As it happened, there was time enough for catching the train, and to
spare. The whole affair in Mount Street had taken less than ten minutes.
But the effect upon Lizzie was very severe. For a while she could not
speak, and at last she burst out into hysteric tears--not a sham fit, but
a true convulsive agony of sobbing. All the world of Mount Street,
including her own servants, had heard the accusation against her. During
the whole morning she had been wishing that she had never seen the
diamonds; but now it was almost impossible that she should part with them.
And yet they were like a load upon her chest, a load as heavy as though
she was compelled to sit with the iron box on her lap day and night. In
her sobbing she felt the thing under her feet and knew that she could not
get rid of it. She hated the box, and yet she must cling to it now. She
was thoroughly ashamed of the box, and yet she must seem to take a pride
in it. She was horribly afraid of the box, and yet she must keep it in her
own very bedroom. And what should she say about the box now to Miss
Macnulty, who sat by her side, stiff and scornful, offering her smelling-
bottles, but not offering her sympathy? "My dear," she said at last, "that
horrid man has quite upset me.
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