It appeared that there had always been some extremely practical reason for the passion which had led them to the altar.

One generally gathered that they or their estates were very much out at elbow, and frequently their characters were not considered admirable by their relatives and acquaintances.

Some had been rather cold shouldered in certain capitals on account of embarrassing little, or big, stories.

Some had spent their patrimonies in riotous living.
Those who had merely begun by coming into impoverished estates, and had later attenuated their resources by comparatively decent follies, were of the more desirable order.

By the time she was nineteen, Bettina had felt the blood surge in her veins more than once when she heard some comments on alliances over which she had seen her compatriots glow with affectionate delight.
"It was time Ludlow married some girl with money," she heard said of one such union.