Page:The Wanderer (1814 Volume 2).pdf/117

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When Ellis had set him right, he took five guineas from his purse, and said, "Well, then, my dear, come to my darter, and give her as much of your tudeling as will come to this. And I think, by then, she'll be able to twiddle over them wires by herself."

The hours of attendance being then settled, he looked smirkingly in her face, and added, "Which of us two is to hold the stakes, you or I?" shaking the five guineas between his hands. But when she assured him that she had not the most distant desire to anticipate such an appropriation, he assumed an air of generous affluence, and assuring her, in return, that he was not afraid to trust her, counted two guineas and a half a guinea, upon the table, and said, "So if you please, my dear, we'll split the difference."

Ellis found the daughter yet more innately, though less obviously, vulgar; and far more unpleasant, because uncivil, than the father. In a constant struggle to