If you did, you'd hate me less.

That's the plain truth.

You know very well that there's nobody like you, and that if I'd judged I had the slightest chance of getting you I would no more have thought of marrying Miss Bamberger than of throwing a million dollars into the sea after that book, or ten million, and that's a great deal of money.' 'I ought to be flattered,' said Margaret with scorn, still facing the wind.
'No.

I'm not given to flattery, and money means something real to me, because I've fought for it, and got it.

Your regular young lover will always call you his precious treasure, and I don't see much difference between a precious treasure and several million dollars.