Hansom is as Hansom Does.

For instance, the term “hansom is as hansom does,” is no mere mental mirage to one who has

“Some submit that the disguise is too complete, others that it is too thin.”

page 14 experienced the emotion of hauteur induced by wallowing in the leathered luxury of the now enhallowed hansom cab, with the driver up aloft, like a human brandy-ball, whispering sweet nothings through a hole in the roof.

I once could claim title to a luxurious uncle who smoked cigars and was an inveterate hansom-hound. He used to roll everywhere like a substantially upholstered caliph in wheeled hoodah. Frequently he invited me to “hop in m' lad,” just as if I were one of the boys of the old brigade, Oh, the palpitation produced by the reek of musty leather, the mystery of the doors which closed without a suggestion of human agency, the pleasantly horrifying spectacle of the unwinking bloodshot eye which appeared at the peep-hole in the roof like the green eye of the gloating glimp. There was romance, mystery, intimacy, serenity, in that ancient accretion of perished leather and wormy wood, and you felt that all was well, for the captain was up aloft. You had no need to brush the blur of lamposts and fences out of your eyes: you had leisure to enjoy the envy of the humble pedestrian and to splash him well and truly with your mud.

“Hansom is as Hansom does.”