“Quite,” returned the painter, resuming his natural manner; “though I had prepared myself for a much stronger demonstration of it;—perhaps, because I felt that I deserved it. He could not have been more surprised at finding himself counterfeited than I was on presenting myself in your lecture-room. I had expected to meet with some little literary society, or association for mutual improvement, such as are common in your villages, and assented to the importunity of the committee-man without explaining the mistake, in expectation that I might have some diversion of my own from it. When I found an assemblage of the whole community, I felt inclined, through respect for them, to make an explanation and withdraw; but, on second thought, concluded that as I had gone so far, I might as well remain and do my best to afford them a little entertainment.”
“Why, that brown-holland chap seemed to think he would elevate himself a peg by letting us know that he is a painter;—I should like to know how much more elegant it is to stroll about painting than peddling or lecturing,” said Mr. Sutton to Wallis, when they had left the table; “but that Miss Thompson is an astonishingly handsome girl; what a complexion she has!—what eyes and what teeth!—what a sensation she would make in society—that is, if she had a fortune and somebody to show her off!”
“You had better offer her yours, and engage in the service yourself,” said Wallis.
“Money for money,—‘like loves like;’ it is a generally received opinion among us that a good-looking fellow, fashionable and well connected, is an equivalent for a woman with fifty thousand dollars any day. If he has a fortune, she should be worth dollar for dollar besides. I don’t know what this Miss Thompson is, so I believe I’ll wait till Valeria North comes along.”
“Valeria North! why, my dear fellow, she would annihilate you!” returned Wallis, and he thought to himself, “this is the most ridiculous jackanapes I have ever met with; if I must be bored with his acquaintance, I’ll have a little fun with him;” and he added in a significant tone, “I thought there was some sort of magnetism by which you people of fashion found each other out. Is it possible you have not seen into Miss Thompson yet? Between ourselves she is as great an heiress as Miss North.”
“You don’t say so!—well, she looks as if she deserved to be. Come, Wallis, introduce me, and Miss North may go to the dickens.”
“I am sorry I can’t oblige you; but as I have merely talked to Miss Thompson, myself, as a fellow-boarder, I am not privileged to introduce a stranger.”
“No matter, we men of the world can manage such things. They are in that room, aren’t they? and by good luck Cupidon has sneaked in. I’ll go after him.”
“I beg pardon, ladies, if I intrude,” said he bowing; “but my dog—”
“Not at all, sir, this is the common parlor of the house,” returned Mrs. Thompson, quietly, and scarcely looking up from her work.