d have done with it?" asked Mrs. Carbuncle.

"He is such a lumpy man," said Lizzie;--"such an ass; such a load of
Government waste-paper."

"Come, my dear;--you've had troubles."

"I have, indeed," said Lizzie.

"And there's no quite knowing yet how far they're over."

"What do you mean by that, Mrs. Carbuncle?"

"Nothing very much;--but still, you see, they may come again. As to
Lord George, we all know that he has not got a penny-piece in the
world that he can call his own."

"If he had as many pennies as Judas, Lord George would be nothing to
me," said Lizzie.

"And your cousin really doesn't seem to mean anything."

"I know very well what my cousin means. He and I understand each
other thoroughly; but cousins can love one another very well without
marrying."

"Of course you know your own business, but if I were you I would take
Lord Fawn. I speak in true kindness,--as one woman to another. After
all, what does love signify? How much real love do we ever see among
married people? Does Lady Glencora Palliser really love her husband,
who thinks of nothing in the world but putting taxes on and off?"

"Do you love your husband, Mrs. Carbuncle?"

"No;--but that is a different kind of thing. Circumstances have
caused me to live apart from him. The man is a good man, and there
is no reason why you should not respect him, and treat him well. He
will give you a fixed position,--which really you want badly, Lady
Eustace."

"Tooriloo, tooriloo, tooriloo, looriloo," said Lizzie, in
contemptuous disdain of her friend's caution.

"And then all this trouble about the diamonds and the robberies
will be over," continued Mrs. Carbuncle. Lizzie looked at her very
intently. What should make Mrs. Carbuncle suppose that there need be,
or, indeed, could be, any further trouble about the diamonds?

"So;--that's your advice," said Lizzie. "I'm half inclined to take
it, and perhaps I shall. However, I have brought him round, and
that's something, my dear. And either one way or the other, I shall
let him know that I like my triumph. I was determined to have it, and
I've got it."

Then she read the letter again very seriously. Could she possibly
marry a man who in so many words told her that he didn't want her?
Well;--she thought she could. Was not everybody treating everybody
else much in the same way? Had she not loved her Corsair truly,--and
how had he treated her? Had she not been true, disinterested, and
most affectio