His wife's fortune will consist in the labour of her hands, and in her
ability to assist him in his home. But between these there is a middle
class of men, who, by reason of their education, are peculiarly
susceptible to the charms of womanhood, but who literally cannot marry for
love, because their earnings will do no more than support themselves. As
to this special young man, it must be confessed that his earnings should
have done much more than that, but not the less did he find himself in a
position in which marriage with a penniless girl seemed to threaten him
and her with ruin. All his friends told Frank Greystock that he would be
ruined were he to marry Lucy Morris; and his friends were people supposed
to be very good and wise. The dean and the dean's wife, his father and
mother, were very clear that it would be so. Old Lady Linlithgow had
spoken of such a marriage as quite out of the question. The Bishop of
Bobsborough, when it was mentioned in his hearing, had declared that such
a marriage would be a thousand pities. And even dear old Lady Fawn, though
she wished it for Lucy's sake, had many times prophesied that such a thing
was quite impossible.
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