Marcus listened to Miss Higgs story with genuine interest, trying to figure out who the man of her story could be. He could think of quite a few men with a preference for younger women. While Marcus thought it prudent for a man who has reached a certain maturity before he wedded a woman, he still found it offputting when middle-aged men picked pre-teens as wives. Besides, even though Miss Higgs did have a certain maturity to her facial features, she most certainly wasn't old. She had to be nineteen or twenty, which was by no means a mature age.

"Then it really wasn't a loss, Miss Higgs!" Marcus commented. "A man who is only looking at external factors clearly has no good motives regarding a lady." A woman's appearance was important, of course, otherwise, Marcus would have been out of business. But when a man was looking for a woman to settle down with, he looked at things beyond her age and youthful appearance. Otherwise, it was no better than picking a woman at a whorehouse to spend the night with.

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