HESITATION. 183 



ness, I should have said no. Perhaps next time 

 you will follow your friend's advice in taking 

 mine ; if you do, I will try and suit you." 



There is a certain feeling of vanity in man that 

 is not confined to the breast, which is generally 

 pointed out as its locality, but runs, like the 

 nerves, over every part and particle of the body : 

 so, touch it where you will, it is capable, like the 

 string of a harp touched by the scientific finger 

 of a master, of producing harmony; but when 

 the careless and rude finger of truth is applied, it 

 often gives back a twang that seems to jar to the 

 very pedals. 



The description of the hunter seemed to bode 

 his suiting our buyer ; but the not being objec- 

 tionable to him and his country appeared to carry 

 with it something bordering on a latent hint at 

 inferiority that he winced at. He felt the truth 

 of the thing, would have owned it to himself, but 

 to have it, as it w r ere, forced on him by another, 

 though done without any intentional offence, 

 made it no more palatable than Pistol found the 

 leek, or the persuasions that induced him to swal- 

 low it. He even thought of dashing at the three 

 hundred-pounder at once ; but, as he was a sensible 

 man, the thought merely flitted across his brain, 

 so he compounded with good sense, good manners, 

 and a little mortification, by asking if he might 

 take the liberty of sending a brother-sportsman to 

 N 4 



