It must be a cook, you understand, and I want to do the marketing without the missus dodging around." "Well, I'll do my best." "Try and find me a wealthy widower, or a young woman married to a very old fellow.

Now, do look round; I'll drop in again to-morrow;" and with a farewell pinch of snuff, she left the office.
Paul listened to this conversation with feelings of anger and humiliation, and in his heart cursed old Tantaine for having introduced him into such company.

He was seeking for some plausible excuse for withdrawal, when the door at the end of the room was thrown open, and two men came in, talking as they did so.

The one was young and well dressed, with an easy, swaggering manner, which ignorant people mistake for good breeding.

He had a many-colored rosette at his buttonhole, showing that he was the knight of more than one foreign order.