358 PUTTING OUT A FEELER. 



remains with you, and depends a good deal upon 

 whether you wish the horse sold as soon as possible, 

 or whether you are disposed to hold out for price, as 

 in that case we must wait till the right customer 

 comes ; and also whether you are determined not to 

 sell under a certain price ; or whether you have any 

 objection to him, and are determined not to take him 

 back : but in either case, you know, Sir, it is my in- 

 terest to get the most I can, for the more you get the 

 more I get ; so it is the interest of both to get the 

 most we can." " Humph!" (Mem. I say humph) : 

 the owner says, " Of course, Mr. Nickem." 



Now this said feeler, with the acute sensibility of 

 touch that Nickem has, brings out more than enough 

 to show him the present determination of the owner. 

 I say present, because a few days and a few tricks very 

 often alter these sort of determinations amazingly. 

 Of course various means are employed to bring this 

 about, varying according to circumstances. In this 

 case, we will suppose a medium kind of determina- 

 tion in the seller. Nickem has persuaded him he 

 ought to take less than he asked ; and it is left that 

 the seller is willing to make a considerable reduction 

 rather than send the horse back. But this reduction 

 does not amount to perhaps more than one fourth of 

 what Nickem wants, so a beginning must be made to 

 bring this about. We will instance one way of be- 

 ginning. The owner and Nickem see the horse out 

 together. In this case he is not shown so as to make 

 his master more in love with him than he was: in 

 short, he never saw the horse go worse. Nickem 

 looks in so peculiar and attentive a way at the horse's 

 going, that the seller is induced to ask his motive. 

 Before he gives an answer (so delicately tenacious is 



