This story depicts yet another angle of the shallow relationships people drift into ending with their being trapped. Mrs. Mooney has herself had a hard life and a bad marriage and has built up her business with determination. She has clearly few illusions about love or marriage. She is only concerned with getting her children settled, and "getting her daughter off her hands" is her first priority knowing that her "floating" lodgers are not good husband material, she plans to snare one of the stable City clerks. Without her planning, a girl with Polly’s background wouldn’t be considered eligible by the clerks.
Joyce’s subtle handling is at its best when he describes the daughter’s confession and the mother’s response to it. Mrs. Mooney "had been made awkward by not wishing to seem to have convinced." While Polly is equally awkward because she doesn’t want it known that "she had divined the intention behind her mother’s tolerance." Mrs. Mooney calculates all the odds as a lawyer would before a court appearance. All the three characters are shown to be selfish, but Polly and her mother show up as the more manipulative. While "Two Gallants" shows an overt trade in sexual favors, this story reveals marriage also to be a commercial transaction in veiled form, with one party being an unwilling participant.