'Aren't you sure?'
'As sure as one can be of anything in this doubtful world.'
'But why didn't you?'
'Pas si bête. Marriage is such a bore. I never met a woman I could bear the thought of passing all my life with.'
'Conceited!'
'I daresay. If you like false modesty better, I'll try to meet your wishes. What woman would have had a poor devil like me?'
'Still, marriage is, after all, very much in vogue.'
'Yes, but it's mad. Either you must love the woman you marry, or you mustn't love her. But if you marry a woman without loving her, I hope you'll not deny you're doing a very shocking thing. If, on the contrary, you do love her, raison de plus for not marrying her Fancy marrying a woman you love; and then, day by day, watching the beautiful wild flower of love fatten into a domestic cabbage! Isn't that a syllogism?'
'You have been in love then?'
'Never.'