“Among the Upper Classes,” continued the Minor Poet, “opportunity for observing female instinct hardly exists.  The girl’s choice is confined to lovers able to pay the price demanded, if not by the beloved herself, by those acting on her behalf.  But would a daughter of the Working Classes ever hesitate, other things being equal, between Mayfair and Seven Dials?”

“Let me ask you one,” chimed in the Girton Girl.  “Would a bricklayer hesitate any longer between a duchess and a scullery-maid?”

“But duchesses don’t fall in love with bricklayers,” returned the Minor Poet.  “Now, why not?  The stockbroker flirts with the barmaid—­cases have been known; often he marries her.  Does the lady out shopping ever fall in love with the waiter at the bun-shop?  Hardly ever.  Lordlings marry ballet girls, but ladies rarely put their heart and fortune at the feet of the Lion Comique.  Manly beauty and virtue are not confined to the House of Lords and its dependencies.  How do you account for the fact that while it is common enough for the man to look beneath him, the woman will almost invariably prefer her social superior, and certainly never tolerate her inferior?  Why should King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid appear to us a beautiful legend, while Queen Cophetua and the Tramp would be ridiculous?”

“The simple explanation is,” expounded the Girton Girl, “woman is so immeasurably man’s superior that only by weighting him more or less heavily with worldly advantages can any semblance of balance be obtained.”

“Then,” answered the Minor Poet, “you surely agree with me that woman is justified in demanding this ‘make-weight.’  The woman gives her love, if you will.  It is the art treasure, the gilded vase thrown in with the pound of tea; but the tea has to be paid for.”

“It all sounds very clever,” commented the Old Maid; “yet I fail to see what good comes of ridiculing a thing one’s heart tells one is sacred.”

“Do not be so sure I am wishful to ridicule,” answered the Minor Poet.  “Love is a wondrous statue God carved with His own hands and placed in the Garden of Life, long ago.  And man, knowing not sin, worshipped her, seeing her beautiful.  Till the time came when man learnt evil; then saw that the statue was naked, and was ashamed of it.  Since when he has been busy, draping it, now in the fashion of this age, now in the fashion of that.  We have shod her in dainty bottines, regretting the size of her feet.  We employ the best artistes to design for her cunning robes that shall disguise her shape.  Each season we fix fresh millinery upon her changeless head.  We hang around her robes of woven words.  Only the promise of her ample breasts we cannot altogether hide, shocking us not a little; only that remains to tell us that beneath the tawdry tissues still stands the changeless statue God carved with His own hands.”

“I like you better when you talk like that,” said the Old Maid; “but I never feel quite sure of you.  All I mean, of course, is that money should not be her first consideration.  Marriage for money—­it is not marriage; one cannot speak of it.  Of course, one must be reasonable.”