Roddy's eyes had lost their fear; they were fixed in a wise, mournful stare. He stared at his fate. "They don't know yet quite _how_ imbecile I am. If I could have gone out quietly by myself they never need have known. Now they'll _have_ to. Alderson'll tell them. He'll tell everybody.... I don't care. It's their own look-out. They'll soon see I was right." "Listen," she said. The dining-room door had opened. Uncle Edward's voice came out first, sounding with a sort of complacent finality. They must have settled it. You could hear Farmer Alderson stumping his way to the front door. His voice boomed from the step. "Ah doan't saay, look ye, 'e'll mak mooch out of en t' farst ye-ear--" "Damn him, you can hear his beastly voice all over the place." "Ef yore yoong mon's dead set to larn fa-armin', an' ef 'e've got a head on 'is shoulders our Jem can larn 'en. Ef 'e '_aven't_, ah tall yo stra-aight, Mr. Ollyveer, ye med joost's well tak yore mooney and trow it in t' mistal." Roddy laughed. "_I_ could have told them that," he said. "Money?" "Rather. They can't do it under two hundred pounds. I suppose Victor'll stump up as usual." "Poor Victor." "Victor won't mind. He'll do anything for Mamma. They can call it a premium if it makes them any happier, but it simply means that they're paying Alderson to get rid of me." "No. They've got it into their heads that it's bad for you sticking here doing nothing." "So it is. But being made to do what I can't do's worse.... I'm not likely to do it any better with that young beast Alderson looking at me all the time and thinking what a bloody fool I am.... They ought to have left it to me. It would have come a lot cheaper. I was going anyhow. I only stayed because of Papa. But I can't tell _them_ that. After all, I was the only one who looked after him. If I'd gone you'd have had to." "Yes." "It would even come cheaper," he said, "if I stayed. I can prove it." He produced his pocket sketch-book. The leaves were scribbled over with sums, sums desperately begun and left unfinished, sums that were not quite sure of themselves, sums scratched out and begun again. He crossed them all out and started on a fresh page. "Premium, two hundred. Passage, twenty. Outfit, say thirty. Two hundred and fifty. "Land cheap, lumber cheap. Labour expensive. Still, Alderson would be so pleased he might do the job himself for a nominal sum and only charge you for the wood. Funeral expenses, say ten dollars. "How much does it cost to keep me here?" "I haven't an idea." "No, but think." "I can't think." "Well, say I eat ten shillings' worth of food per week, that's twenty-six pounds a year. Say thirty. Clothes, five. Thirty-five. Sundries, perhaps five. Forty. But I do the garden. What's a gardener's wages? Twenty? Fifteen? "Say fifteen. Fifteen from forty, fifteen from forty--twenty-five. How much did Papa's funeral come to?" "Oh--Roddy--I don't know."