Banknote, so the "first" is bank and the "second" note.
A nursery rhyme that was current in the 18th and 19th centuries expresses even more directly how money could override personal charms (or the lack thereof):
What care I how black I be?
Twenty pounds shall marry me;
If twenty won't, forty shall,
For I'm my mother's bouncing girl.
(Here "black" is like "dark" in "tall, dark, and handsome", and means olive complexion, dark eyes, dark hair etc. -- as opposed to "fair", which meant blond-haired, blue eyed, creamy complexion etc., and was conventionally considered prettier.) Of course, among Jane Austen's gentlefolk a young lady would need a "portion" of much more than £40 in order to feel a similar insouciance.