“Why, that brown-holland chap seemed to think he would elevate himself a peg by letting us know that he is a painter;—I should like to know how much more elegant it is to stroll about painting than peddling or lecturing,” said Mr. Sutton to Wallis, when they had left the table; “but that Miss Thompson is an astonishingly handsome girl; what a complexion she has!—what eyes and what teeth!—what a sensation she would make in society—that is, if she had a fortune and somebody to show her off!” “You had better offer her yours, and engage in the service yourself,” said Wallis. “Money for money,—‘like loves like;’ it is a generally received opinion among _us_ that a good-looking fellow, fashionable and well connected, is an equivalent for a woman with fifty thousand dollars any day. If he has a fortune, she should be worth dollar for dollar besides. I don’t know what this Miss Thompson is, so I believe I’ll wait till Valeria North comes along.” “Valeria North! why, my dear fellow, she would annihilate you!” returned Wallis, and he thought to himself, “this is the most ridiculous jackanapes I have ever met with; if I must be bored with his acquaintance, I’ll have a little fun with him;” and he added in a significant tone, “I thought there was some sort of magnetism by which you people of fashion found each other out. Is it possible you have not seen into Miss Thompson yet? Between ourselves she is as great an heiress as Miss North.” “You don’t say so!—well, she looks as if she deserved to be. Come, Wallis, introduce me, and Miss North may go to the dickens.” “I am sorry I can’t oblige you; but as I have merely talked to Miss Thompson, myself, as a fellow-boarder, I am not privileged to introduce a stranger.” “No matter, we men of the world can manage such things. They are in that room, aren’t they? and by good luck Cupidon has sneaked in. I’ll go after him.” “I beg pardon, ladies, if I intrude,” said he bowing; “but my dog—” “Not at all, sir, this is the common parlor of the house,” returned Mrs. Thompson, quietly, and scarcely looking up from her work. Thus happily possessed of the freedom of the room, Mr. Sutton turned over some books on a table, and at length remarked, when he had caught the eye of Miss Thompson, “These country villages are monstrously tiresome to persons accustomed to a city life.” “Are they?” said she, and looked again on her book. “They say that Saratoga is unusually thronged this year,” he resumed after a pause; “I had the pleasure of meeting with a young lady of your name there last summer;—indeed, I had quite a flirtation with her; perhaps she was a relation of yours—the daughter of old General Thompson of Virginia.” “Not in the least,” said the young lady. “Judge Thompson, of one of the New England states, was there, at the same time, with his daughters. Very elegant girls all of them,—quite belles. They are of a different family,—perhaps of yours?”