But Nature, unseen, directing her, was thinking of
the savage brood needing still more a bold protector. Wealth now is
the substitute for strength. The rich man is the strong man. The
woman's heart unconsciously goes out to him."
"Do men never marry for money?" inquired the Girton Girl. "I ask
merely for information. Maybe I have been misinformed, but I have
heard of countries where the dot is considered of almost more
importance than the bride."
"The German officer," I ventured to strike in, "is literally on
sale. Young lieutenants are most expensive, and even an elderly
colonel costs a girl a hundred thousand marks."
"You mean," corrected the Minor Poet, "costs her father. The
Continental husband demands a dowry with his wife, and sees that he
gets it. He in his turn has to save and scrape for years to provide
each of his daughters with the necessary dot. It comes to the same
thing precisely. Your argument could only apply were woman equally
with man a wealth producer. As it is, a woman's wealth is
invariably the result of a marriage, either her own or that of some
shrewd ancestress.
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