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Trollope, Anthony, 1815-1882

"The Eustace Diamonds"

Greystock. Only it kills me to make Lady Fawn unhappy."
Amelia left the culprit, feeling that no good had been done, and Lady Fawn
did not see the delinquent till late in the afternoon. Lord Fawn had in
the mean time wandered out along the river all alone to brood over the
condition of his affairs. It had been an evil day for him in which he had
first seen Lady Eustace. From the first moment of his engagement to her he
had been an unhappy man. Her treatment of him, the stories which reached
his ears from Mrs. Hittaway and others, Mr. Camperdown's threats of law in
regard to the diamonds, and Frank Greystock's insults, altogether made him
aware that he could not possibly marry Lady Eustace. But yet he had no
proper and becoming way of escaping from the bonds of his engagement. He
was a man with a conscience, and was made miserable by the idea of
behaving badly to a woman. Perhaps it might have been difficult to analyse
his misery and to decide how much arose from the feeling that he was
behaving badly, and how much from the conviction that the world would
accuse him of doing so; but between the two he was wretched enough.


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