MME. BERNIN. Even if we did, which I doubt, I would not desire a man like that for her, because he would be blind to the realities of the situation. Gabrielle has not been brought up to poverty, but to a life of luxurious surroundings. LUCIE. Give your children an equal amount, then. MME. BERNIN. All that we can give Gabrielle will not be too much. Life is hard, and becomes a harder struggle every day. Young men tend to ask more with their wives, because they know the power of money in the keen competition of modern existence. LUCIE. Oh, yes; they know it! Their creed is to have enjoyment as soon as possible, without making the least sacrifice for it, and a fig for gentleness or emotion! MME. BERNIN. You may be right. I want Gabrielle to be rich because riches will attract more bidders for her hand, so that she will have more choice. LUCIE. You have to speak of it even like a business transaction. MME. BERNIN. Consequently there will be little or nothing for Jacques. LUCIE. People who have no money work. MME. BERNIN. He was not brought up to work. LUCIE. Then he ought to have been. MME. BERNIN. The professions are already overstocked. Do you propose that he should become a clerk at two hundred francs a month? He and his wife wouldn’t be able to keep a servant. LUCIE. There are clerks who get more than that. MME. BERNIN. Even if he got five hundred, would that enable him to keep up his social position? Of course it would not. He would owe his inferiority to his wife, and would soon begin to reproach her with it. And have you thought about their children? They would have just enough to send their son to the primary school and make their daughter a post office clerk. Even for that they would be terribly pinched. LUCIE. Yes. MME. BERNIN. You see I’m right. I can’t say I’m proud to confess so much, but what are we to do? Life is ordered by things as they are, not like a novel. We live in a shrewd, vain, selfish world. LUCIE. You despise it and yet sacrifice everything to it. MME. BERNIN. I know that everybody’s happiness practically depends on the consideration he has in it. Only exceptional people can disregard social conventions, and Jacques is not an exception. LUCIE. If I were you, I don’t think I should be proud of it. If he were a little more than commonplace, his love would give him strength to stand up against the jeers of the crowd. MME. BERNIN. His love! Love passes, poverty stays; you know the proverb. Beauty fades; want grows. LUCIE. But you yourself—you and your husband are the living proof that one can marry poor and make money! Everyone knows how your husband began as a small clerk, then started in a small business of his own, then won success. If that spells happiness, you and he must be happy.