“Well, perhaps it's a very ignoble confession,” said Nelly; “but I frankly own I 'd rather Jack owed his good fortune to his good fame than to all the peers in the calendar.”
“What pains Ellen takes,” said Marion, “to show that her ideas of life and the world are not those of the rest of us.”
“She has me with her whenever she goes into the lobby,” said Jack, “or I 'll pair with Temple, who is sure to be on the stronger side.”
“Your censure I accept as a compliment,” said Temple.
“And is this all our good news has done for us,—to set us exchanging tart speeches and sharp repartees with each other?” said Colonel Bramleigh. “I declare it is a very ungracious way to treat pleasant tidings. Go out, boys, and see if you could n't find some one to dine with us, and wet Jack's commission as they used to call it long ago.”
“We can have the L'Estranges and our amiable neighbor, Captain Craufurd,” said Marion; “but I believe our resources end with these.”
“Why not look up the Frenchman you smashed some weeks ago, Jack?” said Augustus; “he ought to be about by this time, and it would only be common decency to show him some attention.”
“With all my heart. I'll do anything you like but talk French with him. But where is he to be found?”
“He stops with Longworth,” said Augustus, “which makes the matter awkward. Can we invite one without the other, and can we open our acquaintance with Longworth by an invitation to dinner?”
“Certainly not,” chimed in Temple. “First acquaintance admits of no breaches of etiquette. Intimacies may, and rarely, too, forgive such.”