excite one’s curiosity and make anyone go out of one’s way a little -- so I just asked Frosty what he knew about him. ‘‘All over the left,’’ said Frosty, jerking his thumb back over his shoulder, and looking as knowing as a goose with one eye; ‘‘all over the left,’’ repeated he. ‘‘What’s over the left?’’ said I. ‘‘Why, this Mr Sponge,’’ said he. ‘‘How so?’’ asked I. ‘‘Why,’’ said Frosty, ‘‘he’s come gammonin’ down here that he’s a great man -- full of money, and horses, and so on; but it’s all my eye, he’s no more a great man than I am.’’ ’

‘The deuce!’ exclaimed Jack, who had sat squinting and listening intently as his lordship proceeded. ‘Well now, hang me, I thought he was a snob the moment I saw him,’ continued he; Jack being one of those clever gentlemen who know everything after they are told.

‘ ‘‘Well, how do you know, Jack?’’ said I to Frosty. ‘‘Oh I knows,’’ replied he, as if he was certain about it. However, I wasn’t satisfied without knowing too; and, as we kept jogging on, we came to the old Coach and Horses, and I said to Jack, ‘‘We may as well have a drop of something to warm us.’’ So we halted, and had glasses of brandy apiece, whips and all; and then, as we jogged on again, I just said to Jack, casually, ‘‘Did you say it was Mr Blossomnose told you about old Brown Boots?’’ ‘‘No -- Blossomnose -- no,’’ replied he, as if Blossom never had anything half so good to tell; ‘‘it was a young woman,’’ said he, in an undertone, ‘‘who told me, and she had it from old Brown Boots’s groom.’’ ’

‘Well, that’s good, observed Jack, diving his hands into the very bottom of his great tartan trouser pockets, and shooting his legs out before him; ‘Well, that’s good,’ repeated he, falling into a sort of reverie.

‘Well, but what can we make of it?’ at length enquired he, after a long pause, during which he ran the facts through his mind and thought they could not be much ruder to Sponge than they had been. ‘What can we make of it?’ said he. ‘The fellow can ride, and we can’t prevent him hunting; and his having nothing only makes him less careful of his neck.’

‘Why, that was just what I thought,’ replied Lord Scamperdale, taking another tumbler of gin; ‘that was just what I thought -- the fellow can ride, and we can’t prevent him; and just as I settled that in my sleep, I thought I saw him come staring along, with his great brown horse’s head in the air, and crash right a- top of old Lablache. But I see my way clearer with him now. But help yourself,’ continued his lordship, passing the gin-bottle over to Jack, feeling that what he had to say required a little recommendation. ‘I think I can turn Frosty’s information to some account.’

‘I don’t see how,’ observed Jack, replenishing his glass.

‘I do, though,’ replied his lordship; ‘but I must have your assistance.’

‘Well, anything in moderation,’ replied Jack, who had had to turn his hand to some very queer jobs occasionally.

‘I’ll tell you what I think,’ observed his lordship. ‘I think there are two ways of getting rid of this haughty Philistine -- this unclean spirit -- this ’bomination of a man. I think, in the first place, if old chatterbox knew that he had nothing, he would very soon bow him out of Jawleyford Court; and, in the second, that we might get rid of him by buying his horses.’

‘Well,’ replied Jack, ‘I don’t know but you’re right. Chatterbox would soon wash his hands of him, as he has done of many promising young gentleman before, if he has nothing; but people differ so in their ideas of what nothing consists of.’

Jack spoke feelingly, for he was a gentleman who was generally spoken of as having nothing a-year, paid quarterly; and yet he was in the enjoyment of an annuity of sixty pounds.

‘Oh, why, when I say he has nothing,’ replied Lord Scamperdale, ‘I mean that he has not what Jawleyford, who is a bumptious sort of an ass, would consider sufficient to make him a fit match for one of his daughters. He may have a few hundreds a year, but Jaw, I’m sure, will look at nothing under thousands.’