'
"'That's Rachael Scott, one of my very best friends. She is as good a
girl as ever lived. My! I wish I was as rich as she is. I have only
three hundred thousand dollars, but she will have four at her father's
death if he don't bust and fail. But, dear me! how severe you are! I
am quite afraid of you. I wonder what you will say of me when my back
is turned!'
"'Shall I tell you?'
"'Yes, if it isn't too savage.'
"The hint about the money is not lost, for he is looking for a
fortune, it saves the trouble of making one; and he whispers something
in her ear that pleases her uncommonly, for she sais,
"'Ah now, the severest thing you can do is to flatter me that way.'
"They don't discourse of the company anymore; they have too much to
say to each other of themselves now.
"'My! what a smash! what in the world is that?'
"'Nothing but a large mirror. It is lucky it is broken, for if the
host saw himself in it, he might see the face of a fool.'
"'How uproariously those young men talk, and how loud the music is,
and how confounded hot the room is! I must go home. But I must wait a
moment till that noisy, tipsy boy is dragged down-stairs, and shoved
into a hack.'
"And this is upstart life, is it? Yes, but there are changing scenes
in life. Look at these rooms next morning. The chandelier is broken;
the centre table upset, the curtains are ruined, the carpets are
covered with ice-creams, jellies, blancmanges, and broken glass.
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