A GOOD LAUGH. 75 



fullest sense of the word strangers. To them their looks 

 were strange, their accent ridiculous, many of their expres- 

 sions hardly intelligible, their technical and slang phrases 

 enigmas, their nobby servants " mountebanks." The whole 

 lot would be looked upon as possible anybodies or any- 

 things. I was a judge of that class of men, but who else 

 in that city was ? Verily to all others they were indeed 

 black swans. 



And the deliciousness of the slight emphasis on " disin- 

 terested." The delicate way in which it inferred so much. 

 That I was either a " Galvanised Englishman," or a "White- 

 washed Yankee," and calculated to do them, to make a 

 commission out of them on their purchases. And how 

 plainly it expressed that they were not to be gammoned ; 

 that they were too fly for Yankee tricks to be played on 

 them. Oh, it was killing ! And the lofty allusion to " the 

 first banker here," who had their " full confidence," to whom 

 they had " letters." Why, for all practical purposes as far 

 as sporting matters were concerned such were, in effect, 

 letters to me. I knew what " the first banker here " would 

 say. It would be this : " Gentlemen, I will be pleased to do 

 all I can for you in any way, but in all things pertaining to 

 sport, I am quite ignorant ; never fired a gun in my life, or 

 got upon a horse ; but I will give you an introduction to my 

 friend " (that's me). " I have the fullest confidence in him " 

 (I should think he had, if allowing an account to be heavily 

 overdrawn more than once was any sign of it) ; " he knows 

 this country, its people, ways, and all about it, and has 

 hunted every kind of game in it, from snipe to Indians. He 

 is { posted ' in sporting." 



