“Damnation!” said Benham with a face that had become suddenly very white.
Then presently. “Any fool can do that who cares to go to the trouble.”
“That,” said Prothero, taking up their unquenchable issue, “that is the feeling of democracy.”
“I walk because I choose to,” said Benham.
The thing rankled.
“This equestrianism,” he began, “is a matter of time and money—time even more than money. I want to read. I want to deal with ideas....
“Any fool can drive....”
“Exactly,” said Prothero.
“As for riding, it means no more than the elaborate study and cultivation of your horse. You have to know him. All horses are individuals. A made horse perhaps goes its round like an omnibus, but for the rest....”
Prothero made a noise of sympathetic assent.