His sister, that's Lady Penwether, told
me they were certainly engaged then."
"That was before the Paragon had been named for Patagonia. To tell
you a little bit of my own private mind,--which isn't scandal,"
said Mounser Green, "because it is only given as opinion,--I think
it just possible that the Paragon has taken this very uncomfortable
mission because it offered him some chance of escape."
"Then he has more sense about him than I gave him credit for," said
Archibald Currie.
"Why should a man like Morton go to Patagonia?" continued Green.
"He has an independent fortune and doesn't want the money. He'd
have been sure to have something comfortable in Europe very soon if
he had waited, and was much better off as second at a place like
Washington. I was quite surprised when he took it."
"Patagonia isn't bad at all," said Currie.
"That depends on whether a man has got money of his own. When I
heard about the Paragon and Bell Trefoil at Washington, I knew
there had been a mistake made. He didn't know what he was doing.
I'm a poor man, but I wouldn't take her with 5,000 pounds a year,
settled on myself." Poor Mounser Green!
"I think she's the handsomest girl in London," said Hoffmann, who
was a young man of German parentage and perhaps of German taste.
"That may be," continued Green; "but, heaven and earth! what a life
she would lead a man like the Paragon! He's found it out, and
therefore thought it well to go to South America.
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