The panels of the gig had lost their original shining polish; the varnish had cracked and worn, till the surface was rough and grey.

The harness was equally bare and worn, the reins mended more than once.

The whole ramshackle concern looked as if it would presently fall to pieces, but the horse was in much too good a condition.
When the four-in-hand had come within about a hundred yards, the farmer pulled his left rein hard, and drew his gig right out of the road on to the sward, and then stopped dead, to give the coach the full use of the way.

As it passed he took off his straw hat, and his wife stooped low as a makeshift for bowing.

An outsider might have thought that the aristocratic coach would have gone by this extremely humble couple without so much as noticing it.