" "You behave in
this manner, I suppose," said his lordship, "because this fellow
has expressed a willingness to come to your terms. I would advise
you to be cautious how you trust the animal in his hands; I think I
have seen him before, and could tell you--" "What can you tell of
me?" said the other, going up to him; "except that I have been a
poor dicky-boy, and that now I am a dealer in horses, and that my
father was lagged; that's all you could tell of me, and that I
don't mind telling myself: but there are two things they can't say
of me, they can't say that I am either a coward or a screw either,
except so far as one who gets his bread by horses may be expected
to be; and they can't say of me that I ever ate up an ice which a
young woman was waiting for, or that I ever backed out of a fight.
Horse!" said he, motioning with his finger tauntingly to the other;
"what do you want with a horse, except to take the bread out of the
mouth of a poor man--to-morrow is not the battle of Waterloo, so
that you don't want to back out of danger, by pretending to have
hurt yourself by falling from the creature's back, my lord of the
white feather--come, none of your fierce looks--I am not afraid of
you." In fact, the other had assumed an expression of the
deadliest malice, his teeth were clenched, his lips quivered, and
were quite pale; the rat-like eyes sparkled, and he made a half
spring, a la rat, towards his adversary, who only laughed.
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