Don't you think that
your friendship is more to me than all the diamonds in London?"
"You shall have both, my dear," said the Duchess,--quite in earnest
in her promise. Madame Goesler shook her head. "Nobody ever
repudiates legacies. The Queen would take the jewels if they were
left to her."
"I am not the Queen. I have to be more careful what I do than any
queen. I will take nothing under the Duke's will. I will ask a boon
which I have already named, and if it be given me as a gift by
the Duke's heir, I will wear it till I die. You will write to Mr.
Palliser?"
"I couldn't do it," said the Duchess.
"Then I will write myself." And she did write, and of all the rich
things which the Duke of Omnium had left to her, she took nothing but
the little ring with the black stone which he had always worn on his
finger.
CHAPTER XXVII
An Editor's Wrath
On that Sunday evening in London Mr. Low was successful in finding
the Vice-Chancellor, and the great judge smiled and nodded, listened
to the story, and acknowledged that the circumstances were very
peculiar.
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