talked about them, and I had
been threatened because I chose to keep what I knew to be my own. Of
course, I would not give them up. Would you have given them up, Lady
Glencora?"

"Certainly not."

"Nor would I. But when once all that had begun, they became an
irrepressible burthen to me. I often used to say that I would throw
them into the sea."

"I don't think I would have done that," said Lady Glencora.

"Ah,--you have never suffered as I have suffered."

"We never know where each other's shoes pinch each other's toes."

"You have never been left desolate. You have a husband and friends."

"A husband that wants to put five farthings into a penny! All is not
gold that glistens, Lady Eustace."

"You can never have known trials such as mine," continued Lizzie, not
understanding in the least her new friend's allusion to the great
currency question. "Perhaps you may have heard that in the course
of last summer I became engaged to marry a nobleman, with whom I am
aware that you are acquainted." This she said in her softest whisper.

"Oh, yes;--Lord Fawn. I know him very well. Of course I heard of it.
We all heard of it."

"And you have heard how he has treated me?"

"Yes,--indeed."

"I will say nothing about him--to you, Lady Glencora. It would not
be proper that I should do so. But all that came of this wretched
necklace. After that, can you wonder that I should say that I wish
these stones had been thrown into the sea?"

"I suppose Lord Fawn will--will come all right again now?" said Lady
Glencora.

"All right!" exclaimed Lizzie in astonishment.

"His objection to the marriage will now be over."

"I'm sure I do not in the least know what are his lordship's views,"
said Lizzie in scorn, "and, to tell the truth, I do not very much
care."

"What I mean is, that he didn't like you to have the Eustace
diamonds--"

"They were not Eustace diamonds. They were my diamonds."

"But he did not like you to have them; and as they are now gone--for
ever--"

"Oh, yes;--they are gone for ever."

"His objection is gone too. Why don't you write to him, and make him
come and see you? That's what I should do."

Lizzie, of course, repudiated vehemently any idea of forcing Lord
Fawn into a marriage which had become distasteful to him,--let the
reason be what it might. "His lordship is perfectly free, as far as I
am concerned," said Lizzie with a little show of anger. But all this
Lady Glencora took at its worth.