Let him be as careful as he might with his sixpences, his pounds would fly
from him, or, as might perhaps be better said, could not be made to fly to
him. He was very careful with his sixpences, and was always thinking, not
exactly how he might make two ends meet, but how to reconcile the
strictest personal economy with the proper bearing of an English nobleman.

Such a man almost naturally looks to marriage as an assistance in the
dreary fight. It soon becomes clear to him that he cannot marry without
money, and he learns to think that heiresses have been invented exactly to
suit his taste. He is conscious of having been subjected to hardship by
Fortune, and regards female wealth as his legitimate mode of escape from
it. He has got himself, his position, and perhaps his title, to dispose
of, and they are surely worth so much per annum. As for giving anything
away, that is out of the question. He has not been so placed as to be able
to give. But, being an honest man, he will, if possible, make a fair
bargain. Lord Fawn was certainly an honest man, and he had been
endeavouring for the last six or seven years to make a fair bargain. But
then it is so hard to decide what is fair. Who is to tell a Lord Fawn how
much per annum he ought to regard himself as worth? He had, on one or two
occasions, asked a high price, but no previous bargain had been made. No
doubt he had come down a little in his demand in suggesting a matrimonial
arrangement to a widow with a child, and with only four thousand a year.
Whether or no that income was hers in perpetuity, or only for life, he had
not positively known when he made his offer. The will made by Sir Florian
Eustace did not refer to the property at all. In the natural course of
things, the widow would only have a life-interest in the income. Why
should Sir Florian make away, in perpetuity, with his family property?
Nevertheless, there had been a rumour abroad that Sir Florian had been
very generous; that the Scotch estate was to go to a second son in the
event of there being a second son; but that otherwise it was to be at the