? If they still exist upon this earth, they must be
hiding themselves, wisely seeing it is not an age to suit them; they lie
quiet under the ice, patiently hibernating till another summer may call
them forth to vitality.

Now Lizzy Davis could make Beecher laugh in his lowest and gravest
moments; droll situations and comical conceits came in showers over her
mind, and she gave them forth with all the tact of a consummate actress.
Her mimicry, too, was admirable; and thus he who rarely reflected and
never read, found in her ready talents resources against all weariness
and ennui. What a girl she was!--how perfectly she would become any--the
very highest--station! what natural dignity in her manner!--and--Then,
after a pause, he murmured, "What a fortune she'd make on the stage!
Why, there's nothing to compare with her,--she's as much beyond them all
in beauty as in genius!" And so he set about thinking how, by marrying
her, a man might make a "deuced good thing of it." There's no saying
what Webster wouldn't offer; and then there was America, always a
"safe card;" not that it would do for himself to think of such a thing.
Lackington would never speak to him again. All his family would cut
him dead; he had n't an acquaintance would recognize him after such
disgrace.

"Old Grog is _so_ confoundedly well known," muttered he,--"the
scoundrel is _so_ notorious!" Still, there were fellows would n't mind
that,--hard-up men, who had done everything, and found all failure.
He knew--"Let us see," said he to himself, beginning to count on his
fingers all the possible candidates for her hand. "There's Cranshaw
Craven at Caen, on two hundred a year; _he'd_ marry her, and never
ask to see her if she 'd settle twenty thousand francs a year on him.
Brownlow Gore would marry her, and for a mere five hundred too, for he
wants to try that new martingale at Ems; he's certain he 'd break the
bank with less. Foley would marry her; but, to be sure, he has a wife
somewhere, and she might object to that! I'd lay an even fifty," cried
he, in ecstasy at the bright thought, "Tom Beresford would marry her
just to get out of the Fleet!"

"What does that wonderful calculation mean?" cried she, suddenly, as she
saw him still reckoning on his fingers. "What deep process of reasoning
is my learned guardian engaged in?"

"I 'd give you a long time to guess," said he, laughing.

"Am I personally concerned in it?" asked she.

"Yes, that you are!"