"It's the principle of the thing."
"The principle being that your wife is too proud to admit to theft but practical enough to commit it?"
"Exactly."
Lady Agatha studied them both, then said, "You're happy."
It wasn't a question, but Clara answered anyway. "Yes."
“They appear possessed of a vulgar degree of contentment, by my estimation.”
"Also yes."
"And you're breeding again?"
Clara's hand went to her stomach. "Possibly."
"Definitely," Gabriel said. "She has the look."
"There's no look!"
"There's absolutely a look," Lady Agatha said. "Same look your mother had when she was carrying you.
A trifle unseasoned, I observe, yet possessed of a quite insufferable self-satisfaction.”
“I confess to no such unbecoming vanity.”
“You hold a degree of self-congratulation that is scarcely modest, I should say”
James, bored with the adult conversation, slid off Lady Agatha's lap and toddled back to his frog-training activities, leaving muddy footprints across her skirt.
"I suppose," Lady Agatha said, watching him go, "I should make provisions for him in my will."
“Your purse is not required for our current purposes.” Gabriel said immediately.
“I did not mean money. I have property. Books. That ridiculous collection of purple garnets that someone should inherit, if only to sell them and buy something sensible."
"Purple garnets aren't sensible?"
"Nothing purple is sensible. It's aggressive and impractical, which is why I wear it. But your son might appreciate aggressive and impractical things, given his parentage."
"That's almost a compliment," Clara observed.
"Don't get used to it. I'm only being nice because the child shared his frog and I'm too old to maintain proper antagonism."
"How old are you?" Edmund asked, then immediately looked like he regretted it.
"Old enough to remember when asking a lady's age resulted in dueling, young man."
"I apologise."
"You should. Now, someone explain this communist farming situation before I decide to be offended by it."
Clara explained their cooperative arrangement while Gabriel interjected defensive comments and Edmund added color commentary. Lady Agatha listened with surprising attention, occasionally asking sharp questions that showed she understood more about estate management than her purple silk suggested.
"It's not the worst idea," she finally concluded. "Though it will never catch on broadly."
"Why not?" Clara asked.
