my exact income he gravely admitted that the pecuni-
ary problem was no easy one to solve. He found it a
terrible tight fit himself; it had been cosdng him over
two thousand a year out of his own pocket to hunt
the Ringwell country, and the Packlestone would be
an even more expensive undertaking. When we had
worked it out on paperso much a week for my own
keep while living with him in the huntsman's house,
so much for keep of horses, so much for my two men's
wages, and so onthe total came to more than ten
pounds a week. And I had to buy two more horses
into the bargain; for, as he said, I couldn't have any
fun with less than four, "and it absolutely defeats
me how you're going to get four days a week even
then.'5
"I'll have one good season, anyhow, whatever
happens afterwards!" I exclaimed. All that I needed,
at that juncture, was a miraculous doubling of my
income.
The mental condition of an active young man who
asks nothing more of life than twelve hundred a year
and four days a week with the Packlestone is perhaps
not easy to defend. It looks rather paltry on paper.
That, however, was my own mental position, and I
saw nothing strange in it, although I was well aware
of the sort of things the family solicitor would be
saying if he were permitted to cast his eye over the
half-sheet of paper on which Denis had figured out
my probable expenditure. Aunt Evelyn, however,
cordially approved of my project, and after consulta-
tions with Stephen (who thought it a magnificent
effort) and the delighted Dixon, I bought a couple of
horses in April and May, and then settled down to a
summer of strict economizing. Cricket matches, at
any rate, were an inexpensive occupation.
244