all events, that you are easy about selling.
Mr. Sponge had played this game so very often, that it came quite natural
to him. He knew exactly how far to go, and having expressed his previous
objection to the horse, he now most handsomely made the _amende honorable_
by patting him on the neck, and declaring that he really thought he should
keep him.

It is said that every man has his weak or 'do-able' point, if the sharp
ones can but discover it. This observation does not refer, we believe, to
men with an innocent _penchant_ for play, or the turf, or for buying
pictures, or for collecting china, or for driving coaches and four, all of
which tastes proclaim themselves sooner or later, but means that the most
knowing, the most cautious, and the most careful, are all to be come over,
somehow or another.

There are few things more surprising in this remarkable world than the
magnificent way people talk about money, or the meannesses they will resort
to in order to get a little. We hear fellows flashing and talking in
hundreds and thousands, who will do almost anything for a five-pound note.
We have known men pretending to hunt countries at their own expense, and
yet actually 'living out of the hounds.' Next to the accomplishment of
that--apparently almost impossible feat--comes the dexterity required for
living by horse-dealing.

A little lower down in the scale comes the income derived from the
profession of a 'go-between'--the gentleman who can buy the horse cheaper
than you can. This was Caingey Thornton's trade. He was always lurking
about people's stables talking to grooms and worming out secrets--whose
horse had a cough, whose was a wind-sucker, whose was lame after hunting,
and so on--and had a price current of every horse in the place--knew what
had been given, what the owners asked, and had a pretty good guess what
they would take.

Waffles would have been an invaluable customer to Thornton if the former's
groom, Mr. Figg, had not been rather too hard with his 'reg'lars.' He
insisted on Caingey dividing whatever he got out of his master with him.
This reduced profits considerably; but still, as it was a profession that
did not require any capital to set up with, Thornton could afford to be
liberal, having only to tack on to one end to cut off at the other.

After the opening Sponge gave as they rode home with the hounds, Thornton
had no difficulty in sounding him on the subject.

'You'll not think me imperti