“How lookest thou to pay this money, Jack?” asked Sir Thomas, in a tone of preternatural calmness which argued rather despair than lack of annoyance.
“Well, Sir, there be two or three fashions of payment,” returned Jack, airily. “If you cannot find the money—”
“I cannot, in very deed, lad.”
“Good,” answered Jack quite complacently. “Then—if I win not the monopoly—”
“The monopoly would not pay thy debts under fifty years, Jack; not if thou gavest every penny thereof thereto, and hadst none fresh to pay. How about that, lad?”
“Of course I must live like a gentleman, Sir,” said Jack loftily. “Then the next way is to win the grant of a wardship.”
This way of acquiring money is so entirely obsolete that it needs explanation. The grant of a wardship meant that some orphan heir of a large inheritance was placed in the care of the grantee, who was obliged to defray out of the heir’s estate the necessary expenses of his sustenance and education, but was free to apply all the surplus to his own use until the heir was of age. When the inheritance was large, therefore, the grant was a considerable boon to the guardian.
“And supposing that fail thee?”
“Well, then—if the worst come to the worst—I can but wed an heir,” remarked Jack with serenity.
“Wed an estate, thou meanest, Jack.”