Page:A hairdresser's experience in high life.djvu/235

Rh I was stopped by the very evident delight of the mother, which at once betrayed to me who they were, though old citizens, by some means they were not known by the fashionables. This lady was very elegant, and highly educated, but so very diffident, the ladies found it very difficult to converse with her. I soon found out both mother and daughter were delighted at. being singled out and noticed for their wealth, and as the Burnet House is known to be a house to bring people out, she was soon brought into notice, and sought after by fortune hunters.

I remember the first party they were invited to; it was by a gentleman who became acquainted with her when she was at school, and, through politeness paid attention to her. This alarmed some of the parents of the fortune hunters, and they went to her mother to get her to leave, and go on a winter's tour. They succeeded in this, but her fame for wealth following her, she had many beaux. On her return home, one followed her, and paid her a great deal of attention, till at length he was ordered out of the house by her mother, and forbidden to see the young lady again, while there was another whose visits were encouraged. When the latter got a little acquainted, he was run off by another, and so on, till five, to my certain knowledge, were run off' in this manner. At length she was taken to another State, a fugitive, to escape from a gentleman she had positively promised to marry.

While there, she fell into the hands of one who was more shrewd than any she had been previously engaged to, and she promised to marry him. He came to visit her, the time for the marriage was appointed,