ak, ignorant creature?"
continued Mr. Dove. "She has hankered after her bauble, and has told
falsehoods in her efforts to keep it. Have you never heard of older
persons, and more learned persons, and persons nearer to ourselves,
who have done the same?" At that moment there was presumed to be
great rivalry, not unaccompanied by intrigue, among certain leaders
of the learned profession with reference to various positions of
high honour and emolument, vacant or expected to be vacant. A Lord
Chancellor was about to resign, and a Lord Justice had died. Whether
a somewhat unpopular Attorney-General should be forced to satisfy
himself with the one place, or allowed to wait for the other,
had been debated in all the newspapers. It was agreed that there
was a middle course in reference to a certain second-class
Chief-Justiceship,--only that the present second-class Chief-Justice
objected to shelving himself. There existed considerable jealousy,
and some statements had been made which were not, perhaps, strictly
founded on fact. It was understood, both by the attorney and by the
Member of Parliament, that the Turtle Dove was referring to these
circumstances when he spoke of baubles and falsehoods, and of
learned persons near to themselves. He himself had hankered after no
bauble,--but, as is the case with many men and women who are free
from such hankerings, he was hardly free from that dash of malice
which the possession of such things in the hands of others is so
prone to excite. "Spare her," said Mr. Dove. "There is no longer
any material question as to the property, which seems to be gone
irrecoverably. It is, upon the whole, well for the world, that
property so fictitious as diamonds should be subject to the risk
of such annihilation. As far as we are concerned, the property
is annihilated, and I would not harass the poor, ignorant young
creature."

As Eustace and the attorney walked across from the Old to the New
Square, the former declared that he quite agreed with Mr. Dove. "In
the first place, Mr. Camperdown, she is my brother's widow." Mr.
Camperdown with sorrow admitted the fact. "And she is the mother of
the head of our family. It should not be for us to degrade her;--but
rather to protect her from degradation, if that be possible." "I
heartily wish she had got her merits before your poor brother ever
saw her," said Mr. Camperdown.

Lizzie, in her fears, had been very punctual; and when the two
gentlemen reached