It was quite fair on such an occasion that men should be given to
understand that something worth having was expected--no trumpery thirty-
shilling piece of crockery, no insignificant glass bottle, or fantastic
paper-knife of no real value whatever, but got up just to put money into
the tradesmen's hands. To one or two elderly gentlemen upon whom Mrs.
Carbuncle had smiled, she ventured to suggest in plain words that a check
was the most convenient _cadeau_. "What do you say to a couple of
sovereigns?" one sarcastic old gentleman replied, upon whom probably Mrs.
Carbuncle had not smiled enough. She laughed and congratulated her
sarcastic friend upon his joke--but the two sovereigns were left upon the
table, and went to swell the spoil.
"You must do something handsome for Lucinda," Lizzie said to her cousin.
"What do you call handsome?"
"You are a bachelor and a Member of Parliament. Say fifteen pounds."
"I'll be ---- if I do," said Frank, who was beginning to be very much
disgusted with the house in Hertford Street. "There's a five-pound note,
and you may do what you please with it." Lizzie gave over the five-pound
note--the identical bit of paper that had come from Frank; and Mrs.
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