guineas are as good as theirs, George, my boy; and I don't grudge 'em. Call on
Mr. Chopper as you go through the City to-morrow; he'll have something for you.
I don't grudge money when I know you're in good society, because I know that
good society can never go wrong. There's no pride in me. I was a humbly born man
- but you have had advantages. Make a good use of 'em. Mix with the young
nobility. There's many of 'em who can't spend a dollar to your guinea, my boy.
And as for the pink bonnets« (here from under the heavy eyebrows there came a
knowing and not very pleasing leer) - »why, boys will be boys. Only there's one
thing I order you to avoid, which, if you do not, I'll cut you off with a
shilling, by Jove, and that's gambling, sir.«
    »Oh, of course, sir,« said George.
    »But to return to the other business about Amelia: why shouldn't you marry
higher than a stockbroker's daughter. George - that's what I want to know?«
    »It's a family business, sir,« says George, cracking filberts. »You and Mr.
Sedley made the match a hundred years ago.«
    »I don't deny it; but people's position alter, sir. I don't deny that Sedley
made my fortune - or rather put me in the way of acquiring, by my own talents
and genius, that proud position which, I may say, I occupy in the tallow trade
and the City of London. I've shown my gratitude to Sedley; and he's tried it of
late, sir, as my cheque-book can show. George! I tell you in confidence I don't
like the looks of Mr. Sedley's affairs. My chief clerk, Mr. Chopper, does not
like the looks of 'em, and he's an old file, and knows 'Change as well as any
man in London. Hulker & Bullock are looking shy at him. He's been dabbling
on his own account, I fear. They say the Jeune Amélie was his, which was taken
by the Yankee privateer Molasses. And that's flat, - unless I see Amelia's ten
thousand down you don't marry her. I'