undred, 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.

I had to provide Brutus with stabling in another part of the town, for
he proved exceedingly difficult to please: he found fault with
everything, and I only wonder he did not demand that his stable should
be fitted up with blue china and mezzotints. In his new quarters I left
him for some days to his own devices: a course which I was glad to find,
on visiting him again, had considerably reduced his arrogance. He wanted
to go in the Row and see the other horses, and it did not at all meet
his views to be exercised there by a stableman at unfashionable hours.
So he proposed a compromise. If I would only consent to mount him, he
engaged to treat me with forbearance, and pointed out that he could give
me, as he expressed it, various 'tips' which would improve my seat. I
was not blind to the advantages of such an arrangement. It is not every
one who secures a riding-master in the person of his own horse; the
horse is essentially a generous animal, and I felt that I might trust to
Brutus's honour. And to do him justice, he observed the compact with
strict good faith. Some of his 'tips,' it is true, very nearly tipped me
off, but their result was to bring us closer together; our relations
were less strained; it seemed to me that I gained more mastery over him
every day,