Hinks, the saddler, two shops further down the street, was a different

case. Hinks was the aggressor--practically.

Hinks was a sporting man in his way, with that taste for checks in

costume and tight trousers which is, under Providence, so mysteriously

and invariably associated with equestrian proclivities. At first Mr.

Polly took to him as a character, became frequent in the God's

Providence Inn under his guidance, stood and was stood drinks and

concealed a great ignorance of horses until Hinks became urgent for

him to play billiards or bet.

Then Mr. Polly took to evading him, and Hinks ceased to conceal his

opinion that Mr. Polly was in reality a softish sort of flat.

He did not, however, discontinue conversation with Mr. Polly; he would

come along to him whenever he appeared at his door, and converse about

sport and women and fisticuffs and the pride of life with an air of

extreme initiation, until Mr. Polly felt himself the faintest

underdeveloped intimation of a man that had ever hovered on the verge

of non-existence.

So he invented phrases for Hinks' clothes and took Rusper, the

201

The History of Mr Polly