Fiction > Book editions > New York, 1885 - Dynamiter

324 EPILOGUE OF THE CIGAR DIVAN.
" My father? " asked the spirited old lady.
*' I believe he had seven hundred pounds in the
year."
" You were one, I think, of several? " pur-
sued the Prince.
" Of four," was the reply. " We were four
daughters ; and painful as the admission is to
make, a more detestable family could scarce be
found in England."
" Dear me ! " said the Prince. " And you,
madam, have an income of eight thousand % "
^'Not more than five," returned the old
lady ; " but where on earth are you conducting
me?"
^ ' To an allowance of one thousand pounds a
year," replied Florizel smiling. "For I must
not suffer you to take your father for a rule.
He was poor, you are rich. He had many calls
upon his poverty : there are none upon your
wealth. And indeed, madam, if you will let
me touch this matter with a needle, there is
but one point in common to your two posi-
tions : that each had a daughter more remark-
able for liveliness than duty."
"I have been entrapped into this house,"
said the old lady, getting to her feet. ' ' But it
shall not avail. Not all the tobacconists in
Europe ..."
"Ah, madam," interrupted Florizel, " before
what is referred to as my fall, you had not