"
"So I am to be punished for my self-denial."
"Self-denial! Nonsense. Men have no self-denial. It is your cowardice."
"Don't be cruel. You know it is my poverty."
"Your poverty of spirit. You gave up money for her, and that is as good
as if you had it still, and better. If you love Zoe, scrape up an income
somehow, and say the word. Why, Harrington is bewitched with you, and he
is rolling in money. I wouldn't lose her by cowardice, if I were you.
Uxmoor will offer marriage before he goes. He is staying on for that.
Now, take my word for it, when one man offers marriage, and the other
does not, there is always a good chance of the girl saying this one is in
earnest, and the other is not. We don't expect self-denial in a man; we
don't believe in it. We see you seizing upon everything else you care
for; and, if you don't seize on us, it wounds our vanity, the strongest
passion we have. Consider, Uxmoor has title, wealth, everything to bestow
with the wedding-ring. If he offers all that, and you don't offer all you
have, how much more generous he looks to her than you do!"
"In short, you think she will doubt my affection, if I don't ask her to
share my poverty.
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