"Oh,", replied Sarah with a sigh of relief, "she is walking with Mr. Hardcash. You introduced him at the last ball."
"I introduced him to dance with, not to walk with," said Jane severely.
"Goodness me, sister! what's the difference?"
"She asks me 'What's the difference?' Are you a child? Why, just the difference between dancing and walking."
From the pause that followed I knew that Mrs. F. was looking with both her round eyes, intent on seeing it. I suppose she did not succeed, as her sister continued, emphasizing each word clearly, "Mr. Hardcash has not a penny," as if that at once explained the knotty question.
"Why did you introduce him if you don't approve of him?" asked Mrs. Fluffy, with a feeble attempt to throw the blame on her sister.
"Have I not told you? In a ball-room girls need plenty of partners—plenty of men about them. It makes them look popular and fascinating, and if the gentlemen are handsome and stylish-looking, so much the better. Mr. Hardcash is just the size to waltz well with Eva—he shows her off to advantage—but he is not a man to encourage afterward. She should not be seen walking or talking intimately with a gentleman who has less than ten thousand a year." Mrs. Stunner delivered this ultimatum with the tone of a just judge who will hear of no appeal.
"How can I know how much the gentlemen are worth?" said Sarah pettishly.
"It is your duty as a mother to discover it," replied the virtuous widow.
"But how?"