Then had come the affair of
the diamonds--an affair of ten thousand pounds!--as Mr. Camperdown would
exclaim to himself, throwing his eyes up to the ceiling. And now it seemed
that she was to get the better of him even in that, although there could
not be a shadow of doubt as to her falsehood and fraudulent dishonesty!
His luck in the matter was so bad! John Eustace had no backbone, no
spirit, no proper feeling as to his own family. Lord Fawn was as weak as
water, and almost disgraced the cause by the accident of his adherence to
it. Greystock, who would have been a tower of strength, had turned against
him, and was now prepared to maintain that the harpy was right. Mr.
Camperdown knew that the harpy was wrong, that she was a harpy, and he
would not abandon the cause; but the difficulties in his way were great
and the annoyance to which he was subjected was excessive. His wife and
daughters were still at Dawlish, and he was up in town in September,
simply because the harpy had the present possession of these diamonds.
Mr. Camperdown was a man turned sixty, handsome, grey-haired, healthy,
somewhat florid, and carrying in his face and person external signs of
prosperity and that kind of self-assertion which prosperity always
produces.
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