ed the
necklace out of the house, and who broke open the box at Carlisle,
will be tried,--as will also Benjamin, who disposed of the diamonds.
I have told you the whole story, as it has been told to me by the
woman Crabstick. Of course, you will deny the truth of it, if it be
untrue." Lizzie sat with her eyes fixed upon the floor, but said
nothing. She could not speak. "If you will allow me, Lady Eustace, to
give you advice,--really friendly advice--"

"Oh, pray do."

"You had better admit the truth of the story, if it is true."

"They were my own," she whispered.

"Or, at any rate, you believed that they were. There can be no doubt,
I think, as to that. No one supposes that the robbery at Carlisle was
arranged on your behalf."

"Oh, no."

"But you had taken them out of the box before you went to bed at the
inn?"

"Not then."

"But you had taken them?"

"I did it in the morning before I started from Scotland. They
frightened me by saying the box would be stolen."

"Exactly;--and then you put them into your desk here, in this house?"

"Yes,--sir."

"I should tell you, Lady Eustace, that I had not a doubt about this
before I came here. For some time past I have thought that it must be
so; and latterly the confessions of two of the accomplices have made
it certain to me. One of the housebreakers and the jeweller will
be tried for the felony, and I am afraid that you must undergo the
annoyance of being one of the witnesses."

"What will they do to me, Major Mackintosh?" Lizzie now for the first
time looked up into his eyes, and felt that they were kind. Could he
be her rock? He did not speak to her like an enemy;--and then, too,
he would know better than any man alive how she might best escape
from her trouble.

"They will ask you to tell the truth."

"Indeed I will do that," said Lizzie,--not aware that, after so many
lies, it might be difficult to tell the truth.

"And you will probably be asked to repeat it, this way and that, in a
manner that will be troublesome to you. You see that here in London,
and at Carlisle, you have--given incorrect versions."

"I know I have. But the necklace was my own. There was nothing
dishonest;--was there, Major Mackintosh? When they came to me at
Carlisle I was so confused that I hardly knew what to tell them. And
when I had once--given an incorrect version, you know, I didn't know
how to go back."

The major was not so well acquainted with Lizzie as is the reade