We are _so_ harmonious." "You've really made up your mind to--to marry him ?" Adelaide had almost said "to buy him"; she had a sense that it was her duty to disregard Janet's pretenses, and "buy" was so exactly the word to use with these people to whom money was the paramount consideration, the thought behind every other thought, the feeling behind every other feeling, the mainspring of their lives, the mainstay of all the fictions of their aristocracy.
"That depends on father," replied Janet.

"Mother has gone to talk to him about it." "I'm sure your father won't stand between you and happiness," said Adelaide.
"But he doesn't understand these aristocratic people," replied she.

"Of course, if it depended upon Aristide and me, we should be married without consulting anybody.

But he can't legally marry without his father's consent, and his father naturally wants proper settlements.

It's a cruel law, don't you think ?" Adelaide thought not; she thought it, on the contrary, an admirable device to "save the face" of a mercenary lover posing as a sentimentalist and money-spurner.