"Lord Fawn is behaving about it in the most atrocious manner," continued
Frank, "and the long and the short of it is that there will be no
marriage!"
"No marriage!" exclaimed Mrs. Greystock.
"And what is the truth about the diamonds?" asked the dean.
"Ah; it will give the lawyers a job before they decide that. They're very
valuable; worth about ten thousand pounds, I'm told; but the most of it
will go among some of my friends at the Chancery bar. It's a pity that I
should be out of the scramble myself."
"But why should you be out?" asked his mother with tender regrets, not
thinking of the matter as her son was thinking of it, but feeling that
when there was so much wealth so very near him, he ought not to let it all
go past him.
"As far as I can see," continued Frank, "she has a fair claim to them. I
suppose they'll file a bill in Chancery, and then it will be out of my
line altogether. She says her husband gave them to her, absolutely put
them on her neck himself, and told her that they were hers. As to their
being an heirloom, that turns out to be impossible. I didn't know it, but
it seems you can't make diamonds an heirloom.
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