At Market Value Author:Grant Allen Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: must be just about twelve shillings a week, and no allowance for beer-money.' At the very same moment, in the opposite corner of the room, Canon Valentine was... more » saying under his breath to Mrs. Hesslegrave: 'Who is that young man—the very flippant young fellow with the straw-coloured moustache? I can't say at first sight I'm exactly taken with him.' And Mrs. Hesslegrave made answer with the wisdom of the serpent: ' No, not at first sight, perhaps; I can understand that: he's American, of course, and a leetle bit brusque in his manner, to begin with: but when you know him, he's charming. Has lovely rooms in Paris, near the Arc de Triomphe; and a palazzo in Venice on the Grand Canal; and gives delightful receptions. He's taken a house in Stanhope Street this year for the season. I'll get him to send you cards; his afternoons are celebrated: and when you go to Paris, he'll make everything smooth for you. He can do so much! He has influence at the Embassy.' American? Yes. But what a match he would make, after all, for dear Kathleen I CHAPTER III. JIILLIONAIRB AND BAILOR. While these things were being said of him in the side street in Kensington, Albert Ogilvie Eedburn, seventh Earl of Axminster, alias Arnold Willoughby, alias Douglas Overton, was walking quietly by himself downPiccadilly, and not a soul of all he met was taking the slightest notice of him. It was many years since he had last been in town, and, accustomed as he was to his changed position, the contrast could not fail to strike him forcibly. Ladies he had once known dashed past him in smart victorias without a nod or a smile ; men he had often played with at the Flamingo Club stared him blankly in the face and strolled by, unrecognising; the crossing-sweeper at the corner, who used to turn up to ...« less