"No!" Tietjens answered: "I'll get you fifty for it or I'm no Yorkshireman. This fellow hasn't been swindling you. He's got you deuced good value for money, but he doesn't know what's suited for ladies; a white pony and a basket-work chaise is what you want."
"Oh, I like a bit of spirit," Mrs. Wannop said.
"Of course you do," Tietjens answered: "but this turn-out's too much."
He sighed a little and took out his surgical needle.
"I'm going to hold this band together with this," he said. "It's so pliant it will make two stitches and hold for ever. . . ."
But the handy man was beside him, holding out the contents of his pockets: a greasy leather pouch, a ball of beeswax, a knife, a pipe, a bit of cheese and a pale rabbit wire. He had made up his mind that this Quality was benevolent and he made offering of all his possessions.
Tietjens said: "Ah," and then, while he unknotted the wire:
"Well! Listen . . . you bought this turn-out of a higgler at the back door of the Leg of Mutton Inn."
"Saracen's 'Ed!" the driver muttered.
"You got it for thirty pounds because the higgler wanted money bad. I know. And dirt cheap. . . . But a rig isn't everybody's driving. All right for a vet or a horse-coper. Like the cart that's too tall! . . . But you did damn well. Only you're not what you were, are you, at thirty? And the horse looked to be a devil and the cart so high you couldn't get out once you were in. And you kept it in the sun for two hours waiting for your mistress."