proposing to him the greatest of favors and blessings.

"You say he is very rich?" he asked.

"Enormously, fabulously," replied Mrs. Grundy, as if crossing herself.

"Will he give me any of his money?"

Mrs. Grundy gazed blankly at the questioner. "Give you any of his
money? What do you mean?"

"Mean?" answered the cheerful cosmopolitan; "my meaning is plain. If I
am introduced to a scholar, he gives me something of his scholarship;
a traveller gives me experience; a scientific man, information; a
musician plays or sings for me; and if you introduce me to a man whose
distinction is his riches, I wish to know what advantage I am to gain
from his acquaintance, and whether I may expect him to impart to me
something of that for which he is distinguished."

Mrs. Grundy, who is easily discomposed by an unexpected turn in the
conversation, looked confused, but said, presently, "Why, you will
dine with the Midases and the Plutuses."

"But they are merely the same thing," said the cosmopolitan, gayly.
"You know the story: Mr. and Mrs. MacSycophant, Miss MacSycophant,
Miss Imogen MacSycophant, Mr. Plantagenet MacSycophant, Miss Boadicea
MacSycophant--and more of the same. One MacSycophant is as good as
twenty, Mrs. Grundy; and as I know the Midases already, and find them
amusingly dull, why should I know the Plutuses, who are probably even
duller?"