uting me in every possible way,
telling lies about me to everybody,--who tried to prevent my dear,
darling husband from marrying me,--that he wouldn't go on with it if
he could?"

"Mr. Camperdown is a very respectable man, Lady Eustace."

"Respectable! Talk to me of respectable after all that he has made me
suffer! As you were so fond of making inquiries, Lord Fawn, you ought
to have gone on with them. You never would believe what my cousin
said."

"Your cousin always behaved very badly to me."

"My cousin, who is a brother rather than a cousin, has known how to
protect me from the injuries done to me,--or, rather, has known how
to take my part when I have been injured. My lord, as you have been
unwilling to believe him, why have you not gone to that gentleman
who, as I say, is a real lawyer? I don't know, my lord, that it need
have concerned you at all, but as you began, you surely should have
gone on with it. Don't you think so?" She was still standing up,
and, small as was her stature, was almost menacing the unfortunate
Under-Secretary of State, who was still seated in his chair. "My
lord," continued Lizzie, "I have had great wrong done me."

"Do you mean by me?"

"Yes, by you. Who else has done it?"

"I do not think that I have done wrong to any one. I was obliged to
say that I could not recognise those diamonds as the property of my
wife."

"But what right had you to say so? I had the diamonds when you asked
me to be your wife."

"I did not know it."

"Nor did you know that I had this little ring upon my finger. Is it
fit that you, or that any man should turn round upon a lady and say
to her that your word is to be broken, and that she is to be exposed
before all her friends, because you have taken a fancy to dislike her
ring or her brooch? I say, Lord Fawn, it was no business of yours,
even after you were engaged to me. What jewels I might have, or not
have, was no concern of yours till after I had become your wife.
Go and ask all the world if it is not so? You say that my cousin
affronts you because he takes my part,--like a brother. Ask any one
else. Ask any lady you may know. Let us name some one to decide
between us which of us has been wrong. Lady Glencora Palliser is a
friend of yours, and her husband is in the Government. Shall we name
her? It is true, indeed, that her uncle, the Duke of Omnium, the
grandest and greatest of English noblemen, is specially interested on
my behalf." This was ve