May I smoke ?" "Assuredly." Carl lighted a cigarette.
"And the proposition which is at the same time commercial, eugenic and--er--personal ?" reminded Diane curiously.

Carl ignored the delicate note of sarcasm.
"It is merely," he said with a flash of impudence, "that you will marry me." Diane's eyes widened.
"How frankly commercial!" she murmured.
"Isn't it ?" said Carl.

"And an excellent opportunity for belated justice as well.

My mother, save for our infernal Salic law of inheritance, was entitled to half the Westfall estate." Diane stared curiously at the fire-rimmed hem of her satin skirt.
There was something of Carl's lazy impudence in the arch of her eyebrows.
"There yet remains the eugenic inducement and, I believe, a personal one!" she hinted.
"Thank heaven," exclaimed Carl devoutly, "that we're both logicians.
The eugenic consideration is that by birth and brains and breeding I am your logical mate." Diane's eyes flashed with swift contempt.
"Birth!" she repeated.
The black demon of ungovernable temper leaped brutally from Carl's eyes.

Leaning forward he caught the girl's hands in a vicious grip that hurt her cruelly though for all her swift color she did not flinch.
"Listen, Diane," he said, his face very white; "if there is one thing in this rotten world of custom and convention and immoral morality which I honestly respect, it is the memory of my mother.