I should have been only too willing, for there was no room there for the horse, but the suspicious animal would not hear of it: he began to revolve immediately. 'Let us settle it now--here,' I said, 'I can't wait.' The job-master stroked away a grin. No doubt there _was_ something unbusinesslike and unpractical in such precipitation, especially as combined with my appearance at the time. 'Well, you _'ave_ took a voilent fancy to the 'orse and no mistake, sir,' he remarked. 'I never crossed a handsomer creature,' I said; which was hardly a prudent remark for an intending purchaser, but then, there was the animal himself to be conciliated. 'I don't know, really, as I can do without him just at this time of year,' said the man. 'I'm under-'orsed as it is for the work I've got to do.' A sweet relief stole over me: I had done all that could be expected of me. 'I'm very sorry to hear that,' I said, preparing to dismount. 'That _is_ a disappointment; but if you can't there's an end of it.' 'Don't you be afraid,' said Brutus, '_he'll_ sell me readily enough: make him an offer, quick!' 'I'll give you thirty guineas for him, come!' I said, knowing well enough that he would not take twice the money. 'I thought a gentleman like you would have had more insight into the value of a 'orse,' he said: 'why, his action alone is worth that, sir.' 'You couldn't let me have the action without the horse, I suppose?' I said, and I must have intended some joke. It is unnecessary to prolong a painful scene. Brutus ran me up steadily from sum to sum, until his owner said at last: 'Well, we won't 'aggle, sir, call it a hundred.' I had to call it a hundred, and what is more, it _was_ a hundred. I took him without a warranty, without even a veterinary opinion. I could have been induced to take my purchase away then and there, as if I had been buying a canary, so unaccustomed was I to transactions of this kind, and I am afraid the job-master considered me little better than a fool. So I found myself the involuntary possessor of a Houyhnhnm, or something even worse, and I walked back to my rooms in Park Street in a state of stupor. What was I to do with him? To ride an animal so brutally plainspoken would be a continual penance; and yet, I should have to keep him, for I knew he was cunning enough to outwit any attempt to dispose of him. And to this, Love and Ambition had led me! I could not, after all I had said, approach Diana with any confidence as a mere pedestrian: the fact that I was in possession of a healthy horse which I never rode, would be sure to leak out in time, and how was I to account for it? I could see no way, and I groaned under an embarrassment which I dared not confide to the friendliest ear. I hated the monster that had saddled himself upon me, and looked in vain for any mode of escape.