fall to
rubbing his hands and exhibiting the greatest glee.

'Ha ha!' he would cry. 'Here's the pony again! Most remarkable pony,
extremely docile, eh, Mr Richard, eh sir?'

Dick would return some matter-of-course reply, and Mr Brass standing on
the bottom rail of his stool, so as to get a view of the street over
the top of the window-blind, would take an observation of the visitors.

'The old gentleman again!' he would exclaim, 'a very prepossessing old
gentleman, Mr Richard--charming countenance sir--extremely
calm--benevolence in every feature, sir. He quite realises my idea of
King Lear, as he appeared when in possession of his kingdom, Mr
Richard--the same good humour, the same white hair and partial
baldness, the same liability to be imposed upon. Ah! A sweet subject
for contemplation, sir, very sweet!'

Then Mr Garland having alighted and gone up-stairs, Sampson would nod
and smile to Kit from the window, and presently walk out into the
street to greet him, when some such conversation as the following would
ensue.

'Admirably groomed, Kit'--Mr Brass is patting the pony--'does you great
credit--amazingly sleek and bright to be sure. He literally looks as
if he had been varnished all over.'

Kit touches his hat, smiles, pats the pony himself, and expresses his
conviction, 'that Mr Brass will not find many like him.'

'A beautiful animal indeed!' cries Brass. 'Sagacious too?'

'Bless you!' replies Kit, 'he knows what you say to him as well as a
Christian does.'

'Does he indeed!' cries Brass, who has heard the same thing in the same
place from the same person in the same words a dozen times, but is
paralysed with astonishment notwithstanding. 'Dear me!'

'I little thought the first time I saw him, Sir,' says Kit, pleased
with the attorney's strong interest in his favourite, 'that I should
come to be as intimate with him as I am now.'

'Ah!' rejoins Mr Brass, brim-full of moral precepts and love of virtue.
'A charming subject of reflection for you, very charming. A subject of
proper pride and congratulation, Christopher. Honesty is the best
policy.--I always find it so myself. I lost forty-seven pound ten by
being honest this morning. But it's all gain, it's gain!'

Mr Brass slyly tickles his nose with his pen, and looks at Kit with the
water standing in his eyes. Kit thinks that if ever there was a good
man who belied his appearance, that man is Sampson Brass.

'A man,' says Sampson, 'w