“Oh, you admit that, do you?”
“I do. And you must admit I could have married richer women.”
“Lady Scratch, for example.”
“No matter. Lady Scratch could have kept me from this hard scratch for a living, which promises to be still harder. You know there’s no resource left me but the little skill I’ve acquired in manipulating pasteboard. I’ve come over here under the pleasant hallucination I should find plenty of pigeons, and that the hawks only existed on our side of the Atlantic. Well, I’ve been round with my introductions, and what’s the result? To discover that the dullest flat in New York would be a sharp in the saloons of London. I’ve dropped a hundred pounds already, and don’t see much chance of taking them up again.”
“And what do you see, Dick? What’s this grand idea?”
“Are you prepared to listen to a proposal?”
“How condescending of you to ask me! Let me hear it. Whether I may feel inclined to agree to it is another thing.”
“Well, my dear Fan, your own words have suggested it, so you can’t reproach me for originating it.”
“If it be an idea, you needn’t fear that. What words, may I ask?”
“You said you wished I had married my lady.”