run. The men have to marry, and what one
girl loses another girl gets."

"It will kill Lucy."

"Girls ain't killed so easy, mamma;--not now-a-days. Saying that it
will kill her won't change the man's nature. It wasn't to be expected
that such a man as Frank Greystock, in debt, and in Parliament, and
going to all the best houses, should marry your governess. What was
he to get by it? That's what I want to know."

"I suppose he loved her."

"Laws, mamma, how antediluvian you are! No doubt he did like
her,--after his fashion; though what he saw in her, I never could
tell. I think Miss Morris would make a very nice wife for a country
clergyman who didn't care how poor things were. But she has no
style;--and as far as I can see, she has no beauty. Why should such a
man as Frank Greystock tie himself by the leg for ever to such a girl
as that? But, mamma, he doesn't mean to marry Lucy Morris. Would he
have been going on in that way with his cousin down in Scotland had
he meant it? He means nothing of the kind. He means to marry Lady
Eustace's income if he can get it;--and she would marry him before
the summer if only we could keep Frederic away from her."

Mrs. Hittaway demanded from her mother that in season and out of
season she should be urgent with Lord Fawn, impressing upon him the
necessity of waiting, in order that he might see how false Lady
Eustace was to him; and also that she should teach Lucy Morris how
vain were all her hopes. If Lucy Morris would withdraw her claims
altogether the thing might probably be more quickly and more surely
managed. If Lucy could be induced to tell Frank that she withdrew her
claim, and that she saw how impossible it was that they should ever
be man and wife, then,--so argued Mrs. Hittaway,--Frank would at once
throw himself at his cousin's feet, and all the difficulty would
be over. The abominable, unjustifiable, and insolent interference
of Lady Glencora just at the present moment would be the means
of undoing all the good that had been done, unless it could be
neutralised by some such activity as this. The necklace had
absolutely faded away into nothing. The sly creature was almost
becoming a heroine on the strength of the necklace. The very mystery
with which the robberies were pervaded was acting in her favour.
Lord Fawn would absolutely be made to marry her,--forced into it by
Lady Glencora and that set,--unless the love affair between her and
her cousin, of which Andy Gowr