“Yes, if by education you mean breeding—the whole life. It’s not that we want different things, but we want them in a different way.”
“Do all men want the same things?”
He smiled.
“Yes—we all want money, women, and God.”
Jenny felt a little shocked.
“Some want one most, and some want another most,” continued Gervase—“and we’re most different in our ways of wanting money and most alike in our ways of wanting God.”
“How do you want money in different ways?”
“It’s not only the fact that what’s wealth to them is often poverty to us—it’s chiefly that they get their pleasure out of the necessities of life and we out of the luxuries. It’s never given you any actual pleasure, I suppose, to think that you’ve got a good house to live in and plenty to eat—but to those chaps it’s a real happiness and I’m not talking of those who’ve ever had to go without.”
Jenny was silent a moment. She hesitated over her next question.
“And what’s the difference in your ideas about women?”