96 STABLE SECRETS. 



ployer, " I suppose I can depend upon you, this time, riding to 

 orders ? " 



Robert Top's best lad was about making most violent 

 protestations of strictly complying with the instructions he 

 might receive, when he was stopped from uttering a word 

 by the raised forefinger of the right hand of Mr. James 

 Sloper. 



" I know what you would say," continued he ; " but I don't 

 care the value of that" — and, as he spoke, he stooped and 

 picked up a single straw which laid at his feet — " what anybody 

 says. Words won't either make or break me. It's what you 

 do, Doddles, or don't do, that concerns me." 



Finding it useless to speak, Puffy Doddles exercised a wise 

 discretion by observing a strict silence. 



"In the belief, then," said Mr. James Sloper, "that you will 

 make no more attempts to ' walk in ' " 



The two last monosyllables, pointedly directed, entered 

 poor Puffy' s bosom in the shape of a couple of barbed fish- 

 hooks. 



"I've almost made up my mind," continued he, "to give 

 ve another chance." 



it 



" Oh, that he would give the particulars of the chance ! " 

 was the mental exclamation of Puffy Doddles. 



" They think they've stopped him," said Mr. James Sloper ; 

 but the remark appeared to be designed as part of a soliloquy 

 rather than for the information of Pobert Top's best lad. 

 " They think they've stopped him," repeated he, with a jerk of 

 the head at the Invisible and Airy Nothing, taking up its 

 temporary quarters in a corner of Sunshine's box • " but 

 they haven't. Top weight as he is, eight stone seven won't 

 stop him, and, if he runs kindly, he'll be there or there- 

 abouts." 



What can describe the feverish anxiety of Puffy Doddles to 

 learn the full details of the " there or thereabouts " to which 

 direct reference was being made by his employer ? 



