swick
Hotel, while, accompanied by Leather, he proceeded on foot to the stables.

Mr. Leather, of course, had the valuable stud under lock and key, with
every crevice and air-hole well stuffed with straw, as if they had been the
most valuable horses in the world. Having produced the ring-key from his
pocket, Mr. Leather opened the door, and having got his master in, speedily
closed it, lest a breath of fresh air might intrude. Having lighted a
lucifer, he turned on the gas, and exhibited the blooming-coated horses,
well littered in straw, showing that he was not the man to pay
four-and-twenty shillings a week for nothing. Mr. Sponge stood eyeing them
for some seconds with evident approbation.

'If any one asks you about the horses, you can say they are _mine_, you
know,' at length observed he casually, with an emphasis on the mine.

'In course,' replied Leather.

'I mean, you needn't say anything about their being _jobs_,' observed
Sponge, fearing Leather mightn't exactly 'take.'

'You trust me,' replied Leather, with a knowing wink and a jerk of his
elbow against his master's side; 'you trust me,' repeated he, with a look
as much as to say, 'we understand each other.'

'I've hadded a few to them, indeed,' continued Leather, looking to see how
his master took it.

'Have you?' observed Mr. Sponge inquiringly.

'I've made out that you've as good as twenty, one way or another,' observed
Leather; 'some 'ere, some there, all over in fact, and that you jest run
about the country, and 'unt with 'oever comes h'uppermost.'

'Well, and what's the upshot of it all?' inquired Mr. Sponge, thinking his
groom seemed wonderfully enthusiastic in his interest.

'Why, the hupshot of it is,' replied Leather, 'that the men are all mad,
and the women all wild to see you. I hear at my club, the Mutton Chop and
Mealy Potato Club, which is frequented by flunkies as well as grums, that
there's nothin' talked of at dinner or tea, but the terrible rich stranger
that's a comin', and the gals are all pulling caps, who's to have the first
chance.'

'Indeed,' observed Mr. Sponge, chuckling at the sensation he was creating.

'The Miss Shapsets, there be five on 'em, have had a game at fly loo for
you,' continued Leather, 'at least so their little maid tells me.'

'Fly _what_?' inquired Mr. Sponge.

'Fly loo,' repeated Leather, 'fly loo.'

Mr. Sponge shook his head. For once he was not 'fly.'

'You see,' continued Leather, in explanati