ow was he to avoid marrying
her? He was engaged to her. How, at any rate, was he to escape from
the renewal of his engagement at this moment? He had more than once
positively stated that he was deterred from marrying her only by her
possession of the diamonds. The diamonds were now gone.

Lizzie was still standing, waiting for an answer to her
question,--Can you justify yourself in your own heart? Having paused
for some seconds, she repeated her question in a stronger and more
personal form. "Had I been your sister, Lord Fawn, and had another
man behaved to me as you have now done, would you say that he had
behaved well, and that she had no ground for complaint? Can you bring
yourself to answer that question honestly?"

"I hope I shall answer no question dishonestly."

"Answer it then. No; you cannot answer it, because you would condemn
yourself. Now, Lord Fawn, what do you mean to do?"

"I had thought, Lady Eustace, that any regard which you might ever
have entertained for me--"

"Well;--what had you thought of my regard?"

"That it had been dissipated."

"Have I told you so? Has any one come to you from me with such a
message?"

"Have you not received attentions from any one else?"

"Attentions,--what attentions? I have received plenty of
attentions,--most flattering attentions. I was honoured even this
morning by a most gratifying attention on the part of his grace the
Duke of Omnium."

"I did not mean that."

"What do you mean, then? I am not going to marry the Duke of Omnium
because of his attention,--nor any one else. If you mean, sir, after
the other inquiries you have done me the honour to make, to throw it
in my face now, that I have--have in any way rendered myself unworthy
of the position of your wife because people have been civil and kind
to me in my sorrow, you are a greater dastard than I took you to be.
Tell me at once, sir, whom you mean."

It is hardly too much to say that the man quailed before her. And
it certainly is not too much to say that, had Lizzie Eustace been
trained as an actress, she would have become a favourite with the
town. When there came to her any fair scope for acting, she was
perfect. In the ordinary scenes of ordinary life, such as befell her
during her visit to Fawn Court, she could not acquit herself well.
There was no reality about her, and the want of it was strangely
plain to most unobservant eyes. But give her a part to play that
required exaggerated, strong