"
Yes, such fellows as Von Sheik don't call this ecclesiastical and
civil contract, wedlock. They use a word that expresses their meaning
better--matri-money. Well, even money ain't all gold, for there are
two hundred and forty nasty, dirty, mulatto-looking copper pennies in
a sovereign; and they have the affectation to call the filthy
incrustation, if they happen to be ancient coin, verd-antique. Well,
fine words are like fine dresses; one often covers ideas that ain't
nice, and the other sometimes conceals garments that are a little the
worse for wear. Ambition is just as poor a motive. It can only be
gratified at the expense of a journey over a rough road, and he is a
fool who travels it by a borrowed light, and generally finds he takes
a rise out of himself.
Then there is a class like Von Sheik, "who feel so pig and so
hugeaciously grandiferous," they look on a wife's fortune with
contempt. The independent man scorns connection, station, and money.
He has got all three, and more of each than is sufficient for a dozen
men. He regards with utter indifference the opinion of the world, and
its false notions of life. He can afford to please himself; he does
not stoop if he marries beneath his own rank; for he is able to
elevate any wife to his. He is a great admirer of beauty, which is
confined to no circle and no region. The world is before him, and he
will select a woman to gratify himself and not another.
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