Marcus probably tried to hide the extent of how bad things were getting at first, because it'll turn around just you see and really it's good to look like you aren't throwing away money and we can make this work.

He's going to be a fair bit pickier on the husband front than he probably should be, but he won't let his (only?) child be trapped in some loveless marriage with Joffrey whatever family has the biggest coin purse.

I'm not sure how happy of a marriage the parents is, but he's always at least tried to keep his family happy.