Page:Gissing - The Nether World, vol. III, 1889.djvu/168

158 know that. Of course you know more about it than you pretend.”

Joseph leaned back in his chair and regarded her with a smile of the loftiest scorn.

“It never occurs to you to explain it in the simplest way, of course. If ever you hear of a marriage, the first thing you ask yourself is: What has he or she to gain by it? Natural enough—in you. Now do you really suppose that all marriages come about in the way that yours did—on your side, I mean?”

Clem was far too dull-witted to be capable of quick retort. She merely replied:

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Of course not. But let me assure you that people sometimes think of other things besides making profit when they get married. It’s a pity that you always show yourself so coarse-minded.”

Joseph was quite serious in administering this rebuke. He really felt himself justified in holding the tone of moral superiority. The same phenomenon has often been remarked in persons conscious that their affairs are prospering, and whose temptations to paltry meanness are on that account less frequent.