I considered the circumstances. Ogden was now about thirteen years old. The preparatory-school age limit may be estimated roughly at fourteen. That is to say, in any event Sanstead House could only harbour him for one year. Mr Abney's fees I had to guess at. To be on the safe side, I fixed my premium at an outside figure, and, getting to the point at once, I named it. It was entirely satisfactory. My mental arithmetic had done me credit. Mr Abney beamed upon me. Over tea and muffins we became very friendly. In half an hour I heard more of the theory of school-mastering than I had dreamed existed. We said good-bye at the club front door. He smiled down at me benevolently from the top of the steps. 'Good-bye, Mr Burns, good-bye,' he said. 'We shall meet at--ah--Philippi.' When I reached my rooms, I rang for Smith. 'Smith,' I said, 'I want you to get some books for me first thing tomorrow. You had better take a note of them.' He moistened his pencil. 'A Latin Grammar.' 'Yes, sir.' 'A Greek Grammar.' 'Yes, sir.' 'Brodley Arnold's Easy Prose Sentences.' 'Yes, sir.' 'And Caesar's Gallic Wars.' 'What name, sir?' 'Caesar.' 'Thank you, sir. Anything else, sir?' 'No, that will be all.' 'Very good, sir.' He shimmered from the room. Thank goodness, Smith always has thought me mad, and is consequently never surprised at anything I ask him to do. Chapter 2 Sanstead House was an imposing building in the Georgian style. It stood, foursquare, in the midst of about nine acres of land. For the greater part of its existence, I learned later, it had been the private home of a family of the name of Boone, and in its early days the estate had been considerable. But the progress of the years had brought changes to the Boones. Money losses had necessitated the sale of land. New roads had come into being, cutting off portions of the estate from their centre. New facilities for travel had drawn members of the family away from home. The old fixed life of the country had changed, and in the end the latest Boone had come to the conclusion that to keep up so large and expensive a house was not worth his while. That the place should have become a school was the natural process of evolution. It was too large for the ordinary purchaser, and the estate had been so whittled down in the course of time that it was inadequate for the wealthy. Colonel Boone had been glad to let it to Mr Abney, and the school had started its career. It had all the necessary qualifications for a school. It was isolated. The village was two miles from its gates. It was near the sea. There were fields for cricket and football, and inside the house a number of rooms of every size, suitable for classrooms and dormitories.