policemen in their uniforms,--and reflected that
she might probably see much more of them before the game was played
out, the thoughts that crowded on her were almost more than she could
bear.

"Your child is there, and it is your own house. Go there till all
this passes by." Whereupon she promised him that, as soon as she was
well enough, she would at once go to Scotland.

In the meantime, the Eustace diamonds were locked up in a small
safe fixed into the wall at the back of a small cellar beneath the
establishment of Messrs. Harter and Benjamin, in Minto Lane, in
the City. Messrs. Harter and Benjamin always kept a second place
of business. Their great shop was at the West-end; but they had
accommodation in the City.

The chronicler states this at once, as he scorns to keep from his
reader any secret that is known to himself.

CHAPTER LIII

Lizzie's Sick-Room

When the Hertford Street robbery was three days old, and was still
the talk of all the town, Lizzie Eustace was really ill. She had
promised to go down to Scotland in compliance with the advice given
to her by her cousin Frank, and at the moment of promising would have
been willing enough to be transported at once to Portray, had that
been possible--so as to be beyond the visits of policemen and the
authority of lawyers and magistrates; but as the hours passed over
her head, and as her presence of mind returned to her, she remembered
that even at Portray she would not be out of danger, and that she
could do nothing in furtherance of her plans if once immured there.
Lord George was in London, Frank Greystock was in London, and Lord
Fawn was in London. It was more than ever necessary to her that she
should find a husband among them,--a husband who would not be less
her husband when the truth of that business at Carlisle should
be known to all the world. She had, in fact, stolen nothing. She
endeavoured to comfort herself by repeating to herself over and over
again that assurance. She had stolen nothing; and she still thought
that if she could obtain the support of some strong arm on which to
lean, she might escape punishment for those false oaths which she had
sworn. Her husband might take her abroad, and the whole thing would
die away. If she should succeed with Lord George, of course he would
take her abroad, and there would be no need for any speedy return.
They might roam among islands in pleasant warm suns, and the dreams
of her youth might b