You would not value such an offer, or envy the recipient of it ?" "No," said Gertrude with quiet contempt.
"Yet there is some calculation behind every such offer.

We marry to satisfy our needs, and the more reasonable our needs are, the more likely are we to get them satisfied.

I see you are disgusted with me; I feared as much.

You are the sort of woman to admit no excuse for my marriage except love--pure emotional love, blindfolding reason." "I really do not concern myself--" "Do not say so, Gertrude.

I watch every step you take with anxiety; and I do not believe you are indifferent to the worthiness of my conduct.
Believe me, love is an overrated passion; it would be irremediably discredited but that young people, and the romancers who live upon their follies, have a perpetual interest in rehabilitating it.