“Oh, yes, I love him very, very much. I have not seen him for more than a year. The journey costs so much between England and France, and I have been at school near London, at Brixton; I dare say you know Brixton; but I am going to France now, for good.”
“Indeed! You seem very young to leave school.”
“But I’m not going to leave school,” the young lady answered, eagerly. “I am going to a very expensive school in Paris, to finish my education; and then——”
She paused here, hesitating and blushing a little.
“And then what?”
“I am going to be a governess. Papa is not rich. He has no fortune now.”
“He has had a fortune, then?”
“He has had three.”
The young lady’s grey eyes were lit up with a certain look of triumph as she said this.
“He has been very extravagant, poor dear,” she continued, apologetically; “and he has spent three fortunes, altogether. But he has always been so courted and admired, you know, that it is not to be wondered at. He knew the Prince Regent, and Mr. Sheridan, and Mr. Brummel, and the Duke of York, and—oh, all sorts of people, ever so intimately; and he was a member of the Beefsteak Club, and wore a silver gridiron in his button-hole, and he is the most delightful man in society, even now, though he is very old.”