"Of course you are a very good match, and though I do not want to flatter you, you were one of the belles of the season.

Though some of the men you speak of were by no means desirable--younger sons and barristers and that sort of thing--still, there were two or three whom any girl might have been pleased to see at her feet, and who, I am sure from what I saw, only needed but little encouragement from you to be there.

I was a little vexed, dear, you see, that you did not give any of them that encouragement; but I understand, of course, that the novelty of your first season carried you away altogether; and that you liked the dancing and the fetes and the opera for themselves, and not because they brought you in contact with men of excellent class.

So far as I could see, it was a matter of indifference to you whether the man was a peer with a splendid rent roll, or a younger son without a farthing, so that he was a good dancer and a pleasant companion; but of course after a season or two you will grow wiser." "I do hope not, mamma," Bertha said, indignantly.

"I don't mean to say that it might not be better to marry, as you say, a peer with a good rent roll than a younger son without a penny, other things being equal; that is to say, if one liked them equally; but I hope that I shall never come to like anyone a bit more for being a peer." Lady Greendale smiled, indulgently.
"It is a natural sentiment, my dear, for a girl of your age and inexperience; but in time you will come to see things in a different light." Then she changed the subject.