“I suppose, my dear fellow, you think she’s dear at the price.  Well, I don’t know that you are far wrong.”

“Why, then, if I may make so bold, Captain Fizgig, are you always at her heels?”

“Mr. Titmarsh,” says the Captain, “I owe twenty thousand pounds;” and he went back to the house directly, and proposed for her.

I thought this rather cruel and unprincipled conduct on the gentleman’s part; for he had been introduced to the family by Mr. Tidd, with whom he had been at school, and had supplanted Tidd entirely in the great heiress’s affections.  Brough stormed, and actually swore at his daughter (as the Captain told me afterwards) when he heard that the latter had accepted Mr. Fizgig; and at last, seeing the Captain, made him give his word that the engagement should be kept secret for a few months.  And Captain F. only made a confidant of me, and the mess, as he said:  but this was after Tidd had paid his twenty thousand pounds over to our governor, which he did punctually when he came of age.  The same day, too, he proposed for the young lady, and I need not say was rejected.  Presently the Captain’s engagement began to be whispered about:  all his great relations, the Duke of Doncaster, the Earl of Cinqbars, the Earl of Crabs, &c. came and visited the Brough family; the Hon. Henry Ringwood became a shareholder in our Company, and the Earl of Crabs offered to be.  Our shares rose to a premium; our Director, his lady, and daughter were presented at Court; and the great West Diddlesex Association bid fair to be the first Assurance Office in the kingdom.

A very short time after my visit to Fulham, my dear aunt wrote to me to say that she had consulted with her attorneys, Messrs. Hodge and Smithers, who strongly recommended that she should invest the sum as I advised.  She had the sum invested, too, in my name, paying me many compliments upon my honesty and talent; of which, she said, Mr. Brough had given her the most flattering account.  And at the same time my aunt informed me that at her death the shares should be my own.  This gave me a great weight in the Company, as you may imagine.  At our next annual meeting, I attended in my capacity as a shareholder, and had great pleasure in hearing Mr. Brough, in a magnificent speech, declare a dividend of six per cent., that we all received over the counter.

“You lucky young scoundrel!” said Brough to me; “do you know what made me give you your place?”

“Why, my aunt’s money, to be sure, sir,” said I.

“No such thing.  Do you fancy I cared for those paltry three thousand pounds?  I was told you were nephew of Lady Drum; and Lady Drum is grandmother of Lady Jane Preston; and Mr. Preston is a man who can do us a world of good.  I knew that they had sent you venison, and the deuce knows what; and when I saw Lady Jane at my party shake you by the hand, and speak to you so kindly, I took all Abednego’s tales for gospel. That was the reason you got