_Fred._ That’s just what I see all the time, and what comes between us. I can’t forget her money. _Stuart (springing to his feet)._ There! That goes to prove a pet little theory of mine, that it is rather hard for a rich girl to marry well. _Fred._ I should think you needed a confirmatory evidence. _Stuart._ You are just like the rest! You take the conventionally superficial view of it. _Fred._ Very well, turn lawyer and argue your case before referee Mr. Frederick Stevens, junior member of the celebrated firm of Mary, Green and Hart. _Stuart._ You fire my ambition. Well, (_rising and imitating legal style_) your honour, and gentlemen of the jury, _a priori_ and _imprimis_ we start with the postulate that the party of the first part, otherwise the girl with money, is usually so spoiled that most fellows won’t care for her. But we will leave that out of the argument and say that she is a nice girl. Well, by her parents, her friends, and her reading, she is taught to think that every man who is attentive to her may be a fortune-hunter. The consequence is that she is suspicious, and may say or do something to wound or insult a fellow who cares for her, and so drive him off. _Fred._ That’s one point for your side. _Stuart._ But even if she is not made suspicious by her money, (_points at Fred_) he is. A decent man dreads to have his motives misjudged. He’s afraid that the girl, or her father, or her mother, or her friends, or his friends, will think he is fortune-hunting. _Fred._ I should think he did! _Stuart._ Finally, her money draws about her a lot of worthless fellows. As a consequence, she is always beset and engaged. You must remember that in this country a man, if he amounts to a row of pins, is a worker, and not a drone. He cannot, therefore, dance the continual attendance that is necessary to see much of a society girl nowadays. This can only be done by our rich and leisured young men, who are few and far between; by foreign titles, who are quite as scarce; and by the idlers and do-nothings, who, if the girl is worth winning, are as distasteful to her as they are to the rest of mortal kind. (_Sits chair c._) I submit my case. _Fred._ Mr. Stuart, you entirely missed your vocation. Allow me to congratulate you on your _maiden_ argument. But at the same time the referee would call your attention to the fact that you have failed to take the relatives into account. They can overcome all this by heading off the undesirables and encouraging their choice. _Stuart._ But that’s just what they won’t do, and which I don’t think they could to any extent, even if they tried. How much can Mr. Wortley and Mrs. Van Tromp control Miss Agnes’ companions at the dinners and dances and other affairs, which are practically the only places where she meets men? _Fred._ Here they can.