_C.G._ Put it into livery close by, Sir. And, unless I can find a good master for it, by Jove, I'll take it back again, and _give it away to a friend_. Perhaps, Sir, you'd like to have a look at the animal. The stables are only in the next street, and--as a friend, and with no eye to business--I should be pleased to show poor _Bogey_ to anyone so sympathetic as yourself. [_I.P., after some further chat of a friendly nature, agrees to go and "run his eye over him."_ SCENE II.--_Greengrocer's yard at side of a seedy house in a shabby street, slimy and straw-bestrewn. Yard is paved with lumpy, irregular cobbles, and some sooty and shaky-looking sheds stand at the bottom thereof. Enter together, Clerical Gent and Inexperienced Person._ _C.G._ (_smiling apologetically_). Not exactly palatial premises for an animal used to _my_ stables at Wickham-in-the-Wold! But I know these people, Sir; they are kind as Christians, and as honest as the day. Hoy! TOM! TOM!! TOM!!! Are you there, TOM? [_From the shed emerges a very small boy with very short hair, and a very long livery, several sizes too large for him, the tail of the brass-buttoned coat and the bottoms of the baggy trousers alike sweeping the cobbles as he shambles forward_]. (_C.G. genially_.) Ah, there you are, TOM, my lad. Bring out dear old _Bogey_, and show it to my friend here. [_Boy leads out a rusty roan Rosinante, high in bone, and low in flesh, with prominent hocks, and splay hoofs, which stumble gingerly over the cobbles._] (_Patting the horse affectionately._) Ah, poor old _Bogey_, he doesn't like these lumpy stones, does he? Not used to them, Sir. My stable-yard at Wickham-in-the-Wold, is as smoothly paved as--as the Alhambra, Sir. I always _consider_ my animals, Sir. A merciful man is merciful to his beast, as the good book says. But _isn't_ he a Beauty? _I.P._ Well--ahem!--ye-es; he looks a kind, gentle, steady sort of a creature. But--ahem!--what's the matter with his knees? _C.G._ Oh, nothing, Sir, nothing at all. Only a habit he has got _along of kind treatment_. Like us when we "stand at ease," you know, a bit baggy, that's all. You should see him after a twenty miles spin along our Wickham roads, when my wife and I are doing a round of visits among the neighbouring gentry. Ah, _Bogey, Bogey_, old boy--_kissing his nose_--I don't know what Mrs. G. and the girls will say when they hear I've parted with you--if I do, _if_ I do. _Enter two horsey-looking Men as though in search of something._ _First Horsey Man_. Ah, here you are. Well, look 'ere, are you going to take Thirty Pounds for that horse o' yourn? Yes or No! _C.G._ (_turning upon them with dignity_). _No_, Sir; most emphatically _No!_ I've told you before I will not sell him to you at _any_ price. Have the goodness to leave us--_at once_, I'm engaged with my friend here. [_Horsey Men turn away despondently. Enter hurriedly, a shabby-looking Groom._