_J. B._--"A lovely figure! My dear fellow, my countrywomen get all that over from Paris. The _Bon Marché_ supplies any amount of lovely figures at six or seven francs apiece.... For a Frenchman, you seem to be going in for matrimony rather young." _Monsieur._--"That is true; but a bachelor's life is so dull and so dear in England! I am getting tired of it. Besides, I don't know, but I fancy there is something about the English life that induces one to marry. Existence in England is wretched, unless you have a house of your own. There are no cafés ... your clubs and restaurants are dismal ... and your women are delightful ... how can one hesitate long? In one of the suburbs of London, I have discovered a dear little house, hidden under linden-trees, and covered with virginia creepers, jasmine, and honeysuckle. It took my fancy, and as I looked at the two big bolts on the front door, I thought to myself that, after paying the rent and taxes, it must be pleasant to push over the bolts and feel oneself master of something.... The feeling grows, and sets one thinking that it is time to be getting a little property together.... Yes, decidedly the best thing to be done in England is to marry." _J. B._--"The young lady has money, I presume?" _Monsieur._--"I don't know in the least, my friend. You do not imagine, I suppose, that I went to my future father-in-law, and asked him what he was going to give his daughter on her wedding day, as the custom is in France." _J. B._--"No, of course not. Ah! you Frenchmen are bad diplomatists. There is no need to ask such questions point-blank ... you can make inquiries ... satisfy yourself." _Monsieur._--"I am quite in the dark on the matter." _J. B._--"And if your wife proves to be penniless?" _Monsieur._--"Well, in that case, we must live carefully, that is all." _J. B._--"My dear fellow, I am very much afraid you are going to make a fool of yourself." _Monsieur._--"Why, how many times have I heard you speak of marriage as a duty, a sacred institution!" _J. B._--"Yes; but I don't see why it should not be a useful one at the same time.... For my part, I have a weakness for the Three per Cents, I don't mind owning it." _Monsieur._--"And I have a weakness for pretty women." _J. B._--"You'll get over it. And if your wife is pretty now, she will not be so always. Englishwomen are not so talented as their French sisters in the _art d'accommoder les restes_, you know." _Monsieur._--"I shall have a clever wife." _J. B._--"Her cleverness will cease to strike you, when you have lived with her a little while." _Monsieur._--"An excellent pianist." _J. B._--"Before six months are over, you will know all her pieces by heart.... There is nothing serious about all these things. Marriage improves a woman's position from a social point of view; a man is wrong who does not take care that it improves his, from a financial point of view." _Monsieur._--"I am no speculator."