't a Hansom horse," said Diamond's father indignantly.

"Well, you're right. He ain't handsome, but he's a good un" said his
owner.

"Who says he ain't handsome? He's one of the handsomest horses a
gentleman's coachman ever druv," said Diamond's father; remarking to
himself under his breath--"though I says it as shouldn't"--for he did
not feel inclined all at once to confess that his own old horse could
have sunk so low.

"Well," said his friend, "all I say is--There's a animal for you, as
strong as a church; an'll go like a train, leastways a parly," he added,
correcting himself.

But the coachman had a lump in his throat and tears in his eyes. For the
old horse, hearing his voice, had turned his long neck, and when his
old friend went up to him and laid his hand on his side, he whinnied
for joy, and laid his big head on his master's breast. This settled the
matter. The coachman's arms were round the horse's neck in a moment, and
he fairly broke down and cried. The cab-master had never been so fond of
a horse himself as to hug him like that, but he saw in a moment how it
was. And he must have been a good-hearted fellow, for I never heard of
such an idea coming into the head of any other man with a horse to sell:
instead of putting something on to the price because he was now pretty
sure of selling him, he actually took a pound off what he had meant to
ask for him, saying to himself it was a shame to part old friends.

Diamond's father, as soon as he came to himself, turned and asked how
much he wanted for the horse.

"I see you're old friends," said the owner.

"It's my own old Diamond. I liked him far the best of the pair, though
the other was good. You ain't got him too, have you?"

"No; nothing in the stable to match him there."

"I believe you," said the coachman. "But you'll be wanting a long price
for him, I know."

"No, not so much. I bought him cheap, and as I say, he ain't for my
work."

The end of it was that Diamond's father bought old Diamond again, along
with a four-wheeled cab. And as there were some rooms to be had over the
stable, he took them, wrote to his wife to come home, and set up as a
cabman.

CHAPTER XV. THE MEWS

IT WAS late in the afternoon when Diamond and his mother and the baby
reached London. I was so full of Diamond that I forgot to tell you a
baby had arrived in the meantime. His father was waiting for them with
his own cab, but they had not told Diamond who the