She knew the ways of managing tradespeople, and how to evade their snares, and she was quite as well versed in the prices of things as a public appraiser.

To see her lying on her sofa, like a young bride, fresh and white, holding her part in her hand and learning it, you would have thought her a child of sixteen, ingenuous, ignorant, and weak, with no other artifice about her but her innocence.

Let a creditor contrive to enter, and she was up like a startled fawn, and swearing a good round oath.
"Hey! my good fellow; your insolence is too dear an interest on the money I owe you," she would say.

"I am sick of seeing you.

Send the sheriff here; I'd prefer him to your silly face." Florine gave charming dinners, concerts, and well-attended soirees, where play ran high.