loo COACHING DAYS AND COACHING WAYS 



Pleased at having timed the thing so well, Mirabel 

 looks in the direction thus grammatically indicated. 

 He expects to see the Exeter Fly — a trifle improved 

 upon possibly — but still the Exeter Fly. And what 

 does he see in its stead rapidly approaching ? Why, 

 a turn-out drawn by four spanking grays, which he 

 takes to be a gentleman's carriage, and which would 

 do credit to a crowned head. He communicates this 

 impression to the desperado, who remarks " Bah ! " 

 or " Yah ! " (a more common use). " It's the Comet, 

 and you pnust be as quick as lightning ! " with which 

 words he projects his victim into the coach, the victim's 

 luggage into the boot, pockets his fee without a thanks- 

 giving, and remorselessly attaches himself to another 

 innocent. 



Before he got into the coach Mirabel has stared at 

 the coachman, and as soon as he is seated, asks what 

 gentleman is going to drive. " He is no gentleman, 

 sir," says a person who sits opposite to him, and who 

 happens to be the proprietor of the coach; ^'he is no 

 gentleman ! He has been on the Comet ever since she 

 was started, and is a very steady young man." " Pardon 

 my ignorance," Mirabel replies. " From the cleanliness 

 of his person, .the neatness of his apparel, and the 

 language he made use of, I mistook him for some en- 

 thusiastic Bachelor of Arts, wishing to become a 

 charioteer, after the manner of the illustrious ancients." 

 At which piece of simplicity the coach proprietor 

 suspects Mirabel of deliriiuii tremens, but says, " You 

 must have been in foreign parts," and at the instant 

 the wheels begin to go round. In five minutes they 

 are at Hyde Park Corner ; but where is The Hercules 

 Pillars } Never to be seen by Mirabel again, who 

 remarks somewhat pointlessly, " What, off the stones, 

 already } " He is informed that they have ncv^er been 

 on the stones, and that there are no stones in London 

 now. [This seems strange to me — I seem to have met 

 some in my wanderings in hansom cabs ! ] Wrong 



