de him come?" How should she tell her story? "Oh, he came,
of course, about the robbery. They have found out everything. It was
the jeweller, Benjamin, who concocted it all. That horrid sly girl I
had, Patience Crabstick, put him up to it. And there were two regular
housebreakers. They have found it all out at last."

"So I hear."

"And Major Mackintosh came to tell me about it."

"But the diamonds are gone?"

"Oh yes;--those weary, weary diamonds. Do you know, Frank, that,
though they were my own, as much as the coat you wear is your own, I
am glad they are gone. I am glad that the police have not found them.
They tormented me so that I hated them. Don't you remember that I
told you how I longed to throw them into the sea, and to be rid of
them for ever?"

"That, of course, was a joke."

"It was no joke, Frank. It was solemn, serious truth."

"What I want to know is,--where were they stolen?"

That, of course, was the question which hitherto Lizzie Eustace had
answered by an incorrect version of facts, and now she must give the
true version. She tried to put a bold face upon it, but it was very
difficult. A face bold with brass she could not assume. Perhaps a
little bit of acting might serve her turn, and a face that should be
tender rather than bold. "Oh, Frank!" she exclaimed, bursting out
into tears.

"I always supposed that they were taken at Carlisle," said Frank.
Lizzie fell on her knees, at his feet, with her hands clasped
together, and her one long lock of hair hanging down so as to touch
his arm. Her eyes were bright with tears, but were not, as yet, wet
and red with weeping. Was not this confession enough? Was he so
hard-hearted as to make her tell her own disgrace in spoken words? Of
course he knew, well enough, now, when the diamonds had been stolen.
If he were possessed of any tenderness, any tact, any manliness, he
would go on, presuming that question to have been answered.

"I don't quite understand it all," he said, laying his hand softly
upon her shoulder. "I have been led to make so many statements to
other people, which now seem to have been--incorrect! It was only the
box that was taken at Carlisle?"

"Only the box." She could answer that question.

"But the thieves thought that the diamonds were in the box?"

"I suppose so. But, oh, Frank! don't cross-question me about it. If
you could know what I have suffered, you would not punish me any
more. I have got to go to Mr. Camperdown's