In two
years from Sir Florian's death she will be married again."
When this was said Lizzie had been a widow nearly a year, and had bided
her time upon the whole discreetly. Some foolish letters she had written,
chiefly to the lawyer about her money and property; and some foolish
things she had said, as when she told Ellinor Greystock that the Portray
property was her own forever, to do what she liked with it. The sum of
money left to her by her husband had by that time been paid into her own
hands, and she had opened a banker's account. The revenues from the Scotch
estate, some ?4,000 a year, were clearly her own for life. The family
diamond necklace was still in her possession, and no answer had been given
by her to a postscript to a lawyer's letter in which a little advice had
been given respecting it. At the end of another year, when she had just
reached the age of twenty-two, and had completed her second year of
widowhood, she was still Lady Eustace, thus contradicting the prophecy
made by the dean's wife. It was then spring, and she had a house of her
own in London. She had broken openly with Lady Linlithgow. She had
opposed, though not absolutely refused, all overtures of brotherly care
from John Eustace.
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