knick-knacks which cannot be had on credit. Lizzie when she was nineteen
knew how to do without money as well as most girls; but there were calls
which she could not withstand, debts which even she must pay.

She did not, however, drop her acquaintance with Messrs. Harter &
Benjamin. Before her father had been dead eight months, she was closeted
with Mr. Benjamin, transacting a little business with him. She had come to
him, she told him, the moment she was of age, and was willing to make
herself responsible for the debt, signing any bill, note, or document
which the firm might demand from her to that effect. Of course she had
nothing of her own, and never would have anything. That Mr. Benjamin knew.
As for payment of the debt by Lady Linlithgow, who for a countess was as
poor as Job, Mr. Benjamin, she was quite sure, did not expect anything of
the kind. But----. Then Lizzie paused, and Mr. Benjamin, with the sweetest
and wittiest of smiles, suggested that perhaps Miss Greystock was going to
be married. Lizzie, with a pretty maiden blush, admitted that such a
catastrophe was probable. She had been asked in marriage by Sir Florian
Eustace. Now Mr. Benjamin knew, as all the world knew, that Sir Florian
Eustace was a very rich man indeed; a man in no degree embarrassed, and
who could pay any amount of jewellers' bills for which claim might be made
upon him. Well, what did Miss Greystock want? Mr. Benjamin did not suppose
that Miss Greystock was actuated simply by a desire to have her old bills
paid by her future husband. Miss Greystock wanted a loan sufficient to
take the jewels out of pawn. She would then make herself responsible for
the full amount due. Mr. Benjamin said that he would make a few inquiries.
"But you won't betray me," said Lizzie, "for the match might be off." Mr.
Benjamin promised to be more than cautious.

There was not so much of falsehood as might have been expected in the
statement which Lizzie Greystock made to the jeweller. It was not true