'You must excuse me. I prefer to keep my spare cash for worthier objects; and, with your permission, I will spend the remainder of the afternoon on foot.' 'You will do nothing of the sort,' said he. 'If you won't stop, and let me get off properly,' I said with firmness, 'I shall _roll_ off.' There were some promenaders within easy hail; but how was I to word a call for help, how explain such a dilemma as mine? 'You will only reduce me to the painful necessity of rolling on you,' he replied. 'You must see that you are to a certain extent in my power. Suppose it occurred to me to leap those rails and take you into the Serpentine, or to run away and upset a mounted policeman with you--do you think you could offer much opposition?' I could not honestly assert that I did. 'You were introduced to me,' I said reproachfully, 'as a _kind_ horse!' 'And so I am--apart from matters of business. Come, will you buy, or be bolted with? I hate indecision!' 'Buy!' I said, with commercial promptness. 'If you will take me back, I will arrange about it at once.' It is needless to say that my one idea was to get safely off his back: after which, neither honour nor law could require me to execute a contract extorted from me by threats. But, as we were going down the mews, he said reflectively, 'I've been thinking--it will be better for all parties, if you make your offer to my proprietor _before_ you dismount.' I was too vexed to speak: this animal's infernal intelligence had foreseen my manoeuvre--he meant to foil it, if he could. And then we clattered in under the glass-roofed yard of the livery stables; and the job-master, who was alone there, cast his eyes up at the sickly-faced clock, as if he were comparing its pallor with my own. 'Why, you _are_ home early, sir,' he said. 'You didn't find the 'orse too much for you, did you?' He said this without any suspicion of the real truth; and, indeed, I may say, once for all, that this weird horse--Houyhnhnm, or whatever else he might be--admitted no one but myself into the secret of his marvellous gifts, and in all his conversations with me, managed (though how, I cannot pretend to say) to avoid being overheard. 'Oh, dear no,' I protested, 'he carried me admirably--admirably!' and I made an attempt to slip off. No such thing: Brutus instantly jogged my memory, and me, by the slightest suggestion of a 'buck.' 'He's a grand 'orse, sir, isn't he?' said the job-master complacently. 'M--magnificent!' I agreed, with a jerk. 'Will you go to his head, please?' But the horse backed into the centre of the yard, where he plunged with a quiet obstinacy. 'I like him so much,' I called out, as I clung to the saddle, 'that I want to know if you're at all inclined to part with him?' Here Brutus became calm and attentive. 'Would you be inclined to make me a orfer for him, sir?' 'Yes,' I said faintly. 'About how much would he be?' 'You step into my orfice here, sir,' said he, 'and we'll talk it over.'