When the servants were gone it was a little better, but not much. "Mason, do you mean to hunt this season?" Peregrine asked.
"No," said the other.
"Well, I would if I were you. You will never know the fellows about here unless you do."
"In the first place I can't afford the time," said Lucius, "and in the next place I can't afford the money." This was plucky on his part, and it was felt to be so by everybody in the room; but perhaps had he spoken all the truth, he would have said also that he was not accustomed to horsemanship.
"To a fellow who has a place of his own as you have, it costs nothing," said Peregrine.
"Oh, does it not?" said the baronet; "I used to think differently."
"Well; not so much, I mean, as if you had everything to buy. Besides, I look upon Mason as a sort of Crœsus. What on earth has he got to do with his money? And then as to time;—upon my word I don't understand what a man means when he says he has not got time for hunting."
"Lucius intends to be a farmer," said his mother.
"So do I," said Peregrine. "By Jove, I should think so. If I had two hundred acres of land in my own hand I should not want anything else in the world, and would never ask any one for a shilling."
"If that be so, I might make the best bargain at once that ever a man made," said the baronet. "If I might take you at your word, Master Perry—."