own' in the sense of yours and mine?"

"Of yours and mine and Lady Imber's, yes--and a good bit, last not
least, in that of my watching and waiting mother's." This struck no
prompt spark of apprehension from his listener, so that Lord John went
on: "The last thing she did this morning was to remind me, with her fine
old frankness, that she would like to learn without more delay where, on
the whole question, she _is_, don't you know? What she put to me"--the
younger man felt his ground a little, but proceeded further--"what she
put to me, with her rather grand way of looking _all_ questions straight
in the face, you see, was: Do we or don't we, decidedly, take up
practically her very handsome offer--'very handsome' being, I mean,
what _she_ calls it; though it strikes even me too, you know, as rather
decent."

Lord Theign at this point resigned himself to know. "Kitty has of course
rubbed into me how decent she herself finds it. She hurls herself again
on me--successfully!--for everything, and it suits her down to the
ground. She pays her beastly debt--that is, I mean to say," and he took
himself up, though it was scarce more than perfunctory, "discharges
her obligations--by her sister's fair hand; not to mention a few other
trifles for which I naturally provide."

Lord John, a little unexpectedly to himself on the defensive, was yet
but briefly at a loss. "Of course we take into account, don't we? not
only the fact of my mother's desire (intended, I assure you, to be most
flattering) that Lady Grace shall enter our family with all honours, but
her expressed readiness to facilitate the thing by an understanding over
and above----"

"Over and above Kitty's release from her damnable payment?"--Lord Theign
reached out to what his guest had left rather in the air. "Of course
we take _everything_ into account--or I shouldn't, my dear fellow, be
discussing with you at all a business one or two of whose aspects so
little appeal to me: especially as there's nothing, you easily conceive,
that a daughter of mine can come in for by entering even your family,
or any other (as a family) that she wouldn't be quite as sure of by just
staying in her own. The Duchess's idea, at any rate, if I've followed
you, is that if Grace does accept you she settles on you twelve
thousand; with the condition--"

Lord John was already all there. "Definitely, yes, of your settling the
equivalent on Lady Grace."

"And what do you call the equival