"Let you know directly, sir. (Hand down the Wonder Lunnun-book, there.) When for, sir?"
I stood aghast at the fellow's coolness.—"To-morrow."
"Full outside, sir; just one place vacant, in."
The very word, "outside," bringing forcibly to my mind the idea of ten or a dozen shivering creatures being induced, by any possible means, to perch themselves on the top of a coach, on a dark, dull, dingy, drizzling morning in January, confirmed me in my belief that the whole affair was, what is vulgarly called, a "take-in."
"So you will venture then to book a place for me?"
"Yes, sir, if you please."
"And, perhaps, you will go so far as to receive half my fare?"
"If you please, sir—one-pound-two."
"Well, you are an extraordinary person! Perhaps, now—pray be attentive—perhaps, now, you will carry on the thing so far as to receive the whole?"
"If you please, sir—two-pound-four."