“And the play, and the play-house, and the dresses! Was Zara’s dress my affair? Did I not tell you, you were wasting your time upon that man?”
“No waste, nothing has been wasted, my dear commissioner; believe me, even in point of economy we could not have laid out money better; for at a trifling expense we have obtained for Georgiana the credit of having refused Count Altenberg. Lady Kew and Lady Trant have spread the report. You know it is not my business to speak—and now the Count is gone, who can contradict it with any propriety?—The thing is universally believed. Every body is talking of it, and the consequence is, Georgiana is more in fashion now than ever she was. There’s a proposal I had for her this morning,” said Mrs. Falconer, throwing a letter carelessly before the commissioner.
“A proposal! That is something worth attending to,” said the commissioner, putting on his spectacles.
“No, nothing worth our attention,” said Mrs. Falconer, “only eighteen hundred a year, which, you know, Georgiana could not possibly live upon.”
“Better than nothing, surely,” said the commissioner; “let me see.”
“Not better than Petcalf, not within a thousand a year so good, putting Asia Minor out of the question. So, you know, I could not hesitate an instant.”
“But I hope your answer was very civil. People are not aware what dangerous enemies they make on these occasions,” said Mr. Falconer: “I hope your answer was very polite.”
“Oh! the pink of courtesy,” said Mrs. Falconer. “I lamented that my daughter’s fortune was so small as to put it out of her power, &c., and I added a great deal about merit, and the honour done our family, and so on. But I wonder the man had the assurance to propose for Georgiana, when he had nothing better to say for himself.”
“Petcalf, to be sure, if the general dies, is a thousand a year better. I believe you are right there,” said Mr. Falconer; and with an air of calculating consideration, he took up a pen.
“But what are you about, commissioner? going to write on that letter, as if it were waste paper!” said Mrs. Falconer, starting up, and taking it hastily from him: “I must have it for Lady Trant, Lady Kew, and some more of our intimate friends, that they may be able to say they have seen the proposal; for mothers and daughters too, in these days, are so apt to boast, that it is quite necessary to have some written document to produce, and there’s no going beyond that.”