Take a man who has fortune: he profits thereby to consult his heart only, and offer his name and revenues to the woman he loves and who has no dower.

I clap my hands, I think it the best of examples, and I regret that it is so seldom practised among us.

In France princes never are seen marrying shepherdesses; on the contrary, one too often sees penniless sons-in-law carrying off heiresses, and that is precisely the most objectionable case.

In a romance, or at the theatre, the poor young man who marries a million is a very noble person; in life it is different.

Not if the poor young man had a profession or a trade, if he could procure by his own work a sufficient income to render him independent of his wife; but if he submit to be dependent on her, if he expect from her his daily bread, to roll in her carriage, to ask her for the expenses of his toilet, for his pocket-money, and perhaps for sundry questionable outlays--frankly, this young man lacks pride; and what is a man who has no pride?
Besides, what surety is there that in marrying it is, indeed, the woman he is in love with and not the dower?
Who assures me that Count Abel Larinski ?--I name no one, personalities are odious, and I own there are exceptions.
_Dieu_, how rare they are! If I were Antoinette, I would love the poor, but in their own interest.