here. At the horse fair at Fecamp my sorrel would be lost in the
crowd. Here in the south you will not meet his match in a long
day's journey.'

'Do not make too sure of that,' the man replied, his eyes bright
with triumph and the dram. 'What would you say if I showed you a
better--in my own stable?'

I saw that his words sent a kind of thrill through his other
hearers, and that such of them as understood for two or three of
them talked their PATOIS only--looked at him angrily; and in a
twinkling I began to comprehend. But I affected dullness, and
laughed in scorn.

'Seeing is believing,' I said. 'I doubt if you knows good horse
when you see one, my friend.'

'Oh, don't I?' he said, winking. 'Indeed!'

'I doubt it,' I answered stubbornly.

'Then come with me, and I will show you one,' he retorted,
discretion giving way to vain-glory. His wife and the others, I
saw, looked at him dumbfounded; but, without paying any heed to
them, he rose, took up a lanthorn, and, assuming an air of
peculiar wisdom, opened the door. 'Come with me,' he continued.
'I don't know a good horse when I see one, don't I? I know a
better than yours, at anyrate!'

I should not have been surprised if the other men had interfered;