'If she were one of _us_, of course she would know that wealth is
the paramount consideration, and that you are quite the best match of
the season. But she is dreadfully _arrieree_, poor dear thing; and she
must have amused herself with the day-dream of seeing Lesbia a duchess,
or something of that kind. I shall tell her that Lesbia can be one of
the queens of society without having strawberry leaves on her coach
panels, and that my dear friend Horace Smithson is a much better match
than a seedy duke. So don't look cross, my dear fellow; in me you have a
friend who will never desert you.'
'Thanks,' said Smithson, inwardly resolving that, so soon as this
little transaction of his marriage were over, he would see as little of
Georgie Kirkbank and her cotton frocks and schoolgirl hats as bare
civility would allow.
He had promised her that she should be the richer by a neat little
bundle of fat and flourishing railway stock when his happiness was
secured, and he was not going to break his promise. But he did not mean
to give George and Georgie free quarters at Rood Hall, or at Cowes, or
Deauville; and he meant to withdraw his wife altogether from Lady
Kirkbank's pinchbeck set.
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