en explanation. "It is impossible," Frank had said,
"that your conduct to my cousin should be allowed to drop without
further notice. Hers has been without reproach. Your engagement with
her has been made public,--chiefly by you, and it is out of the
question that she should be treated as you are treating her, and that
your lordship should escape without punishment." What the punishment
was to be he did not say; but there did come a punishment on Lord
Fawn from the eyes of every man whose eyes met his own, and in the
tones of every voice that addressed him. The looks of the very clerks
in the India Office accused him of behaving badly to a young woman,
and the doorkeeper at the House of Lords seemed to glance askance
at him. And now Lady Glencora, who was the social leader of his
own party, the feminine pole-star of the Liberal heavens, the most
popular and the most daring woman in London, had attacked him
personally, and told him that he ought to call on Lady Eustace!

Let it not for a moment be supposed that Lord Fawn was without
conscience in the matter, or indifferent to moral obligations. There
was not a man in London less willing to behave badly to a young woman
than Lord Fawn; or one who would more diligently struggle to get back
to the right path, if convinced that he was astray. But he was one
who detested interference in his private matters, and who was nearly
driven mad between his sister and Frank Greystock. When he left Lady
Glencora's house he walked towards his own abode with a dark cloud
upon his brow. He was at first very angry with Lady Glencora. Even
her position gave her no right to meddle with his most private
affairs as she had done. He would resent it, and would quarrel with
Lady Glencora. What right could she have to advise him to call upon
any woman? But by degrees this wrath died away, and gave place to
fears, and qualms, and inward questions. He, too, had found a change
in general opinion about the diamonds. When he had taken upon himself
with a high hand to dissolve his own engagement, everybody had, as he
thought, acknowledged that Lizzie Eustace was keeping property which
did not belong to her. Now people talked of her losses as though the
diamonds had been undoubtedly her own. On the next morning Lord Fawn
took an opportunity of seeing Mr. Camperdown.

"My dear lord," said Mr. Camperdown, "I shall wash my hands of the
matter altogether. The diamonds are gone, and the questions now are,
w