len
nothing;--so she averred to herself. She had intended only to defend
and save her own property. Even the lie that she had told, and the
telling of which was continued from day to day, had in a measure been
forced upon her by circumstances. She thought that Mrs. Carbuncle
would sympathise with her in that feeling which had prevented her
from speaking the truth when first the fact of the robbery was made
known to herself in her own bedroom. Mrs. Carbuncle was a lady
who told many lies, as Lizzie knew well,--and surely could not be
horrified at a lie told in such circumstances. But it was not in
Lizzie's nature to trust a woman. Mrs. Carbuncle would tell Lord
George,--and that would destroy everything. When she thought of
confiding everything to her cousin, it was always in his absence. The
idea became dreadful to her as soon as he was present. She could not
dare to own to him that she had sworn falsely to the magistrate at
Carlisle. And so the burthen had to be borne, increasing every hour
in weight, and the poor creature's back was not broad enough to bear
it. She thought of the necklace every waking minute, and dreamed of
it when she slept. She could not keep herself from unlocking her desk
and looking at it twenty times a day, although she knew the peril
of such nervous solicitude. If she could only rid herself of it
altogether, she was sure now that she would do so. She would throw
it into the ocean fathoms deep, if only she could find herself alone
upon the ocean. But she felt that, let her go where she might, she
would be watched. She might declare to-morrow her intention of going
to Ireland,--or, for that matter, to America. But, were she to do so,
some horrid policeman would be on her track. The iron box had been
a terrible nuisance to her;--but the iron box had been as nothing
compared to the necklace locked up in her desk. From day to day
she meditated a plan of taking the thing out into the streets, and
dropping it in the dark; but she was sure that, were she to do
so, some one would have watched her while she dropped it. She was
unwilling to trust her old friend Mr. Benjamin; but in these days her
favourite scheme was to offer the diamonds for sale to him at some
very low price. If he would help her they might surely be got out of
their present hiding-place into his hands. Any man would be powerful
to help, if there were any man whom she could trust. In furtherance
of this scheme she went so far as to brea