"Within six months." "So much more accounted for. Is that a diamond pin?" Hoffman colored a little as he answered,-- "Not a very costly one. Merely a scarf-pin, as you. see. Small, though brilliant. Always worth what I paid for it." "Cost twenty-five or thirty dollars?" "Twenty-five." "Shall I put that down as one of the year expenses?" "Yes, you may do so." "What about stage and car hire? Do you ride or walk to and from business?" "I ride, of course. You wouldn't expect me to walk nearly a mile four times a day." "I never ride, except in bad weather. The walk gives me just the exercise I need. Every man, who is confined in a store or counting-room during business hours, should walk at least four miles a day. Taken in installments of one mile at a time, at good intervals, there is surely no hardship in this exercise. Four rides, at six-pence a ride and we have another item of twenty-five cents at day. You go down town nearly every evening?" "Yes." "And ride both ways? "Yes." "A shilling more, or thirty seven and a half cents daily for car and stage hire. Now for another little calculation. Three hundred days, at three shillings a day. There it is." And Hamilton reached a slip of paper to his friend. "Impossible!" The latter actually started to his feet. "A hundred and twelve dollars and fifty cents!" "If you spend three shillings a day, you will spend that sum in a year. Figures are inexorable." Hoffman sat down again in troubled surprise, saying,