The next morning Mrs. Cliff and Willy took a drive a little way out of
town, and they both agreed that this horse, which was gray, was a great
deal better traveller than the old brown, and a much handsomer animal;
but both of them also agreed that they did not believe that they would
ever learn to love him as they had their old horse.

Still he was very easy to drive, and he went along so pleasantly,
without needing the whip in the least, that Mrs. Cliff said to herself,
that for the first time since her return she really felt herself a rich
woman.

"If everything," she thought, "should come to me as this horse came to
me, how delightful my life would be! When I wanted him, I found him. I
did not have to trouble myself in the least about the price; I simply
paid it, and ordered him sent home. Now, that sort of thing is what
makes a person feel truly rich."

When they had gone far enough, and had reached a wide place in the road,
Mrs. Cliff turned and started back to Plainton. But now the horse began
to be a different kind of a horse. With his face towards his home, he
set out to trot as fast as he could, and when Mrs. Cliff, not liking
such a rapid pace, endeavored to pull him in, she found it very hard to
do, and when she began to saw his mouth, thinking that would restrain
his ardor, he ambled and capered, and Mrs. Cliff was obliged to let him
resume his rapid gait.

He was certainly a very hard-mouthed horse, going home, and Mrs. Cliff's
arms ached, and Willy Croup's heart quaked, long before they reached the
town. When they reached Plainton, Mrs. Cliff began to be afraid that he
would gallop through the streets, and she told Willy that if he did, she
must not scream, but must sit quietly, and she would endeavor to steer
him clear of the vehicles and people.

But although he did not gallop, the ardent gray seemed to travel faster
after he entered the town, and Mrs. Cliff, who was getting very red in
the face from her steady tugging at the reins, thought it wise not to
attempt to go home, but to let her horse go straight to the hotel
stables where he had lived.

When Mrs. Cliff had declared to Mr. Williams that that horse would never
suit her, that she would not be willing to drive it, and would not even
think of going into a house and leaving Willy Croup to hold him, he was
very much surprised, and said that he had not a gentler horse in his
stable, and he did not believe there was one in the town.

"All hor