There had been a time when it seemed to be admitted that she
was so wicked in keeping the diamonds in opposition to the continued
demands made for them by Mr. Camperdown, that all people would be
justified in dropping her, and Lord Fawn among the number. But since the
two robberies public opinion had veered round three or four points in
Lizzie's favour and people were beginning to say that she had been ill-
used. Then had come Mrs. Hittaway's evidence as to Lizzie's wicked doings
down in Scotland--the wicked doings which Andy Gowran had described with a
vehemence so terribly moral--and that which had been at first, as it were,
added to the diamonds, as a supplementary weight thrown into the scale so
that Lizzie's iniquities might bring her absolutely to the ground, had
gradually assumed the position of being the first charge against her. Lady
Fawn had felt no aversion to discussing the diamonds. When Lizzie was
called a "thief," and a "robber," and a "swindler," by one or another of
the ladies of the family--who, in using those strong terms, whispered the
words as ladies are wont to do when they desire to lessen the impropriety
of the strength of their language by the gentleness of the tone in which
the words are spoken--when Lizzie was thus described in Lady Fawn's
hearing in her own house, she had felt no repugnance to it.
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