94 



THE ADVENTURES OP A GENTLEMAN 



mended, to test the equality of the feet. A customer 

 must be prepared for a little coarse raillery, if he 

 ventures on these hypercritical precautions : the only 

 way to receive it is with good humor, and, if genius 

 permits, with a repartee that may throw back the 

 laugh. 



One day my suspicion was awakened by a circum- 

 stance of this nature. Some other gentlemen were 

 looking at the stables, and two of them at the 

 very horse I was minutely measuring. They ap- 

 peared to be a couple of school-boys just escaped 



from Eton, or perhaps freshmen who had spent a 

 term at Cambridge. I have, I trust, long acquired 

 the lesson of not being quizzed out of my common 



