“Manifold obvious reasons. First, I love, which is a bourgeois reason perhaps. Then, I am rich, which again is a little bourgeois; but still sound reason. I am young, sound of mind, hale of body, not ill-looking, of decent reputation, easy temper. Happiness is but a word, meaning different things in different mouths. Yet it’s but the simple truth that I can offer you all that the heart of a woman can desire—when she marries.”
“You seem to have a tolerable opinion of yourself.”
“Why not? Yet I have a higher opinion still of you.”
“I doubt it. I am wondering if you are supposing that I have recently escaped from a lunatic asylum, or if it is the fact that you have.”
“Don’t say that you see sanity only in the commonplace. That were to rank yourself too violently with Louisa.”
“And this is Louisa’s carriage, if, as you pretend, that is your sister’s name. I have already asked you to let me get out of it into a cab. Where is the man driving? I don’t believe that this is the way to Kensington.”
“Why should it be the way to Kensington?”
“Why! Because I live there. Didn’t you hear the address I gave you?”
“But my address is in Berkeley Square.”
“Your address! What has your address to do with me?”