"
Mrs. Carbuncle could not resist the opportunity of showing that she did
not think so very much of that coming thirty-five-pound "gift" for which
the bargain had been made.
"That's what they say. And they say ever so many other things besides.
They mean to prove that it's an--heirloom."
"Perhaps it is."
"But it isn't. My cousin Frank, who knows more about law than any other
man in London, says that they can't make a necklace an heirloom. If it was
a brooch or a ring, it would be different. I don't quite understand it,
but it is so."
"It's a pity Sir Florian didn't say something about it in his will,"
suggested Mrs. Carbuncle.
"But he did; at least, not just about the necklace." Then Lady Eustace
explained the nature of her late husband's will, as far as it regarded
chattels to be found in the castle of Portray at the time of his death;
and added the fiction, which had now become common to her, as to the
necklace having been given to her in Scotland.
"I shouldn't let them have it," said Mrs. Carbuncle.
"I don't mean," said Lizzie.
"I should sell them," said Mrs. Carbuncle.
"But why?"
"Because there are so many accidents.
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