, sir?"

"You've seen him, then?"

"Not I," says Sam, unmoved even by a twitch; "but I knows a party as
'as, and it ain't likely, Mr. Orkins, as you'll get 'im by orferin'
a price like that, for why? Why, it stands to reason--don't it, Mr.
Orkins?--it ain't the _dorg_ you're payin' for, but _your feelins_ as
these 'ere wagabonds is _tradin' on, Mr. Orkins_; that's where it is.
O sir, it's abominable, as I tells 'em, keepin' a gennelman's dorg."

I was perfectly thunderstruck with the man's philosophy and good
feeling.

"Go on, Mr. Linton."

"Well, Mr. Orkins, they knows--damn 'em!--as your feelins ull make you
orfer more and more, for who knows that there dorg might belong _to a
lidy_, and then _her_ feelins has to be took into consideration.
I'll tell 'ee now, Mr. Orkins, how this class of wagabond works, for
wagabonds I must allow they be. Well, they meets, let's say, at a
public, and one says to another, 'I say, Bill,' he says, 'that there
dawg as you found 'longs to Lawyer Orkins; he's bloomin' fond o'
dawgs, is Lawyer Orkins, so they say, and he can pay for it.' 'Right
you are,' says Bill, 'and a d---- lawyer _shall_ pay for it. He makes
us pay when we wants him, and now we got him we'll make him pay.' So
you see, Mr. Orkins, where it is, and whereas the way to do it is to
say to these fellers--I'll just suppose, sir, I'm you and you're me,
sir; no offence, I hope--'Well, I wants the dawg back.' Well, they
says; leastways, I ses, ses I,--

"'Lawyer Orkins, you lost a dawg, 'ave yer?'

"'Yes,' ses you, 'I have,' like a gennelman--excuse my imitation,
sir--' and I don't _keer a damn for the whelp_!' That's wot you orter
say. 'He's only a bloomin' mongrel.'"

"Very good; what am I to say next, Mr. Linton?"

"'Don't yer?' says the tother feller; 'then what the h---- are yer
looken arter him for?'

"'Well,' you ses, Mr. Orkins, 'you can go to h----. I don't keer for
the dawg; he ain't my fancy.'"

"A proper place for the whole lot of you, Sam."

"But, excuse me, Mr. Orkins, sir, that's for future occasions. This
'ere present one, in orferin' fourteen pun, you've let the cat out o'
the bag, and what I could ha' done had you consulted me sooner I can't
do now; I could ha' got him for a _fi'-pun note_ at one time, but
they've worked on your feelins, and, mark my words, they'll want
_twenty pun_ as the price o' that there dawg, as sure as my name's Sam
Linton. That's all I got to say, Mr. Orkins, and I thoug