nervous gentleman, still excited, and with a displeased air. He seemed
to wish to say something disagreeable to the lady. She felt it, and
began to grow agitated.

"How? Why, very simply," said she.

The nervous gentleman seized the word as it left her lips.

"No, not simply."

"Madam says," interceded the lawyer indicating his companion, "that
marriage should be first the result of an attachment, of a love, if
you will, and that, when love exists, and in that case only, marriage
represents something sacred. But every marriage which is not based on
a natural attachment, on love, has in it nothing that is morally
obligatory. Is not that the idea that you intended to convey?" he asked
the lady.

The lady, with a nod of her head, expressed her approval of this
translation of her thoughts.

"Then," resumed the lawyer, continuing his remarks.

But the nervous gentleman, evidently scarcely able to contain himself,
without allowing the lawyer to finish, asked:

"Yes, sir. But what are we to understand by this love that alone
consecrates marriage?"

"Everybody knows what love is," said the lady.