'I don't know what you mean by practically. You have millions, and I have a few hundred or so.'
'I mean only, that neither of us has anything that he can call his own.'
Mrs. Coles stared, but her interlocutor seemed to be looking at things in a very matter-of-fact way. He was now busy fitting another engraving into its fame; a plain black walnut frame, without carving or gilding, like the rest.
'I cannot conceive what you mean, Dane,' Mrs. Coles broke forth.
'It is perfectly simple. Surely the fact that we are only stewards of what we hold, is not strange to you?'
It seemed to be strange however, for Mrs. Coles weighed the statement.
'But Dane,people do not take that so closely.'
'What then? There is the fact.'
'Prudentia, you have heard papa say the same thing, at least a hundred times,' Primrose reminded her.
'He hadn't much to talk about,' said the doctor's eldest daughter. 'And Dane, you do not take it so closely, either. What do you mean by your fine proposal to go travelling? How will you do it, if you have not the money?'