"She would have them sent here and unpacked," said Mr. Palliser, "though I told her it was foolish."
"Of course I would," said Lady Glencora. "Everything shall be unpacked and shown. It's easy to get somebody to pack them again."
Much of the wedding tribute had already been deposited with the china, and among other things there were the jewels that Lady Midlothian had brought.
"Upon my word, her ladyship's diamonds are not to be sneezed at," said Lady Glencora.
"I don't care for diamonds," said Alice.
Then Lady Glencora took up the Countess's trinkets, and shook her head and turned up her nose. There was a wonderfully comic expression on her face as she did so.
"To me they are just as good as the others," said Alice.
"To me they are not, then," said Lady Glencora. "Diamonds are diamonds, and garnets are garnets; and I am not so romantic but what I know the difference."
On the evening before the marriage Alice and Lady Glencora walked for the last time through the Priory ruins. It was now September, and the evenings were still long, so that the ladies could get out upon the lawn after dinner. Whether Lady Glencora would have been allowed to walk through the ruins so late as half-past eight in the evening if her husband had been there may be doubtful, but her husband was away and she took this advantage of his absence.
"Do you remember that night we were here?" said Lady Glencora.