"Nobody has dared to accuse me of anything. What makes you come here and say such things?"
"Ah,—Lady Eustace. It is because these calumnies are spoken so openly behind your back."
"Who speaks them? Mrs. Carbuncle, and Lord George Carruthers;—my enemies."
Mr. Emilius was beginning to feel that he was not making progress. "I was on the point of observing to you that according to the view of the matter which I, as a clergyman, have taken, you were altogether justified in the steps which you took for the protection of property which was your own, but which had been attacked by designing persons."
"Of course I was justified," said Lizzie.
"You know best, Lady Eustace, whether any assistance I can offer will avail you anything."
"I don't want any assistance, Mr. Emilius,—thank you."
"I certainly have been given to understand that they who ought to stand by you with the closest devotion have, in this period of what I may, perhaps, call—tribulation, deserted your side with cold selfishness."
"But there isn't any tribulation, and nobody has deserted my side."
"I was told that Lord Fawn—"