‘From your appearance I took you for a well-to-do person.’
‘I really am.’
‘Then you have investments?’
‘None at all.’
‘But you are very well fitted out; how do you manage to do it?’
‘I am a daughter of the Palace, and the Palace supports me.’
‘That is very strange! You say you are a daughter of the Palace?’
‘Yes, sir; my father had a position in it.’
‘What did he do?’
‘He listened at the doors and then went to take good news to those who were expecting pardons, or verdicts, or favourable judgments; he had capital legs and always got there first. As for my mother, she was always here, as I am. She was not proud, she took her fee, and undertook some commissions. I was born and brought up in these gilded halls, and, as you see, I also have gold on me.’