"No, not at all," Demelza answers, shaking her head. "'Course where I'm from, having a baby is just natural and most women have lots of 'em. Maybe not so much in the higher class families, but I think that's because..."

She pauses, grinning shyly, then decides she can say such things to Galen.

"I do think gentlefolk don't often marry for love and it do seem to me that if you marry someone for their status and not for how you feel about 'em, the act required to create life may not be somethin' you're all that interested in doing." And so they have fewer children, producing one or two simply because it's expected of them.