The Mysteries of the Court of London — page 154: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

DUCAL RECEPTIONS 131 ‘ Ah, marry!” said Octavian, with an ill-repressed sigh. ‘‘T have no fortune, and what father will consent to bestow his daughter, if she be an heiress, upon one so impoverished as 1?” ‘ You underrate your own merits,’’ observed the Duke of Marchmont. “ In matrimonial affairs there are such things as equivalents. Suppose, for instance, a young lady brings you a decent fortune, and you confer upon her the rank and. title which she possesses not — ”’ ‘“T know that things are managed in this way,” observed Octavian, slowly, ‘ but to tell you the truth, it is a pro- ceeding from which my pride recoils.’’ ‘‘ Pride,’’ echoed the duke. ‘“‘ The only sacrifice of pride that I can see would be in the fact of you, a patrician, giving your hand to a plebeian.”’ ‘“¢ You of all men to talk in this way,” exclaimed Meredith, in unfeigned astonishment. “Ah! you fancy that I am the proudest of the proud? ” observed the duke. ‘“ But I am looking to your inter- ests — ”’ ‘‘ And I candidly confess that the sacrifice of pride to which I alluded is not precisely what you are thinking of. I meant to say,” continued Lord Octavian, ‘‘ that I should not like to be so much indebted to a wife for the enjoyment of a fortune. As for the distinctions between patricians and plebeians, you know very well that I am not such a Tory as yourself.” ‘‘ Let us recur to my argument about equivalents,” said the duke. “ If you give a title, and the lady brings a fortune, you make common stock of those elements which constitute social position and comfort; you are mutually indebted, and in that respect you stand on perfectly independent grounds toward each other.”’ ‘Admitting the force of your argument,’”’ observed Meredith, — ‘‘ and supposing that I fell in with some young lady who, possessing a fortune, would accept me as her husband, — how could I tutor my heart to love her? And how could I marry her unless it did? ”’ ‘* Oh, if you mean to throw love into the scale,” ejaculated the duke, almost contemptuously, ‘‘ I must retreat from the argument. I only undertake to advise you how to obtain a settled position; I cannot compose philters that will CONNIE OOO a SS) (EO)