Lizzie then makes a play for Frank, but he's already engaged to Lizzie's childhood pal, Lucy Morris - who also happens to live with Lord Fawn's mother, as governess to his youngest sisters. Lord Fawn pops the question first, but quickly tries to back out of the engagement when he hears about Lizzie's legal troubles. She decides she needs a man to help her fight the nasty lawyers, and waffles between her cousin, Frank Greystock, a poor lawyer and MP and Lord Fawn, a financially struggling aristocrat (and a former suitor of Violet Effingham from Phineas Finn, the previous Palliser novel). (Lizzie has also received a life interest in an estate in Scotland and an annual income of 4000 pounds, so she's not hurting). Lizzie claims that her husband gave them to her before he died, as a gift, but Eustace lawyers disagree, saying they're part of the estate, and must be passed down to his son and heir. The diamonds in question are a necklace worth about 10,000 pounds, about $750,000 in today's money. He dies young with a pregnant widow, and relatives who are very unhappy with this interloper who is permanently attached to the family. Lizzie knows all this and uses it to her advantage poor Florian doesn't realize he's married a sly mercenary until it's too late. She marries well, to Lord Florian Eustace, who has a fortune, a title, and good family, but unfortunately, poor health.

Lady Elizabeth Eustace, nee Greystock, is a young, beautiful woman of good family, but not much fortune. Basically, much of the plot revolves around Lady Elizabeth Eustace and her diamonds - and whether they actually belong to her. This is the 19th novel by Trollope that I've read so far, and it's one of my favorites. The Eustace Diamonds is the third novel in Anthony Trollope's Pallisers series.

The eustace diamonds