ehind her, "will have a job of work on his hands. There's
nothing a pretty woman can't do when she has got rid of all sense of
shame."

"She is a very great woman," said John Eustace,--"a very great woman;
and, if the sex could have its rights, would make an excellent
lawyer." In the meantime Lizzie Eustace returned home to Hertford
Street in triumph.

CHAPTER LXXIII

Lizzie's Last Lover

Lizzie's interview with the lawyer took place on the Wednesday
afternoon, and, on her return to Hertford Street she found a note
from Mrs. Carbuncle. "I have made arrangements for dining out to-day,
and shall not return till after ten. I will do the same to-morrow,
and on every day till you leave town, and you can breakfast in your
own room. Of course you will carry out your plan for leaving this
house on Monday. After what has passed, I shall prefer not to meet
you again.--J.C." And this was written by a woman who, but a few days
since, had borrowed L150 from her, and who at this moment had in her
hands fifty pounds' worth of silver-plate, supposed to have been
given to Lucinda, and which clearly ought to have been returned to
the donor when Lucinda's marriage was--postponed, as the newspapers
had said! Lucinda at this time had left the house in Hertford Street,
but Lizzie had not been informed whither she had been taken. She
could not apply to Lucinda for restitution of the silver,--which was,
in fact, held at the moment by the Albemarle Street hotel-keeper
as part security for his debt,--and she was quite sure that any
application to Mrs. Carbuncle for either the silver or the debt would
be unavailing. But she might, perhaps, cause annoyance by a letter,
and could, at any rate, return insult for insult. She therefore wrote
to her late friend.

MADAM,

I certainly am not desirous of continuing an acquaintance
into which I was led by false representations, and in the
course of which I have been almost absurdly hospitable to
persons altogether unworthy of my kindness. You, and your
niece, and your especial friend Lord George Carruthers,
and that unfortunate young man your niece's lover, were
entertained at my country-house as my guests for some
months. I am here, in my own right, by arrangement; and
as I pay more than a proper share of the expense of the
establishment, I shall stay as long as I please, and go
when I please.

In the meantime, as we are about to part, certainly