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The Eustace Diamonds

A >> Anthony Trollope >> The Eustace Diamonds




"They ought to have been guilty," said Barrington Erle.

"They were guilty," protested Mr. Bonteen.

Mr. Palliser was enjoying ten minutes of recreation before he went back to
his letters. "I can't say that I attended to the case very closely," he
observed, "and perhaps, therefore, I am not, entitled to speak about it."

"If people only spoke about what they attended to, how very little there
would be to say, eh, Mr. Bonteen?" This observation came, of course, from
Lady Glencora.

"But as far as I could hear," continued Mr. Palliser, "Lord George
Carruthers cannot possibly have had anything to do with it. It was a
stupid mistake on the part of the police."

"I'm not quite so sure, Mr. Palliser," said Bonteen.

"I know Coldfoot told me so." Now, Sir Harry Coldfoot was at this time
Secretary of State for the home affairs, and in a matter of such
importance, of course, had an opinion of his own.

"We all know that he had money dealings with Benjamin, the Jew," said Mrs.
Bonteen.

"Why didn't he come forward as a witness when he was summoned?" asked Mrs.
Bonteen triumphantly. "And as for the woman, does anybody mean to say that
she should not have been indicted for perjury?"

"The woman, as you are pleased to call her, is my particular friend," said
Lady Glencora. When Lady Glencora made any such statement as this--and she
often did make such statements--no one dared to answer her. It was
understood that Lady Glencora was not to be snubbed, though she was very
much given to snubbing others. She had attained this position for herself
by a mixture of beauty, rank, wealth, and courage, but the courage had, of
the four, been her greatest mainstay.

Then Lord Chiltern, who was playing billiards with Barrington Erle, rapped
his cue down on the floor, and made a speech.

"I never was so sick of anything in my life as I am of Lady Eustace.
People have talked about her now for the last six months."

"Only three months, Lord Chiltern," said Lady Glencora in a tone of
rebuke.

"And all that I can hear of her is that she has told a lot of lies and
lost a necklace."

"When Lady Chiltern loses a necklace worth ten thousand pounds, there will
be talk of her," said Lady Glencora.

At that moment Madame Max Goesler entered the room and whispered a word to
the hostess. She had just come from the duke, who could not bear the
racket of the billiard-room. "Wants to go to bed, does he? Very well. I'll
go to him."

"He seems to be quite fatigued with his fascination about Lady Eustace."

"I call that woman a perfect god-send. What should we have done without
her?" This Lady Glencora said almost to herself as she prepared to join
the duke. The duke had only one more observation to make before he retired
for the night.

"I'm afraid, you know, that your friend hasn't what I call a good time
before her, Glencora."

In this opinion of the Duke of Omnium, the readers of this story will
perhaps agree.

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