Just now they were talking of marriage.
"It is detestable," said Claudius, "to think how mercenary the marriage contract is, in all civilised and uncivilised countries.

It ought not to be so--it is wrong from the very beginning." "Yes, it is wrong of course," answered Barker, who was always ready to admit the existence and even the beauty of an ideal, though he never took the ideal into consideration for a moment in his doings.

"Of course it is wrong; but it cannot be helped.

It crops up everywhere, as the question of dollars and cents will in every kind of business; and I believe it is better to be done with it at first.

Now you have to pay a Frenchman cash down before he will marry your daughter." "I know," said Claudius, "and I loathe the idea." "I respect your loathing, but there it is, and it has the great advantage that it is all over, and there is no more talk about it.