"Eight hundred a year!" said Dick musing; "lucky dog! And how long have you known her?"
"Oh! an eternity. Three days."
"And where did you pick her up?"
"Under a gateway in Camden Town, where we were both standing up from the rain."
"You seem to have made excellent use of your time."
"Nothing easier. I could see at a glance that she was quite as anxious for a husband as I am for a rich wife; so, after some indifferent chat about the weather, &c. I prevailed on her to accept of my escort home; talked lots of sentiment as we jogged along under my umbrella; praised her beauty to the skies,—for she is inordinately vain, though ugly enough, as you must have seen, to scare a ghost—and, in short, did not quit her till she had promised to meet me on the following day."
"And she kept her word, no doubt?"
"Yes, I have now seen her four times, and am sure that if I could but muster up funds enough for a Gretna-green trip,—for she has all the romance of a boarding-school girl,—I could carry her off this very night. But I cannot, Dick, I cannot;" and Sam heaved a sigh that was quite pathetic.
"Can you not borrow of her?—'tis for her own good, you know."
"Impossible! I have represented myself as a man of substance; and, were she once to suppose me otherwise, so quick-witted is she on money matters, that she would instantly give me my dismissal."