“Mercy preserve us!” ejaculated Rachel.
“Good lack, Sir Thomas!—the lad must have gear!” urged his step-mother.
Sir Thomas laid down the bills.
“Be so good, Jack, as to tell me the full figures of these counts?”
“Good sooth, Sir! I have not added them,” replied Jack in a contemptuous tone. “A gentleman is ne’er good at reckoning.”
“He seems to be reasonable good at spending,” said his father. “But how much, Jack, dost guess they may all come to?”
“Really, Sir, I cannot say.”
“Go to—give a guess.”
“Marry—somewhere about five thousand pound, it may be.”
According to the equivalent value of money in the present day, Jack’s debts amounted to about seventy-five thousand pounds. His father’s yearly income was equal to about six thousand.