sold them."

"I don't know that," said Mr. Camperdown. "I have not looked as yet, but I
think that this necklace has been made an heirloom. At any rate, it
represents an amount of property that shouldn't and couldn't be made over
legally without some visible evidence of transfer. It's as clear a case of
stealing as I ever knew in my life, and as bad a case. She hadn't a
farthing, and she has got the whole of the Ayrshire property for her life.
She goes about and tells everybody that it's hers to sell to-morrow if she
pleases to sell it. No, John"--Mr. Camperdown had known Eustace when he
was a boy, and had watched him become a man, and hadn't yet learned to
drop the name by which he had called the boy--"we mustn't allow it. What
do you think of her applying to me for an income to support her child, a
baby not yet two years old?" Mr. Camperdown had been very adverse to all
the circumstances of Sir Florian's marriage, and had subjected himself to
Sir Florian's displeasure for expressing his opinion. He had tried to
explain that as the lady brought no money into the family she was not
entitled to such a jointure as Sir Florian was determined to lavish upon
her. But Sir Florian had been obstinate, both in regard to the settlement
and the will. It was not till after Sir Florian's death that this terrible
master of the jewels had even suggested itself to Mr. Camperdown. The
jewellers in whose custody the things had been since the death of the late
Lady Eustace had mentioned the affair to him immediately on the young
widow's return from Naples. Sir Florian had withdrawn, not all the jewels,
but by far the most valuable of them, from the jewellers' care on his
return to London from their marriage tour to Scotland, and this was the
result. The jewellers were at that time without any doubt as to the date
at which the necklace was taken from them.

Mr. Camperdown's first attempt was made by a most courteous and even