"Indeed! What, no lover? and she so beautiful, such a peculiar style! I thought young Bosworth was something more than a neighborly cavalier; a fine young fellow, Miss Hyde, and a catch, isn't he?" "I don't know exactly what you mean by a catch, madam," I replied, more and more repulsed. "Oh! I see; not worldly enough for boarding-school vulgarisms; but I, who am naughty enough to remember them now and then, will explain that there is nothing very terrible in a 'good catch.' It only means a handsome, fashionable, and rich man, whom every marriageable young lady is dying for and only one can get." "Then our young neighbor will not answer to the character, for he is neither fashionable nor more than comfortably rich; nor has he any number of young ladies dying for him." "Only one, perhaps?" The same sidelong glance, the same crafty undercurrent in her questioning. "If you mean Jessie, Mrs. Dennison, I am very sure she has no such feelings as you suspect, toward any one." "Oh, I dare say not; one always likes to talk nonsense about such things, but it amounts to nothing. Of course, people are always expecting hosts of lovers when an heiress is in question, and Miss Lee has the reputation of immense expectations." "Yes," I answered, artfully, "I am afraid Jessie will be very rich, indeed. Along that valley she will own land enough for a small principality, if such things were recognized in this country, and many a smoke-wreath that you see curling up from the city yonder comes from the dwellings that will yet be hers, and so will several foundries that are coining money for her out of iron." Mrs. Dennison's eyes kindled. "Show me," she said, eagerly, and shading her eyes with one hand, "where does the land lie--this principality of which Jessie will be mistress?" "Yonder to the left, around and far beyond that hill." "The hill with so many grassy slopes, and crested with groves? That hill, and the lands around it, will it surely be Jessie Lee's inheritance?" "Every foot of land, every smoke that curls from several blocks of houses in the centre of the city." "And does Mr. Lee have all this income?" "Every cent." Her eyes sparkled. Fresh roses bloomed out on her cheeks. She threw out her arm, and waved it inward, as if gathering the property in one sweeping embrace. "Ah! what a world of enjoyment you or I could get out of all that if it were ours!" she said, with unaccountable exultation in her voice. "No wonder he lives like a prince." I answered her with constraint. This enthusiasm disturbed me. "I am not sure, madam, that either you or I would be happier for possessing so much care as this wealth would bring; for my part, that which I enjoy without responsibility, is enough." Her beautiful mouth curled with a sneer, the first I ever saw on those lips. "Ah! it requires taste and habits of power to prepare one for these things; some people are born with them. Some people are born for them, and others--"