ad of the firm. "She has been very leniently treated, and
she must come."

"You must manage it, then," said Frank.

"I hope she won't give us trouble, because if she does we must expose
her," said the second member.

"She has not even sent a medical certificate," said the tyro of the
firm, who was not quite so sharp as he will probably become when he
has been a member of it for ten or twelve years. You should never ask
the ostler whether he greases his oats. In this case Frank Greystock
was not exactly in the position of the ostler; but he did inform
his cousin by letter that she would lay herself open to all manner
of pains and penalties if she disobeyed such a summons as she had
received, unless she did so by a very strong medical advice, backed
by a medical certificate.

Lizzie, when she received this, had two strings to her bow. A
writer from Ayr had told her that the summons sent to her was not
worth the paper on which it was printed in regard to a resident in
Scotland;--and she had also got a doctor from the neighbourhood
who was satisfied that she was far too ill to travel up to London.
Pulmonary debilitation was the complaint from which she was
suffering, which, with depressed vitality in all the organs, and
undue languor in all the bodily functions, would be enough to bring
her to a speedy end if she so much as thought of making a journey
up to London. A certificate to this effect was got in triplicate.
One copy she sent to the attorneys, one to Frank, and one she kept
herself.

The matter was very pressing indeed. It was considered that the
trial could not be postponed till the next sitting at the Criminal
Court, because certain witnesses in respect to the diamonds had been
procured from Hamburg and Vienna, at a very great cost; they were
actually on their way to London when Lizzie's second letter was
received. Mr. Camperdown had resolved to have the diamonds, still
with a hope that they might be restored to the keeping of Messrs.
Garnett, there to lie hidden and unused at any rate for the next
twenty years. The diamonds had been traced first to Hamburg, and then
to Vienna;--and it was to be proved that they were now adorning the
bosom of a certain enormously rich Russian princess. From the grasp
of the Russian princess it was found impossible to rescue them; but
the witnesses who, as it was hoped, might have aided Mr. Camperdown
in his efforts, were to be examined at the trial.

A confidential clerk