Q. What is it that I most wish for on earth?
A. A rich and fashionable husband.
Q. What is required to obtain this?
A. Beauty, fortune, talents, and a free entrance into good society.
Q. Do I possess any of these?... and which?
A. I possess beauty, fortune, and talents.
Q. What remains wanting?
A. A free entrance into good society.
"True!" she exclaimed aloud, "it is that I want, and it is that I must procure."
Notwithstanding her sanguine estimate of herself, the widow, when she arrived at this point, was fain to confess that she did not exactly know how this necessary addition to her ways and means was to be acquired. Beyond the town of Silverton, and a thinly inhabited circuit of a mile or two round it, she had not a personal acquaintance in the world. This was a very perplexing consideration for a lady determined upon finding her way into the first circles, but its effect was rather to strengthen than relax her energies.