He had bought these account-books out of his own private purse, and spent an evening in beautifully ruling them in red ink, with one column for the date, one for the name, and three for pounds, shillings, and pence.

He had procured two letter-files, labelled respectively "Club" and "House," into which to put his receipts.

And he had provided himself with a dozen elastic bands and an equal number of paper-fasteners.

What more could a treasurer desire?
Alas! the beautiful account-books got mixed up with one another, the letter-files remained empty, and the elastic bands somehow did duty as football garters.

The Club accounts were scrawled, for the most part, in pencil on the backs of envelopes, awaiting a grand transcription into the books; and the receipts, pending a similar fortunate time, where huddled away in the drawer with Greek verses and letters from the people at home.
Things had now come to a pass.