The Eustace Diamonds

Grey

ed with a large, rambling, picturesque, uncomfortable house, and with ￡1,500 a year. In regard to personal property it may be asserted of all the Greystocks that they never had any. They were a family of which the males would surely come to be deans and admirals, and the females would certainly find husbands. And they lived on the good things of the world, and mixed with wealthy people. But they nev

the cost of his circuit out of the county in which the cathedral was situated. But he began life after that impecunious fashion for which the Greystocks have been noted. Tailors, robemakers, and booksellers gave him trust, and did believe that they would get their money. And any persistent tradesman did get it. He did not actually hoist the black flag of impecuniosity, and proclaim his intention of p

ter for industry. In the year after that the Bobsborough people were rather driven into a corner in search of a clever young Conservative candidate for the borough, and Frank Greystock was invited to stand. It was not thought that there was much chance of success, and the dean was against it. But Frank liked the honour and glory of the contest, and so did Frank's mother. Frank Greystock stood, and at the time in which he was warned away from Fawn Court had been nearly a year in Parliament. "Of course it does interfere with one's business," he had said to his father, "but then it brings one business also. A man with a seat in Parliament who shows that he means work will always get nearly as much work as he can do." Such was Frank's exposition to his father. It m

t," Frank said to his second sister Margaret

who has something as one who

without it are plentiful,-an argument of which I don't suppose you

ink Lady Fawn was ri

t be expelled by Lady Fawn's interference. Do you think I should allo

Lucy Morris better than I do. We all like her. But, d

uld not. But I do think this-that if I were bold enough to marry now, and to trust all to the future, and could get Lucy to be m

f love, till she may accept the burthen with an assurance that it shall become a joy and a comfort to her. But such presumptions, though they may be very useful for the regulation of conduct, may not be always true. It comes more within the scope of a woman's mind, than that of a man's, to think closely and decide sharply on such a matter. With a man it is often chance that settles the question for him. He resolves to propose to a woman, or proposes without resolving, because she is clos

were his friend to tell him that she intended to give herself in marriage elsewhere, he would suffer all the pangs of jealousy, and would imagine himself to be horribly ill-treated! To have such a friend,-a friend whom he cannot or will not make his wife,-is no injury to him. To him it is simply a delight, an excitement in life, a thing to be known to himself only and not talked of to others, a source of pride and inward exultation. It is a joy to think of when he wakes, and a consolation in his little troubles. It dispels the weariness of life, and makes a green spot of holiday within his daily work. It is, indee

ce. He was quick, ready-witted, self-reliant, and not over scrupulous in the outward things of the world. He was desirous of doing his duty to others, but he was specially desirous that others should do their duty to him. He intended to get on in the world, and believed that happiness was to be achieved by success. He was certainly made for the profession which he had

liam. The House of Hanover was bad. All interference with prerogative has been bad. The Reform bill was very bad. Encroachment on the estates of the bishops was bad. Emancipation of Roman Catholics was the worst of all. Abolition of corn-laws, church-rates, and oaths and tests were all bad. The meddling with the Universities has been grievous. The treatment of the Irish Church has been Satanic. The overhauling of schools is most injurious to English education. Education bills and Irish land bills were all bad. Every step taken has been bad. And yet to them old England is of all countries in the world the best to live in, and is not at all the less comfortable because of the changes that have been made. These people are ready to grumble at every boon conferred on them, and yet to enjoy every boon. They know, too, their privileges, and, after a fashion, understand their position. It is picturesque, and it pleases them. To have been always in the right and yet always on the losing side; always being ruined, always under persecution from a wild spirit of republican-demagogism,-and yet never to lose anything, not e

an, who has been at work all his life, finds that his own progress towards success demands from him that he shall become a politician. The highest work of a lawyer can only be reached through political struggle. As a large-minded man of the world, peculiarly conversant with the fact that every question has two sides, and that as much may often be said on one side as on the other, he has probably not become violent in his feelings as a political partisan. Thus he sees that there is an

h as a barrister he might have excused himself, and had done his best to learn the forms of the House. But he had already begun to find that th

. "I tell you what I wish you'd do, Greystock," Eustace said to him one day, as they were

oblige you,

ustace. "Just to marry your

wish I had

ge so she ought. She's not twenty-three yet. We could trust you,-with the c

y dear

f you. You were dini

You see if he doesn't. He was uncommonly sweet on her th

al with Lord Fawn. He would be infinitely troublesome; and I can hardly wash my hands of her affairs.

her she's not the prettiest wo

amperdown, our lawyer, means to jump upon her; but it's only because she does

have to quarrel with Camperdown

in five minutes, and it would save m

d for it," said Greystock, as

*

and what were the blood relationships of all the persons. In such a narrative as this, any proceeding of that kind would be unusual,-and therefore the poor narrator has been drive