Let not this happy union between Grouski and the old hostess, surprise
you, gentle reader. It was brought about by Mr. Snivel, the
accommodation man, who, as you have before seen, is always ready to do
a bit of a good turn. Being a skilful diplomatist in such matters, he
organized the convention, superintended the wooing, and for a lusty
share of the spoils, secured to him by Grouski, brought matters to an
issue “highly acceptable” to all parties. A sale of her palace of
licentiousness, works of art, costly furniture, and female wares,
together with the good will of all concerned, (her friends of the
“bench and bar” not excepted,) was made for the nice little sum of
sixty-seven thousand dollars, to Madame Grace Ashley, whose
inauguration was one of the most gorgeous fˆtes the history of
Charleston can boast. The new occupant was a novice. She had not
sufficient funds to pay ready money for the purchase, hence Mr.
Doorwood, a chivalric and very excellent gentleman, according to
report, supplies the necessary, taking a mortgage on the institution,
which proves to be quite as good property as the Bank, of which he is
president. It is not, however, just that sort of business upon which an
already seared conscience can repose in quiet, hence he applies that
antidote too frequently used by knaves-he never lets a Sunday pass
without piously attending church.
The money thus got, through this long life of iniquity, was by Madame
Flamingo handed over to the Prince, in exchange for his heart and the
title she had been deluded to believe him capable of conferring. Her
reverence for Princes and exiled heroes, (who are generally exiled
humbugs,) was not one jot less than that so pitiably exhibited by our
self-dubbed fashionable society all over this Union. It may be well to
add, that this distinguished couple, all smiling and loving, are on
their way to Europe, where they are sure of receiving the attentions of
any quantity of “crowned heads.” Mr. Snivel, in order not to let the
affair lack that eclat which is the crowning point in matters of high
life, got smuggled into the columns of the highly respectable and very
authentic old “Courier,” a line or two, in which the fashionable world
was thrown into a flutter by the announcement that Prince Grouski and
his wealthy bride left yesterday, en route for Europe. This bit of
gossip the “New York Herald” caught up and duly itemised, for the
benefit of its upper-ten readers, who, as may be easily imagined, were
all on tip-toe to know the address of visitors so distinguished, and
leave cards.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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