, you,
who have been on the Continent, know."

"Ah, an heiress; acres of cotton-fields, thousands of negroes, and so
on."

"Exactly. I put the income down at half of what popular report makes it;
these southern fortunes are so uncertain: the white part of the property
(that is to say, the cotton) varies with the seasons; and the black part
takes to itself legs, and runs off occasionally. But, at any rate, there
is quite enough to make her a great prize, and an object of admiration
and attention to all the little men--not to the old hands, like White
and Sumner; they are built up in their own conceit, and wouldn't marry
Sam Weller's 'female marchioness,' unless she made love to them first,
like one of Knowles's heroines. But the juveniles are crazy about her.
Robinson went off more ostentatiously love-sick than a man of his size I
ever saw; and Sedley is always chanting her praises--the only man,
woman, or child, he was ever known to speak well of. I don't think any
of them will catch her. Edwards might dance into her heart, perhaps, if
he were a little bigger; but as it is, she will, probably, make happy
and rich some one in her own part of the world. She says the young men
there suit her better, because they are 'more gentlemanly' than we
Northerners."

"I have heard many strangers say the same thing," said Ashburner,
prudently refraining from expressing any opinion of his own for he knew
Benson's anti-southern feelings.

"If education has any thing to do with being a gentleman, then, whether
you take _education_ in the highest sense, as the best discipline and
expansion of the mind by classical and scientific study; or in the
utilitarian sense, as the acquisition of useful knowledge, and a
practical acquaintance with men and things; or in the fine lady sense,
as the mastery of airs, and graces, and drawing-room accomplishments; or
in the moralist's sense, as the curbing of our mischievous propensities,
and the energizing of our good ones--in every case, we are more of
gentlemen than the Southerners. If the mere possession of wealth, and
progress in the grosser and more material arts of civilization, have any
thing to do with it, then, too, we are more of gentlemen. Their claims
rest on two grounds: first, they live on the unpaid labor of others,
while we all work, more or less, for ourselves, holding idleness as
disgraceful as they do labor; secondly, they are all the time fighting
duels."

"Are there no duels