THE SALE. 79 



spectator, with a iDrimless liat and long straight hair hanging 

 over the collar of a capacious drab-coat, on which there were 

 gi'eat white buttons as big as full-grown native oysters. 



" He may be walked down to please you, sii'," replied the 

 auctioneer, politely; "but we don't run horses like Sheet 

 Anchor in a stable-yard." 



" Ho ! " exclaimed the proprietor of the wliite buttons as 

 big as oysters ; and feeling, perhaps, the keen edge of the satire 

 more than he could bear with resignation, he backed from his 

 prominent position in the throng, and took a hurried departure. 



The crowd now pressed so closely around me, that I began 

 to exliibit signs of impatience at the liberty. 



" Take care, there, take care of his heels," hallooed the pos- 

 sessor of the rostrum as I lashed out a leg by way of a warning. 



"Ha, the old blood!" ejaculated a well-remembered voice, 

 and upon looking at the quarter from whence it came, there 

 stood Kobert Top, with Toby securely but comfortably held under 

 an arm. The earliest friend of my colthood gave me a slight nod 

 as our eyes met j but I thought, at the moment, that the gold 

 horse-shoe, pinned with the accustomed neatness in the snowy 

 cravat, moved as if a deeply-drawn sigh issued from its vicinity. 



" What will any gentleman please to give for Sheet Anchor, 

 to be sold with his engagements ?" said the auctioneer, making 

 a bird's-eye sweep of the many and characteristic faces now 

 tm'ned towards me. " Say something," continued he, " for re- 

 member, he is to be sold." 



" I'll give a thousand guineas for him," was the first ofier; 

 but I did not see the person by whom the bid was made. 



" Twelve hundred," cried a second. 



" Twelve hundred guineas," repeated the auctioneer, survey- 

 ing, with a professional snatch of view, the whole of the assem- 

 bly; "and fefty," continued he, being telegraphed by the slight 

 and almost imperceptible wink of the little Jew I had first 

 seen in the Warren on Epsom Downs, and whose oj)inion then, 

 was. that the Bank of England could not pay the money lost, 

 provided I won the Derby. "Thirteen hundred," resumed the 

 auctioneer, "and fefty ; fourteen hundred and " 



