I was speaking of another kind of partnership, that which Nature has ordained between men and women--marriage.

Will you accept me as a husband ?" She opened her lips to speak, but he lifted his hand and went on.
"Listen before you give that ready answer which it is so hard to recall, or smooth away.

I know all my disadvantages, my years, which to you may seem many; my modest origin; my trade, which, not altogether without reason, you despise and dislike.

Well, the first two cannot be changed except for the worse; the second can be, and already is, buried beneath the gold and ermine of wealth and titles.

What does it matter if I am the son of a City clerk who never earned more than L2 a week and was born in a tenement at Battersea, when I am one of the rich men of this rich land and shall die a peer in a palace, leaving millions and honours to my children?
As for the third, my occupation, I am prepared to give it up.