He knew, also, that eight thousand pounds had been left her,
but of that he took no account. It might be probable that she had
spent it. If any of it were left, it would be a godsend. Lord Fawn
thought a great deal about money. Being a poor man, filling a place
fit only for rich men, he had been driven to think of money, and had
become self-denying and parsimonious,--perhaps we may say hungry
and close-fisted. Such a condition of character is the natural
consequence of such a position. There is, probably, no man who
becomes naturally so hard in regard to money as he who is bound to
live among rich men, who is not rich himself, and who is yet honest.
The weight of the work of life in these circumstances is so crushing,
requires such continued thought, and makes itself so continually
felt, that the mind of the sufferer is never free from the
contamination of sixpences. Of such a one it is not fair to judge
as of other men with similar incomes. Lord Fawn had declared to his
future bride that he had half five thousand a year to spend,--or the
half, rather, of such actual income as might be got in from an estate
presumed to give five thousand a year,--and it may be said that an
unmarried gentleman ought not to be poor with such an income. But
Lord Fawn unfortunately was a lord, unfortunately was a landlord,
unfortunately was an Irish landlord. Let him be as careful as he
might with his sixpences, his pounds would fly from him, or, as
might, perhaps, be better said, could not be made to fly to him. He
was very careful with his sixpences, and was always thinking, not
exactly how he might make two ends meet, but how to reconcile the
strictest personal economy with the proper bearing of an English
nobleman.

Such a man almost naturally looks to marriage as an assistance in
the dreary fight. It soon becomes clear to him that he cannot marry
without money, and he learns to think that heiresses have been
invented exactly to suit his case. He is conscious of having been
subjected to hardship by Fortune, and regards female wealth as his
legitimate mode of escape from it. He has got himself, his position,
and, perhaps, his title to dispose of, and they are surely worth
so much per annum. As for giving anything away, that is out of the
question. He has not been so placed as to be able to give. But, being
an honest man, he will, if possible, make a fair bargain. Lord Fawn
was certainly an honest man, and he had been endeavouring for t