Nor were my requirements mercenary or presumptuous.

I cared not for fortune; I asked nothing from connections.

My ambition was exclusively professional; it could be served by no titled kindred, accelerated by no wealthy dower.

I was no slave to beauty.

I did not seek in a wife the accomplishments of a finishing-school teacher.
Having decided that the time had come to select my helpmate, I imagined that I should find no difficulty in a choice that my reason would approve.