"Five miles," said the clergyman. He began at once to eat bread and

butter vigorously. "Happily," he said, "I am an eupeptic, energetic sort

of person on principle. I would all men were likewise."

"It's the best way," agreed Mr. Hoopdriver, and the conversation gave

precedence to bread and butter.

Gelatine," said the clergyman, presently, stirring his tea

thoughtfully, "precipitates the tannin in one's tea and renders it easy

of digestion."

That's a useful sort of thing to know," said Mr. Hoopdriver.

You are altogether welcome," said the clergyman, biting generously at

two pieces of bread and butter folded together.

In the afternoon our two wanderers rode on at an easy pace towards

Stoney Cross. Conversation languished, the topic of South Africa being

in abeyance. Mr. Hoopdriver was silenced by disagreeable thoughts. He

had changed the last sovereign at Ringwood. The fact had come upon him

suddenly. Now too late he was reflecting upon his resources. There was

twenty pounds or more in the post office savings bank in Putney, but his

book was locked up in his box at the Antrobus establishment. Else this

infatuated man would certainly have surreptitiously withdrawn the entire

sum in order to prolong these journeyings even for a few days. As it

was, the shadow of the end fell across his happiness. Strangely enough,

229

The Wheels of Chance