china cups and a silver teaspoon or two! It's quite a common thing, but I
never heard of such a haul as this."

"It will be very unpleasant," said Eustace.

"And then she still goes about everywhere declaring that the Portray
property is her own. She's a bad lot. I knew it from the first. Of course
we shall have trouble." Then Mr. Eustace explained to the lawyer that
their best way out of it all would be to get the widow married to some
respectable husband. She was sure to marry sooner or later, so John
Eustace said, and any "decently decent" fellow would be easier to deal
with than she herself. "He must be very indecently indecent if he is not,"
said Mr. Camperdown. But Mr. Eustace did not name Frank Graystock the
barrister as the probable future decent husband.

When Lizzie first got the letter, which she did on the day after the visit
at Fawn Court of which mention has been made, she put it by unread for a
couple of days. She opened it, not knowing the clerk's handwriting, but
read only the first line and the signature. For two days she went on with
the ordinary affairs and amusements of her life, as though no such letter
had reached her; but was thinking of it all the time. The diamonds were in
her possession, and she had had them valued by her old friend Mr. Benjamin
of the firm of Harter & Benjamin. Mr. Benjamin had suggested that stones
of such a value should not be left to the risk of an ordinary London
house; but Lizzie had felt that if Mr. Benjamin got them into his hands,
Mr. Benjamin might perhaps not return them. Messrs. Camperdown and Garnett
between them might form a league with Mr. Benjamin. Where would she be,
should Mr. Benjamin tell her that under some legal sanction he had given
the jewels up to Mr. Camperdown? She hinted to Mr. Benjamin that she would
perhaps sell them if she got a good offer. Mr. Benjamin, who was very