“She at least does not love me for my money,” the old man would often mutter to himself, with a grim smile, after receiving some thoughtful attention from the young girl; “her affection is sincere and disinterested, and I pray that her gentle heart may never become seared and hardened by the cold world.”
He had long ago learned just how Star was regarded by the family, and how they had attempted to degrade her to the level of a common servant, and this did not tend to make him entertain any deeper respect for them.
His information on this point he had gathered chiefly from Mrs. Blunt. Star would not talk about it, always evading or changing the subject in a dextrous way that amused him in no small degree.
Meanwhile Josephine and her mother were flourishing among the fashionable at Long Branch.
The season proved to be a very gay one; every hotel was crowded, and many noted people from various countries were sojourning there.
Among others, the Richardses heard upon their arrival, there was a young English lord of great reputed wealth, having, it was said, the largest rent-roll in Derbyshire, England.
“They say he is the handsomest man in the place, as well as the richest,” Josephine said to her mother, the night after their arrival at the gay watering-place, having heard this piece of news, with much else, from an intimate friend. “All the girls are wild about him,” she pursued. “Annie Falkner was introduced to him yesterday, and says he is as charming in conversation as he is in appearance.”
“How old is he?” asked Mrs. Richards, pricking up her maternal ears at once over this wonderful information.
“About twenty-one or two, Annie thought he might be. He has been traveling in this country for a year, just to see a little of the world before settling upon his own estate. It is whispered,” the eager damsel went on, with flushing cheeks and sparkling eyes, “that he has heard of the beauty of American ladies, and is on the lookout for a handsome wife;” and Josephine tossed her head with a conscious smile, as her eyes wandered to the reflection of her own fine face and figure in an opposite mirror.
“That is somewhat doubtful, I think, since the English nobility are very jealous regarding marriages outside the pale of their own rank. However, such things are happening every year now, and this young lord may be captivated by some of our American beauties, after all;” and Mrs. Richards bestowed a glance of pride upon her handsome daughter, and thought how delightful it would be to figure as mother-in-law to an English lord, and to be able to say, “my daughter, Lady So-and-So.”