Look around here where we are, without taking the trouble to go any further, and you will see that money has not the influence you ascribe to it. For proof, here is Countess Savelli, with half a million francs income, who in place of dining out with millionaires besieging her house every day, comes quietly here to dine with our friends the Durieus, people without title, poor people measured by her fortune; and she comes here for the pleasure of meeting M. De Charzay, who has not more than a thousand crowns income, but who, for all the millionaires in the world, would never do a thing a man ought not to do; and she meets here M. De Roncourt, who has a business of fifteen hundred francs because he gave up his fortune to creditors who were not his own creditors. There is Mademoiselle De Roncourt, who sacrificed her dowry to the same sentiment of honor; yonder is Mademoiselle Durieu, who would never be willing to become the wife of any other than an honest man, even if he had for his rivals all the Croesuses present and to come; and last of all, one meets me here,--a man who has for money (in the acceptation that you give the word) the most profound contempt. Now, M. Giraud, if we listened to you for so long a time, it is because we are well-bred people, and besides, you talk very well; but there has been no flattery for your millions in our attention, and the proof is that everybody has been listening to me a longer time than to you,--listening to me, who have not like you a thousand-franc note to put along with every one of my phrases! _Jean_--Who is that gentleman who has just been speaking? _Durieu_--That is M. De Cayolle. _Jean_--The railway director? _Durieu_--Yes. _Jean_ [_going to M. De Cayolle_]--M. De Cayolle, I hope you will believe that I am very glad to meet you. _Cayolle_--I dare say you are, monsieur. [_M. De Cayolle as he utters the words turns his back upon Giraud and steps aside_.] Translated for 'A Library of the World's Best Literature,' by E. Irenæus Stevenson M. DE RÉMONIN'S PHILOSOPHY OF MARRIAGE From 'L'Étrangère' _Madame de Rumières_--See here, now, Rémonin, you who claim to explain everything as a learned man--can you solve this proposition? Why is it that with all the quantity of love in this world, there are so many unhappy marriages? _M. Rémonin_--I could give you a perfect explanation, my dear lady, if you were not a woman. _Madame de Rumières_--You mean that the explanation is not decent? _M. Rémonin_--No, I mean that it is a matter based on the abstract.... It is this. The reason why marriages are rarely happy, in spite of the "quantity of love" in question, is because love and marriage, scientifically considered, have no relationship. They belong to two sorts of things, completely differing. Love is of the physical. Marriage is a matter of chemistry. _Madame de Rumières_--Explain yourself.