In the mean time the trustees were empowered to make me an allowance of two guineas a week and defray all my hospital expenses.
On this, partly because I was loath to lose so goodly a heritage, partly, I hope, from worthier motives, I buckled-to in real earnest, and before I was four-and-twenty I could write after my name the much coveted capitals M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P.

All this while I had not once crossed a horse or looked at a hound, yet the ruling passion was still strong, and being very much of Mr.Jorrock's opinion that all time not spent in hunting is lost, I resolved, before "settling down" or taking up any position which might be incompatible with indulgence in my favorite amusement, to devote a few years of my life to fox-hunting.

At twenty-four a man does not give much thought to the future--at any rate I did not.
The next question was how to hunt three or four days a week on four hundred a year, for though I was quite willing to spend my income, I was resolved not to touch my capital.

To begin with, I sold my aunt's cottage and furniture and took a couple of rooms for the winter at Red Chimneys, a roomy farm-house in the neighborhood of Treydon.

Then, acting on the great principle of co-operation, I joined at horse-keeping with my good friend and old school-fellow, Bertie Alston, a London solicitor.