288 ESTABLISHMENTS FOR LOVES. 



the sum of one dealer than he can of another, and for 

 this reason : one dealer has not so many customers 

 who give enormous prices as the other has; so he 

 must sell at less prices, or not sell at all. Some 

 ladies fancy they cannot get " a love of a shawl" 

 unless they go to the most expensive house to buy it. 

 The prayers of the sinful are never heard : I have 

 cursed two or three of these establishments for "loves of 

 things" to their hearts' content ; but, confound them ! 

 there they stand, and while they do I suppose our 

 wives will go to them ; and so will certain men pay 

 much more for their horses than they need do, because 

 they also come from a particular establishment. 



I have, I remember, in an early part of these 

 " Hints," said that a man knowing little of horses 

 will in the end probably find a respectable dealer the 

 best source whence to supply himself. I say so again ; 

 but the term respectable may perhaps bear a different 

 import in different people's mind. I mean, by a 

 respectable man, one who values his character too 

 much to commit acts incompatible with the character 

 of being as fair in his dealings as we may expect any 

 trader to be ; but I do not consider respectability 

 involves the necessity of imitating Lord Chesterfield 

 in the colour or tie of his cravat. Cravats at a pound 

 apiece will not last for ever, nor will a case of cham- 

 pagne. If these are not paid for by the user out of a 

 PRIVATE fortune, they must be paid for by some one 

 else. " What good-natured people they must be who 

 do pay for them!" A man may say, and with truth, 

 he wants a fine horse, and does not know where to 

 get him but somewhere where satin is worn ; perhaps 

 he does not know where else to get him. I dare say 

 he does not ; but there are plenty of men who do, and 



