The luggage was brought down, and with the larger
boxes was brought the iron case with the necklace. The servant, certainly
making more of the weight than he need have done, deposited it as a
footstool for Lizzie, who then seated herself, and was followed by Miss
Macnulty. She would have it placed in the same way beneath her feet in the
railway carriage, and again brought into her room at the Carlisle Hotel.
What though the porter did know! There was nothing illegal in travelling
about with a heavy iron box full of diamonds, and the risk would be less
this way, she thought, than were she to leave them behind her in London.
The house in Mount Street, which she had taken for the season, was to be
given up; and whom could she trust in London? Her very bankers, she
feared, would have betrayed her, and given up her treasure to Mr.
Camperdown. As for Messrs. Harter & Benjamin, she felt sure that they
would be bribed by Mr. Camperdown. She once thought of asking her cousin
to take the charge of them, but she could not bring herself to let them
out of her own hands. Ten thousand pounds! If she could only sell them and
get the money, from what a world of trouble would she be relieved.
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