cheapness of the hansom, for it is of such an immediate and constant
convenience that the unwary stranger's shilling has slipped from him in
a sovereign before he knows, with the swift succession of occasions when
the hansom seems imperative. A 'bus is inexpensive, but it is stolid and
bewildering; a hansom is always cheerfully intelligent. It will set you
down at the very place you seek; you need walk neither to it nor from
it; a nod, a glance, summons it or dismisses. The 'bus may be kind, but
it is not flattering, and the hansom is flattering as well as kind;
flattering to one's pride, one's doubt, one's timid hope. It takes all
the responsibility for your prompt and unerring arrival; and you may
trust it almost implicitly. At any point in London you can bid it go to
any other with a confidence that I rarely found abused. Once, indeed, my
cabman carried me a long way about at midnight, and when he finally left
me at my door, he was disposed to be critical of its remoteness, while
he apologized for the delay. I suggested that in a difficulty like his a
map of London would be a good thing; but though he was so far in drink
as to be able to take the joke in good part, he denied that a map would
be of the least use to a cabman. Probably he was right; my map was not
of the least use to me; and his craft seemed to feel their way about
through the maze of streets and squares and circles by the same instinct
that serves a pilot on a river in the dark. Their knowledge is a thing
of the nerves, not of the brains, if there is a difference; or if there
is none, then it is an affair of the subliminal consciousness, it is
inspiration, it is genius. It could not well be overpaid, and the cabmen
are careful that it is not underpaid. I heard, indeed, of two American
ladies who succeeded in underpaying their cabman; this was their belief
resting upon his solemn declaration; but I myself failed in every
attempt of the kind. My cabman always said that it was not enough; and
then I compromised by giving him too much. Many stories are told of the
abusiveness of the class, but a simple and effective rule is to overpay