an object with the whole family to make the most of you at this coming
'CRISIS;' I say coming, for I believe it must come. Your name is still
freshly remembered; your position greater for having been out of all the
scrapes of the party the last sixteen or seventeen years: your house
should be the nucleus of new combinations. Don't forget to send Mills to
me; I will engage your chef and your house-steward to-morrow. I know
just the men to suit you. Your intention to marry too, just at this
moment, is most seasonable; it will increase the family interest. I may
give out that you intend to marry?"

"Oh, certainly cry it at Charing Cross."

"A club-room will do as well. I beg ten thousand pardons; but people
will talk about money whenever they talk about marriage. I should not
like to exaggerate your fortune: I know it must be very large, and all
at your own disposal, eh?"

"Every shilling."

"You must have saved a great deal since you retired into private life?"

"Take that for granted. Dick Fairthorn receives my rents, and looks to
my various investments; and I accept him as an indisputable authority
when I say that, what with the rental of lands I purchased in my poor
boy's lifetime and the interest on my much more lucrative moneyed
capital, you may safely whisper to all ladies likely to feel interest in
that diffusion of knowledge, 'Thirty-five thousand a year, and an old
fool.'"

"I certainly shall not say an old fool, for I am the same age as