Camperdown should be in the wrong in such a matter was an idea which never
occurred to Lord Fawn. There is no form of belief stronger than that which
the ordinary English gentleman has in the discretion and honesty of his
own family lawyer. What his lawyer tells him to do he does. What his
lawyer tells him to sign he signs. He buys and sells in obedience to the
same direction, and feels perfectly comfortable in the possession of a
guide who is responsible and all but divine.

"What diamonds are they?" asked Lord Fawn in a very low voice.

"They are my own--altogether my own. Sir Florian gave them to me. When he
put them into my hands he said that they were to be my own for ever and
ever. 'There,' said he, 'those are yours to do what you choose with them.'
After that they oughtn't to ask me to give them back, ought they? If you
had been married before, and your wife had given you a keepsake, to keep
for ever and ever, would you give it up to a lawyer? You would not like
it, would you, Frederic?" She had put her hand on his and was looking up
into his face as she asked the question. Again, perhaps, the acting was a
little overdone; but there were the tears in her eyes, and the tone of her
voice was perfect.

"Mr. Camperdown calls them Eustace diamonds--family diamonds," said Lord
Fawn. "What do they consist of? What are they worth?"

"I'll show them to you," said Lizzie, jumping up and hurrying out of the
room. Lord Fawn, when he was alone, rubbed his hands over his eyes and
thought about it all. It would be a very harsh measure on the part of the
Eustace family and of Mr. Camperdown to demand from her the surrender of
any trinket which her late husband might have given her in the manner she
had described. But it was, to his thinking, most improbable that the