Old Lord would cut up rough as soon as ever such a thing was mentioned; I know he would.

There's something I have had in my mind for a long time.

Suppose I could show you a way of making a heap of money--no end of money--?
Shouldn't you like it better,--to live as you pleased, and be independent ?' The listener's face confessed curiosity, yet was dubious.
'What do you say to going into business with me ?' pursued Miss French.
'We've only to raise a little money on the houses, and in a year or two we might be making thousands.' 'Business?
What sort of business ?' 'Suppose somebody came to you and said: Pay me a sovereign, and I'll make you a member of an association that supplies fashionable clothing at about half the ordinary price,--wouldn't you jump at it ?' 'If I thought it wasn't a swindle,' Fanny replied ingenuously.
'Of course.

But you'd be made to see it wasn't.

And suppose they went on to say: Take a ten-pound share, and you shall have a big interest on it, as well as your dresses for next to nothing.