"Yes, in a way; while it envies you."
"I have always been rich. What is poverty like?"
"It is comparative."
"It must be horrid."
"Poverty is ugly only when man himself is the cause of it."
"Another epigram. I have always been under my uncle's care,"—with the slightest droop of the lips.
"Ah! His knowledge ends at the stable and begins at the table: horses and vintages. If a woman had crossed his path he would have been a great man."
"Poor Uncle Dan! To him I am his favorite filly, and he has put huge sums on me to win the ducal race. Everybody says that I'm to marry the Duke of Roxclift."
"And you?" I do not know why my heart sank a little as I put this question.
"I? Oh, I'm going to balk at the quarter and throw the race. To-night, what would you have done in my place?"