第59章

"Now, Mr. Thurston, I believe I understand this matter," said the father, in a very business-like manner; "you wish to marry my daughter?""Exactly, sir; and she wishes to marry me--that is, as far as comports with the delicacy of the female bosom.""A very timely reservation. And you are referred?""Yes, Mr. Monson, those cheering words have solaced my ears--I am referred. The old chap," aside, "likes a little humbug, as well as a girl.""And you will take her without a cent, you say?""Did I, sir? I believe I didn't exactly say that--DOLLAR was the word Imentioned. CENTS could hardly be named between you and me.""Dollar let it be, then. Now, sir, you have my consent on a single condition.""Name it, sir. Name five or six, at once, my dear Mr. Monson, and you shall see how I will comply.""One will answer. How much fortune do you think will be necessary to make such a couple happy, at starting in the world? Name such a sum as will comport with your own ideas.""How much, sir? Mr. Monson, you are a model of generosity! You mean, to keep a liberal and gentlemanly establishment, as would become your son-in-law?""I do--such a fortune as will make you both easy and comfortable.""Horses and carriages, of course? Every thing on a genteel and liberal scale?""On such a scale as will insure the happiness of man and wife.""Mutual esteem--conjugal felicity--and all that. l suppose you include dinners, sir, and a manly competition with one's fellow citizens, in real New York form?""I mean all that can properly belong to the expenses of a gentleman and lady.""Yes, sir--exceedingly liberal--liberal as the rosy dawn. Why, sir, meeting your proposition in the spirit in which it is offered, I should say Julia and I could get along very comfortably on $100,000. Yes, we could make that do, provided the money were well invested--no fancy stocks.""Well, sir, I am glad we understand each other so clearly. If my daughter really wish to marry you, I will give $50,000 of this sum, as soon as you can show me that you have as much more to invest along with it.""Sir--Mr. Monson!"

"I mean that each party shall lay down dollar for dollar!""I understand what you mean, sir. Mr. Monson, that would be degrading lawful wedlock to the level of a bet--a game of cards--a mercenary, contemptible bargain. No, sir--nothing shall ever induce me to degrade this honorable estate to such pitiful conditions!""Dollar for dollar, Mr. Thurston!"

"Holy wedlock! It is violating the best principles of our nature.""Give and take!"

"Leveling the sacred condition of matrimony to that of a mere bargain for a horse or a dog!""Half and half!"

"My nature revolts at such profanation, sir--I will take $75,000 with Miss Julia, and say no more about it.""Equality is the foundation of wedded happiness, Mr. Thurston.""Say $50,000, Mr. Monson, and have no more words about it. Take away from the transaction the character of a bargain, and even $40,000will do."

"Not a cent that is not covered by a cent of your own.""Then, sir, I wash my hands of the whole affair. If the young lady should die, my conscience will be clear. It shall never be said Thomas Thurston was so lost to himself as to bargain for a wife.""We must, then, part, and the negotiation must fall through."Tom rose with dignity, and got as far as the door. With his hand on the latch, he added--"Rather than blight the prospects of so pure and lovely a creature I will make every sacrifice short of honor--let it be $30,000, Mr. Monson?""As you please, sir--so that it be covered by $30,000 of your own.""My nature revolts at the proposition, and so--good morning, sir."Tom left the house, and Mr. Monson laughed heartily; so heartily, indeed, as to prove how much he relished the success of his scheme.

"Talk of Scylla and Charybdis!" soliloquized the discomfited Tom, as he wiped the perspiration from his face--"Where the d---l does he think Iam to find the $50,000 he wants, unless he first gives them to me? Inever heard of so unreasonable an old chap! Here is a young fellow that offers to marry his daughter for $30,000--half price, as one may say--and he talks about covering every cent he lays down with one of my own. I never knew what was meant by cent. per cent. before. Let me see; I've just thirty-two dollars and sixty-nine cents, and had we played at a game of coppers, I couldn't have held out half an hour. But, I flatter myself, I touched the old scamp up with morals, in a way he wasn't used to. Well, as this thing is over, I will try old Sweet, the grocer's daughter. If the wardrobe and whiskers fail there, I must rub up the Greek and Latin, and shift the ground to Boston. They say a chap with a little of the classics can get $30 or 40,000, there, any day in the week.

I wish my parents had brought me up a schoolmaster; I would be off in the first boat. Blast it!--I thought when I came down to $30,000, he would have snapped at the bait, like a pike. He'll never have a chance to get her off so cheap, again."{cent. per cent. = one hundred percent}

This ended the passage of flirtation between Thomas Thurston and Julia Monson. As for the latter, she took such a distaste for me, that she presented me to Mademoiselle Hennequin, at the first opportunity, under the pretence that she had discovered a strong wish in the latter to possess me.

Adrienne accepted the present with some reluctance, on account of the price that had been paid for me, and yet with strong emotion. How she wept over me, the first time we were alone together! I thought her heart would break; nor am I certain it would not, but for the timely interposition of Julia, who came and set her laughing by a humorous narrative of what had occurred between her father and her lover.