" Well then, I have a question for you. Lady Helen insists that in taking you for a husband, she is not marrying down. Do you agree?”
Rhys glanced at Helen, his eyes warm. “No,” he said. “Every man marries above himself.”
“Do you believe, then, that she should wed a man of noble pedigree?”
Returning his attention to the countess, Rhys hitched his shoulders in a nonchalant shrug. “Lady Helen is so far above all men that none of us deserve her. Therefore, it might as well be me. "

― Lisa Kleypas , Marrying Winterborne (The Ravenels, #2)