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Trollope, Anthony, 1815-1882

"The Eustace Diamonds"

"A necklace can't be an
heirloom!" said Mr. Camperdown to himself, telling off on his fingers half
a dozen instances in which he had either known or had heard that the head
of a family had so arranged the future possession of the family jewels.
Then he again read Mr. Dove's opinion, and actually took a law-book off
his shelves with the view of testing the correctness of the barrister in
reference to some special assertion. A pot or a pan might be an heirloom,
but not a necklace! Mr. Camperdown could hardly bring himself to believe
that this was law. And then as to paraphernalia! Up to this moment, though
he had been called upon to arrange great dealings in reference to widows,
he had never as yet heard of a claim made by a widow for paraphernalia.
But then the widows with whom he had been called upon to deal had been
ladies quite content to accept the good things settled upon them by the
liberal prudence of their friends and husbands, not greedy, blood-sucking
harpies such as this Lady Eustace. It was quite terrible to Mr. Camperdown
that one of his clients should have fallen into such a pit. _Mors omnibus
est communis.


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