Valerian rolled his eyes so hard they might have well rolled back into his head. "Neither, I assure you. I only meant that Tatiana might find the prospect of marrying me - well, odd." He was not attracted to Tatiana as a man ought to be to his wife, but that was less a matter of her personal attractiveness and more a matter of the type of people he typically found himself attracted to. "I don't think I've ever considered what Tatiana might wish to gain out of a marriage." In his case it was simple: he desired a woman capable of taking on the conventional role of wife and socialite, with a strong enough mind and a pleasant enough demeanor to put up with her; beyond that, however, he was less concerned of other things.
