we?" said the
coachman. "There you are right; and, to show you that you are, I'll now
trouble you for your fare. If you have been amongst the thimble-riggers
you must be tolerably well cleared out. Where are you going?--to ---? I
think I have seen you there. The fare is sixteen shillings. Come, tip
us the blunt; them that has no money can't ride on my mail."

Sixteen shillings was a large sum, and to pay it would make a
considerable inroad on my slender finances; I thought, at first, that I
would say I did not want to go so far; but then the fellow would ask at
once where I wanted to go, and I was ashamed to acknowledge my utter
ignorance of the road. I determined, therefore, to pay the fare, with a
t