But Lady Glencora, though very true as a
politician, was apt to have opinions of her own, and to take certain
flights in which she chose that others of the party should follow her. She
now expressed an opinion that Lady Eustace was a victim, and all the Mrs.
Bonteens, with some even of the Mr. Bonteens, found themselves compelled
to agree with her. She stood too high among her set to be subject to that
obedience which restrained others; too high, also, for others to resist
her leading. As a member of a party she was erratic and dangerous, but
from her position and peculiar temperament she was powerful. When she
declared that poor Lady Eustace was a victim, others were obliged to say
so too. This was particularly hard upon Lord Fawn, and the more so as Lady
Glencora took upon her to assert that Lord Fawn had no right to jilt the
young woman. And Lady Glencora had this to support her views--that for the
last week past, indeed ever since the depositions which had been taken
after the robbery in Hertford Street, the police had expressed no fresh
suspicions in regard to Lizzie Eustace. She heard daily from Barrington
Erie that Major Mackintosh and Bunfit and Gager were as active as ever in
their inquiries, that all Scotland Yard was determined to unravel the
mystery, and that there were emissaries at work tracking the diamonds at
Hamburg, Paris, Vienna, and New York.
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