She told no one, not even Miss Macnulty, but she appeared before that
lady, arrayed in all her beauty, just as she was about to descend to her
carriage.
"You've got the necklace on!" said Miss Macnulty.
"Why should I not wear my own necklace?" she asked, with assumed anger.
Lady Glencora's rooms were already very full when Lizzie entered them, but
she was without a gentleman, and room was made for her to pass quickly up
the stairs. The diamonds had been recognised by many before she had
reached the drawing-room; not that these very diamonds were known, or that
there was a special memory for that necklace; but the subject had been so
generally discussed, that the blaze of the stones immediately brought it
to the minds of men and women. "There she is, with poor Eustace's twenty
thousand pounds round her neck," said Laurence Fitzgibbon to his friend
Barrington Erle. "And there is Lord Fawn going to look after them,"
replied the other.
Lord Fawn thought it right, at any rate, to look after his bride. Lady
Glencora had whispered into his ear before they went down to dinner that
Lady Eustace would be there in the evening, so that he might have the
option of escaping or remaining.
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