"
"I bet my life," said Bertram, "he is angling in his aunt's flower
garden for a gold-fish."
"A boarding school would be a good field," said Lady Esmondet.
"Just the spot," cried Douglas; "and the gilded fair who would pay his
debts would win all the school prices from the gushing aunts."
"I read," said Bertram, "the other day, a good story in the _Scottish
American_, entitled 'Endless Gold.' A fellow, Brown hadn't a _sou_,
but always declared he would win an heiress; his friends laughed at
him; but one evening, on a great cotton lord, Sir Calico Twill, making
a speech, he put in 'hear, hear' at the right time. The old man,
pleased, invited him home to supper; there he met his heiress, fell in
love (to make a long story short), proposed, and was referred to
papa."
"'What is your fortune?'" enquired the pater.
"'Well, I don't exactly know,' said Brown; being uncertain whether it
was a three-penny or four-penny bit under his tobacco jar. 'But, give
me your daughter, and I promise she shall have endless gold.'
"'Come, don't exaggerate, Brown,'" said the tickled Twill.
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