72 COACHING. 



faithless Lothario present the pretty barmaid of 

 the " Red Lion" with the bunch of violets, which 

 she placed near her heart. Nay, more, if my 

 optics did not deceive me, he implanted a kiss 

 on the rosy lips of the blooming landlady, wdio 

 faintly exclaimed, " For shame, you naughty 

 man." 



As I had won the good graces of this driving 

 Giovanni, not only by listening to the story of his 

 conquests over the rural Hebes, who dispensed 

 their smiles and liquor to him, but by commend- 

 ing his voice in " Pray, Goody," which I declared 

 to be equal to Sinclair's, he offered me the reins 

 just after passing the " Sun Inn" at Maiden- 

 head. 



" Take 'em gently up the hill," said he, 

 " and then you can have a spirt over the 

 thicket." 



To say that I was proud is to say nothing, 

 for, having passed a few mouths with a private 

 tutor at Littlewick Green, within two miles of 

 the spot where we were, I felt that I should 

 cut no little figure as I drove by the " Coacli 

 and Horses," a wayside public-house where 1 

 and my companions used to keep our guns when 

 at our tutor's. 



" Do you pull up at the ' Coach and Horses ?' " 



