"A boarding school would be a good field," said Lady Esmondet.
"Just the spot," cried Douglas; "and the gilded fair who would pay his debts would win all the school prices from the gushing aunts."
"I read," said Bertram, "the other day, a good story in the Scottish American, entitled 'Endless Gold.' A fellow, Brown hadn't a sou, but always declared he would win an heiress; his friends laughed at him; but one evening, on a great cotton lord, Sir Calico Twill, making a speech, he put in 'hear, hear' at the right time. The old man, pleased, invited him home to supper; there he met his heiress, fell in love (to make a long story short), proposed, and was referred to papa."
"'What is your fortune?'" enquired the pater.
"'Well, I don't exactly know,' said Brown; being uncertain whether it was a three-penny or four-penny bit under his tobacco jar. 'But, give me your daughter, and I promise she shall have endless gold.'
"'Come, don't exaggerate, Brown,'" said the tickled Twill.
"'Scarcely in my case,' said Brown; 'as be we ever so extravagant, we should never be able to set through it.'"
"'Are you telling me truth?'
"'Truth; I swear it.'
"'Then take her, my boy, and her eight thousand a year; how pleased I am she has been saved from fortune-hunters.'