horses, pictures, nice rooms, and good things to eat, before I can make
up my mind that the money is good for anything. Now as to Richard, he is
just the other way: old head on young shoulders, old pockets in young
breeches (only there ar'nt any holes in them). He's a model of prudence,
is my brother Richard. _Qui garde son diner, il a mieux à souper_. He'll
be a rich man one of these fine days. I look to him to keep me out of
jail. You know Richard very well, I believe?" he said, turning a sudden
look on me, which would have been very disconcerting to an older person,
or one more acquainted with the world.

"O, very well indeed," I said with great simplicity. "You know he is
such a favorite with my uncle, and he is a great deal at the house."

"Well he may be a favorite, for he is built exactly on his model; at
seventy, if I am not hung for debt before I reach it, I shall look to
see him just a second Mr. Leonard Greer."

I made a gesture of dissent. "I don't think he is in the least like
Uncle Leonard, and I don't think he cares at all for money."

"O, Miss Pauline, don't you believe him if he says he doesn't. I'm his
younger brother, whom he has lectured and been hard on for these
twenty-seven years, and I know more about it than anybody else."

"Why, is Mr. Richard Vandermarck twenty-seven years old?" I said with
much surprise.

"Twenty-nine his next birthday, and I am twenty-seven. Why, did he pass
himself off for younger? That's an excellent thing against him."