“I wonder how you kept up the farce so long, Laura; even Ellen thinks you a most exemplary sentimentalist.”
“Oh, it was a pleasant mode of getting rid of time; nothing sharpens one’s wits like a flirtation with a real lover—I have learned twenty new stratagems from my ‘country practice.’ ”
“Are you sure Mr. Beauchamp is rich?”
“He drives blood-horses, sports a tiger in livery, lives at the Astor, drinks wine at $8 a bottle, and, what is more, pays his bills.”
“How did you learn this?”
“From very good authority; he is said to have $200,000 in bank stocks besides a sugar plantation worth $12,000 per annum, and slaves enough to stock a colony; so you see he is a prize worth winning. As for Cecil Forrester, I am sorry he is here, but I must manage to turn him over to the unsophisticated little rustic for the present. I do not wish to give him a downright dismissal, because if I should fail to secure the millionaire it would be as well to fall back upon Forrester’s $30,000. The game will be a difficult one, but the glory of success will be the greater.”
“I hope you will reap some of the spoils of victory, Laura, for our legacy is rapidly diminishing, and when it is gone you know there will be no further chance.”
“Never fear, Mamma; my stock in trade is very good—beauty, tact, and five thousand dollars form a very excellent capital, and I think I can afford to speculate rather largely.”
“But more than half of the most essential part of your capital is already gone, and you have not as yet succeeded.”
“You forget that I have gained a footing in society by its expenditure; leave every thing to me, and if I am not married before next season, then write me down a fool.”