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,
"Have you got to the end?"
"Not yet," replied his companion.
"Very well. Go on."
"I often notice you with candies, or other confections; and you are,
sometimes, quite free in sharing them with your friends. Burnt
almonds, sugar almonds, Jim Crow's candied fruits, macaroons, etc.
These are not to be had for nothing; and besides their cost they are
a positive injury to the stomach. You, of course, know to what
extent you indulge this weakness of appetite. Shall we say that it
costs an average of ten cents a day?"
"Add fruit, in and out of season, and call it fifteen cents,"
replied Hoffman.
"Very well. For three hundred days this will give another large
sum--forty-five dollars?"
"Anything more?" said Hoffman in a subdued, helpless kind of way,
like one lying prostrate from a sudden blow.
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