Fanny shook her head.

'I don't think he could get away. The guv'nor expects him home to
dinner on Sundays.'

The other laughed her contempt.

'You see! What good is he? Look here, Fan, you just wait a bit, and
you'll do much better than that. Old Lord would cut up rough as soon
as ever such a thing was mentioned; I know he would. There's
something I have had in my mind for a long time. Suppose I could
show you a way of making a heap of money--no end of money--?
Shouldn't you like it better,--to live as you pleased, and be
independent?'

The listener's face confessed curiosity, yet was dubious.

'What do you say to going into business with me?' pursued Miss
French. 'We've only to raise a little money on the houses, and m a
year or two we might be making thousands.'

'Business? What sort of business?'

'Suppose somebody came to you and said: Pay me a sovereign, and I'll
make you a member of an association that supplies fashionable
clothing at about half the ordinary price,--wouldn't you jump at
it?'

'If I thought it wasn't a swindle,' Fanny replied ingenuously.