unched for much less, but they were in parts
of the town which I could not reach in the brief time at my disposal.
Moreover, one must needs be the slave of etiquette even though he be a
clerk, and if all the staff of an office frequent a certain restaurant,
one must perforce fall into line with them under penalty of social
ostracism. Thus, whether I liked it or not, for five days in the week
I had to spend eighteenpence a day for lunch, and fourpence for teas;
and if we add those small gratuities which the poorest men take it as a
point of honour to observe, here was an annual expenditure of 25
pounds. Taking one thing with another 5 pounds might be added for 'bus
and railway fares; so that only 22 pounds is left to be accounted for.
And now, if we return to Table II., it is obvious that my income of 320
pounds per annum was only nominal, because a very great part of it was
really spent in keeping up a position which a town life imposed upon
me. Before I touched a single penny of my nominal income of 250 pounds
per annum, I had paid 30 pounds per year in the daily expenses
inevitable to my position, and 65 pounds for rent and taxes, which was
quite 45 pounds more than I ought to pay. Education comes also to be
considered at this point. My two children went to a very respectable
school at the cost of a little more than 15 pounds per annum each. No
doubt I might have sent them to a Board school, where they would have
received a better education; but in the part of London where I lived
there was no Board school within easy reach, and besides this, though I
hate the pretension of gentility, manners and companionship have to be
considered as well as education in the choice of a school. A child may
take no harm by sitting on the same bench with village children, but
the London gamin is not a desirable acquaintance. In this, as in other
matters, I paid through the nose for my position; and the convention
cost me a clear 35 pounds per annum. Thus I calculated that out of a
nominal income of 250 pounds per annum 100 pounds was paid as a tax to
convention and respectability.

I have no doubt that a good many flaws may be found in these
calculations; but one point is beyond dispute, viz., that a town income
is always more apparent than real. Money is worth no more than its
purchasing power. The business man who is offered 1000 pounds per
annum in New York against 700 pounds per annum in London, refuses the
offer unless