"I'm told
that the police think that he has got them."
"How very dreadful!"
"Yes; it's dreadful enough. At any rate, men got into Lizzie's room at
night and took away the iron box and diamonds, and all. It may be she was
asleep at the time; but she's one of those who pretty nearly always sleep
with one eye open."
"She can't be so bad as that, Lady Linlithgow."
"Perhaps not. We shall see. They had just begun a lawsuit about the
diamonds, to get them back. And then all at once they're stolen. It looks
what the men call--fishy. I'm told that all the police in London are up
about it."
On the very next day who should come to Brook Street but Lizzie Eustace
herself. She and her aunt had quarrelled, and they hated each other; but
the old woman had called upon Lizzie, advising her, as the reader will
perhaps remember, to give up the diamonds, and now Lizzie returned the
visit. "So you're here, installed in poor Macnulty's place," began Lizzie
to her old friend, the countess at the moment being out of the room.
"I am staying with your aunt for a few months as her companion. Is it
true, Lizzie, that all your diamonds have been stolen?" Lizzie gave an
account of the robbery, true in every respect except in regard to the
contents of the box.
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