view.

"She thinks she'd like to marry some fine feller and be a toff; an'
she's got this danger that's always the drawback of a girl bein'
pretty, so many fellers come after them at the start they get finnicky
an' think they can marry any one, an' leave it too late, an' in the
end they marry some rubbishing feller an' don't came out half so well
as the plain ones that was content with a fair thing w'en they had the
chance of it. Just the same with a boy; it's a bad thing for them to
be able to do everythink, they are so terribly smart they end up by
doin' nothink, an' the ploddin' feller they grinned at for bein' a
booby, because he stuck to the one thing, comes out on top."

"Just so; want of concentration plucks one every time."

"That's wot I want to save Dawn from. It's all right while I live, an'
I don't want her to be chuckin' herself at the head of any Tom or
Dick, but I won't live for ever, an' marriage is like everythink else,
you want to have your eye on a good thing an' not humbug too much.
W'en I'm gone"--the austere old face softened--"I wouldn't like to
think of her I've spent so much money on, an' rared with me own hand,
as I did her an' her mother before her, growin' old an' sour an'
lonely, or bein' a slave to some worthless crawler." The old voice
grew perilously soft, and saved itself from a break by a swift
crescendo.

"As I say, I suppose she's waitin' for some great impossible feller to
come along, like we do w'en we're young; but these upper ten is the
worst matches a girl can make, an' besides there's too many trying to
ketch them in their own rank. I've had lots of 'em here, an' to see
these swell girls the way they try to ketch some one would make you
ill. Don't you think so?"

"Well, my sympathies are always with the swell girl in the matrimonial
market," I replied. "She has a far harder time than those of the
working classes. You see, so many of the well-to-do eligibles prefer
working girls--actresses, chorus-singers, and barmaids, which, in
addition to marriage in their own class, gives these girls a chance of
stepping up; whereas the swell girls cannot marry grooms and footmen
and raise them to their rank as their brothers can their housemaids
and ballet-girls. To be a success the society girl must marry a man of
sufficient means to keep her as an expensive toy, and this description
of bachelor being scarce in any case, little wonder she has to hunt
hard and tries to protect her pres