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lady—governesses, abigails, ladies’ maids, tutors, dance masters, music masters, modistes—everything money can buy her. ‘Course she ain’t a lady, ’cause I’m a Cit—ain’t ashamed of it—that’s the way of it, you know. But she ought to be a lady.”
    Pausing to drain the glass, he sighed. “Promised her mother: ‘Our girl’s going to have a title,’ I told her—reason I named her Leah, I liked the sound of it—Lady Leah, you know.”
    â€œI fail to see—”
    â€œRun off your legs, ain’t you? Well, I ain’t! Jeptha Cole’s got the blunt to bring you about, Lord Lyndon, and to do it handsomely.” Leaning forward, the old man stared at Tony from beneath thick, brushy brows that contrasted incongruously with his shiny head. “Aye. When Leah came home last week and said she’d met you, I knew I’d heard of you. Made a few inquiries myself, if you want the truth of it, my lord. And now that I see you, I know I am right.”
    â€œMr. Cole, I assure you—”
    â€œNo, no,” the older man interrupted, “let me open my budget afore you answer me. My Leah’s a good girl—not too biddable, I admit it, but good-hearted. Pretty too. She won’t disgrace you with her manners or her appearance, I promise you. And don’t you worry none that I am the encroaching kind—Jeptha Cole knows what he is. I’d be as out of place at your fancy balls as you would be in my docks.”
    For a moment Tony was stunned. “Am I to understand you are offering me your daughter, Mr. Cole?” he asked when he found his voice.
    The old man nodded. “Good business arrangement for you—your title for my money. But if you wasn’t interested, then let me tell you that there’s an earl that’s pretty badly dipped, maybe worse than you.”
    â€œMr. Cole—”
    â€œAin’t too high in the instep for the likes of Jeptha Cole, are you? You know, if you wasn’t such a handsome devil, I’d go for him anyway. I mean, an earl’s an earl, ain’t he? And I know he’d take my offer—headed for debtors’ jail, for one thing.” His eyes were fixed on Tony’s face as though he meant to see his thoughts. “But there’s one thing wrong with him: he ain’t the sort of husband to take a young girl’s fancy, if you take my meaning, and you, me fine buck, fit that bill.”
    Stunned by the offer, it took Tony several seconds to realize Cole was indeed serious. Impatient at the delay, the old man snapped, “What think you—she ain’t good enough for the Barsett name?”
    â€œYou cannot have mentioned this to her,” Tony decided.
    â€œ ’Course I did not! Had to see you first, didn’t I?”
    â€œI do not think—”
    â€œThen hear me out,” Cole interrupted again. “I’ve got forty thousand that says she’s as fine as any lady. And that’s but the settlements, Lyndon. Leah stands to inherit more than thrice that and more again when I’m gone.”
    â€œForty thou …” Tony opened his mouth and closed it abruptly as his brain assimilated the enormity of the offer.
    â€œThought that might bring you around.” The old man nodded smugly.
    â€œI doubt your daughter would welcome my suit,” Tony admitted in bald understatement.
    â€œD’ye think I made my fortune with a pea brain? ’Course she ain’t going to like it! But she’ll come around—bound to when she gets a better eyeful. You look like one of them damned Greek heads Elgin brought back—the ones he wants to tax us for—for one thing, and I hear you are well-versed in the petticoat line, which ought to help,” he digressed briefly. “Bound to know how to please my girl, Lyndon—bound to!”
    He lowered his voice and leaned closer. “But I