After careful observation I have arrived at the conclusion that the French _de_ before a name, whether rightly or fraudulently borne (for that makes little perceptible difference), is equivalent to about ten thousand pounds in the marriage market and will often count for more. It is wonderful that it should be so, considering that all French people know how frequently the _de_ is assumed; but it seems to be valued as a mark that the bearer belongs to the gentry, which, in fact, he generally does. The genuine nobility who have become too poor to keep a place in genteel society, and have to work for their living, seldom retain the _particule_, or retain it only for a short time. If they did not drop it themselves the world would drop it for them. I have met with several instances of this. To be able to retain the _particule_ is therefore a sort of practical evidence that one belongs to the upper classes. It is also a kind of guarantee that he will not profess liberal opinions. As a rule the new and false noble is more royalist than the Pretender himself, and certainly more clerical than the clergy. [Sidenote: The London Marriage Market.] [Sidenote: Worldly Motives elsewhere.] The rule that marriages are made from inclination in England and from interest in France requires to be understood with very great reserves. When English writers have France in their minds they assert the rule very positively, but when the repellent French influence does not deflect their judgment they become exceedingly frank about the hunting after rank and fortune in the great London marriage market. It would be easy to quote novels and essays and social sketches of all kinds which paint London society as a vast field of rivalry, where matrimonial ambition lays itself out continually for high prizes, and either triumphs in the winning of them or has to taste the bitterness of defeat. Even the novelists who describe country life appear to believe that worldly motives operate frequently in the provinces. [Sidenote: _Le Mariage de Convenance._] [Sidenote: Byron’s Marriage.] This is one of the many instances in which the same thing is called by different names. There is no exact translation of “_mariage de convenance_” in English. “_Convenance_” would be most nearly translated by “suitableness,” but the word “_convenance_” has a certain connection with what is right and proper; “_c’est inconvenant_” means “it is improper.” The “_mariage de convenance_” is a marriage that appears to be suitable, I mean _that other people consider to be so_. Of course they are often egregiously mistaken; they think it perfectly “suitable” to fasten two people together for life who are quite unfitted for anything like companionship. Byron’s marriage was a very perfect “_mariage de convenance_,” and we know what came of it.