Whatever
material advantages she can have to help her, ought, in common justice,
to be hers. Now, tell me, Mr. Vendale, on your fifteen hundred a year
can your wife have a house in a fashionable quarter, a footman to open
her door, a butler to wait at her table, and a carriage and horses to
drive about in? I see the answer in your face--your face says, No. Very
good. Tell me one more thing, and I have done. Take the mass of your
educated, accomplished, and lovely country-women, is it, or is it not,
the fact that a lady who has a house in a fashionable quarter, a footman
to open her door, a butler to wait at her table, and a carriage and
horses to drive about in, is a lady who has gained four steps, in female
estimation, at starting? Yes? or No?"
"Come to the point," said Vendale. "You view this question as a question
of terms. What are your terms?"
"The lowest terms, dear sir, on which you can provide your wife with
those four steps at starting. Double your present income--the most rigid
economy cannot do it in England on less. You said just now that you
expected greatly to increase the value of your business. To work--and
increase it! I am a good devil after all! On the day when you satisfy
me, by plain proofs, that your income has risen to three thousand a year,
ask me for my niece's hand, and it is yours."
"May I inquire if you have mentioned this arrangement to Miss
Obenreizer?"
"Certainly.
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