Current expenses must be covered by the residue of this
savings, and by what he was able to make. They would include the keep of
the horse, and the interest on the borrowed money, which might be
reckoned roughly at a hundred and twenty per annum. In addition, he
would be well advised to insure his life for five to seven hundred
pounds.
The question also came up whether the land he had selected for building
on should be purchased or not. He was for doing so, for settling the
whole business there and then. Ocock, however, took the opposite view.
Considering, said he, that the site chosen was far from the centre of
the town, Mahony might safely postpone buying in the meanwhile. There
had been no government land-sales of late, and all main-road frontages
had still to come under the hammer. As occupier, when the time arrived,
he would have first chance at the upset price; though then, it was true,
he would also be liable for improvements. The one thing he must beware
of was of enclosing too small a block.
Mahony agreed--agreed to everything: the affair seemed to have passed
out of his hands. A sense of dismay invaded him while he listened to the
lawyer tick off the obligations and responsibilities he was letting
himself in for. A thousand pounds! He to run into debt for such a sum,
who had never owed a farthing to anyone! He fell to doubting whether,
after all, he had made choice of the easier way, and lapsed into a
gloomy silence.
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