1 Samuel 18:23

And Saul's servants spake those words in the ears of David. And David, remembering his first experience with Saul, said, Seemeth it to you a light thing, a small matter, to be a king's son-in-law, seeing that I am a poor man and lightly esteemed? His experience in the matter of Merab had impressed upon him once more the great distance between his station and the honored position for which he was supposed to strive, and being a poor man, it was hardly possible for him to pay the dowry or morning gift expected of a suitor.