uch obligation," she said,
laughing. "Will you write to Mr. Palliser,--or I should say, to the
Duke,--to-night, and tell him that my mind is absolutely made up?"

"I certainly shall not do that."

"Then I must. As it is, I shall have pleasant memories of his Grace.
According to my ability I have endeavoured to be good to him, and I
have no stain on my conscience because of his friendship. If I took
his money and his jewels,--or rather your money and your jewels,--do
you think I could say as much?"

"Everybody takes what anybody leaves them by will."

"I will be an exception to the rule, Lady Glen. Don't you think that
your friendship is more to me than all the diamonds in London?"

"You shall have both, my dear," said the Duchess,--quite in earnest
in her promise. Madame Goesler shook her head. "Nobody ever
repudiates legacies. The Queen would take the jewels if they were
left to her."

"I am not the Queen. I have to be more careful what I do than any
queen. I will take nothing under the Duke's will. I will ask a boon
which I have already named, and if it be given me as a gift by
the Duke's heir, I will wear it till I die. You will write to Mr.
Palliser?"

"I couldn't do it," said the Duchess.

"Then I will write myself." And she did write, and of all the rich
things which the Duke of Omnium had left to her, she took nothing but
the little ring with the black stone which he had always worn on his
finger.

CHAPTER XXVII

An Editor's Wrath

On that Sunday evening in London Mr. Low was successful in finding
the Vice-Chancellor, and the great judge smiled and nodded, listened
to the story, and acknowledged that the circumstances were very
peculiar. He thought that an injunction to restrain the publication
might be given at once upon Mr. Finn's affidavit; and that the
peculiar circumstances justified the peculiarity of Mr. Low's
application. Whether he would have said as much had the facts
concerned the families of Mr. Joseph Smith and his son-in-law Mr.
John Jones, instead of the Earl of Brentford and the Right Honourable
Robert Kennedy, some readers will perhaps doubt, and may doubt also
whether an application coming from some newly-fledged barrister would
have been received as graciously as that made by Mr. Low, Q.C. and
M.P.,--who would probably himself soon sit on some lofty legal bench.
On the following morning Phineas and Mr. Low,--and no doubt also Mr.
Vice-Chancellor Pickering,--obtained earl