It was plain he anticipated something extraordinary by way of a _pourboire_; and considering the marches and counter-marches by which I had extended the stage, the military character of our affairs with Mr.Bellamy, and the bad example I had set before him at the archdeacon's, something exceptional was certainly to be done.

But these are always nice questions, to a foreigner above all: a shade too little will suggest niggardliness, a shilling too much smells of hush-money.

Fresh from the scene at the archdeacon's, and flushed by the idea that I was now nearly done with the responsibilities of the claret-coloured chaise, I put into his hands five guineas; and the amount served only to waken his cupidity.
'O, come, sir, you ain't going to fob me of with this?
Why, I seen fire at your side!' he cried.
It would never do to give him more; I felt I should become the fable of Kirkby-Lonsdale if I did; and I looked him in the face, sternly but still smiling, and addressed him with a voice of uncompromising firmness.
'If you do not like it, give it back,' said I.
He pocketed the guineas with the quickness of a conjurer, and, like a base-born cockney as he was, fell instantly to casting dirt.
''Ave your own way of it, Mr.Ramornie--leastways Mr.St.Eaves, or whatever your blessed name may be.

Look 'ere'-- turning for sympathy to the stable-boys--'this is a blessed business.

Blessed 'ard, I calls it.
'Ere I takes up a blessed son of a pop-gun what calls hisself anything you care to mention, and turns out to be a blessed _mounseer_ at the end of it! 'Ere 'ave I been drivin' of him up and down all day, a-carrying off of gals, a-shootin' of pistyils, and a-drinkin' of sherry and hale; and wot does he up and give me but a blank, blank, blanketing blank!' The fellow's language had become too powerful for reproduction, and I passed it by.
Meanwhile I observed Rowley fretting visibly at the bit; another moment, and he would have added a last touch of the ridiculous to our arrival by coming to his hands with the postillion.
'Rowley!' cried I reprovingly.
Strictly it should have been Gammon; but in the hurry of the moment, my fault (I can only hope) passed unperceived.