I stood aghast at the fellow's coolness.--"To-morrow."

"Full outside, sir; just one place vacant, _in_."

The very word, "outside," bringing forcibly to my mind the idea of ten
or a dozen shivering creatures being induced, by any possible means,
to perch themselves on the top of a coach, on a dark, dull, dingy,
drizzling morning in January, confirmed me in my belief that the whole
affair was, what is vulgarly called, a "take-in."

"So you _will_ venture then to _book_ a place for me?"

"Yes, sir, if you please."

"And, perhaps, you will go so far as to receive half my fare?"

"If you please, sir--one-pound-two."

"Well, you are an extraordinary person! Perhaps, now--pray be
attentive--perhaps, now, you will carry on the thing so far as to
receive the whole?"

"If you please, sir--two-pound-four."

I paid him the money: observing at the same time, and in a tone
calculated to impress his imagination with a vivid picture of attorneys,
counsel, judge, and jury--"You shall hear from me again."

"If you please, sir; to-morrow morning, at five _punctual_--start