the cards. No doubt people who are rich, and are
connected with rich people, and have great friends,--who are what the
world call swells,--have great advantages over their inferiors when
they get into trouble. You are the widow of a baronet, and you have
an uncle a bishop, and another a dean, and a countess for an aunt.
You have a brother-in-law and a first-cousin in Parliament, and your
father was an admiral. The other day you were engaged to marry a
peer."

"Oh yes," said Lizzie, "and Lady Glencora Palliser is my particular
friend."

"She is; is she? So much the better. Lady Glencora, no doubt, is a
very swell among swells."

"The Duke of Omnium would do anything for me," said Lizzie with
enthusiasm.

"If you were nobody, you would, of course, be indicted for perjury,
and would go to prison. As it is, if you will tell all your story
to one of your swell friends, I think it very likely that you may
be pulled through. I should say that Mr. Eustace, or your cousin
Greystock, would be the best."

"Why couldn't you do it? You know it all. I told you
because--because--because I thought you would be the kindest to me."

"You told me, my dear, because you thought it would not matter much
with me, and I appreciate the compliment. I can do nothing for you. I
am not near enough to those who wear wigs."

Lizzie did not above half understand him,--did not at all understand
him when he spoke of those who wore wigs, and was quite dark to his
irony about her great friends;--but she did perceive that he was in
earnest in recommending her to confess. She thought about it for a
moment in silence, and the more she thought the more she felt that
she could not do it. Had he not suggested a second alternative,--that
she should go off like Mr. Benjamin? It might be possible that she
should go off, and yet be not quite like Mr. Benjamin. In that case
ought she not to go under the protection of her Corsair? Would not
that be the proper way of going? "Might I not go abroad,--just for a
time?" she asked.

"And so let it blow over?"

"Just so, you know."

"It is possible that you might," he said. "Not that it would blow
over altogether. Everybody would know it. It is too late now to
stop the police, and if you meant to be off, you should be off at
once;--to-day or to-morrow."

"Oh dear!"

"Indeed, there's no saying whether they will let you go. You could
start now, this moment;--and if you were at Dover could get over to
France