The point is that this conformity of ideals is not met among old people, but among young and pretty persons," said he, and he began to laugh disagreeably.
"Yes, I affirm that love, real love, does not consecrate marriage, as we are in the habit of believing, but that, on the contrary, it ruins it." "Permit me," said the lawyer.

"The facts contradict your words.

We see that marriage exists, that all humanity--at least the larger portion--lives conjugally, and that many husbands and wives honestly end a long life together." The nervous gentleman smiled ill-naturedly.
"And what then?
You say that marriage is based upon love, and when I give voice to a doubt as to the existence of any other love than sensual love, you prove to me the existence of love by marriage.

But in our day marriage is only a violence and falsehood." "No, pardon me," said the lawyer.

"I say only that marriages have existed and do exist." "But how and why do they exist?
They have existed, and they do exist, for people who have seen, and do see, in marriage something sacramental, a sacrament that is binding before God.