The mystification, however, continued. "And you were not—as you seemed then—willing?"
Lord Theign waived cross-questions. "Well, I'm willing now—that's all that need concern us. Only, once more and for the last time," he added with all authority, "you can't have our Duchess!"
"You can't have our Duchess!"—and Lord John, as before the altar of patriotism, wrapped it in sacrificial sighs.
"You can't have our Duchess!" Lady Sandgate repeated, but with a grace that took the sting from her triumph. And she seemed still all sweet sociability as she added: "I wish he'd tell you too, you dreadful rich thing, that you can't have anything at all!"
Lord Theign, however, in the interest of harmony, deprecated that rigour. "Ah, what then would become of my happy retort?"
"And what—as it is," Mr. Bender asked—"becomes of my unhappy grievance?"
"Wouldn't a really great capture make up to you for that?"
"Well, I take more interest in what I want than in what I have—and it depends, don't you see, on how you measure the size."
Lord John had at once in this connection a
