you not sit down?" He then
seated himself, placing his hat beside him on the floor, but at the
moment could not find words to speak. "I have been very ill."

"I have been so sorry to hear it."

"There has been much to make me ill,--has there not?"

"About the robbery, you mean?"

"About many things. The robbery has been by no means the worst,
though, no doubt, it frightened me much. There were two robberies,
Lord Fawn."

"Yes,--I know that."

"And it was very terrible. And then, I had been threatened with a
lawsuit. You have heard that, too?"

"Yes,--I had heard it."

"I believe they have given that up now. I understand from my cousin,
Mr. Greystock, who has been my truest friend in all my troubles, that
the stupid people have found out at last that they had not a leg to
stand on. I daresay you have heard that, Lord Fawn?"

Lord Fawn certainly had heard, in a doubtful way, the gist of Mr.
Dove's opinion, namely, that the necklace could not be claimed from
the holder of it as an heirloom attached to the Eustace family. But
he had heard at the same time that Mr. Camperdown was as confident as
ever that he could recover the property by claiming it after another
fashion. Whether or no that claim had been altogether abandoned, or
had been allowed to fall into abeyance because of the absence of the
diamonds, he did not know, nor did any one know,--Mr. Camperdown
himself having come to no decision on the subject. But Lord Fawn had
been aware that his sister had of late shifted the ground of her
inveterate enmity to Lizzie Eustace, making use of the scene which
Mr. Gowran had witnessed, in lieu of the lady's rapacity in regard to
the necklace. It might therefore be assumed, Lord Fawn thought and
feared, that his strong ground in regard to the necklace had been cut
from under his feet. But still, it did not behove him to confess that
the cause which he had always alleged as the ground for his retreat
from the engagement was no cause at all. It might go hard with him
should an attempt be made to force him to name another cause. He knew
that he would lack the courage to tell the lady that he had heard
from his sister that one Andy Gowran had witnessed a terrible scene
down among the rocks at Portray. So he sat silent, and made no answer
to Lizzie's first assertion respecting the diamonds.

But the necklace was her strong point, and she did not intend that
he should escape the subject. "If I remember right, Lord Fawn,