Fanny patted a yawn. "Listening to sweet nothings."
"From him? Why, he hasn't anything, has he? What did you do?"
Fanny patted another yawn or else another sigh. "I fell on his neck and sobbed for joy."
"Nonsense. Has he anything, tell me?"
"Not enough to entertain on. Twenty-five thousand a year, I think."
"The impertinence of it!" said the lady.
Had her daughter been an heiress a duke would hardly have satisfied her. As things were, or more exactly, since the girl began to grow in beauty she had dreamed for her but one dream—a brilliant match. To Mrs. Price there could be no brilliance if the party of the second part had a dollar less than ten million.
"You might have had Loftus," she declared at last. "Where is he, do you know?"
"Abroad, I hear."
"With that creature?"