The Eustace Diamonds

lithgow'

d Frank Greystock, hol

eak to her, but I saw her. She has sent her-love

nt Street. Lizzie had certainly behaved very badly to her aunt;-about as badly as a young woman could behave to an old woman. She had accepted bread, and shelter, and the very clothes on her back from her aunt's bounty, and had rejecte

ter see her,

zzie. "Good gracious, my d

ry important," sa

ouse, and then tell the servant to show her up at once. Don't be w

dly old women,-who in the remembrance of younger people seem always to have been old women,-but on whom old age appears to have no debilitating effects. If the hand of Lady Linlithgow ever trembled, it trembled from anger;-if her foot ever faltered, it faltered for effect. In her way Lady Linlithgow was a very powerful human being. She knew nothing of fear, nothing of charity, nothing of mercy, and nothing of the softness of love. She had no imagination. She was worldly, covetous, and not unfrequently cruel. But she meant to be true and honest, though she often failed in her meaning;-and she had an idea of her duty in life. She was not self-indulgent. She was as hard as an oak post,-but then she was also as trustworthy. No human being liked her;-but she had the

grizzled in parts. Nothing becomes an old woman like grey hair, but Lady Linlithgow's hair would never be grey. Her appearance on the whole was not pre-possessing, but it gave one an idea of honest, real strength. What one saw was not buckram, whalebone, paint, and false hair. It was all human,-hardly feminine, certainly not angelic, with perhaps a hint in the other direction,-but a human body, and not a thing of pads and patches. Lizzie, as she saw her aunt, made up her mind for the combat. Who is there that has lived to be a man or woman, and has not experienced a moment in which a combat has impe

Aunt Penelope.

ith me because I am your nearest relation. So I am, and

yourself," said Lizzie, in a tone of insolence with

or the credit of the family, if any good can be done towards saving it. You've

ds were my diamonds,

just like their estates. Sir Florian didn't give 'em away, and couldn't, and wouldn't if he co

say

say

thing, Aun

, my dear, and a jury will say so. That's what it will come to. What good will they do you? You can't sell them;-and as a widow you can't wear 'em. If y

you do, Aunt Penelope, and

p the jewels to

I wo

the jew

d." Then there came forth a sob, and a tear,

him, and for the family, if the jewellers had

, you had bett

righten me. The fact is, you are disgracing the fam

anybody. You are d

they'll proceed against you for-stealing 'em!" Lady Linlithgow, as she uttered this terrible threat, bobbed her head at her niece

y husband gave them to

ly lawyer, and when he writes to you letter after letter you take no more notice of him than a-dog!" The old woman was certainly very powerful. The way in which she pronounced

t obliged to answer everyth

re a judge. I tell you, Lizzie Greystock, or Eustace, or whatever your nam

nt Penelope!" said Lizz

don't suppose Mr. Camperdown got me to come here for nothing. If

You have no business to come here and

y just what

ecessarily heard every word of the conversation, had no alternative but to appear. Of all human beings Lady Linlithgow was to her the most terrible, and yet, after a fashion, she loved the old woman. Miss Macnulty was humble, cowardly, and subservient; but she

re, are you?" s

here, Lady

ow well enough, and you can tell her. You ain't a fool,

er carriage. I cannot stand her violence, and I will go up-stairs." So saying she made he

find yourself in prison as sure as eggs!" Then, when her niece was beyond hearing, s

got them, La

ut;-but it's well she should know it. I've done my duty. Never mind about the servant. I'll find my way out of t

he was Lady Eustace, and who but Lady Eustace should have these diamonds or be allowed to wear them? Nobody could say that Sir Florian had not given them to her. It could not, surely, be brought against her as an actual crime that she had not answered Mr. Camperdown's letters? And yet she was not sure. Her ideas about law and judicial proceedings were very vague. Of what was wrong and what was right she had a distinct notion. She knew well enough that she was endeavouring to steal the Eustace diamonds; but she did not in the least know what power there might be in the law to prevent, or to punish her for the intended theft. She knew well that the thing was not really her own; but there were, as she thought, so many points in her favour, that she felt it to be

. You told me to stay the

rse what she said was the gre

n't k

n to prison for not answering a lawy

ose tha

n should join her in her enmity against her aunt, but Miss Macnulty was unwilling to say anything against one who had been her protectress, and might, perhaps, be her pr

upsetting old woman,

e! Is that all you da

ure," said Miss Macnulty, with

ented. "But you needn't be afraid," s

diamonds,

out the

d give 'em up for peace and quiet

Portray." This wasn't true; but it was true that Lizzie had endeavoured to palm off on the Eustace estate bills for new things which she had ordered for her own country-house. "I haven't

they're

ds because I didn't put it into my will. There'd be no making presents like that a

klace is so v

away;-not a house, or a farm, or a wood, or anything like that; but a

n't mean to give it for alwa

, and I shall keep them. So that's the end of it. Y

y, who was, almost of necessity, a poor creature. But she was convinced more strongly than ever that some friend was necessary to her wh