initial commit of ebook 5231HEADmain

1 files changed, 36972 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/8wwlv12.txt b/old/8wwlv12.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..92fc36a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/8wwlv12.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,36972 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope
+(#36 in our series by Anthony Trollope)
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
+copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
+this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
+
+This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
+Gutenberg file.  Please do not remove it.  Do not change or edit the
+header without written permission.
+
+Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
+eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file.  Included is
+important information about your specific rights and restrictions in
+how the file may be used.  You can also find out about how to make a
+donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: The Way We Live Now
+
+Author: Anthony Trollope
+
+Release Date: March, 2004  [EBook #5231]
+[This e-book was first posted on June 10, 2002]
+[This edition 12 was first posted on March 1, 2004]
+
+Edition: 12
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: iso-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE WAY WE LIVE NOW ***
+
+
+
+
+E-text originally prepared by Andrew Turek
+and extensively revised by Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE WAY WE LIVE NOW
+
+by Anthony Trollope
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I - THREE EDITORS
+
+
+Let the reader be introduced to Lady Carbury, upon whose character and
+doings much will depend of whatever interest these pages may have, as
+she sits at her writing-table in her own room in her own house in
+Welbeck Street. Lady Carbury spent many hours at her desk, and wrote
+many letters wrote also very much beside letters. She spoke of herself
+in these days as a woman devoted to Literature, always spelling the
+word with a big L. Something of the nature of her devotion may be
+learned by the perusal of three letters which on this morning she had
+written with a quickly running hand. Lady Carbury was rapid in
+everything, and in nothing more rapid than in the writing of letters.
+Here is Letter No. 1
+
+
+   Thursday, Welbeck Street.
+
+   DEAR FRIEND,
+
+   I have taken care that you shall have the early sheets of my two
+   new volumes to-morrow, or Saturday at latest, so that you may, if
+   so minded, give a poor struggler like myself a lift in your next
+   week's paper. Do give a poor struggler a lift. You and I have so
+   much in common, and I have ventured to flatter myself that we are
+   really friends! I do not flatter you when I say, that not only
+   would aid from you help me more than from any other quarter, but
+   also that praise from you would gratify my vanity more than any
+   other praise. I almost think you will like my "Criminal Queens."
+   The sketch of Semiramis is at any rate spirited, though I had to
+   twist it about a little to bring her in guilty. Cleopatra, of
+   course, I have taken from Shakespeare. What a wench she was! I
+   could not quite make Julia a queen; but it was impossible to pass
+   over so piquant a character. You will recognise in the two or
+   three ladies of the empire how faithfully I have studied my
+   Gibbon. Poor dear old Belisarius! I have done the best I could
+   with Joanna, but I could not bring myself to care for her. In our
+   days she would simply have gone to Broadmore. I hope you will not
+   think that I have been too strong in my delineations of Henry VIII
+   and his sinful but unfortunate Howard. I don't care a bit about
+   Anne Boleyne. I am afraid that I have been tempted into too great
+   length about the Italian Catherine; but in truth she has been my
+   favourite. What a woman! What a devil! Pity that a second Dante
+   could not have constructed for her a special hell. How one traces
+   the effect of her training in the life of our Scotch Mary. I trust
+   you will go with me in my view as to the Queen of Scots. Guilty!
+   guilty always! Adultery, murder, treason, and all the rest of it.
+   But recommended to mercy because she was royal. A queen bred, born
+   and married, and with such other queens around her, how could she
+   have escaped to be guilty? Marie Antoinette I have not quite
+   acquitted. It would be uninteresting perhaps untrue. I have
+   accused her lovingly, and have kissed when I scourged. I trust the
+   British public will not be angry because I do not whitewash
+   Caroline, especially as I go along with them altogether in abusing
+   her husband.
+
+   But I must not take up your time by sending you another book,
+   though it gratifies me to think that I am writing what none but
+   yourself will read. Do it yourself, like a dear man, and, as you
+   are great, be merciful. Or rather, as you are a friend, be loving.
+
+   Yours gratefully and faithfully,
+
+   MATILDA CARBURY.
+
+   After all how few women there are who can raise themselves above
+   the quagmire of what we call love, and make themselves anything
+   but playthings for men. Of almost all these royal and luxurious
+   sinners it was the chief sin that in some phase of their lives
+   they consented to be playthings without being wives. I have
+   striven so hard to be proper; but when girls read everything, why
+   should not an old woman write anything?
+
+
+This letter was addressed to Nicholas Broune, Esq., the editor of the
+'Morning Breakfast Table,' a daily newspaper of high character; and,
+as it was the longest, so was it considered to be the most important
+of the three. Mr Broune was a man powerful in his profession,--and he
+was fond of ladies. Lady Carbury in her letter had called herself an
+old woman, but she was satisfied to do so by a conviction that no one
+else regarded her in that light. Her age shall be no secret to the
+reader, though to her most intimate friends, even to Mr Broune, it had
+never been divulged. She was forty-three, but carried her years so
+well, and had received such gifts from nature, that it was impossible
+to deny that she was still a beautiful woman. And she used her beauty
+not only to increase her influence,--as is natural to women who are
+well-favoured,--but also with a well-considered calculation that she
+could obtain material assistance in the procuring of bread and cheese,
+which was very necessary to Her, by a prudent adaptation to her
+purposes of the good things with which providence had endowed her. She
+did not fall in love, she did not wilfully flirt, she did not commit
+herself; but she smiled and whispered, and made confidences, and
+looked out of her own eyes into men's eyes as though there might be
+some mysterious bond between her and them--if only mysterious
+circumstances would permit it. But the end of all was to induce some
+one to do something which would cause a publisher to give her good
+payment for indifferent writing, or an editor to be lenient when, upon
+the merits of the case, he should have been severe. Among all her
+literary friends, Mr Broune was the one in whom she most trusted; and
+Mr Broune was fond of handsome women. It may be as well to give a
+short record of a scene which had taken place between Lady Carbury and
+her friend about a month before the writing of this letter which has
+been produced. She had wanted him to take a series of papers for the
+'Morning Breakfast Table,' and to have them paid for at rate No. 1,
+whereas she suspected that he was rather doubtful as to their merit,
+and knew that, without special favour, she could not hope for
+remuneration above rate No. 2, or possibly even No. 3. So she had
+looked into his eyes, and had left her soft, plump hand for a moment
+in his. A man in such circumstances is so often awkward, not knowing
+with any accuracy when to do one thing and when another! Mr Broune, in
+a moment of enthusiasm, had put his arm round Lady Carbury's waist and
+had kissed her. To say that Lady Carbury was angry, as most women
+would be angry if so treated, would be to give an unjust idea of her
+character. It was a little accident which really carried with it no
+injury, unless it should be the injury of leading to a rupture between
+herself and a valuable ally. No feeling of delicacy was shocked. What
+did it matter? No unpardonable insult had been offered; no harm had
+been done, if only the dear susceptible old donkey could be made at
+once to understand that that wasn't the way to go on!
+
+Without a flutter, and without a blush, she escaped from his arm, and
+then made him an excellent little speech. 'Mr Broune, how foolish, how
+wrong, how mistaken! Is it not so? Surely you do not wish to put an
+end to the friendship between us!'
+
+'Put an end to our friendship, Lady Carbury! Oh, certainly not that.'
+
+'Then why risk it by such an act? Think of my son and of my daughter,--
+both grown up. Think of the past troubles of my life;--so much suffered
+and so little deserved. No one knows them so well as you do. Think of
+my name, that has been so often slandered but never disgraced! Say
+that you are sorry, and it shall be forgotten.'
+
+When a man has kissed a woman it goes against the grain with him to
+say the very next moment that he is sorry for what he has done. It is
+as much as to declare that the kiss had not answered his expectation.
+Mr Broune could not do this, and perhaps Lady Carbury did not quite
+expect it. 'You know that for world I would not offend you,' he said.
+This sufficed. Lady Carbury again looked into his eyes, and a promise
+was given that the articles should be printed--and with generous
+remuneration.
+
+When the interview was over Lady Carbury regarded it as having been
+quite successful. Of course when struggles have to be made and hard
+work done, there will be little accidents. The lady who uses a street
+cab must encounter mud and dust which her richer neighbour, who has a
+private carriage, will escape. She would have preferred not to have
+been kissed;--but what did it matter? With Mr Broune the affair was more
+serious. 'Confound them all,' he said to himself as he left the house;
+'no amount of experience enables a man to know them.' As he went away
+he almost thought that Lady Carbury had intended him to kiss her
+again, and he was almost angry with himself in that he had not done
+so. He had seen her three or four times since, but had not repeated
+the offence.
+
+We will now go on to the other letters, both of which were addressed
+to the editors of other newspapers. The second was written to Mr
+Booker, of the 'Literary Chronicle.' Mr Booker was a hard-working
+professor of literature, by no means without talent, by no means
+without influence, and by no means without a conscience. But, from the
+nature of the struggles in which he had been engaged, by compromises
+which had gradually been driven upon him by the encroachment of
+brother authors on the one side and by the demands on the other of
+employers who looked only to their profits, he had fallen into a
+routine of work in which it was very difficult to be scrupulous, and
+almost impossible to maintain the delicacies of a literary conscience.
+He was now a bald-headed old man of sixty, with a large family of
+daughters, one of whom was a widow dependent on him with two little
+children. He had five hundred a year for editing the 'Literary
+Chronicle,' which, through his energy, had become a valuable property.
+He wrote for magazines, and brought out some book of his own almost
+annually. He kept his head above water, and was regarded by those who
+knew about him, but did not know him, as a successful man. He always
+kept up his spirits, and was able in literary circles to show that he
+could hold his own. But he was driven by the stress of circumstances
+to take such good things as came in his way, and could hardly afford
+to be independent. It must be confessed that literary scruple had long
+departed from his mind. Letter No. 2 was as follows;--
+
+
+   Welbeck Street, 25th February, 187-.
+
+   DEAR MR BOOKER,
+
+   I have told Mr Leadham [Mr Leadham was senior partner in the
+   enterprising firm of publishers known as Messrs. Leadham and
+   Loiter] to send you an early copy of my "Criminal Queens." I have
+   already settled with my friend Mr Broune that I am to do your "New
+   Tale of a Tub" in the "Breakfast Table." Indeed, I am about it
+   now, and am taking great pains with it. If there is anything you
+   wish to have specially said as to your view of the Protestantism
+   of the time, let me know. I should like you to say a word as to
+   the accuracy of my historical details, which I know you can safely
+   do. Don't put it off, as the sale does so much depend on early
+   notices. I am only getting a royalty, which does not commence till
+   the first four hundred are sold.
+
+   Yours sincerely,
+
+   MATILDA CARBURY.
+
+   ALFRED BOOKER, ESQ.,
+
+   "Literary Chronicle" Office, Strand.
+
+
+There was nothing in this which shocked Mr Booker. He laughed
+inwardly, with a pleasantly reticent chuckle, as he thought of Lady
+Carbury dealing with his views of Protestantism,--as he thought also
+of the numerous historical errors into which that clever lady must
+inevitably fall in writing about matters of which he believed her to
+know nothing. But he was quite alive to the fact that a favourable
+notice in the 'Breakfast Table' of his very thoughtful work, called
+the 'New Tale of a Tub,' would serve him, even though written by the
+hand of a female literary charlatan, and he would have no compunction
+as to repaying the service by fulsome praise in the 'Literary
+Chronicle.' He would not probably say that the book was accurate, but
+he would be able to declare that it was delightful reading, that the
+feminine characteristics of the queens had been touched with a
+masterly hand, and that the work was one which would certainly make
+its way into all drawing-rooms. He was an adept at this sort of work,
+and knew well how to review such a book as Lady Carbury's 'Criminal
+Queens,' without bestowing much trouble on the reading. He could
+almost do it without cutting the book, so that its value for purposes
+of after sale might not be injured. And yet Mr Booker was an honest
+man, and had set his face persistently against many literary
+malpractices. Stretched-out type, insufficient lines, and the French
+habit of meandering with a few words over an entire page, had been
+rebuked by him with conscientious strength. He was supposed to be
+rather an Aristides among reviewers. But circumstanced as he was he
+could not oppose himself altogether to the usages of the time. 'Bad;
+of course it is bad,' he said to a young friend who was working with
+him on his periodical. 'Who doubts that? How many very bad things are
+there that we do! But if we were to attempt to reform all our bad ways
+at once, we should never do any good thing. I am not strong enough to
+put the world straight, and I doubt if you are.' Such was Mr Booker.
+
+Then there was letter No. 3, to Mr Ferdinand Alf. Mr Alf managed, and,
+as it was supposed, chiefly owned, the 'Evening Pulpit,' which during
+the last two years had become 'quite a property,' as men connected
+with the press were in the habit of saying. The 'Evening Pulpit' was
+supposed to give daily to its readers all that had been said and done
+up to two o'clock in the day by all the leading people in the
+metropolis, and to prophesy with wonderful accuracy what would be the
+sayings and doings of the twelve following hours. This was effected
+with an air of wonderful omniscience, and not unfrequently with an
+ignorance hardly surpassed by its arrogance. But the writing was
+clever. The facts, if not true, were well invented; the arguments, if
+not logical, were seductive. The presiding spirit of the paper had the
+gift, at any rate, of knowing what the people for whom he catered
+would like to read, and how to get his subjects handled so that the
+reading should be pleasant. Mr Booker's 'Literary Chronicle' did not
+presume to entertain any special political opinions. The 'Breakfast
+Table' was decidedly Liberal. The 'Evening Pulpit' was much given to
+politics, but held strictly to the motto which it had assumed;--
+
+  Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri
+
+and consequently had at all times the invaluable privilege of abusing
+what was being done, whether by one side or by the other. A newspaper
+that wishes to make its fortune should never waste its columns and
+weary its readers by praising anything. Eulogy is invariably dull,--a
+fact that Mr Alf had discovered and had utilized.
+
+Mr Alf had, moreover, discovered another fact. Abuse from those who
+occasionally praise is considered to be personally offensive, and they
+who give personal offence will sometimes make the world too hot to
+hold them. But censure from those who are always finding fault is
+regarded so much as a matter of course that it ceases to be
+objectionable. The caricaturist, who draws only caricatures, is held
+to be justifiable, let him take what liberties he may with a man's
+face and person. It is his trade, and his business calls upon him to
+vilify all that he touches. But were an artist to publish a series of
+portraits, in which two out of a dozen were made to be hideous, he
+would certainly make two enemies, if not more. Mr Alf never made
+enemies, for he praised no one, and, as far as the expression of his
+newspaper went, was satisfied with nothing.
+
+Personally, Mr Alf was a remarkable man. No one knew whence he came or
+what he had been. He was supposed to have been born a German Jew; and
+certain ladies said that they could distinguish in his tongue the
+slightest possible foreign accent. Nevertheless it was conceded to him
+that he knew England as only an Englishman can know it. During the
+last year or two he had 'come up' as the phrase goes, and had come up
+very thoroughly. He had been blackballed at three or four clubs, but
+had effected an entrance at two or three others, and had learned a
+manner of speaking of those which had rejected him calculated to leave
+on the minds of hearers a conviction that the societies in question
+were antiquated, imbecile, and moribund. He was never weary of
+implying that not to know Mr Alf, not to be on good terms with Mr Alf,
+not to understand that let Mr Alf have been born where he might and
+how he might he was always to be recognized as a desirable
+acquaintance, was to be altogether out in the dark. And that which he
+so constantly asserted, or implied, men and women around him began at
+last to believe,--and Mr Alf became an acknowledged something in the
+different worlds of politics, letters, and fashion.
+
+He was a good-looking man, about forty years old, but carrying himself
+as though he was much younger, spare, below the middle height, with
+dark brown hair which would have shown a tinge of grey but for the
+dyer's art, with well-cut features, with a smile constantly on his
+mouth the pleasantness of which was always belied by the sharp
+severity of his eyes. He dressed with the utmost simplicity, but also
+with the utmost care. He was unmarried, had a small house of his own
+close to Berkeley Square at which he gave remarkable dinner parties,
+kept four or five hunters in Northamptonshire, and was reputed to earn
+£6,000 a year out of the 'Evening Pulpit' and to spend about half of
+that income. He also was intimate after his fashion with Lady Carbury,
+whose diligence in making and fostering useful friendships had been
+unwearied. Her letter to Mr Alf was as follows:
+
+
+   DEAR MR ALF,
+
+   Do tell me who wrote the review on Fitzgerald Barker's last poem.
+   Only I know you won't. I remember nothing done so well. I should
+   think the poor wretch will hardly hold his head up again before
+   the autumn. But it was fully deserved. I have no patience with the
+   pretensions of would-be poets who contrive by toadying and
+   underground influences to get their volumes placed on every
+   drawing-room table. I know no one to whom the world has been so
+   good-natured in this way as to Fitzgerald Barker, but I have heard
+   of no one who has extended the good nature to the length of
+   reading his poetry.
+
+   Is it not singular how some men continue to obtain the reputation
+   of popular authorship without adding a word to the literature of
+   their country worthy of note? It is accomplished by unflagging
+   assiduity in the system of puffing. To puff and to get one's self
+   puffed have become different branches of a new profession. Alas,
+   me! I wish I might find a class open in which lessons could be
+   taken by such a poor tyro as myself. Much as I hate the thing from
+   my very soul, and much as I admire the consistency with which the
+   'Pulpit' has opposed it, I myself am so much in want of support
+   for my own little efforts, and am struggling so hard honestly to
+   make for myself a remunerative career, that I think, were the
+   opportunity offered to me, I should pocket my honour, lay aside
+   the high feeling which tells me that praise should be bought
+   neither by money nor friendship, and descend among the low things,
+   in order that I might one day have the pride of feeling that I had
+   succeeded by my own work in providing for the needs of my
+   children.
+
+   But I have not as yet commenced the descent downwards; and
+   therefore I am still bold enough to tell you that I shall look,
+   not with concern but with a deep interest, to anything which may
+   appear in the 'Pulpit' respecting my 'Criminal Queens.' I venture
+   to think that the book,--though I wrote it myself,--has an
+   importance of its own which will secure for it some notice. That
+   my inaccuracy will be laid bare and presumption scourged I do not
+   in the least doubt, but I think your reviewer will be able to
+   certify that the sketches are lifelike and the portraits well
+   considered. You will not hear me told, at any rate, that I had
+   better sit at home and darn my stockings, as you said the other
+   day of that poor unfortunate Mrs Effington Stubbs.
+
+   I have not seen you for the last three weeks. I have a few friends
+   every Tuesday evening;--pray come next week or the week following.
+   And pray believe that no amount of editorial or critical severity
+   shall make me receive you otherwise than with a smile.
+
+   Most sincerely yours,
+
+   MATILDA CARBURY.
+
+
+Lady Carbury, having finished her third letter, threw herself back in
+her chair, and for a moment or two closed her eyes, as though about to
+rest. But she soon remembered that the activity of her life did not
+admit of such rest. She therefore seized her pen and began scribbling
+further notes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II - THE CARBURY FAMILY
+
+
+Something of herself and condition Lady Carbury has told the reader in
+the letters given in the former chapter, but more must be added. She
+has declared she had been cruelly slandered; but she has also shown
+that she was not a woman whose words about herself could be taken with
+much confidence. If the reader does not understand so much from her
+letters to the three editors they have been written in vain. She has
+been made to say that her object in work was to provide for the need
+of her children, and that with that noble purpose before her she was
+struggling to make for herself a career in literature. Detestably
+false as had been her letters to the editors, absolutely and
+abominably foul as was the entire system by which she was endeavouring
+to achieve success, far away from honour and honesty as she had been
+carried by her ready subserviency to the dirty things among which she
+had lately fallen, nevertheless her statements about herself were
+substantially true. She had been ill-treated. She had been slandered.
+She was true to her children,--especially devoted to one of them--and
+was ready to work her nails off if by doing so she could advance their
+interests.
+
+She was the widow of one Sir Patrick Carbury, who many years since had
+done great things as a soldier in India, and had been thereupon
+created a baronet. He had married a young wife late in life and,
+having found out when too late that he had made a mistake, had
+occasionally spoilt his darling and occasionally ill-used her. In
+doing each he had done it abundantly. Among Lady Carbury's faults had
+never been that of even incipient,--not even of sentimental--infidelity
+to her husband. When as a lovely and penniless girl of eighteen she
+had consented to marry a man of forty-four who had the spending of a
+large income, she had made up her mind to abandon all hope of that
+sort of love which poets describe and which young people generally
+desire to experience. Sir Patrick at the time of his marriage was
+red-faced, stout, bald, very choleric, generous in money, suspicious
+in temper, and intelligent. He knew how to govern men. He could read
+and understand a book. There was nothing mean about him. He had his
+attractive qualities. He was a man who might be loved,--but he was
+hardly a man for love. The young Lady Carbury had understood her
+position and had determined to do her duty. She had resolved before
+she went to the altar that she would never allow herself to flirt and
+she had never flirted. For fifteen years things had gone tolerably
+well with her,--by which it is intended that the reader should
+understand that they had so gone that she had been able to tolerate
+them. They had been home in England for three or four years, and then
+Sir Patrick had returned with some new and higher appointment. For
+fifteen years, though he had been passionate, imperious, and often
+cruel, he had never been jealous. A boy and a girl had been born to
+them, to whom both father and mother had been over indulgent,--but the
+mother, according to her lights, had endeavoured to do her duty by
+them. But from the commencement of her life she had been educated in
+deceit, and her married life had seemed to make the practice of deceit
+necessary to her. Her mother had run away from her father, and she had
+been tossed to and fro between this and that protector, sometimes
+being in danger of wanting any one to care for her, till she had been
+made sharp, incredulous, and untrustworthy by the difficulties of her
+position. But she was clever, and had picked up an education and good
+manners amidst the difficulties of her childhood,--and had been
+beautiful to look at.
+
+To marry and have the command of money, to do her duty correctly, to
+live in a big house and be respected, had been her ambition,--and during
+the first fifteen years of her married life she was successful amidst
+great difficulties. She would smile within five minutes of violent
+ill-usage. Her husband would even strike her,--and the first effort of
+her mind would be given to conceal the fact from all the world. In
+latter years he drank too much, and she struggled hard first to
+prevent the evil, and then to prevent and to hide the ill effects of
+the evil. But in doing all this she schemed, and lied, and lived a
+life of manoeuvres. Then, at last, when she felt that she was no
+longer quite a young woman, she allowed herself to attempt to form
+friendships for herself, and among her friends was one of the other
+sex. If fidelity in a wife be compatible with such friendship, if the
+married state does not exact from a woman the necessity of debarring
+herself from all friendly intercourse with any man except her lord,
+Lady Carbury was not faithless. But Sir Carbury became jealous, spoke
+words which even she could not endure, did things which drove even her
+beyond the calculations of her prudence,--and she left him. But even
+this she did in so guarded a way that, as to every step she took, she
+could prove her innocence. Her life at that period is of little moment
+to our story, except that it is essential that the reader should know
+in what she had been slandered. For a month or two all hard words had
+been said against her by her husband's friends, and even by Sir
+Patrick himself. But gradually the truth was known, and after a year's
+separation they came again together and she remained the mistress of
+his house till he died. She brought him home to England, but during
+the short period left to him of life in his old country he had been a
+worn-out, dying invalid. But the scandal of her great misfortune had
+followed her, and some people were never tired of reminding others
+that in the course of her married life Lady Carbury had run away from
+her husband, and had been taken back again by the kind-hearted old
+gentleman.
+
+Sir Patrick had left behind him a moderate fortune, though by no means
+great wealth. To his son, who was now Sir Felix Carbury, he had left
+£1,000 a year; and to his widow as much, with a provision that after
+her death the latter sum should be divided between his son and
+daughter. It therefore came to pass that the young man, who had
+already entered the army when his father died, and upon whom devolved
+no necessity of keeping a house, and who in fact not unfrequently
+lived in his mother's house, had an income equal to that with which
+his mother and sister were obliged to maintain a roof over their head.
+Now Lady Carbury, when she was released from her thraldom at the age
+of forty, had no idea at all of passing her future life amidst the
+ordinary penances of widowhood. She had hitherto endeavoured to do her
+duty, knowing that in accepting her position she was bound to take the
+good and the bad together. She had certainly encountered hitherto much
+that was bad. To be scolded, watched, beaten, and sworn at by a
+choleric old man till she was at last driven out of her house by the
+violence of his ill-usage; to be taken back as a favour with the
+assurance that her name would for the remainder of her life be
+unjustly tarnished; to have her flight constantly thrown in her face;
+and then at last to become for a year or two the nurse of a dying
+debauchee, was a high price to pay for such good things as she had
+hitherto enjoyed. Now at length had come to her a period of relaxation
+--her reward, her freedom, her chance of happiness. She thought much
+about herself, and resolved on one or two things. The time for love
+had gone by, and she would have nothing to do with it. Nor would she
+marry again for convenience. But she would have friends,--real friends;
+friends who could help her,--and whom possibly she might help. She
+would, too, make some career for herself, so that life might not be
+without an interest to her. She would live in London, and would become
+somebody at any rate in some circle. Accident at first rather than
+choice had thrown her among literary people, but that accident had,
+during the last two years, been supported and corroborated by the
+desire which had fallen upon her of earning money. She had known from
+the first that economy would be necessary to her,--not chiefly or
+perhaps not at all from a feeling that she and her daughter could not
+live comfortably together on a thousand a year,--but on behalf of her
+son. She wanted no luxury but a house so placed that people might
+conceive of her that she lived in a proper part of the town. Of her
+daughter's prudence she was as well convinced as of her own. She could
+trust Henrietta in everything. But her son, Sir Felix, was not very
+trustworthy. And yet Sir Felix was the darling of her heart.
+
+At the time of the writing of the three letters, at which our story is
+supposed to begin, she was driven very hard for money. Sir Felix was
+then twenty-five, had been in a fashionable regiment for four years,
+had already sold out, and, to own the truth at once, had altogether
+wasted the property which his father had left him. So much the mother
+knew,--and knew, therefore, that with her limited income she must
+maintain not only herself and daughter, but also the baronet. She did
+not know, however, the amount of the baronet's obligations;--nor,
+indeed, did he, or any one else. A baronet, holding a commission in
+the Guards, and known to have had a fortune left him by his father,
+may go very far in getting into debt; and Sir Felix had made full use
+of all his privileges. His life had been in every way bad. He had
+become a burden on his mother so heavy,--and on his sister also,--that
+their life had become one of unavoidable embarrassments. But not for a
+moment, had either of them ever quarrelled with him. Henrietta had
+been taught by the conduct of both father and mother that every vice
+might be forgiven in a man and in a son, though every virtue was
+expected from a woman, and especially from a daughter. The lesson had
+come to her so early in life that she had learned it without the
+feeling of any grievance. She lamented her brother's evil conduct as
+it affected him, but she pardoned it altogether as it affected
+herself. That all her interests in life should be made subservient to
+him was natural to her; and when she found that her little comforts
+were discontinued, and her moderate expenses curtailed, because he,
+having eaten up all that was his own, was now eating up also all that
+was his mother's, she never complained. Henrietta had been taught to
+think that men in that rank of life in which she had been born always
+did eat up everything.
+
+The mother's feeling was less noble.--or perhaps, it might better be
+said, more open to censure. The boy, who had been beautiful as a star,
+had ever been the cynosure of her eyes, the one thing on which her
+heart had riveted itself. Even during the career of his folly she had
+hardly ventured to say a word to him with the purport of stopping him
+on his road to ruin. In everything she had spoilt him as a boy, and in
+everything she still spoilt him as a man. She was almost proud of his
+vices, and had taken delight in hearing of doings which if not vicious
+of themselves had been ruinous from their extravagance. She had so
+indulged him that even in her own presence he was never ashamed of his
+own selfishness or apparently conscious of the injustice which he did
+to others.
+
+From all this it had come to pass that that dabbling in literature
+which had been commenced partly perhaps from a sense of pleasure in
+the work, partly as a passport into society, had been converted into
+hard work by which money if possible might be earned. So that Lady
+Carbury when she wrote to her friends, the editors, of her struggles
+was speaking the truth. Tidings had reached her of this and the other
+man's success, and,--coming near to her still,--of this and that other
+woman's earnings in literature. And it had seemed to her that, within
+moderate limits, she might give a wide field to her hopes. Why should
+she not add a thousand a year to her income, so that Felix might again
+live like a gentleman and marry that heiress who, in Lady Carbury's
+look-out into the future, was destined to make all things straight!
+Who was so handsome as her son? Who could make himself more agreeable?
+Who had more of that audacity which is the chief thing necessary to
+the winning of heiresses?
+
+And then he could make his wife Lady Carbury. If only enough money
+might be earned to tide over the present evil day, all might be well.
+
+The one most essential obstacle to the chance of success in all this
+was probably Lady Carbury's conviction that her end was to be obtained
+not by producing good books, but by inducing certain people to say
+that her books were good. She did work hard at what she wrote,--hard
+enough at any rate to cover her pages quickly; and was, by nature, a
+clever woman. She could write after a glib, commonplace, sprightly
+fashion, and had already acquired the knack of spreading all she knew
+very thin, so that it might cover a vast surface. She had no ambition
+to write a good book, but was painfully anxious to write a book that
+the critics should say was good. Had Mr Broune, in his closet, told
+her that her book was absolutely trash, but had undertaken at the same
+time to have it violently praised in the 'Breakfast Table', it may be
+doubted whether the critic's own opinion would have even wounded her
+vanity. The woman was false from head to foot, but there was much of
+good in her, false though she was.
+
+Whether Sir Felix, her son, had become what he was solely by bad
+training, or whether he had been born bad, who shall say? It is hardly
+possible that he should not have been better had he been taken away as
+an infant and subjected to moral training by moral teachers. And yet
+again it is hardly possible that any training or want of training
+should have produced a heart so utterly incapable of feeling for
+others as was his. He could not even feel his own misfortunes unless
+they touched the outward comforts of the moment. It seemed that he
+lacked sufficient imagination to realise future misery though the
+futurity to be considered was divided from the present but by a single
+month, a single week,--but by a single night. He liked to be kindly
+treated, to be praised and petted, to be well fed and caressed; and
+they who so treated him were his chosen friends. He had in this the
+instincts of a horse, not approaching the higher sympathies of a dog.
+But it cannot be said of him that he had ever loved any one to the
+extent of denying himself a moment's gratification on that loved one's
+behalf. His heart was a stone. But he was beautiful to lock at,
+ready-witted, and intelligent. He was very dark, with that soft olive
+complexion which so generally gives to young men an appearance of
+aristocratic breeding. His hair, which was never allowed to become
+long, was nearly black, and was soft and silky without that taint of
+grease which is so common with silken-headed darlings. His eyes were
+long, brown in colour, and were made beautiful by the perfect arch of
+the perfect eyebrow. But perhaps the glory of the face was due more to
+the finished moulding and fine symmetry of the nose and mouth than to
+his other features. On his short upper lip he had a moustache as well
+formed as his eyebrows, but he wore no other beard. The form of his
+chin too was perfect, but it lacked that sweetness and softness of
+expression, indicative of softness of heart, which a dimple conveys.
+He was about five feet nine in height, and was as excellent in figure
+as in face. It was admitted by men and clamorously asserted by women
+that no man had ever been more handsome than Felix Carbury, and it
+was admitted also that he never showed consciousness of his beauty. He
+had given himself airs on many scores;--on the score of his money, poor
+fool, while it lasted; on the score of his title; on the score of his
+army standing till he lost it; and especially on the score of
+superiority in fashionable intellect. But he had been clever enough to
+dress himself always with simplicity and to avoid the appearance of
+thought about his outward man. As yet the little world of his
+associates had hardly found out how callous were his affections,--or
+rather how devoid he was of affection. His airs and his appearance,
+joined with some cleverness, had carried him through even the
+viciousness of his life. In one matter he had marred his name, and by
+a moment's weakness had injured his character among his friends more
+than he had done by the folly of three years. There had been a quarrel
+between him and a brother officer, in which he had been the aggressor;
+and, when the moment came in which a man's heart should have produced
+manly conduct, he had first threatened and had then shown the white
+feather. That was now a year since, and he had partly outlived the
+evil;--but some men still remembered that Felix Carbury had been cowed,
+and had cowered.
+
+It was now his business to marry an heiress. He was well aware that it
+was so, and was quite prepared to face his destiny. But he lacked
+something in the art of making love. He was beautiful, had the manners
+of a gentleman, could talk well, lacked nothing of audacity, and had
+no feeling of repugnance at declaring a passion which he did not feel.
+But he knew so little of the passion, that he could hardly make even a
+young girl believe that he felt it. When he talked of love, he not
+only thought that he was talking nonsense, but showed that he thought
+so. From this fault he had already failed with one young lady reputed
+to have £40,000, who had refused him because, as she naively said, she
+knew 'he did not really care.' 'How can I show that I care more than
+by wishing to make you my wife?' he had asked. 'I don't know that you
+can, but all the same you don't care,' she said. And so that young
+lady escaped the pitfall. Now there was another young lady, to whom
+the reader shall be introduced in time, whom Sir Felix was instigated
+to pursue with unremitting diligence. Her wealth was not defined, as
+had been the £40,000 of her predecessor, but was known to be very much
+greater than that. It was, indeed, generally supposed to be
+fathomless, bottomless, endless. It was said that in regard to money
+for ordinary expenditure, money for houses, servants, horses, jewels,
+and the like, one sum was the same as another to the father of this
+young lady. He had great concerns;--concerns so great that the payment
+of ten or twenty thousand pounds upon any trifle was the same thing to
+him,--as to men who are comfortable in their circumstances it matters
+little whether they pay sixpence or ninepence for their mutton chops.
+Such a man may be ruined at any time; but there was no doubt that to
+anyone marrying his daughter during the present season of his
+outrageous prosperity he could give a very large fortune indeed. Lady
+Carbury, who had known the rock on which her son had been once
+wrecked, was very anxious that Sir Felix should at once make a proper
+use of the intimacy which he had effected in the house of this topping
+Croesus of the day.
+
+And now there must be a few words said about Henrietta Carbury. Of
+course she was of infinitely less importance than her brother, who was
+a baronet, the head of that branch of the Carburys, and her mother's
+darling; and, therefore, a few words should suffice. She also was very
+lovely, being like her brother; but somewhat less dark and with
+features less absolutely regular. But she had in her countenance a
+full measure of that sweetness of expression which seems to imply that
+consideration of self is subordinated to consideration for others.
+This sweetness was altogether lacking to her brother. And her face was
+a true index of her character. Again, who shall say why the brother
+and sister had become so opposite to each other; whether they would
+have been thus different had both been taken away as infants from
+their father's and mother's training, or whether the girl's virtues
+were owing altogether to the lower place which she had held in her
+parent's heart? She, at any rate, had not been spoilt by a title, by
+the command of money, and by the temptations of too early acquaintance
+with the world. At the present time she was barely twenty-one years
+old, and had not seen much of London society. Her mother did not
+frequent balls, and during the last two years there had grown upon
+them a necessity for economy which was inimical to many gloves and
+costly dresses. Sir Felix went out of course, but Hetta Carbury spent
+most of her time at home with her mother in Welbeck Street.
+Occasionally the world saw her, and when the world did see her the
+world declared that she was a charming girl. The world was so far
+right.
+
+But for Henrietta Carbury the romance of life had already commenced in
+real earnest. There was another branch of the Carburys, the head
+branch, which was now represented by one Roger Carbury, of Carbury
+Hall. Roger Carbury was a gentleman of whom much will have to be said,
+but here, at this moment, it need only be told that he was
+passionately in love with his cousin Henrietta. He was, however,
+nearly forty years old, and there was one Paul Montague whom Henrietta
+had seen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III - THE BEARGARDEN
+
+
+Lady Carbury's house in Welbeck Street was a modest house enough,
+--with no pretensions to be a mansion, hardly assuming even to be a
+residence; but, having some money in her hands when she first took it,
+she had made it pretty and pleasant, and was still proud to feel that
+in spite of the hardness of her position she had comfortable
+belongings around her when her literary friends came to see her on her
+Tuesday evenings. Here she was now living with her son and daughter.
+The back drawing-room was divided from the front by doors that were
+permanently closed, and in this she carried on her great work. Here
+she wrote her books and contrived her system for the inveigling of
+editors and critics. Here she was rarely disturbed by her daughter,
+and admitted no visitors except editors and critics. But her son was
+controlled by no household laws, and would break in upon her privacy
+without remorse. She had hardly finished two galloping notes after
+completing her letter to Mr Ferdinand Alf, when Felix entered the room
+with a cigar in his mouth and threw himself upon the sofa.
+
+'My dear boy,' she said, 'pray leave your tobacco below when you come
+in here.'
+
+'What affectation it is, mother,' he said, throwing, however, the
+half-smoked cigar into the fire-place. 'Some women swear they like
+smoke, others say they hate it like the devil. It depends altogether
+on whether they wish to flatter or snub a fellow.'
+
+'You don't suppose that I wish to snub you?'
+
+'Upon my word I don't know. I wonder whether you can let me have
+twenty pounds?'
+
+'My dear Felix!'
+
+'Just so, mother;--but how about the twenty pounds?'
+
+'What is it for, Felix?'
+
+'Well;--to tell the truth, to carry on the game for the nonce till
+something is settled. A fellow can't live without some money in his
+pocket. I do with as little as most fellows. I pay for nothing that I
+can help. I even get my hair cut on credit, and as long as it was
+possible I had a brougham, to save cabs.'
+
+'What is to be the end of it, Felix?'
+
+'I never could see the end of anything, mother. I never could nurse a
+horse when the hounds were going well in order to be in at the finish.
+I never could pass a dish that I liked in favour of those that were to
+follow. What's the use?' The young man did not say 'carpe diem,' but
+that was the philosophy which he intended to preach.
+
+'Have you been at the Melmottes' to-day?' It was now five o'clock on a
+winter afternoon, the hour at which ladies are drinking tea, and idle
+men playing whist at the clubs,--at which young idle men are sometimes
+allowed to flirt, and at which, as Lady Carbury thought, her son might
+have been paying his court to Marie Melmotte the great heiress.
+
+'I have just come away.'
+
+'And what do you think of her?'
+
+'To tell the truth, mother, I have thought very little about her. She
+is not pretty, she is not plain; she is not clever, she is not stupid;
+she is neither saint nor sinner.'
+
+'The more likely to make a good wife.'
+
+'Perhaps so. I am at any rate quite willing to believe that as wife
+she would be good enough for me.'
+
+'What does the mother say?'
+
+'The mother is a caution. I cannot help speculating whether, if I
+marry the daughter, I shall ever find out where the mother came from.
+Dolly Longestaffe says that somebody says that she was a Bohemian
+Jewess; but I think she's too fat for that.'
+
+'What does it matter, Felix?'
+
+'Not in the least'
+
+'Is she civil to you?'
+
+'Yes, civil enough.'
+
+'And the father?'
+
+'Well, he does not turn me out, or anything of that sort. Of course
+there are half-a-dozen after her, and I think the old fellow is
+bewildered among them all. He's thinking more of getting dukes to dine
+with him than of his daughter's lovers. Any fellow might pick her up
+who happened to hit her fancy.'
+
+'And why not you?'
+
+'Why not, mother? I am doing my best, and it's no good flogging a
+willing horse. Can you let me have the money?'
+
+'Oh, Felix, I think you hardly know how poor we are. You have still
+got your hunters down at the place!'
+
+'I have got two horses, if you mean that; and I haven't paid a
+shilling for their keep since the season began. Look here, mother;
+this is a risky sort of game, I grant, but I am playing it by your
+advice. If I can marry Miss Melmotte, I suppose all will be right. But
+I don't think the way to get her would be to throw up everything and
+let all the world know that I haven't got a copper. To do that kind of
+thing a man must live a little up to the mark. I've brought my hunting
+down to a minimum, but if I gave it up altogether there would be lots
+of fellows to tell them in Grosvenor Square why I had done so.'
+
+There was an apparent truth in this argument which the poor woman was
+unable to answer. Before the interview was over the money demanded was
+forthcoming, though at the time it could be but ill afforded, and the
+youth went away apparently with a light heart, hardly listening to his
+mother's entreaties that the affair with Marie Melmotte might, if
+possible, be brought to a speedy conclusion.
+
+Felix, when he left his mother, went down to the only club to which he
+now belonged. Clubs are pleasant resorts in all respects but one. They
+require ready money or even worse than that in respect to annual
+payments,--money in advance; and the young baronet had been absolutely
+forced to restrict himself. He, as a matter of course, out of those to
+which he had possessed the right of entrance, chose the worst. It was
+called the Beargarden, and had been lately opened with the express
+view of combining parsimony with profligacy. Clubs were ruined, so
+said certain young parsimonious profligates, by providing comforts for
+old fogies who paid little or nothing but their subscriptions, and
+took out by their mere presence three times as much as they gave. This
+club was not to be opened till three o'clock in the afternoon, before
+which hour the promoters of the Beargarden thought it improbable that
+they and their fellows would want a club. There were to be no morning
+papers taken, no library, no morning-room. Dining-rooms,
+billiard-rooms, and card-rooms would suffice for the Beargarden.
+Everything was to be provided by a purveyor, so that the club should
+be cheated only by one man. Everything was to be luxurious, but the
+luxuries were to be achieved at first cost. It had been a happy
+thought, and the club was said to prosper. Herr Vossner, the purveyor,
+was a jewel, and so carried on affairs that there was no trouble about
+anything. He would assist even in smoothing little difficulties as to
+the settling of card accounts, and had behaved with the greatest
+tenderness to the drawers of cheques whose bankers had harshly
+declared them to have 'no effects.' Herr Vossner was a jewel, and the
+Beargarden was a success. Perhaps no young man about town enjoyed the
+Beargarden more thoroughly than did Sir Felix Carbury. The club was in
+the close vicinity of other clubs, in a small street turning out of
+St. James's Street, and piqued itself on its outward quietness and
+sobriety. Why pay for stone-work for other people to look at;--why lay
+out money in marble pillars and cornices, seeing that you can neither
+eat such things, nor drink them, nor gamble with them? But the
+Beargarden had the best wines--or thought that it had--and the easiest
+chairs, and two billiard-tables than which nothing more perfect had
+ever been made to stand upon legs. Hither Sir Felix wended on that
+January afternoon as soon as he had his mother's cheque for £20 in his
+pocket.
+
+He found his special friend, Dolly Longestaffe, standing on the steps
+with a cigar in his mouth, and gazing vacantly at the dull brick house
+opposite. 'Going to dine here, Dolly?' said Sir Felix.
+
+'I suppose I shall, because it's such a lot of trouble to go anywhere
+else. I'm engaged somewhere, I know; but I'm not up to getting home
+and dressing. By George! I don't know how fellows do that kind of
+thing. I can't.'
+
+'Going to hunt to-morrow?'
+
+'Well, yes; but I don't suppose I shall. I was going to hunt every day
+last week, but my fellow never would get me up in time. I can't tell
+why it is that things are done in such a beastly way. Why shouldn't
+fellows begin to hunt at two or three, so that a fellow needn't get up
+in the middle of the night?'
+
+'Because one can't ride by moonlight, Dolly.'
+
+'It isn't moonlight at three. At any rate I can't get myself to Euston
+Square by nine. I don't think that fellow of mine likes getting up
+himself. He says he comes in and wakes me, but I never remember it.'
+
+'How many horses have you got at Leighton, Dolly?'
+
+'How many? There were five, but I think that fellow down there sold
+one; but then I think he bought another. I know he did something.'
+
+'Who rides them?'
+
+'He does, I suppose. That is, of course, I ride them myself, only I so
+seldom get down. Somebody told me that Grasslough was riding two of
+them last week. I don't think I ever told him he might. I think he
+tipped that fellow of mine; and I call that a low kind of thing to do.
+I'd ask him, only I know he'd say that I had lent them. Perhaps I did
+when I was tight, you know.'
+
+'You and Grasslough were never pals.'
+
+'I don't like him a bit. He gives himself airs because he is a lord,
+and is devilish ill-natured. I don't know why he should want to ride
+my horses.'
+
+'To save his own.'
+
+'He isn't hard up. Why doesn't he have his own horses? I'll tell you
+what, Carbury, I've made up my mind to one thing, and, by Jove, I'll
+stick to it. I never will lend a horse again to anybody. If fellows
+want horses let them buy them.'
+
+'But some fellows haven't got any money, Dolly.'
+
+'Then they ought to go tick. I don't think I've paid for any of mine
+I've bought this season. There was somebody here yesterday--'
+
+'What! here at the club?'
+
+'Yes; followed me here to say he wanted to be paid for something! It
+was horses, I think because of the fellow's trousers.'
+
+'What did you say?'
+
+'Me! Oh, I didn't say anything.'
+
+'And how did it end?'
+
+'When he'd done talking I offered him a cigar, and while he was biting
+off the end went upstairs. I suppose he went away when he was tired of
+waiting.'
+
+'I'll tell you what, Dolly; I wish you'd let me ride two of yours for
+a couple of days,--that is, of course, if you don't want them yourself.
+You ain't tight now, at any rate.'
+
+'No; I ain't tight,' said Dolly, with melancholy acquiescence.
+
+'I mean that I wouldn't like to borrow your horses without your
+remembering all about it. Nobody knows as well as you do how awfully
+done up I am. I shall pull through at last, but it's an awful squeeze
+in the meantime. There's nobody I'd ask such a favour of except you.'
+
+'Well, you may have them;--that is, for two days. I don't know whether
+that fellow of mine will believe you. He wouldn't believe Grasslough,
+and told him so. But Grasslough took them out of the stables. That's
+what somebody told me.'
+
+'You could write a line to your groom.'
+
+'Oh my dear fellow, that is such a bore; I don't think I could do
+that. My fellow will believe you, because you and I have been pals. I
+think I'll have a little drop of curacoa before dinner. Come along and
+try it. It'll give us an appetite.'
+
+It was then nearly seven o'clock. Nine hours afterwards the same two
+men, with two others--of whom young Lord Grasslough, Dolly
+Longestaffe's peculiar aversion, was one--were just rising from a
+card-table in one of the upstairs rooms of the club. For it was
+understood that, though the Beargarden was not to be open before three
+o'clock in the afternoon, the accommodation denied during the day was
+to be given freely during the night. No man could get a breakfast at
+the Beargarden, but suppers at three o'clock in the morning were quite
+within the rule. Such a supper, or rather succession of suppering,
+there had been to-night, various devils and broils and hot toasts
+having been brought up from time to time first for one and then for
+another. But there had been no cessation of gambling since the cards
+had first been opened about ten o'clock. At four in the morning Dolly
+Longestaffe was certainly in a condition to lend his horses and to
+remember nothing about it. He was quite affectionate with Lord
+Grasslough, as he was also with his other companions,--affection being
+the normal state of his mind when in that condition. He was by no
+means helplessly drunk, and was, perhaps, hardly more silly than when
+he was sober; but he was willing to play at any game whether he
+understood it or not, and for any stakes. When Sir Felix got up and
+said he would play no more, Dolly also got up, apparently quite
+contented. When Lord Grasslough, with a dark scowl on his face,
+expressed his opinion that it was not just the thing for men to break
+up like that when so much money had been lost, Dolly as willingly sat
+down again. But Dolly's sitting down was not sufficient. 'I'm going to
+hunt to-morrow,' said Sir Felix--meaning that day,--'and I shall play no
+more. A man must go to bed at some time.'
+
+'I don't see it at all,' said Lord Grasslough. 'It's an understood
+thing that when a man has won as much as you have he should stay.'
+
+'Stay how long?' said Sir Felix, with an angry look. 'That's nonsense;
+there must be an end of everything, and there's an end of this for me
+to-night.'
+
+'Oh, if you choose,' said his lordship.
+
+'I do choose. Good night, Dolly; we'll settle this next time we meet.
+I've got it all entered.'
+
+The night had been one very serious in its results to Sir Felix. He
+had sat down to the card-table with the proceeds of his mother's
+cheque, a poor £20, and now he had,--he didn't at all know how much in
+his pockets. He also had drunk, but not so as to obscure his mind. He
+knew that Longestaffe owed him over £300, and he knew also that he had
+received more than that in ready money and cheques from Lord
+Grasslough and the other player. Dolly Longestaffe's money, too, would
+certainly be paid, though Dolly did complain of the importunity of his
+tradesmen. As he walked up St. James's Street, looking for a cab, he
+presumed himself to be worth over £700. When begging for a small sum
+from Lady Carbury, he had said that he could not carry on the game
+without some ready money, and had considered himself fortunate in
+fleecing his mother as he had done. Now he was in the possession of
+wealth,--of wealth that might, at any rate, be sufficient to aid him
+materially in the object he had in hand. He never for a moment thought
+of paying his bills. Even the large sum of which he had become so
+unexpectedly possessed would not have gone far with him in such a
+quixotic object as that; but he could now look bright, and buy
+presents, and be seen with money in his hands. It is hard even to make
+love in these days without something in your purse.
+
+He found no cab, but in his present frame of mind was indifferent to
+the trouble of walking home. There was something so joyous in the
+feeling of the possession of all this money that it made the night air
+pleasant to him. Then, of a sudden, he remembered the low wail with
+which his mother had spoken of her poverty when he demanded assistance
+from her. Now he could give her back the £20. But it occurred to him
+sharply, with an amount of carefulness quite new to him, that it would
+be foolish to do so. How soon might he want it again? And, moreover,
+he could not repay the money without explaining to her how he had
+gotten it. It would be preferable to say nothing about his money. As
+he let himself into the house and went up to his room he resolved that
+he would not say anything about it.
+
+On that morning he was at the station at nine, and hunted down in
+Buckinghamshire, riding two of Dolly Longestaffe's horses for the use
+of which he paid Dolly Longestaffe's 'fellow' thirty shilling.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV - MADAME MELMOTTE'S BALL
+
+
+The next night but one after that of the gambling transaction at the
+Beargarden, a great ball was given in Grosvenor Square. It was a ball
+on a scale so magnificent that it had been talked about ever since
+Parliament met, now about a fortnight since. Some people had expressed
+an opinion that such a ball as this was intended to be could not be
+given successfully in February. Others declared that the money which
+was to be spent,--an amount which would make this affair quite new in
+the annals of ball-giving,--would give the thing such a character that
+it would certainly be successful. And much more than money had been
+expended. Almost incredible efforts had been made to obtain the
+cooperation of great people, and these efforts had at last been
+grandly successful. The Duchess of Stevenage had come up from Castle
+Albury herself to be present at it and to bring her daughters, though
+it has never been her Grace's wont to be in London at this inclement
+season. No doubt the persuasion used with the Duchess had been very
+strong. Her brother, Lord Alfred Grendall, was known to be in great
+difficulties, which,--so people said,--had been considerably modified by
+opportune pecuniary assistance. And then it was certain that one of
+the young Grendalls, Lord Alfred's second son, had been appointed to
+some mercantile position, for which he received a salary which his
+most intimate friends thought that he was hardly qualified to earn. It
+was certainly a fact that he went to Abchurch Lane, in the City, four
+or five days a week, and that he did not occupy his time in so
+unaccustomed a manner for nothing. Where the Duchess of Stevenage went
+all the world would go. And it became known at the last moment, that
+is to say only the day before the party, that a prince of the blood
+royal was to be there. How this had been achieved nobody quite
+understood; but there were rumours that a certain lady's jewels had
+been rescued from the pawnbroker's. Everything was done on the same
+scale. The Prime Minister had indeed declined to allow his name to
+appear on the list; but one Cabinet Minister and two or three
+under-secretaries had agreed to come because it was felt that the
+giver of the ball might before long be the master of considerable
+parliamentary interest. It was believed that he had an eye to
+politics, and it is always wise to have great wealth on one's own
+side. There had at one time been much solicitude about the ball. Many
+anxious thoughts had been given. When great attempts fail, the failure
+is disastrous, and may be ruinous. But this ball had now been put
+beyond the chance of failure.
+
+The giver of the ball was Augustus Melmotte, Esq., the father of the
+girl whom Sir Felix Carbury desired to marry, and the husband of the
+lady who was said to have been a Bohemian Jewess. It was thus that the
+gentleman chose to have himself designated, though within the last two
+years he had arrived in London from Paris, and had at first been known
+as M. Melmotte. But he had declared of himself that he had been born
+in England, and that he was an Englishman. He admitted that his wife
+was a foreigner,--an admission that was necessary as she spoke very
+little English. Melmotte himself spoke his 'native' language fluently,
+but with an accent which betrayed at least a long expatriation. Miss
+Melmotte,--who a very short time since had been known as Mademoiselle
+Marie,--spoke English well, but as a foreigner. In regard to her it was
+acknowledged that she had been born out of England,--some said in New
+York; but Madame Melmotte, who must have known, had declared that the
+great event had taken place in Paris.
+
+It was at any rate an established fact that Mr Melmotte had made his
+wealth in France. He no doubt had had enormous dealings in other
+countries, as to which stories were told which must surely have been
+exaggerated. It was said that he had made a railway across Russia,
+that he provisioned the Southern army in the American civil war, that
+he had supplied Austria with arms, and had at one time bought up all
+the iron in England. He could make or mar any company by buying or
+selling stock, and could make money dear or cheap as he pleased. All
+this was said of him in his praise,--but it was also said that he was
+regarded in Paris as the most gigantic swindler that had ever lived;
+that he had made that City too hot to hold him; that he had
+endeavoured to establish himself in Vienna, but had been warned away
+by the police; and that he had at length found that British freedom
+would alone allow him to enjoy, without persecution, the fruits of his
+industry. He was now established privately in Grosvenor Square and
+officially in Abchurch Lane; and it was known to all the world that a
+Royal Prince, a Cabinet Minister, and the very cream of duchesses were
+going to his wife's ball. All this had been done within twelve months.
+
+There was but one child in the family, one heiress for all this
+wealth. Melmotte himself was a large man, with bushy whiskers and
+rough thick hair, with heavy eyebrows, and a wonderful look of power
+about his mouth and chin. This was so strong as to redeem his face
+from vulgarity; but the countenance and appearance of the man were on
+the whole unpleasant, and, I may say, untrustworthy. He looked as
+though he were purse-proud and a bully. She was fat and fair,--unlike in
+colour to our traditional Jewesses; but she had the Jewish nose and
+the Jewish contraction of the eyes. There was certainly very little in
+Madame Melmotte to recommend her, unless it was a readiness to spend
+money on any object that might be suggested to her by her new
+acquaintances. It sometimes seemed that she had a commission from her
+husband to give away presents to any who would accept them. The world
+had received the man as Augustus Melmotte, Esq. The world so addressed
+him on the very numerous letters which reached him, and so inscribed
+him among the directors of three dozen companies to which he belonged.
+But his wife was still Madame Melmotte. The daughter had been allowed
+to take her rank with an English title. She was now Miss Melmotte on
+all occasions.
+
+Marie Melmotte had been accurately described by Felix Carbury to his
+mother. She was not beautiful, she was not clever, and she was not a
+saint. But then neither was she plain, nor stupid, nor, especially, a
+sinner. She was a little thing, hardly over twenty years of age, very
+unlike her father or mother, having no trace of the Jewess in her
+countenance, who seemed to be overwhelmed by the sense of her own
+position. With such people as the Melmottes things go fast, and it was
+very well known that Miss Melmotte had already had one lover who had
+been nearly accepted. The affair, however, had gone off. In this
+'going off' no one imputed to the young lady blame or even misfortune.
+It was not supposed that she had either jilted or been jilted. As in
+royal espousals interests of State regulate their expedience with an
+acknowledged absence, with even a proclaimed impossibility, of
+personal predilections, so in this case was money allowed to have the
+same weight. Such a marriage would or would not be sanctioned in
+accordance with great pecuniary arrangements. The young Lord
+Nidderdale, the eldest son of the Marquis of Auld Reekie, had offered
+to take the girl and make her Marchioness in the process of time for
+half a million down. Melmotte had not objected to the sum,--so it was
+said,--but had proposed to tie it up. Nidderdale had desired to have it
+free in his own grasp, and would not move on any other terms. Melmotte
+had been anxious to secure the Marquis,--very anxious to secure the
+Marchioness; for at that time terms had not been made with the
+Duchess; but at last he had lost his temper, and had asked his
+lordship's lawyer whether it was likely that he would entrust such a
+sum of money to such a man. 'You are willing to trust your only child
+to him,' said the lawyer. Melmotte scowled at the man for a few
+seconds from under his bushy eyebrows; then told him that his answer
+had nothing in it, and marched out of the room. So that affair was
+over. I doubt whether Lord Nidderdale had ever said a word of love to
+Marie Melmotte,--or whether the poor girl had expected it. Her destiny
+had no doubt been explained to her.
+
+Others had tried and had broken down somewhat in the same fashion.
+Each had treated the girl as an encumbrance he was to undertake,--at a
+very great price. But as affairs prospered with the Melmottes, as
+princes and duchesses were obtained by other means,--costly no doubt,
+but not so ruinously costly,--the immediate disposition of Marie became
+less necessary, and Melmotte reduced his offers. The girl herself,
+too, began to have an opinion. It was said that she had absolutely
+rejected Lord Grasslough, whose father indeed was in a state of
+bankruptcy, who had no income of his own, who was ugly, vicious,
+ill-tempered, and without any power of recommending himself to a girl.
+She had had experience since Lord Nidderdale, with a half laugh, had
+told her that he might just as well take her for his wife, and was now
+tempted from time to time to contemplate her own happiness and her own
+condition. People around were beginning to say that if Sir Felix
+Carbury managed his affairs well he might be the happy man.
+
+There was a considerable doubt whether Marie was the daughter of that
+Jewish-looking woman. Enquiries had been made, but not successfully,
+as to the date of the Melmotte marriage. There was an idea abroad that
+Melmotte had got his first money with his wife, and had gotten it not
+very long ago. Then other people said that Marie was not his daughter
+at all. Altogether the mystery was rather pleasant as the money was
+certain. Of the certainty of the money in daily use there could be no
+doubt. There was the house. There was the furniture. There were the
+carriages, the horses, the servants with the livery coats and powdered
+heads, and the servants with the black coats and unpowdered heads.
+There were the gems, and the presents, and all the nice things that
+money can buy. There were two dinner parties every day, one at two
+o'clock called lunch, and the other at eight. The tradesmen had
+learned enough to be quite free of doubt, and in the City Mr
+Melmotte's name was worth any money,--though his character was perhaps
+worth but little.
+
+The large house on the south side of Grosvenor Square was all ablaze
+by ten o'clock. The broad verandah had been turned into a
+conservatory, had been covered with boards contrived to look like
+trellis-work, was heated with hot air and filled with exotics at some
+fabulous price. A covered way had been made from the door, down across
+the pathway, to the road, and the police had, I fear, been bribed to
+frighten foot passengers into a belief that they were bound to go
+round. The house had been so arranged that it was impossible to know
+where you were, when once in it. The hall was a paradise. The
+staircase was fairyland. The lobbies were grottoes rich with ferns.
+Walls had been knocked away and arches had been constructed. The leads
+behind had been supported and walled in, and covered and carpeted. The
+ball had possession of the ground floor and first floor, and the house
+seemed to be endless. 'It's to cost sixty thousand pounds,' said the
+Marchioness of Auld Reekie to her old friend the Countess of
+Mid-Lothian. The Marchioness had come in spite of her son's misfortune
+when she heard that the Duchess of Stevenage was to be there. 'And
+worse spent money never was wasted,' said the Countess. 'By all
+accounts it was as badly come by,' said the Marchioness. Then the two
+old noblewomen, one after the other, made graciously flattering
+speeches to the much-worn Bohemian Jewess, who was standing in
+fairyland to receive her guests, almost fainting under the greatness
+of the occasion.
+
+The three saloons on the first or drawing-room floor had been prepared
+for dancing, and here Marie was stationed. The Duchess had however
+undertaken to see that somebody should set the dancing going, and she
+had commissioned her nephew Miles Grendall, the young gentleman who
+now frequented the City, to give directions to the band and to make
+himself generally useful. Indeed, there had sprung up a considerable
+intimacy between the Grendall family,--that is Lord Alfred's branch of
+the Grendalls,--and the Melmottes; which was as it should be, as each
+could give much and each receive much. It was known that Lord Alfred
+had not a shilling; but his brother was a duke and his sister was a
+duchess, and for the last thirty years there had been one continual
+anxiety for poor dear Alfred, who had tumbled into an unfortunate
+marriage without a shilling, had spent his own moderate patrimony, had
+three sons and three daughters, and had lived now for a very long time
+entirely on the unwilling contributions of his noble relatives.
+Melmotte could support the whole family in affluence without feeling
+the burden;--and why should he not? There had once been an idea that
+Miles should attempt to win the heiress, but it had soon been found
+expedient to abandon it. Miles had no title, no position of his own,
+and was hardly big enough for the place. It was in all respects better
+that the waters of the fountain should be allowed to irrigate mildly
+the whole Grendall family;--and so Miles went into the city.
+
+The ball was opened by a quadrille in which Lord Buntingford, the
+eldest son of the Duchess, stood up with Marie. Various arrangements
+had been made, and this among them. We may say that it had been a part
+of the bargain. Lord Buntingford had objected mildly, being a young
+man devoted to business, fond of his own order, rather shy, and not
+given to dancing. But he had allowed his mother to prevail. 'Of course
+they are vulgar,' the Duchess had said,--'so much so as to be no longer
+distasteful because of the absurdity of the thing. I dare say he
+hasn't been very honest. When men make so much money, I don't know how
+they can have been honest. Of course it's done for a purpose. It's all
+very well saying that it isn't right, but what are we to do about
+Alfred's children? Miles is to have £500 a-year. And then he is always
+about the house. And between you and me they have got up those bills
+of Alfred's, and have said they can lie in their safe till it suits
+your uncle to pay them.'
+
+'They will lie there a long time,' said Lord Buntingford.
+
+'Of course they expect something in return; do dance with the girl
+once.' Lord Buntingford disapproved mildly, and did as his mother
+asked him.
+
+The affair went off very well. There were three or four card-tables in
+one of the lower rooms, and at one of them sat Lord Alfred Grendall
+and Mr Melmotte, with two or three other players, cutting in and out
+at the end of each rubber. Playing whist was Lord Alfred's only
+accomplishment, and almost the only occupation of his life. He began
+it daily at his club at three o'clock, and continued playing till two
+in the morning with an interval of a couple of hours for his dinner.
+This he did during ten months of the year, and during the other two he
+frequented some watering-place at which whist prevailed. He did not
+gamble, never playing for more than the club stakes and bets. He gave
+to the matter his whole mind, and must have excelled those who were
+generally opposed to him. But so obdurate was fortune to Lord Alfred
+that he could not make money even of whist. Melmotte was very anxious
+to get into Lord Alfred's club,--The Peripatetics. It was pleasant to
+see the grace with which he lost his money, and the sweet intimacy
+with which he called his lordship Alfred. Lord Alfred had a remnant of
+feeling left, and would have liked to kick him. Though Melmotte was by
+far the bigger man, and was also the younger, Lord Alfred would not
+have lacked the pluck to kick him. Lord Alfred, in spite of his
+habitual idleness and vapid uselessness, had still left about him a
+dash of vigour, and sometimes thought that he would kick Melmotte and
+have done with it. But there were his poor boys, and those bills in
+Melmotte's safe. And then Melmotte lost his points so regularly, and
+paid his bets with such absolute good humour! 'Come and have a glass
+of champagne, Alfred,' Melmotte said, as the two cut out together.
+Lord Alfred liked champagne, and followed his host; but as he went he
+almost made up his mind that on some future day he would kick the man.
+
+Late in the evening Marie Melmotte was waltzing with Felix Carbury,
+and Henrietta Carbury was then standing by talking to one Mr Paul
+Montague. Lady Carbury was also there. She was not well inclined
+either to balls or to such people as the Melmottes; nor was Henrietta.
+But Felix had suggested that, bearing in mind his prospects as to the
+heiress, they had better accept the invitation which he would cause to
+have sent to them. They did so; and then Paul Montague also got a
+card, not altogether to Lady Carbury's satisfaction. Lady Carbury was
+very gracious to Madame Melmotte for two minutes, and then slid into a
+chair expecting nothing but misery for the evening. She, however, was
+a woman who could do her duty and endure without complaint.
+
+'It is the first great ball I ever was at in London,' said Hetta
+Carbury to Paul Montague.
+
+'And how do you like it?'
+
+'Not at all. How should I like it? I know nobody here. I don't
+understand how it is that at these parties people do know each other,
+or whether they all go dancing about without knowing.'
+
+'Just that; I suppose when they are used to it they get introduced
+backwards and forwards, and then they can know each other as fast as
+they like. If you would wish to dance why don't you dance with me?'
+
+'I have danced with you,--twice already.'
+
+'Is there any law against dancing three times?'
+
+'But I don't especially want to dance,' said Henrietta. 'I think I'll
+go and console poor mamma, who has got nobody to speak to her.' Just
+at this moment, however, Lady Carbury was not in that wretched
+condition, as an unexpected friend had come to her relief.
+
+Sir Felix and Marie Melmotte had been spinning round and round
+throughout a long waltz, thoroughly enjoying the excitement of the
+music and the movement. To give Felix Carbury what little praise might
+be his due, it is necessary to say that he did not lack physical
+activity. He would dance, and ride, and shoot eagerly, with an
+animation that made him happy for the moment. It was an affair not of
+thought or calculation, but of physical organisation. And Marie
+Melmotte had been thoroughly happy. She loved dancing with all her
+heart if she could only dance in a manner pleasant to herself.
+
+She had been warned especially as to some men,--that she should not
+dance with them. She had been almost thrown into Lord Nidderdale's
+arms, and had been prepared to take him at her father's bidding. But
+she had never had the slightest pleasure in his society, and had only
+not been wretched because she had not as yet recognised that she had
+an identity of her own in the disposition of which she herself should
+have a voice. She certainly had never cared to dance with Lord
+Nidderdale. Lord Grasslough she had absolutely hated, though at first
+she had hardly dared to say so. One or two others had been obnoxious
+to her in different ways, but they had passed on, or were passing on,
+out of her way. There was no one at the present moment whom she had
+been commanded by her father to accept should an offer be made. But
+she did like dancing with Sir Felix Carbury. It was not only that the
+man was handsome but that he had a power of changing the expression of
+his countenance, a play of face, which belied altogether his real
+disposition. He could seem to be hearty and true till the moment came
+in which he had really to expose his heart,--or to try to expose it.
+Then he failed, knowing nothing about it. But in the approaches to
+intimacy with a girl he could be very successful. He had already
+nearly got beyond this with Marie Melmotte; but Marie was by no means
+quick in discovering his deficiencies. To her he had seemed like a
+god. If she might be allowed to be wooed by Sir Felix Carbury, and to
+give herself to him, she thought that she would be contented.
+
+'How well you dance,' said Sir Felix, as soon as he had breath for
+speaking.
+
+'Do I?' She spoke with a slightly foreign accent, which gave a little
+prettiness to her speech. 'I was never told so. But nobody ever told
+me anything about myself.'
+
+'I should like to tell you everything about yourself, from the
+beginning to the end.'
+
+'Ah,--but you don't know.'
+
+'I would find out. I think I could make some good guesses. I'll tell
+you what you would like best in all the world.'
+
+'What is that?'
+
+'Somebody that liked you best in all the world.'
+
+'Ah,--yes; if one knew who?'
+
+'How can you know, Miss Melmotte, but by believing?'
+
+'That is not the way to know. If a girl told me that she liked me
+better than any other girl, I should not know it, just because she
+said so. I should have to find it out.'
+
+'And if a gentleman told you so?'
+
+'I shouldn't believe him a bit, and I should not care to find out. But
+I should like to have some girl for a friend whom I could love, oh,
+ten times better than myself.'
+
+'So should I.'
+
+'Have you no particular friend?'
+
+'I mean a girl whom I could love,--oh, ten times better than myself.'
+
+'Now you are laughing at me, Sir Felix,' said Miss Melmotte.
+
+'I wonder whether that will come to anything?' said Paul Montague to
+Miss Carbury. They had come back into the drawing-room, and had been
+watching the approaches to love-making which the baronet was opening.
+
+'You mean Felix and Miss Melmotte. I hate to think of such things, Mr
+Montague.'
+
+'It would be a magnificent chance for him.'
+
+'To marry a girl, the daughter of vulgar people, just because she will
+have a great deal of money? He can't care for her really,--because she
+is rich.'
+
+'But he wants money so dreadfully! It seems to me that there is no
+other condition of things under which Felix can face the world, but by
+being the husband of an heiress.'
+
+'What a dreadful thing to say!'
+
+'But isn't it true? He has beggared himself.'
+
+'Oh, Mr Montague.'
+
+'And he will beggar you and your mother.'
+
+'I don't care about myself.'
+
+'Others do though.' As he said this he did not look at her, but spoke
+through his teeth, as if he were angry both with himself and her.
+
+'I did not think you would have spoken so harshly of Felix.'
+
+'I don't speak harshly of him, Miss Carbury. I haven't said that it
+was his own fault. He seems to be one of those who have been born to
+spend money; and as this girl will have plenty of money to spend, I
+think it would be a good thing if he were to marry her. If Felix had
+£20,000 a year, everybody would think him the finest fellow in the
+world.' In saying this, however, Mr Paul Montague showed himself unfit
+to gauge the opinion of the world. Whether Sir Felix be rich or poor,
+the world, evil-hearted as it is, will never think him a fine fellow.
+
+Lady Carbury had been seated for nearly half an hour in uncomplaining
+solitude under a bust, when she was delighted by the appearance of Mr
+Ferdinand Alf. 'You here?' she said.
+
+'Why not? Melmotte and I are brother adventurers.'
+
+'I should have thought you would find so little here to amuse you.'
+
+'I have found you; and, in addition to that, duchesses and their
+daughters without number. They expect Prince George!'
+
+'Do they?'
+
+'And Legge Wilson from the India Office is here already. I spoke to
+him in some jewelled bower as I made my way here, not five minutes
+since. It's quite a success. Don't you think it very nice, Lady
+Carbury?'
+
+'I don't know whether you are joking or in earnest.'
+
+'I never joke. I say it is very nice. These people are spending
+thousands upon thousands to gratify you and me and others, and all
+they want in return is a little countenance.'
+
+'Do you mean to give it then?'
+
+'I am giving it them.'
+
+'Ah,--but the countenance of the "Evening Pulpit." Do you mean to give
+them that?'
+
+'Well; it is not in our line exactly to give a catalogue of names and
+to record ladies' dresses. Perhaps it may be better for our host
+himself that he should be kept out of the newspapers.'
+
+'Are you going to be very severe upon poor me, Mr Alf?' said the lady
+after a pause.
+
+'We are never severe upon anybody, Lady Carbury. Here's the Prince.
+What will they do with him now they've caught him! Oh, they're going
+to make him dance with the heiress. Poor heiress!'
+
+'Poor Prince!' said Lady Carbury.
+
+'Not at all. She's a nice little girl enough, and he'll have nothing
+to trouble him. But how is she, poor thing, to talk to royal blood?'
+
+Poor thing indeed! The Prince was brought into the big room where
+Marie was still being talked to by Felix Carbury, and was at once made
+to understand that she was to stand up and dance with royalty. The
+introduction was managed in a very business-like manner. Miles
+Grendall first came in and found the female victim; the Duchess
+followed with the male victim. Madame Melmotte, who had been on her
+legs till she was ready to sink, waddled behind, but was not allowed
+to take any part in the affair. The band were playing a galop, but
+that was stopped at once, to the great confusion of the dancers. In
+two minutes Miles Grendall had made up a set. He stood up with his
+aunt, the Duchess, as vis-à-vis to Marie and the Prince, till, about
+the middle of the quadrille, Legge Wilson was found and made to take
+his place. Lord Buntingford had gone away; but then there were still
+present two daughters of the Duchess who were rapidly caught. Sir
+Felix Carbury, being good-looking and having a name, was made to
+dance with one of them, and Lord Grasslough with the other. There were
+four other couples, all made up of titled people, as it was intended
+that this special dance should be chronicled, if not in the 'Evening
+Pulpit,' in some less serious daily journal. A paid reporter was
+present in the house ready to rush off with the list as soon as the
+dance should be a realized fact. The Prince himself did not quite
+understand why he was there, but they who marshalled his life for him
+had so marshalled it for the present moment. He himself probably knew
+nothing about the lady's diamonds which had been rescued, or the
+considerable subscription to St. George's Hospital which had been
+extracted from Mr Melmotte as a make-weight. Poor Marie felt as though
+the burden of the hour would be greater than she could bear, and
+looked as though she would have fled had flight been possible. But the
+trouble passed quickly, and was not really severe. The Prince said a
+word or two between each figure, and did not seem to expect a reply.
+He made a few words go a long way, and was well trained in the work of
+easing the burden of his own greatness for those who were for the
+moment inflicted with it. When the dance was over he was allowed to
+escape after the ceremony of a single glass of champagne drunk in the
+presence of the hostess. Considerable skill was shown in keeping the
+presence of his royal guest a secret from the host himself till the
+Prince was gone. Melmotte would have desired to pour out that glass of
+wine with his own hands, to solace his tongue by Royal Highnesses, and
+would probably have been troublesome and disagreeable. Miles Grendall
+had understood all this and had managed the affair very well. 'Bless
+my soul;--his Royal Highness come and gone!' exclaimed Melmotte. 'You
+and my father were so fast at your whist that it was impossible to get
+you away,' said Miles. Melmotte was not a fool, and understood it all;
+--understood not only that it had been thought better that he should not
+speak to the Prince, but also that it might be better that it should
+be so. He could not have everything at once. Miles Grendall was very
+useful to him, and he would not quarrel with Miles, at any rate as
+yet.
+
+'Have another rubber, Alfred?' he said to Miles's father as the
+carriages were taking away the guests.
+
+Lord Alfred had taken sundry glasses of champagne, and for a moment
+forgot the bills in the safe, and the good things which his boys were
+receiving. 'Damn that kind of nonsense,' he said. 'Call people by
+their proper names.' Then he left the house without a further word to
+the master of it. That night before they went to sleep Melmotte
+required from his weary wife an account of the ball, and especially of
+Marie's conduct. 'Marie,' Madame Melmotte said, 'had behaved well, but
+had certainly preferred "Sir Carbury" to any other of the young men.'
+Hitherto Mr Melmotte had heard very little of Sir Carbury, except that
+he was a baronet. Though his eyes and ears were always open, though he
+attended to everything, and was a man of sharp intelligence, he did
+not yet quite understand the bearing and sequence of English titles.
+He knew that he must get for his daughter either an eldest son, or one
+absolutely in possession himself. Sir Felix, he had learned, was only
+a baronet; but then he was in possession. He had discovered also that
+Sir Felix's son would in course of time also become Sir Felix. He was
+not therefore at the present moment disposed to give any positive
+orders as to his daughter's conduct to the young baronet. He did not,
+however, conceive that the young baronet had as yet addressed his girl
+in such words as Felix had in truth used when they parted. 'You know
+who it is,' he whispered, 'likes you better than any one else in the
+world.'
+
+'Nobody does;--don't, Sir Felix.'
+
+'I do,' he said as he held her hand for a minute. He looked into her
+face and she thought it very sweet. He had studied the words as a
+lesson, and, repeating them as a lesson, he did it fairly well. He did
+it well enough at any rate to send the poor girl to bed with a sweet
+conviction that at last a man had spoken to her whom she could love.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V - AFTER THE BALL
+
+
+'It's weary work,' said Sir Felix as he got into the brougham with his
+mother and sister.
+
+'What must it have been to me then, who had nothing to do?' said his
+mother.
+
+'It's the having something to do that makes me call it weary work.
+By-the-bye, now I think of it, I'll run down to the club before I go
+home.' So saying he put his head out of the brougham, and stopped the
+driver.
+
+'It is two o'clock, Felix,' said his mother.
+
+'I'm afraid it is, but you see I'm hungry. You had supper, perhaps; I
+had none.'
+
+'Are you going down to the club for supper at this time in the
+morning?'
+
+'I must go to bed hungry if I don't. Good night.' Then he jumped out
+of the brougham, called a cab, and had himself driven to the
+Beargarden. He declared to himself that the men there would think it
+mean of him if he did not give them their revenge. He had renewed his
+play on the preceding night, and had again won. Dolly Longestaffe owed
+him now a considerable sum of money, and Lord Grasslough was also in
+his debt. He was sure that Grasslough would go to the club after the
+ball, and he was determined that they should not think that he had
+submitted to be carried home by his mother and sister. So he argued
+with himself; but in truth the devil of gambling was hot within his
+bosom; and though he feared that in losing he might lose real money,
+and that if he won it would be long before he was paid, yet he could
+not keep himself from the card-table.
+
+Neither mother or daughter said a word till they reached home and had
+got upstairs. Then the elder spoke of the trouble that was nearest to
+her heart at the moment. 'Do you think he gambles?'
+
+'He has got no money, mamma.'
+
+'I fear that might not hinder him. And he has money with him, though,
+for him and such friends as he has, it is not much. If he gambles
+everything is lost.'
+
+'I suppose they all do play more or less.'
+
+'I have not known that he played. I am wearied too, out of all heart,
+by his want of consideration to me. It is not that he will not obey
+me. A mother perhaps should not expect obedience from a grown-up son.
+But my word is nothing to him. He has no respect for me. He would as
+soon do what is wrong before me as before the merest stranger.'
+
+'He has been so long his own master, mamma.'
+
+'Yes,--his own master! And yet I must provide for him as though he were
+but a child. Hetta, you spent the whole evening talking to Paul
+Montague.'
+
+'No, mamma that is unjust.'
+
+'He was always with you.'
+
+'I knew nobody else. I could not tell him not to speak to me. I danced
+with him twice.' Her mother was seated, with both her hands up to her
+forehead, and shook her head. 'If you did not want me to speak to Paul
+you should not have taken me there.'
+
+'I don't wish to prevent your speaking to him. You know what I want.'
+Henrietta came up and kissed her, and bade her good night. 'I think I
+am the unhappiest woman in all London,' she said, sobbing
+hysterically.
+
+'Is it my fault, mamma?'
+
+'You could save me from much if you would. I work like a horse, and I
+never spend a shilling that I can help. I want nothing for myself,--
+nothing for myself. Nobody has suffered as I have. But Felix never
+thinks of me for a moment.'
+
+'I think of you, mamma.'
+
+'If you did you would accept your cousin's offer. What right have you
+to refuse him? I believe it is all because of that young man.'
+
+'No, mamma; it is not because of that young man. I like my cousin very
+much;--but that is all. Good night, mamma.' Lady Carbury just allowed
+herself to be kissed, and then was left alone.
+
+At eight o'clock the next morning daybreak found four young men who
+had just risen from a card-table at the Beargarden. The Beargarden
+was so pleasant a club that there was no rule whatsoever as to its
+being closed,--the only law being that it should not be opened before
+three in the afternoon. A sort of sanction had, however, been given to
+the servants to demur to producing supper or drinks after six in the
+morning, so that, about eight, unrelieved tobacco began to be too
+heavy even for juvenile constitutions. The party consisted of Dolly
+Longestaffe, Lord Grasslough, Miles Grendall, and Felix Carbury, and
+the four had amused themselves during the last six hours with various
+innocent games. They had commenced with whist, and had culminated
+during the last half-hour with blind hookey. But during the whole
+night Felix had won. Miles Grendall hated him, and there had been an
+expressed opinion between Miles and the young lord that it would be
+both profitable and proper to relieve Sir Felix of the winnings of the
+last two nights. The two men had played with the same object, and
+being young had shown their intention,--so that a certain feeling of
+hostility had been engendered. The reader is not to understand that
+either of them had cheated, or that the baronet had entertained any
+suspicion of foul play. But Felix had felt that Grendall and
+Grasslough were his enemies, and had thrown himself on Dolly for
+sympathy and friendship. Dolly, however, was very tipsy.
+
+At eight o'clock in the morning there came a sort of settling, though
+no money then passed. The ready-money transactions had not lasted long
+through the night. Grasslough was the chief loser, and the figures and
+scraps of paper which had been passed over to Carbury, when counted
+up, amounted to nearly £2,000. His lordship contested the fact
+bitterly, but contested it in vain. There were his own initials and
+his own figures, and even Miles Grendall, who was supposed to be quite
+wide awake, could not reduce the amount. Then Grendall had lost over
+£400 to Carbury,--an amount, indeed, that mattered little, as Miles
+could, at present, as easily have raised £40,000. However, he gave his
+I.O.U. to his opponent with an easy air. Grasslough, also, was
+impecunious; but he had a father,--also impecunious, indeed; but with
+them the matter would not be hopeless. Dolly Longestaffe was so tipsy
+that he could not even assist in making up his own account. That was
+to be left between him and Carbury for some future occasion.
+
+'I suppose you'll be here to-morrow,--that is to-night,' said Miles.
+
+'Certainly,--only one thing,' answered Felix.
+
+'What one thing?'
+
+'I think these things should be squared before we play any more!'
+
+'What do you mean by that?' said Grasslough angrily. 'Do you mean to
+hint anything?'
+
+'I never hint anything, my Grassy,' said Felix. 'I believe when people
+play cards, it's intended to be ready-money, that's all. But I'm not
+going to stand on P's and Q's with you. I'll give you your revenge
+to-night.'
+
+'That's all right,' said Miles.
+
+'I was speaking to Lord Grasslough,' said Felix. 'He is an old friend,
+and we know each other. You have been rather rough to-night, Mr
+Grendall.'
+
+'Rough;--what the devil do you mean by that?'
+
+'And I think it will be as well that our account should be settled
+before we begin again.'
+
+'A settlement once a week is the kind of thing I'm used to,' said
+Grendall.
+
+There was nothing more said; but the young men did not part on good
+terms. Felix, as he got himself taken home, calculated that if he
+could realize his spoil, he might begin the campaign again with
+horses, servants, and all luxuries as before. If all were paid, he
+would have over £3,000!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI - ROGER CARBURY AND PAUL MONTAGUE
+
+
+Roger Carbury, of Carbury Hall, the owner of a small property in
+Suffolk, was the head of the Carbury family. The Carburys had been in
+Suffolk a great many years,--certainly from the time of the War of the
+Roses,--and had always held up their heads. But they had never held them
+very high. It was not known that any had risen ever to the honour of
+knighthood before Sir Patrick, going higher than that, had been made a
+baronet. They had, however, been true to their acres and their acres
+true to them through the perils of civil wars, Reformation,
+Commonwealth, and Revolution, and the head Carbury of the day had
+always owned, and had always lived at, Carbury Hall. At the beginning
+of the present century the squire of Carbury had been a considerable
+man, if not in his county, at any rate in his part of the county. The
+income of the estate had sufficed to enable him to live plenteously
+and hospitably, to drink port wine, to ride a stout hunter, and to
+keep an old lumbering coach for his wife's use when she went
+avisiting. He had an old butler who had never lived anywhere else, and
+a boy from the village who was in a way apprenticed to the butler.
+There was a cook, not too proud to wash up her own dishes, and a
+couple of young women;--while the house was kept by Mrs Carbury herself,
+who marked and gave out her own linen, made her own preserves, and
+looked to the curing of her own hams. In the year 1800 the Carbury
+property was sufficient for the Carbury house. Since that time the
+Carbury property has considerably increased in value, and the rents
+have been raised. Even the acreage has been extended by the enclosure
+of commons. But the income is no longer comfortably adequate to the
+wants of an English gentleman's household. If a moderate estate in
+land be left to a man now, there arises the question whether he is not
+damaged unless an income also be left to him wherewith to keep up the
+estate. Land is a luxury, and of all luxuries is the most costly. Now
+the Carburys never had anything but land. Suffolk has not been made
+rich and great either by coal or iron. No great town had sprung up on
+the confines of the Carbury property. No eldest son had gone into
+trade or risen high in a profession so as to add to the Carbury
+wealth. No great heiress had been married. There had been no ruin,--no
+misfortune. But in the days of which we write the Squire of Carbury
+Hall had become a poor man simply through the wealth of others. His
+estate was supposed to bring him in £2,000 a year. Had he been content
+to let the Manor House, to live abroad, and to have an agent at home
+to deal with the tenants, he would undoubtedly have had enough to live
+luxuriously. But he lived on his own land among his own people, as all
+the Carburys before him had done, and was poor because he was
+surrounded by rich neighbours. The Longestaffes of Caversham,--of which
+family Dolly Longestaffe was the eldest son and hope,--had the name of
+great wealth, but the founder of the family had been a Lord Mayor of
+London and a chandler as lately as in the reign of Queen Anne. The
+Hepworths, who could boast good blood enough on their own side, had
+married into new money. The Primeros,--though the goodnature of the
+country folk had accorded to the head of them the title of Squire
+Primero,--had been trading Spaniards fifty years ago, and had bought
+the Bundlesham property from a great duke. The estates of those three
+gentlemen, with the domain of the Bishop of Elmham, lay all around the
+Carbury property, and in regard to wealth enabled their owners
+altogether to overshadow our squire. The superior wealth of a bishop
+was nothing to him. He desired that bishops should be rich, and was
+among those who thought that the country had been injured when the
+territorial possessions of our prelates had been converted into
+stipends by Act of Parliament. But the grandeur of the Longestaffes
+and the too apparent wealth of the Primeros did oppress him, though he
+was a man who would never breathe a word of such oppression into the
+ear even of his dearest friend. It was his opinion,--which he did not
+care to declare loudly, but which was fully understood to be his
+opinion by those with whom he lived intimately,--that a man's standing
+in the world should not depend at all upon his wealth. The Primeros
+were undoubtedly beneath him in the social scale, although the young
+Primeros had three horses apiece, and killed legions of pheasants
+annually at about 10s. a head. Hepworth of Eardly was a very good
+fellow, who gave himself no airs and understood his duties as a
+country gentleman; but he could not be more than on a par with Carbury
+of Carbury, though he was supposed to enjoy £7,000 a year. The
+Longestaffes were altogether oppressive. Their footmen, even in the
+country, had powdered hair. They had a house in town,--a house of their
+own,--and lived altogether as magnates. The lady was Lady Pomona
+Longestaffe. The daughters, who certainly were handsome, had been
+destined to marry peers. The only son, Dolly, had, or had had, a
+fortune of his own. They were an oppressive people in a country
+neighbourhood. And to make the matter worse, rich as they were, they
+never were able to pay anybody anything that they owed. They continued
+to live with all the appurtenances of wealth. The girls always had
+horses to ride, both in town and country. The acquaintance of Dolly
+the reader has already made. Dolly, who certainly was a poor creature
+though good-natured, had energy in one direction. He would quarrel
+perseveringly with his father, who only had a life interest in the
+estate. The house at Caversham Park was during six or seven months of
+the year full of servants, if not of guests, and all the tradesmen in
+the little towns around, Bungay, Beccles, and Harlestone, were aware
+that the Longestaffes were the great people of that country. Though
+occasionally much distressed for money, they would always execute the
+Longestaffe orders with submissive punctuality, because there was an
+idea that the Longestaffe property was sound at the bottom. And, then,
+the owner of a property so managed cannot scrutinise bills very
+closely.
+
+Carbury of Carbury had never owed a shilling that he could not pay, or
+his father before him. His orders to the tradesmen at Beccles were not
+extensive, and care was used to see that the goods supplied were
+neither overcharged nor unnecessary. The tradesmen, consequently, of
+Beccles did not care much for Carbury of Carbury;--though perhaps one or
+two of the elders among them entertained some ancient reverence for
+the family. Roger Carbury, Esq., was Carbury of Carbury,--a distinction
+of itself which, from its nature, could not belong to the Longestaffes
+and Primeros, which did not even belong to the Hepworths of Eardly.
+The very parish in which Carbury Hall stood,--or Carbury Manor House, as
+it was more properly called,--was Carbury parish. And there was Carbury
+Chase, partly in Carbury parish and partly in Bundlesham,--but
+belonging, unfortunately, in its entirety to the Bundlesham estate.
+
+Roger Carbury himself was all alone in the world. His nearest
+relatives of the name were Sir Felix and Henrietta, but they were no
+more than second cousins. He had sisters, but they had long since been
+married and had gone away into the world with their husbands, one to
+India, and another to the far west of the United States. At present he
+was not much short of forty years of age, and was still unmarried. He
+was a stout, good-looking man, with a firmly set square face, with
+features finely cut, a small mouth, good teeth, and well-formed chin.
+His hair was red, curling round his head, which was now partly bald at
+the top. He wore no other beard than small, almost unnoticeable
+whiskers. His eyes were small, but bright, and very cheery when his
+humour was good. He was about five feet nine in height, having the
+appearance of great strength and perfect health. A more manly man to
+the eye was never seen. And he was one with whom you would
+instinctively wish at first sight to be on good terms,--partly because
+in looking at him there would come on you an unconscious conviction
+that he would be very stout in holding his own against his opponents;
+partly also from a conviction equally strong, that he would be very
+pleasant to his friends.
+
+When Sir Patrick had come home from India as an invalid, Roger Carbury
+had hurried up to see him in London, and had proffered him all
+kindness. Would Sir Patrick and his wife and children like to go down
+to the old place in the country? Sir Patrick did not care a straw for
+the old place in the country, and so told his cousin in almost those
+very words. There had not, therefore, been much friendship during Sir
+Patrick's life. But when the violent ill-conditioned old man was dead,
+Roger paid a second visit, and again offered hospitality to the widow
+and her daughter,--and to the young baronet. The young baronet had just
+joined his regiment and did not care to visit his cousin in Suffolk;
+but Lady Carbury and Henrietta had spent a month there, and everything
+had been done to make them happy. The effort as regarded Henrietta had
+been altogether successful. As regarded the widow, it must be
+acknowledged that Carbury Hall had not quite suited her tastes. She
+had already begun to sigh for the glories of a literary career. A
+career of some kind,--sufficient to repay her for the sufferings of her
+early life,--she certainly desired. 'Dear cousin Roger,' as she called
+him, had not seemed to her to have much power of assisting her in
+these views. She was a woman who did not care much for country charms.
+She had endeavoured to get up some mild excitement with the bishop,
+but the bishop had been too plain spoken and sincere for her. The
+Primeros had been odious; the Hepworths stupid; the Longestaffes,--she
+had endeavoured to make up a little friendship with Lady Pomona,--
+insufferably supercilious. She had declared to Henrietta 'that Carbury
+Hall was very dull.'
+
+But then there had come a circumstance which altogether changed her
+opinions as to Carbury Hall, and its proprietor. The proprietor after
+a few weeks followed them up to London, and made a most matter-of-fact
+offer to the mother for the daughter's hand. He was at that time
+thirty-six, and Henrietta was not yet twenty. He was very cool;--some
+might have thought him phlegmatic in his love-making. Henrietta
+declared to her mother that she had not in the least expected it. But
+he was very urgent, and very persistent. Lady Carbury was eager on his
+side. Though the Carbury Manor House did not exactly suit her, it
+would do admirably for Henrietta. And as for age, to her thinking, she
+being then over forty, a man of thirty-six was young enough for any
+girl. But Henrietta had an opinion of her own. She liked her cousin,
+but did not love him. She was amazed, and even annoyed by the offer.
+She had praised him and praised the house so loudly to her mother,--
+having in her innocence never dreamed of such a proposition as this,--so
+that now she found it difficult to give an adequate reason for her
+refusal. Yes;--she had undoubtedly said that her cousin was charming,
+but she had not meant charming in that way. She did refuse the offer
+very plainly, but still with some apparent lack of persistency. When
+Roger suggested that she should take a few months to think of it, and
+her mother supported Roger's suggestion, she could say nothing
+stronger than that she was afraid that thinking about it would not do
+any good. Their first visit to Carbury had been made in September. In
+the following February she went there again,--much against the grain as
+far as her own wishes were concerned; and when there had been cold,
+constrained, almost dumb in the presence of her cousin. Before they
+left the offer was renewed, but Henrietta declared that she could not
+do as they would have her. She could give no reason, only she did not
+love her cousin in that way. But Roger declared that he by no means
+intended to abandon his suit. In truth he verily loved the girl, and
+love with him was a serious thing. All this happened a full year
+before the beginning of our present story.
+
+But something else happened also. While that second visit was being
+made at Carbury there came to the hall a young man of whom Roger
+Carbury had said much to his cousins,--one Paul Montague, of whom some
+short account shall be given in this chapter. The squire,--Roger Carbury
+was always called the squire about his own place,--had anticipated no
+evil when he so timed this second visit of his cousins to his house
+that they must of necessity meet Paul Montague there. But great harm
+had come of it. Paul Montague had fallen into love with his cousin's
+guest, and there had sprung up much unhappiness.
+
+Lady Carbury and Henrietta had been nearly a month at Carbury, and
+Paul Montague had been there barely a week, when Roger Carbury thus
+spoke to the guest who had last arrived. 'I've got to tell you
+something, Paul.'
+
+'Anything serious?'
+
+'Very serious to me. I may say so serious that nothing in my own life
+can approach it in importance.' He had unconsciously assumed that
+look, which his friend so thoroughly understood, indicating his
+resolve to hold to what he believed to be his own, and to fight if
+fighting be necessary. Montague knew him well, and became half aware
+that he had done something, he knew not what, militating against this
+serious resolve of his friend. He looked up, but said nothing. 'I have
+offered my hand in marriage to my cousin Henrietta,' said Roger, very
+gravely.
+
+'Miss Carbury?'
+
+'Yes; to Henrietta Carbury. She has not accepted it. She has refused
+me twice. But I still have hopes of success. Perhaps I have no right
+to hope, but I do. I tell it you just as it is. Everything in life to
+me depends upon it. I think I may count upon your sympathy.'
+
+'Why did you not tell me before?' said Paul Montague in a hoarse
+voice.
+
+Then there had come a sudden and rapid interchange of quick speaking
+between the men, each of them speaking the truth exactly, each of them
+declaring himself to be in the right and to be ill-used by the other,
+each of them equally hot, equally generous, and equally unreasonable.
+Montague at once asserted that he also loved Henrietta Carbury. He
+blurted out his assurance in the baldest and most incomplete manner,
+but still in such words as to leave no doubt. No;--he had not said a
+word to her. He had intended to consult Roger Carbury himself,--should
+have done so in a day or two,--perhaps on that very day had not Roger
+spoken to him. 'You have neither of you a shilling in the world,' said
+Roger; 'and now you know what my feelings are you must abandon it.'
+Then Montague declared that he had a right to speak to Miss Carbury.
+He did not suppose that Miss Carbury cared a straw about him. He had
+not the least reason to think that she did. It was altogether
+impossible. But he had a right to his chance. That chance was all the
+world to him. As to money,--he would not admit that he was a pauper,
+and, moreover, he might earn an income as well as other men. Had
+Carbury told him that the young lady had shown the slightest intention
+to receive his, Carbury's, addresses, he, Paul, would at once have
+disappeared from the scene. But as it was not so, he would not say
+that he would abandon his hope.
+
+The scene lasted for above an hour. When it was ended, Paul Montague
+packed up all his clothes and was driven away to the railway station
+by Roger himself, without seeing either of the ladies. There had been
+very hot words between the men, but the last words which Roger spoke
+to the other on the railway platform were not quarrelsome in their
+nature. 'God bless you, old fellow,' he said, pressing Paul's hands.
+Paul's eyes were full of tears, and he replied only by returning the
+pressure.
+
+Paul Montague's father and mother had long been dead. The father had
+been a barrister in London, having perhaps some small fortune of his
+own. He had, at any rate, left to this son, who was one among others,
+a sufficiency with which to begin the world. Paul when he had come of
+age had found himself possessed of about £6,000. He was then at
+Oxford, and was intended for the bar. An uncle of his, a younger
+brother of his father, had married a Carbury, the younger sister of
+two, though older than her brother Roger. This uncle many years since
+had taken his wife out to California, and had there become an
+American. He had a large tract of land, growing wool, and wheat, and
+fruit; but whether he prospered or whether he did not, had not always
+been plain to the Montagues and Carburys at home. The intercourse
+between the two families had, in the quite early days of Paul
+Montague's life, created an affection between him and Roger, who, as
+will be understood by those who have carefully followed the above
+family history, were not in any degree related to each other. Roger,
+when quite a young man, had had the charge of the boy's education, and
+had sent him to Oxford. But the Oxford scheme, to be followed by the
+bar, and to end on some one of the many judicial benches of the
+country, had not succeeded. Paul had got into a 'row' at Balliol, and
+had been rusticated,--had then got into another row, and was sent down.
+Indeed he had a talent for rows,--though, as Roger Carbury always
+declared, there was nothing really wrong about any of them. Paul was
+then twenty-one, and he took himself and his money out to California,
+and joined his uncle. He had perhaps an idea,--based on very
+insufficient grounds,--that rows are popular in California. At the end
+of three years he found that he did not like farming life in
+California,--and he found also that he did not like his uncle. So he
+returned to England, but on returning was altogether unable to get his
+£6,000 out of the Californian farm. Indeed he had been compelled to
+come away without any of it, with funds insufficient even to take him
+home, accepting with much dissatisfaction an assurance from his uncle
+that an income amounting to ten per cent, upon his capital should be
+remitted to him with the regularity of clockwork. The clock alluded to
+must have been one of Sam Slick's. It had gone very badly. At the end
+of the first quarter there came the proper remittance,--then half the
+amount,--then there was a long interval without anything; then some
+dropping payments now and again;--and then a twelvemonth without
+anything. At the end of that twelvemonth he paid a second visit to
+California, having borrowed money from Roger for his journey. He had
+now again returned, with some little cash in hand, and with the
+additional security of a deed executed in his favour by one Hamilton
+K. Fisker, who had gone into partnership with his uncle, and who had
+added a vast flour-mill to his uncle's concerns. In accordance with
+this deed he was to get twelve per cent, on his capital, and had
+enjoyed the gratification of seeing his name put up as one of the
+firm, which now stood as Fisker, Montague, and Montague. A business
+declared by the two elder partners to be most promising had been
+opened at Fiskerville, about two hundred and fifty miles from San
+Francisco, and the hearts of Fisker and the elder Montague were very
+high. Paul hated Fisker horribly, did not love his uncle much, and
+would willingly have got back his £6,000 had he been able. But he was
+not able, and returned as one of Fisker, Montague, and Montague, not
+altogether unhappy, as he had succeeded in obtaining enough of his
+back income to pay what he owed to Roger, and to live for a few
+months. He was intent on considering how he should bestow himself,
+consulting daily with Roger on the subject, when suddenly Roger had
+perceived that the young man was becoming attached to the girl whom he
+himself loved. What then occurred has been told.
+
+Not a word was said to Lady Carbury or her daughter of the real cause
+of Paul's sudden disappearance. It had been necessary that he should
+go to London. Each of the ladies probably guessed something of the
+truth, but neither spoke a word to the other on the subject Before
+they left the Manor the squire again pleaded his cause with Henrietta,
+but he pleaded it in vain. Henrietta was colder than ever,--but she made
+use of one unfortunate phrase which destroyed all the effect which her
+coldness might have had. She said that she was too young to think of
+marrying yet. She had meant to imply that the difference in their ages
+was too great, but had not known how to say it. It was easy to tell
+her that in a twelve-month she would be older;--but it was impossible to
+convince her that any number of twelvemonths would alter the disparity
+between her and her cousin. But even that disparity was not now her
+strongest reason for feeling sure that she could not marry Roger
+Carbury.
+
+Within a week of the departure of Lady Carbury from the Manor House,
+Paul Montague returned, and returned as a still dear friend. He had
+promised before he went that he would not see Henrietta again for
+three months, but he would promise nothing further. 'If she won't take
+you, there is no reason why I shouldn't try.' That had been his
+argument. Roger would not accede to the justice even of this. It
+seemed to him that Paul was bound to retire altogether, partly because
+he had got no income, partly because of Roger's previous claim,--partly
+no doubt in gratitude, but of this last reason Roger never said a
+word. If Paul did not see this himself, Paul was not such a man as his
+friend had taken him to be.
+
+Paul did see it himself, and had many scruples. But why should his
+friend be a dog in the manger? He would yield at once to Roger
+Carbury's older claims if Roger could make anything of them. Indeed he
+could have no chance if the girl were disposed to take Roger for her
+husband. Roger had all the advantage of Carbury Manor at his back,
+whereas he had nothing but his share in the doubtful business of
+Fisker, Montague, and Montague, in a wretched little town 250 miles
+further off than San Francisco! But if with all this, Roger could not
+prevail, why should he not try? What Roger said about want of money
+was mere nonsense. Paul was sure that his friend would have created no
+such difficulty had not he himself been interested. Paul declared to
+himself that he had money, though doubtful money, and that he
+certainly would not give up Henrietta on that score.
+
+He came up to London at various times in search of certain employment
+which had been half promised him, and, after the expiration of the
+three months, constantly saw Lady Carbury and her daughter. But from
+time to time he had given renewed promises to Roger Carbury that he
+would not declare his passion,--now for two months, then for six weeks,
+then for a month. In the meantime the two men were fast friends,--so
+fast that Montague spent by far the greater part of his time as his
+friend's guest,--and all this was done with the understanding that Roger
+Carbury was to blaze up into hostile wrath should Paul ever receive
+the privilege to call himself Henrietta Carbury's favoured lover, but
+that everything was to be smooth between them should Henrietta be
+persuaded to become the mistress of Carbury Hall. So things went on up
+to the night at which Montague met Henrietta at Madame Melmotte's
+ball. The reader should also be informed that there had been already a
+former love affair in the young life of Paul Montague. There had been,
+and indeed there still was, a widow, one Mrs Hurtle, whom he had been
+desperately anxious to marry before his second journey to California;--
+but the marriage had been prevented by the interference of Roger
+Carbury.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII - MENTOR
+
+
+Lady Carbury's desire for a union between Roger and her daughter was
+greatly increased by her solicitude in respect to her son. Since
+Roger's offer had first been made, Felix had gone on from bad to
+worse, till his condition had become one of hopeless embarrassment. If
+her daughter could but be settled in the world, Lady Carbury said to
+herself, she could then devote herself to the interests of her son.
+She had no very clear idea of what that devotion would be. But she did
+know that she had paid so much money for him, and would have so much
+more extracted from her, that it might well come to pass that she
+would be unable to keep a home for her daughter. In all these troubles
+she constantly appealed to Roger Carbury for advice,--which, however,
+she never followed. He recommended her to give up her house in town,
+to find a home for her daughter elsewhere, and also for Felix if he
+would consent to follow her. Should he not so consent, then let the
+young man bear the brunt of his own misdoings. Doubtless, when he
+could no longer get bread in London he would find her out. Roger was
+always severe when he spoke of the baronet,--or seemed to Lady Carbury
+to be severe.
+
+But, in truth, she did not ask for advice in order that she might
+follow it. She had plans in her head with which she knew that Roger
+would not sympathise. She still thought that Sir Felix might bloom and
+burst out into grandeur, wealth, and fashion, as the husband of a
+great heiress, and in spite of her son's vices, was proud of him in
+that anticipation. When he succeeded in obtaining from her money, as
+in the case of that £20,--when, with brazen-faced indifference to her
+remonstrances, he started off to his club at two in the morning, when
+with impudent drollery he almost boasted of the hopelessness of his
+debts, a sickness of heart would come upon her, and she would weep
+hysterically, and lie the whole night without sleeping. But could he
+marry Miss Melmotte, and thus conquer all his troubles by means of his
+own personal beauty,--then she would be proud of all that had passed.
+With such a condition of mind Roger Carbury could have no sympathy. To
+him it seemed that a gentleman was disgraced who owed money to a
+tradesman which he could not pay. And Lady Carbury's heart was high
+with other hopes,--in spite of her hysterics and her fears. The
+'Criminal Queens' might be a great literary success. She almost
+thought that it would be a success. Messrs. Leadham and Loiter, the
+publishers, were civil to her. Mr Broune had promised. Mr Booker had
+said that he would see what could be done. She had gathered from Mr
+Alf's caustic and cautious words that the book would be noticed in the
+'Evening Pulpit.' No;--she would not take dear Roger's advice as to
+leaving London. But she would continue to ask Roger's advice. Men like
+to have their advice asked. And, if possible, she would arrange the
+marriage. What country retirement could be so suitable for a Lady
+Carbury when she wished to retire for awhile,--as Carbury Manor, the
+seat of her own daughter? And then her mind would fly away into
+regions of bliss. If only by the end of this season Henrietta could be
+engaged to her cousin, Felix be the husband of the richest bride in
+Europe, and she be the acknowledged author of the cleverest book of
+the year, what a Paradise of triumph might still be open to her after
+all her troubles. Then the sanguine nature of the woman would bear her
+up almost to exultation, and for an hour she would be happy in spite
+of everything.
+
+A few days after the ball Roger Carbury was up in town and was
+closeted with her in her back drawing-room. The declared cause of his
+coming was the condition of the baronet's affairs and the
+indispensable necessity,--so Roger thought,--of taking some steps by
+which at any rate the young man's present expenses might be brought to
+an end. It was horrible to him that a man who had not a shilling in
+the world or any prospect of a shilling, who had nothing and never
+thought of earning anything should have hunters! He was very much in
+earnest about it, and quite prepared to speak his mind to the young
+man himself,--if he could get hold of him. 'Where is he now, Lady
+Carbury,--at this moment?'
+
+'I think he's out with the Baron.' Being 'out with the Baron.' meant
+that the young man was hunting with the staghounds some forty miles
+away from London.
+
+'How does he manage it? Whose horses does he ride? Who pays for them?'
+
+'Don't be angry with me, Roger. What can I do to prevent it?'
+
+'I think you should refuse to have anything to do with him while he
+continues in such courses.'
+
+'My own son!'
+
+'Yes;--exactly. But what is to be the end of it? Is he to be allowed to
+ruin you and Hetta? It can't go on long.'
+
+'You wouldn't have me throw him over.'
+
+'I think he is throwing you over. And then it is so thoroughly
+dishonest,--so ungentlemanlike! I don't understand how it goes on from
+day to day. I suppose you don't supply him with ready money?'
+
+'He has had a little.'
+
+Roger frowned angrily. 'I can understand that you should provide him
+with bed and food, but not that you should pander to his vices by
+giving him money.' This was very plain speaking, and Lady Carbury
+winced under it. 'The kind of life that he is leading requires a large
+income of itself. I understand the thing, and know that with all I
+have in the world I could not do it myself.'
+
+'You are so different.'
+
+'I am older of course,--very much older. But he is not so young that he
+should not begin to comprehend. Has he any money beyond what you give
+him?'
+
+Then Lady Carbury revealed certain suspicions which she had begun to
+entertain during the last day or two. 'I think he has been playing.'
+
+'That is the way to lose money,--not to get it.' said Roger.
+
+'I suppose somebody wins,--sometimes.'
+
+'They who win are the sharpers. They who lose are the dupes. I would
+sooner that he were a fool than a knave.'
+
+'O Roger, you are so severe!'
+
+'You say he plays. How would he pay, were he to lose?'
+
+'I know nothing about it. I don't even know that he does play; but I
+have reason to think that during the last week he has had money at his
+command. Indeed I have seen it. He comes home at all manner of hours
+and sleeps late. Yesterday I went into his room about ten and did not
+wake him. There were notes and gold lying on his table;--ever so much.'
+
+'Why did you not take them?'
+
+'What; rob my own boy?'
+
+'When you tell me that you are absolutely in want of money to pay your
+own bills, and that he has not hesitated to take yours from you! Why
+does he not repay you what he has borrowed?'
+
+'Ah, indeed;--why not? He ought to if he has it. And there were papers
+there;--I.O.U.'s signed by other men.'
+
+'You looked at them.'
+
+'I saw as much as that. It is not that I am curious but one does feel
+about one's own son. I think he has bought another horse. A groom came
+here and said something about it to the servants.'
+
+'Oh dear oh dear!'
+
+'If you could only induce him to stop the gambling! Of course it is
+very bad whether he wins or loses,--though I am sure that Felix would do
+nothing unfair. Nobody ever said that of him. If he has won money, it
+would be a great comfort if he would let me have some of it,--for to
+tell the truth. I hardly know how to turn. I am sure nobody can say
+that I spend it on myself.'
+
+Then Roger again repeated his advice. There could be no use in
+attempting to keep up the present kind of life in Welbeck Street.
+Welbeck Street might be very well without a penniless spendthrift such
+as Sir Felix but must be ruinous under the present conditions. If Lady
+Carbury felt, as no doubt she did feel, bound to afford a home to her
+ruined son in spite of all his wickedness and folly, that home should
+be found far away from London. If he chose to remain in London, let
+him do so on his own resources. The young man should make up his mind
+to do something for himself. A career might possibly be opened for him
+in India. 'If he be a man he would sooner break stones than live on
+you.' said Roger. Yes, he would see his cousin to-morrow and speak to
+him;--that is if he could possibly find him. "Young men who gamble all
+night, and hunt all day are not easily found." But he would come at
+twelve as Felix generally breakfasted at that hour. Then he gave an
+assurance to Lady Carbury which to her was not the least comfortable
+part of the interview. In the event of her son not giving her the
+money which she at one once required he, Roger, would lend her a
+hundred pounds till her half year's income should be due. After that
+his voice changed altogether, as he asked a question on another
+subject. 'Can I see Henrietta to-morrow?'
+
+'Certainly;--why not? She is at, home now, I think.'
+
+'I will wait till to-morrow,--when I call to see Felix. I should like her
+to know that I am coming. Paul Montague was in town the other day. He
+was here, I suppose?'
+
+'Yes;--he called.'
+
+'Was that all you saw of him?'
+
+'He was at the Melmottes' ball. Felix got a card for him;--and we were
+there. Has he gone down to Carbury?'
+
+'No;--not to Carbury. I think he had some business about his partners at
+Liverpool. There is another case of a young man without anything to
+do. Not that Paul is at all like Sir Felix.' This he was induced to
+say by the spirit of honesty which was always strong within him.
+
+'Don't be too hard upon poor Felix.' said Lady Carbury. Roger, as he
+took his leave, thought that it would be impossible to be too hard
+upon Sir Felix Carbury.
+
+The next morning Lady Carbury was in her son's bedroom before he was
+up, and with incredible weakness told him that his cousin Roger was
+coming to lecture him. 'What the devil's the use of it?' said Felix
+from beneath the bedclothes.
+
+'If you speak to me in that way, Felix, I must leave the room.'
+
+'But what is the use of his coming to me? I know what he has got to
+say just as if it were said. It's all very well preaching sermons to
+good people, but nothing ever was got by preaching to people who ain't
+good.'
+
+'Why shouldn't you be good?'
+
+'I shall do very well, mother, if that fellow will leave me alone. I
+can play my hand better than he can play for me. If you'll go now I'll
+get up.' She had intended to ask him for some of the money which she
+believed he still possessed; but her courage failed her. If she asked
+for his money, and took it, she would in some fashion recognise and
+tacitly approve his gambling. It was not yet eleven, and it was early
+for him to leave his bed; but he had resolved that he would get out of
+the house before that horrible bore should be upon him with his
+sermon. To do this he must be energetic. He was actually eating his
+breakfast at half-past eleven, and had already contrived in his mind
+how he would turn the wrong way as soon as he got into the street,--
+towards Marylebone Road, by which route Roger would certainly not
+come. He left the house at ten minutes before twelve, cunningly turned
+away, dodging round by the first corner,--and just as he had turned it
+encountered his cousin. Roger, anxious in regard to his errand, with
+time at his command, had come before the hour appointed and had
+strolled about, thinking not of Felix but of Felix's sister. The
+baronet felt that he had been caught,--caught unfairly, but by no means
+abandoned all hope of escape. 'I was going to your mother's house on
+purpose to see you,' said Roger.
+
+'Were you indeed? I am so sorry. I have an engagement out here with a
+fellow which I must keep. I could meet you at any other time, you
+know.'
+
+'You can come back for ten minutes,' said Roger, taking him by the
+arm.
+
+'Well;--not conveniently at this moment.'
+
+'You must manage it. I am here at your mother's request, and can't
+afford to remain in town day after day looking for you. I go down to
+Carbury this afternoon. Your friend can wait. Come along.' His
+firmness was too much for Felix, who lacked the courage to shake his
+cousin off violently, and to go his way. But as he returned he
+fortified himself with the remembrance of all the money in his pocket,--
+for he still had his winnings,--remembered too certain sweet words which
+had passed between him and Marie Melmotte since the ball, and resolved
+that he would not be sat upon by Roger Carbury. The time was coming,--he
+might almost say that the time had come,--in which he might defy Roger
+Carbury. Nevertheless, he dreaded the words which were now to be
+spoken to him with a craven fear.
+
+'Your mother tells me,' said Roger, 'that you still keep hunters.'
+
+'I don't know what she calls hunters. I have one that I didn't part
+with when the others went.'
+
+'You have only one horse?'
+
+'Well;--if you want to be exact, I have a hack as well as the horse I
+ride.'
+
+'And another up here in town?'
+
+'Who told you that? No; I haven't. At least there is one staying at
+some stables which, has been sent for me to look at.'
+
+'Who pays for all these horses?'
+
+'At any rate I shall not ask you to pay for them.'
+
+'No;--you would be afraid to do that. But you have no scruple in asking
+your mother, though you should force her to come to me or to other
+friends for assistance. You have squandered every shilling of your
+own, and now you are ruining her.'
+
+'That isn't true. I have money of my own.'
+
+'Where did you get it?'
+
+'This is all very well. Roger; but I don't know that you have any
+right to ask me these questions. I have money. If I buy a horse I can
+pay for it. If I keep one or two I can pay for them. Of course I owe a
+lot of money, but other people owe me money too. I'm all right, and
+you needn't frighten yourself.'
+
+'Then why do you beg her last shilling from your mother, and when you
+have money not pay it back to her?'
+
+'She can have the twenty pounds, if you mean that.'
+
+'I mean that, and a good deal more than that. I suppose you have been
+gambling.'
+
+'I don't know that I am bound to answer your questions, and I won't do
+it. If you have nothing else to say, I'll go about my own business.'
+
+'I have something else to say, and I mean to say it.' Felix had walked
+towards the door, but Roger was before him, and now leaned his back
+against it.
+
+'I'm not going to be kept here against my will,' said Felix.
+
+'You have to listen to me, so you may as well sit still. Do you wish
+to be looked upon as a blackguard by all the world?'
+
+'Oh;--go on!'
+
+'That is what it will be. You have spent every shilling of your own,--
+and because your mother is affectionate and weak you are now spending
+all that she has, and are bringing her and your sister to beggary.'
+
+'I don't ask her to pay anything for me.'
+
+'Not when you borrow her money?'
+
+'There is the £20. Take it and give it her.' said Felix, counting the
+notes out of the pocket-book. 'When I asked, her for it, I did not
+think she would make such a row about such a trifle.' Roger took up
+the notes and thrust them into his pocket. 'Now, have you done?' said
+Felix.
+
+'Not quite. Do you purpose that your mother should keep you and clothe
+you for the rest of your life?'
+
+'I hope to be able to keep her before long, and to do it much better
+than it has ever been done before. The truth is, Roger, you know
+nothing about it. If you'll leave me to myself you'll find that I
+shall do very well.'
+
+'I don't know any young man who ever did worse or one who had less
+moral conception of what is right and wrong.'
+
+'Very well. That's your idea. I differ from you. People can't all
+think alike, you know. Now, if you please, I'll go.'
+
+Roger felt that he hadn't half said what he had to say, but he hardly
+knew how to get it said. And of what use could it be to talk to a young
+man who was altogether callous and without feeling? The remedy for the
+evil ought to be found in the mother's conduct rather than the son's.
+She, were she not foolishly weak, would make up her mind to divide
+herself utterly from her son, at any rate for a while, and to leave
+him to suffer utter penury. That would bring him round. And then when
+the agony of want had tamed him, he would be content to take bread and
+meat from her hand and would be humble. At present he had money in his
+pocket, and would eat and drink of the best, and be free from
+inconvenience for the moment. While this prosperity remained it would
+be impossible to touch him. 'You will ruin your sister, and break your
+mother's heart.' said Roger, firing a last harmless shot after the
+young reprobate.
+
+When Lady Carbury came into the room, which she did as soon as the
+front door was closed behind her son, she seemed to think that a
+great success had been achieved because the £20 had been recovered. 'I
+knew he would give it me back, if he had it.' she said.
+
+'Why did he not bring it to you of his own accord?'
+
+'I suppose he did not like to talk about it. Has he said that he got
+it by--playing?'
+
+'No,--he did not speak a word of truth while he was here. You may take
+it for granted that he did get it by gambling. How else should he have
+it? And you may take it for granted also that he will lose all that he
+has got. He talked in the wildest way,--saying that he would soon have a
+home for you and Hetta.'
+
+'Did he,--dear boy!'
+
+'Had he any meaning?'
+
+'Oh; yes. And it is quite on the cards that it should be so. You have
+heard of Miss Melmotte.'
+
+'I have heard of the great French swindler who has come over here, and
+who is buying his way into society.'
+
+'Everybody visits them now, Roger.'
+
+'More shame for everybody. Who knows anything about him,--except that he
+left Paris with the reputation of a specially prosperous rogue? But
+what of him?'
+
+'Some people think that Felix will marry his only child. Felix is
+handsome; isn't he? What young man is there nearly so handsome? They
+say she'll have half a million of money.'
+
+'That's his game;--is it?'
+
+'Don't you think he is right?'
+
+'No; I think he's wrong. But we shall hardly agree with each other
+about that. Can I see Henrietta for a few minutes?'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII - LOVE-SICK
+
+
+Roger Carbury said well that it was very improbable that he and his
+cousin, the widow, should agree in their opinions as to the
+expedience of fortune-hunting by marriage. It was impossible that they
+should ever understand each other. To Lady Carbury the prospect of a
+union between her son and Miss Melmotte was one of unmixed joy and
+triumph. Could it have been possible that Marie Melmotte should be
+rich and her father be a man doomed to a deserved sentence in a penal
+settlement, there might perhaps be a doubt about it. The wealth even
+in that case would certainly carry the day, against the disgrace, and
+Lady Carbury would find reasons why poor Marie should not be punished
+for her father's sins even while enjoying the money which those sins
+had produced. But how different were the existing facts? Mr Melmotte
+was not at the galleys, but was entertaining duchesses in Grosvenor
+Square. People said that Mr Melmotte had a reputation throughout
+Europe as a gigantic swindler,--as one who in the dishonest and
+successful pursuit of wealth had stopped at nothing. People said of
+him that he had framed and carried out long premeditated and
+deeply-laid schemes for the ruin of those who had trusted him, that he
+had swallowed up the property of all who had come in contact with him,
+that he was fed with the blood of widows and children;--but what was all
+this to Lady Carbury? If the duchesses condoned it all, did it become
+her to be prudish? People also said that Melmotte would yet get a
+fall,--that a man who had risen after such a fashion never could long
+keep his head up. But he might keep his head up long enough to give
+Marie her fortune. And then Felix wanted a fortune so badly;--was so
+exactly the young man who ought to marry a fortune! To Lady Carbury
+there was no second way of looking at the matter.
+
+And to Roger Carbury also there was no second way of looking at it.
+That condonation of antecedents which, in the hurry of the world, is
+often vouchsafed to success, that growing feeling which induces
+people to assert to themselves that they are not bound to go outside
+the general verdict, and that they may shake hands with whomsoever the
+world shakes hands with, had never reached him. The old-fashioned idea
+that the touching of pitch will defile still prevailed with him. He
+was a gentleman;--and would have felt himself disgraced to enter the
+house of such a one as Augustus Melmotte. Not all the duchesses in the
+peerage, or all the money in the city, could alter his notions or
+induce him to modify his conduct. But he knew that it would be useless
+for him to explain this to Lady Carbury. He trusted, however, that one
+of the family might be taught to appreciate the difference between
+honour and dishonour. Henrietta Carbury had, he thought, a higher turn
+of mind than her mother, and had as yet been kept free from soil. As
+for Felix,--he had so grovelled in the gutters as to be dirt all over.
+Nothing short of the prolonged sufferings of half a life could cleanse
+him.
+
+He found Henrietta alone in the drawing-room. 'Have you seen Felix?'
+she said, as soon as they had greeted each other.
+
+'Yes. I caught him in the street.'
+
+'We are so unhappy about him.'
+
+'I cannot say but that you have reason. I think, you know, that your
+mother indulges him foolishly.'
+
+'Poor mamma! She worships the very ground he treads on.'
+
+'Even a mother should not throw her worship away like that. The fact
+is that your brother will ruin you both if this goes on.'
+
+'What can mamma do?'
+
+'Leave London, and then refuse to pay a shilling on his behalf.'
+
+'What would Felix do in the country?'
+
+'If he did nothing, how much better would that be than what he does in
+town? You would not like him to become a professional gambler.'
+
+'Oh, Mr Carbury; you do not mean that he does that!'
+
+'It seems cruel to say such things to you,--but in a matter of such
+importance one is bound to speak the truth. I have no influence over
+your mother; but you may have some. She asks my advice, but has not
+the slightest idea of listening to it. I don't blame her for that; but
+I am anxious, for the sake of--for the sake of the family.'
+
+'I am sure you are.'
+
+'Especially for your sake. You will never throw him over.'
+
+'You would not ask me to throw him over.'
+
+'But he may drag you into the mud. For his sake you have already been
+taken into the house of that man Melmotte.'
+
+'I do not think that I shall be injured by anything of that kind,'
+said Henrietta drawing herself up.
+
+'Pardon me if I seem to interfere.'
+
+'Oh, no;--it is no interference from you.'
+
+'Pardon me then if I am rough. To me it seems that an injury is done
+to you if you are made to go to the house of such a one as this man.
+Why does your mother seek his society? Not because she likes him; not
+because she has any sympathy with him or his family;--but simply because
+there is a rich daughter.'
+
+'Everybody goes there, Mr Carbury.'
+
+'Yes,--that is the excuse which everybody makes. Is that sufficient
+reason for you to go to a man's house? Is there not another place, to
+which we are told that a great many are going, simply because the road
+has become thronged and fashionable? Have you no feeling that you
+ought to choose your friends for certain reasons of your own? I admit
+there is one reason here. They have a great deal of money, and it is
+thought possible that he may get some of it by falsely swearing to a
+girl that he loves her. After what you have heard, are the Melmottes
+people with whom you would wish to be connected?'
+
+'I don't know.'
+
+'I do. I know very well. They are absolutely disgraceful. A social
+connection with the first crossing-sweeper would be less
+objectionable.' He spoke with a degree of energy of which he was
+himself altogether unaware. He knit his brows, and his eyes flashed,
+and his nostrils were extended. Of course she thought of his own offer
+to herself. Of course, her mind at once conceived,--not that the
+Melmotte connection could ever really affect him, for she felt sure
+that she would never accept his offer,--but that he might think that he
+would be so affected. Of course he resented the feeling which she thus
+attributed to him. But, in truth, he was much too simple-minded for
+any such complex idea. 'Felix,' he continued, 'has already descended
+so far that I cannot pretend to be anxious as to what houses he may
+frequent. But I should be sorry to think that you should often be seen
+at Mr Melmotte's.'
+
+'I think, Mr Carbury, that mamma will take care that I am not taken
+where I ought not to be taken.'
+
+'I wish you to have some opinion of your own as to what is proper for
+you.'
+
+'I hope I have. I am sorry you should think that I have not.'
+
+'I am old-fashioned, Hetta.'
+
+'And we belong to a newer and worse sort of world. I dare say it is
+so. You have been always very kind, but I almost doubt whether you can
+change us, now. I have sometimes thought that you and mamma were
+hardly fit for each other.'
+
+'I have thought that you and I were,--or possibly might be fit for each
+other.'
+
+'Oh,--as for me. I shall always take mamma's side. If mamma chooses to
+go to the Melmottes I shall certainly go with her. If that is
+contamination, I suppose I must be contaminated. I don't see why I'm
+to consider myself better than any one else.'
+
+'I have always thought that you were better than any one else.'
+
+'That was before I went to the Melmottes. I am sure you have altered
+your opinion now. Indeed you have told me so. I am afraid, Mr Carbury,
+you must go your way, and we must go ours.'
+
+He looked into her face as she spoke, and gradually began to perceive
+the working of her mind. He was so true to himself that he did not
+understand that there should be with her even that violet-coloured
+tinge of prevarication which women assume as an additional charm.
+Could she really have thought that he was attending to his own
+possible future interests when he warned her as to the making of new
+acquaintances?
+
+'For myself.' he said, putting out his hand and making a slight vain
+effort to get hold of hers, 'I have only one wish in the world; and
+that is, to travel the same road with you. I do not say that you ought
+to wish it too; but you ought to know that I am sincere. When I spoke
+of the Melmottes did you believe that I was thinking of myself?'
+
+'Oh no;--how should I?'
+
+'I was speaking to you then as to a cousin who might regard me as an
+elder brother. No contact with legions of Melmottes could make you
+other to me than the woman on whom my heart has settled. Even were you
+in truth disgraced could disgrace touch one so pure as you it would be
+the same. I love you so well that I have already taken you for better
+or for worse. I cannot change. My nature is too stubborn for such
+changes. Have you a word to say to comfort me?' She turned away her
+head, but did not answer him at once. 'Do you understand how much I am
+in need of comfort?'
+
+'You can do very well without comfort from me.'
+
+'No, indeed. I shall live, no doubt; but I shall not do very well. As
+it is, I am not doing at all well. I am becoming sour and moody, and
+ill at ease with my friends. I would have you believe me, at any rate,
+when I say I love you.'
+
+'I suppose you mean something.'
+
+'I mean a great deal, dear. I mean all that a man can mean. That is
+it. You hardly understand that I am serious to the extent of ecstatic
+joy on the one side, and utter indifference to the world on the other.
+I shall never give it up till I learn that you are to be married to
+some one else.'
+
+'What can I say, Mr Carbury?'
+
+'That you will love me.'
+
+'But if I don't?'
+
+'Say that you will try.'
+
+'No; I will not say that. Love should come without a struggle. I
+don't know how one person is to try to love another in that way. I
+like you very much; but being married is such a terrible thing.'
+
+'It would not be terrible to me, dear.'
+
+'Yes;--when you found that I was too young for your tastes.'
+
+'I shall persevere, you know. Will you assure me of this,--that if you
+promise your hand to another man you will let me know at once?'
+
+'I suppose I may promise that,' she said, after pausing for a moment.
+
+'There is no one as yet?'
+
+'There is no one. But, Mr Carbury, you have no right to question me. I
+don't think it generous. I allow you to say things that nobody else
+could say because you are a cousin and because mamma trusts you so
+much. No one but mamma has a right to ask me whether I care for any
+one.'
+
+'Are you angry with me?'
+
+'No.'
+
+'If I have offended you it is because I love you so dearly.'
+
+'I am not offended, but I don't like to be questioned by a gentleman.
+I don't think any girl would like it. I am not to tell everybody all
+that happens.'
+
+'Perhaps when you reflect how much of my happiness depends upon it you
+will forgive me. Good-bye now.' She put out her hand to him and
+allowed it to remain in his for a moment. 'When I walk about the old
+shrubberies at Carbury where we used to be together, I am always
+asking myself what chance there is of your walking there as the
+mistress.'
+
+'There is no chance.'
+
+'I am, of course, prepared to hear you say so. Well; good-bye, and may
+God bless you.'
+
+The man had no poetry about him. He did not even care for romance. All
+the outside belongings of love which are so pleasant to many men and
+which to many women afford the one sweetness in life which they really
+relish, were nothing to him. There are both men and women to whom even
+the delays and disappointments of love are charming, even when they
+exist to the detriment of hope. It is sweet to such persons to be
+melancholy, sweet to pine, sweet to feel that they are now wretched
+after a romantic fashion as have been those heroes and heroines of
+whose sufferings they have read in poetry. But there was nothing of
+this with Roger Carbury. He had, as he believed, found the woman that
+he really wanted, who was worthy of his love, and now, having fixed
+his heart upon her, he longed for her with an amazing longing. He had
+spoken the simple truth when he declared that life had become
+indifferent to him without her. No man in England could be less likely
+to throw himself off the Monument or to blow out his brains. But he
+felt numbed in all the joints of his mind by this sorrow. He could not
+make one thing bear upon another, so as to console himself after any
+fashion. There was but one thing for him;--to persevere till he got her,
+or till he had finally lost her. And should the latter be his fate, as
+he began to fear that it would be, then, he would live, but live only,
+like a crippled man.
+
+He felt almost sure in his heart of hearts that the girl loved that
+other younger man. That she had never owned to such love he was quite
+sure. The man himself and Henrietta also had both assured him on this
+point, and he was a man easily satisfied by words and prone to
+believe. But he knew that Paul Montague was attached to her, and that
+it was Paul's intention to cling to his love. Sorrowfully looking
+forward through the vista of future years, he thought he saw that
+Henrietta would become Paul's wife. Were it so, what should he do?
+Annihilate himself as far as all personal happiness in the world was
+concerned, and look solely to their happiness, their prosperity, and
+their joys? Be as it were a beneficent old fairy to them, though the
+agony of his own disappointment should never depart from him? Should
+he do this and be blessed by them,--or should he let Paul Montague know
+what deep resentment such ingratitude could produce? When had a father
+been kinder to a son, or a brother to a brother, than he had been to
+Paul? His home had been the young man's home, and his purse the young
+man's purse. What right could the young man have to come upon him just
+as he was perfecting his bliss and rob him of all that he had in the
+world? He was conscious all the while that there was a something wrong
+in his argument,--that Paul when he commenced to love the girl knew
+nothing of his friend's love,--that the girl, though Paul had never come
+in the way, might probably have been as obdurate as she was now to his
+entreaties. He knew all this because his mind was clear. But yet the
+injustice,--at any rate, the misery was so great, that to forgive it and
+to reward it would be weak, womanly, and foolish. Roger Carbury did
+not quite believe in the forgiveness of injuries. If you pardon all
+the evil done to you, you encourage others to do you evil! If you give
+your cloak to him who steals your coat, how long will it be, before
+your shirt and trousers will go also? Roger Carbury, returned that
+afternoon to Suffolk, and as he thought of it all throughout the
+journey, he resolved that he would never forgive Paul Montague if Paul
+Montague should become his cousin's husband.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX - THE GREAT RAILWAY TO VERA CRUZ
+
+
+'You have been a guest in his house. Then, I guess, the thing's about
+as good as done.' These words were spoken with a fine, sharp, nasal
+twang by a brilliantly-dressed American gentleman in one of the
+smartest private rooms of the great railway hotel at Liverpool, and
+they were addressed to a young Englishman who was sitting opposite to
+him. Between them there was a table covered with maps, schedules, and
+printed programmes. The American was smoking a very large cigar, which
+he kept constantly turning in his mouth, and half of which was inside
+his teeth. The Englishman had a short pipe. Mr Hamilton K. Fisker, of
+the firm of Fisker, Montague, and Montague, was the American, and the
+Englishman was our friend Paul, the junior member of that firm.
+
+'But I didn't even speak to him,' said Paul.
+
+'In commercial affairs that matters nothing. It quite justifies you in
+introducing me. We are not going to ask your friend to do us a favour.
+We don't want to borrow money.'
+
+'I thought you did.'
+
+'If he'll go in for the thing he'd be one of us, and there would be no
+borrowing then. He'll join us if he's as clever as they say, because
+he'll see his way to making a couple of million of dollars out of it.
+If he'd take the trouble to run over and show himself in San
+Francisco, he'd make double that. The moneyed men would go in with him
+at once, because they know that he understands the game and has got
+the pluck. A man who has done what he has by financing in Europe,--by
+George! there's no limit to what he might do with us. We're a bigger
+people than any of you and have more room. We go after bigger things,
+and don't stand shilly-shally on the brink as you do. But Melmotte
+pretty nigh beats the best among us. Anyway he should come and try his
+luck, and he couldn't have a bigger thing or a safer thing than this.
+He'd see it immediately if I could talk to him for half an hour.'
+
+'Mr Fisker,' said Paul mysteriously, 'as we are partners, I think I
+ought to let you know that many people speak very badly of Mr
+Melmotte's honesty.'
+
+Mr Fisker smiled gently, turned his cigar twice round in his mouth,
+and then closed one eye. 'There is always a want of charity,' he
+said, 'when a man is successful.'
+
+The scheme in question was the grand proposal for a South Central
+Pacific and Mexican railway, which was to run from the Salt Lake City,
+thus branching off from the San Francisco and Chicago line,--and pass
+down through the fertile lands of New Mexico and Arizona into the
+territory of the Mexican Republic, run by the city of Mexico, and
+come out on the gulf at the port of Vera Cruz. Mr Fisker admitted at
+once that it was a great undertaking, acknowledged that the distance
+might be perhaps something over 2000 miles, acknowledged that no
+computation had or perhaps could be made as to the probable cost of
+the railway; but seemed to think that questions such as these were
+beside the mark and childish. Melmotte, if he would go into the matter
+at all, would ask no such questions.
+
+But we must go back a little. Paul Montague had received a telegram
+from his partner, Hamilton K. Fisker, sent on shore at Queenstown from
+one of the New York liners, requesting him to meet Fisker at Liverpool
+immediately. With this request he had felt himself bound to comply.
+Personally he had disliked Fisker,--and perhaps not the less so because
+when in California he had never found himself able to resist the man's
+good humour, audacity, and cleverness combined. He had found himself
+talked into agreeing with any project which Mr Fisker might have in
+hand. It was altogether against the grain with him, and yet by his own
+consent, that the flour-mill had been opened at Fiskerville. He
+trembled for his money and never wished to see Fisker again; but
+still, when Fisker came to England, he was proud to remember that
+Fisker was his partner, and he obeyed the order and went down to
+Liverpool.
+
+If the flour-mill had frightened him, what must the present project
+have done! Fisker explained that he had come with two objects,--first to
+ask the consent of the English partner to the proposed change in their
+business, and secondly to obtain the cooperation of English
+capitalists. The proposed change in the business meant simply the
+entire sale of the establishment at Fiskerville, and the absorption of
+the whole capital in the work of getting up the railway. 'If you could
+realise all the money it wouldn't make a mile of the railway,' said
+Paul. Mr Fisker laughed at him. The object of Fisker, Montague, and
+Montague was not to make a railway to Vera Cruz, but to float a
+company. Paul thought that Mr Fisker seemed to be indifferent whether
+the railway should ever be constructed or not. It was clearly his idea
+that fortunes were to be made out of the concern before a spadeful of
+earth had been moved. If brilliantly printed programmes might avail
+anything, with gorgeous maps, and beautiful little pictures of trains
+running into tunnels beneath snowy mountains and coming out of them on
+the margin of sunlit lakes, Mr Fisker had certainly done much. But
+Paul, when he saw all these pretty things, could not keep his mind
+from thinking whence had come the money to pay for them. Mr Fisker had
+declared that he had come over to obtain his partner's consent, but it
+seemed to that partner that a great deal had been done without any
+consent. And Paul's fears on this hand were not allayed by finding
+that on all these beautiful papers he himself was described as one of
+the agents and general managers of the company. Each document was
+signed Fisker, Montague, and Montague. References on all matters were
+to be made to Fisker, Montague, and Montague,--and in one of the
+documents it was stated that a member of the firm had proceeded to
+London with the view of attending to British interests in the matter.
+Fisker had seemed to think that his young partner would express
+unbounded satisfaction at the greatness which was thus falling upon
+him. A certain feeling of importance, not altogether unpleasant, was
+produced, but at the same time there was another conviction forced
+upon Montague's mind, not altogether pleasant, that his, money was
+being made to disappear without any consent given by him, and that it
+behoved him to be cautious lest such consent should be extracted from
+him unawares.
+
+'What has become of the mill?' he asked
+
+'We have put an agent into it.'
+
+'Is not that dangerous? What check have you on him?'
+
+'He pays us a fixed sum sir. But, my word! when there is such a thing
+as this on hand a trumpery mill like that is not worth speaking of.'
+
+'You haven't sold it?'
+
+'Well;--no. But we've arranged a price for a sale.'
+
+'You haven't taken the money for it?'
+
+'Well;--yes; we have. We've raised money on it, you know. You see you
+weren't there, and so the two resident partners acted for the firm.
+But Mr Montague, you'd better go with us. You had indeed.'
+
+'And about my own income?'
+
+'That's a flea-bite. When we've got a little ahead with this it won't
+matter, sir, whether you spend twenty thousand or forty thousand
+dollars a year. We've got the concession from the United States
+Government through the territories, and we're in correspondence with
+the President of the Mexican Republic. I've no doubt we've an office
+open already in Mexico and another at Vera Cruz.'
+
+'Where's the money to come from?'
+
+'Money to come from, sir? Where do you suppose the money comes from in
+all these undertakings? If we can float the shares, the money'll come
+in quick enough. We hold three million dollars of the stock
+ourselves.'
+
+'Six hundred thousand pounds!' said Montague.
+
+'We take them at par, of course,--and as we sell we shall pay for them.
+But of course we shall only sell at a premium. If we can run them up
+even to 110, there would be three hundred thousand dollars. But we'll
+do better than that. I must try and see Melmotte at once. You had
+better write a letter now.'
+
+'I don't know the man.'
+
+'Never mind. Look here I'll write it, and you can sign it.' Whereupon
+Mr Fisker did write the following letter:--
+
+
+   Langham Hotel, London. March 4, 18--.
+
+   DEAR SIR
+
+   I have the pleasure of informing you that my partner Mr Fisker,--
+   of Fisker, Montague, and Montague, of San Francisco,--is now in
+   London with the view of allowing British capitalists to assist in
+   carrying out perhaps the greatest work of the age,--namely, the
+   South Central Pacific and Mexican Railway, which is to give direct
+   communication between San Francisco and the Gulf of Mexico. He is
+   very anxious to see you upon his arrival, as he is aware that your
+   co-operation would be desirable. We feel assured that with your
+   matured judgment in such matters, you would see, at once, the
+   magnificence of the enterprise. If you will name a day and an
+   hour, Mr Fisker will call upon you.
+
+   I have to thank you and Madame Melmotte for a very pleasant
+   evening spent at your house last week.
+
+   Mr Fisker proposes returning to New York. I shall remain here,
+   superintending the British interests which may be involved.
+
+   I have the honour to be,
+
+   Dear Sir,
+
+   Most faithfully yours.
+
+
+'But I have never said that I would superintend the interests,' said
+Montague.
+
+'You can say so now. It binds you to nothing. You regular John Bull
+Englishmen are so full of scruples that you lose as much of life as
+should serve to make an additional fortune.'
+
+After some further conversation Paul Montague recopied the letter and
+signed it. He did it with doubt,--almost with dismay. But he told
+himself that he could do no good by refusing. If this wretched
+American, with his hat on one side and rings on his fingers, had so
+far got the upper hand of Paul's uncle as to have been allowed to do
+what he liked with the funds of the partnership, Paul could not stop
+it. On the following morning they went up to London together, and in
+the course of the afternoon Mr Fisker presented himself in Abchurch
+Lane. The letter written at Liverpool, but dated from the Langham
+Hotel, had been posted at the Euston Square Railway Station at the
+moment of Fisker's arrival. Fisker sent in his card, and was asked to
+wait. In the course of twenty minutes he was ushered into the great
+man's presence by no less a person than Miles Grendall.
+
+It has been already said that Mr Melmotte was a big man with large
+whiskers, rough hair, and with an expression of mental power on a
+harsh vulgar face. He was certainly a man to repel you by his presence
+unless attracted to him by some internal consideration. He was
+magnificent in his expenditure, powerful in his doings, successful in
+his business, and the world around him therefore was not repelled.
+Fisker, on the other hand, was a shining little man,--perhaps about
+forty years of age, with a well-twisted moustache, greasy brown hair,
+which was becoming bald at the top, good-looking if his features were
+analysed, but insignificant in appearance. He was gorgeously dressed,
+with a silk waistcoat, and chains, and he carried a little stick. One
+would at first be inclined to say that Fisker was not much of a man;
+but after a little conversation most men would own that there was
+something in Fisker. He was troubled by no shyness, by no scruples,
+and by no fears. His mind was not capacious, but such as it was it was
+his own, and he knew how to use it.
+
+Abchurch Lane is not a grand site for the offices of a merchant
+prince. Here, at a small corner house, there was a small brass plate
+on a swing door, bearing the words 'Melmotte & Co.' Of whom the Co was
+composed no one knew. In one sense Mr Melmotte might be said to be in
+company with all the commercial world, for there was no business to
+which he would refuse his co-operation on certain terms. But he had
+never burdened himself with a partner in the usual sense of the term.
+Here Fisker found three or four clerks seated at desks, and was
+desired to walk upstairs. The steps were narrow and crooked, and the
+rooms were small and irregular. Here he stayed for a while in a small
+dark apartment in which 'The Daily Telegraph' was left for the
+amusement of its occupant till Miles Grendall announced to him that Mr
+Melmotte would see him. The millionaire looked at him for a moment or
+two, just condescending to touch with his fingers the hand which
+Fisker had projected.
+
+'I don't seem to remember,' he said, 'the gentleman who has done me
+the honour of writing to me about you.'
+
+'I dare say not, Mr Melmotte. When I'm at home in San Francisco, I
+make acquaintance with a great many gents whom I don't remember
+afterwards. My partner I think told me that he went to your house with
+his friend, Sir Felix Carbury.'
+
+'I know a young man called Sir Felix Carbury.'
+
+'That's it. I could have got any amount of introductions to you if I
+had thought this would not have sufficed.' Mr Melmotte bowed. 'Our
+account here in London is kept with the City and West End Joint Stock.
+But I have only just arrived, and as my chief object in coming to
+London is to see you, and as I met my partner, Mr Montague, in
+Liverpool, I took a note from him and came on straight.'
+
+'And what can I do for you, Mr Fisker?'
+
+Then Mr Fisker began his account of the Great South Central Pacific
+and Mexican Railway, and exhibited considerable skill by telling it
+all in comparatively few words. And yet he was gorgeous and florid. In
+two minutes he had displayed his programme, his maps, and his pictures
+before Mr Melmotte's eyes, taking care that Mr Melmotte should see how
+often the names of Fisker, Montague, and Montague, reappeared upon
+them. As Mr Melmotte read the documents, Fisker from time to time put
+in a word. But the words had no reference at all to the future profits
+of the railway, or to the benefit which such means of communication
+would confer upon the world at large; but applied solely to the
+appetite for such stock as theirs, which might certainly be produced
+in the speculating world by a proper manipulation of the affairs.
+
+'You seem to think you couldn't get it taken up in your own country,'
+said Melmotte.
+
+'There's not a doubt about getting it all taken up there. Our folk,
+sir, are quick enough at the game; but you don't want them to teach
+you, Mr Melmotte, that nothing encourages this kind of thing like
+competition. When they hear at St. Louis and Chicago that the thing is
+alive in London, they'll be alive there. And it's the same here, sir.
+When they know that the stock is running like wildfire in America,
+they'll make it run here too.'
+
+'How far have you got?'
+
+'What we've gone to work upon is a concession for making the line
+from the United States Congress. We're to have the land for nothing,
+of course, and a grant of one thousand acres round every station, the
+stations to be twenty-five miles apart.'
+
+'And the land is to be made over to you,--when?'
+
+'When we have made the line up to the station.' Fisker understood
+perfectly that Mr Melmotte did not ask the question in reference to
+any value that he might attach to the possession of such lands, but to
+the attractiveness of such a prospectus in the eyes of the outside
+world of speculators.
+
+'And what do you want me to do, Mr Fisker?'
+
+'I want to have your name there,' he said. And he placed his finger
+down on a spot on which it was indicated that there was, or was to be,
+a chairman of an English Board of Directors, but with a space for the
+name hitherto blank.
+
+'Who are to be your directors here, Mr Fisker?'
+
+'We should ask you to choose them, sir. Mr Paul Montague should be
+one, and perhaps his friend Sir Felix Carbury might be another. We
+could get probably one of the Directors of the City and West End. But
+we would leave it all to you,--as also the amount of stock you would
+like to take yourself. If you gave yourself to it, heart and soul, Mr
+Melmotte, it would be the finest thing that there has been out for a
+long time. There would be such a mass of stock!'
+
+'You have to back that with a certain amount of paid-up capital?'
+
+'We take care, sir, in the West not to cripple commerce too closely by
+old-fashioned bandages. Look at what we've done already, sir, by
+having our limbs pretty free. Look at our line, sir, right across the
+continent, from San Francisco to New York. Look at--'
+
+'Never mind that, Mr Fisker. People wanted to go from New York to San
+Francisco, and I don't know that they do want to go to Vera Cruz. But
+I will look at it, and you shall hear from me.' The interview was over,
+and Mr Fisker was contented with it. Had Mr Melmotte not intended at
+least to think of it, he would not have given ten minutes to the
+subject. After all, what was wanted from Mr Melmotte was little more
+than his name, for the use of which Mr Fisker proposed that he should
+receive from the speculative public two or three hundred thousand
+pounds.
+
+At the end of a fortnight from the date of Mr Fisker's arrival in
+London, the company was fully launched in England, with a body of
+London directors, of whom Mr Melmotte was the chairman. Among the
+directors were Lord Alfred Grendall, Sir Felix Carbury, Samuel
+Cohenlupe, Esq., Member of Parliament for Staines, a gentleman of the
+Jewish persuasion, Lord Nidderdale, who was also in Parliament, and Mr
+Paul Montague. It may be thought that the directory was not strong,
+and that but little help could be given to any commercial enterprise
+by the assistance of Lord Alfred or Sir Felix,--but it was felt that Mr
+Melmotte was himself so great a tower of strength that the fortune of
+the Company,--as a company,--was made.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X - MR FISKER'S SUCCESS
+
+
+Mr Fisker was fully satisfied with the progress he had made, but he
+never quite succeeded in reconciling Paul Montague to the whole
+transaction. Mr Melmotte was indeed so great a reality, such a fact in
+the commercial world of London, that it was no longer possible for
+such a one as Montague to refuse to believe in the scheme. Melmotte
+had the telegraph at his command, and had been able to make as close
+inquiries as though San Francisco and Salt Lake City had been suburbs
+of London. He was chairman of the British branch of the Company, and
+had had shares allocated to him,--or, as he said, to the house,--to the
+extent of two millions of dollars. But still there was a feeling of
+doubt, and a consciousness that Melmotte, though a tower of strength,
+was thought by many to have been built upon the sands.
+
+Paul had now of course given his full authority to the work, much in
+opposition to the advice of his old friend Roger Carbury,--and had come
+up to live in town, that he might personally attend to the affairs of
+the great railway. There was an office just behind the Exchange, with
+two or three clerks and a secretary, the latter position being held by
+Miles Grendall, Esq. Paul, who had a conscience in the matter and was
+keenly alive to the fact that he was not only a director but was also
+one of the firm of Fisker, Montague, and Montague which was
+responsible for the whole affair, was grievously anxious to be really
+at work, and would attend most inopportunely at the Company's offices.
+Fisker, who still lingered in London, did his best to put a stop to
+this folly, and on more than one occasion somewhat snubbed his
+partner. 'My dear fellow, what's the use of your flurrying yourself?
+In a thing of this kind, when it has once been set agoing, there is
+nothing else to do. You may have to work your fingers off before you
+can make it move, and then fail. But all that has been done for you.
+If you go there on the Thursdays that's quite as much as you need do.
+You don't suppose that such a man as Melmotte would put up with any
+real interference.' Paul endeavoured to assert himself, declaring that
+as one of the managers he meant to take a part in the management;--that
+his fortune, such as it was, had been embarked in the matter, and was
+as important to him as was Mr Melmotte's fortune to Mr Melmotte. But
+Fisker got the better of him and put him down. 'Fortune! what fortune
+had either of us? a few beggarly thousands of dollars not worth
+talking of, and barely sufficient to enable a man to look at an
+enterprise. And now where are you? Look here, sir;--there's more to be
+got out of the smashing-up of such an affair as this, if it should
+smash up, than could, be made by years of hard work out of such
+fortunes as yours and mine in the regular way of trade.'
+
+Paul Montague certainly did not love Mr Fisker personally, nor did he
+relish his commercial doctrines; but he allowed himself to be carried
+away by them. 'When and how was I to have helped myself?' he wrote to
+Roger Carbury. 'The money had been raised and spent before this man
+came here at all. It's all very well to say that he had no right to do
+it; but he had done it. I couldn't even have gone to law with him
+without going over to California, and then I should have got no
+redress.' Through it all he disliked Fisker, and yet Fisker had one
+great merit which certainly recommended itself warmly to Montague's
+appreciation. Though he denied the propriety of Paul's interference in
+the business, he quite acknowledged Paul's right to a share in the
+existing dash of prosperity. As to the real facts of the money affairs
+of the firm he would tell Paul nothing. But he was well provided with
+money himself, and took care that his partner should he in the same
+position. He paid him all the arrears of his stipulated income up to
+the present moment, and put him nominally into possession of a large
+number of shares in the railway,--with, however, an understanding that
+he was not to sell them till they had reached ten per cent. above par,
+and that in any sale transacted he was to touch no other money than
+the amount of profit which would thus accrue. What Melmotte was to be
+allowed to do with his shares, he never heard. As far as Montague
+could understand, Melmotte was in truth to be powerful over
+everything. All this made the young man unhappy, restless, and
+extravagant. He was living in London and had money at command, but he
+never could rid himself of the fear that the whole affair might tumble
+to pieces beneath his feet and that he might be stigmatised as one
+among a gang of swindlers.
+
+We all know how, in such circumstances, by far the greater proportion
+of a man's life will be given up to the enjoyments that are offered to
+him and the lesser proportion to the cares, sacrifices, and sorrows.
+Had this young director been describing to his intimate friend the
+condition in which he found himself, he would have declared himself to
+be distracted by doubts, suspicions, and fears till his life was a
+burden to him. And yet they who were living with him at this time
+found him to be a very pleasant fellow, fond of amusement, and
+disposed to make the most of all the good things which came in his
+way. Under the auspices of Sir Felix Carbury he had become a member of
+the Beargarden, at which best of all possible clubs the mode of
+entrance was as irregular as its other proceedings. When any young man
+desired to come in who was thought to be unfit for its style of
+living, it was shown to him that it would take three years before
+his name could be brought up at the usual rate of vacancies; but in
+regard to desirable companions the committee had a power of putting
+them at the top of the list of candidates and bringing them in at
+once. Paul Montague had suddenly become credited with considerable
+commercial wealth and greater commercial influence. He sat at the same
+Board with Melmotte and Melmotte's men; and was on this account
+elected at the Beargarden without any of that harassing delay to which
+other less fortunate candidates are subjected.
+
+And,--let it be said with regret, for Paul Montague was at heart honest
+and well-conditioned,--he took to living a good deal at the Beargarden.
+A man must dine somewhere, and everybody knows that a man dines
+cheaper at his club than elsewhere. It was thus he reasoned with
+himself. But Paul's dinners at the Beargarden were not cheap. He saw a
+good deal of his brother directors, Sir Felix Carbury and Lord
+Nidderdale, entertained Lord Alfred more than once at the club, and
+had twice dined with his great chairman amidst all the magnificence of
+merchant-princely hospitality in Grosvenor Square. It had indeed been
+suggested to him by Mr Fisker that he also ought to enter himself for
+the great Marie Melmotte plate. Lord Nidderdale had again declared his
+intention of running, owing to considerable pressure put upon him by
+certain interested tradesmen, and with this intention had become one
+of the directors of the Mexican Railway Company. At the time, however,
+of which we are now writing, Sir Felix was the favourite for the race
+among fashionable circles generally.
+
+The middle of April had come, and Fisker was still in London. When
+millions of dollars are at stake,--belonging perhaps to widows and
+orphans, as Fisker remarked,--a man was forced to set his own
+convenience on one side. But this devotion was not left without
+reward, for Mr Fisker had 'a good time' in London. He also was made
+free of the Beargarden, as an honorary member, and he also spent a
+good deal of money. But there is this comfort in great affairs, that
+whatever you spend on yourself can be no more than a trifle. Champagne
+and ginger-beer are all the same when you stand to win or lose
+thousands,--with this only difference, that champagne may have
+deteriorating results which the more innocent beverage will not
+produce. The feeling that the greatness of these operations relieved
+them from the necessity of looking to small expenses operated in the
+champagne direction, both on Fisker and Montague, and the result was
+deleterious. The Beargarden, no doubt, was a more lively place than
+Carbury Manor, but Montague found that he could not wake up on these
+London mornings with thoughts as satisfactory as those which attended
+his pillow at the old Manor House.
+
+On Saturday, the 19th of April, Fisker was to leave London on his
+return to New York, and on the 18th a farewell dinner was to be given
+to him at the club. Mr Melmotte was asked to meet him, and on such an
+occasion all the resources of the club were to be brought forth. Lord
+Alfred Grendall was also to be a guest, and Mr Cohenlupe, who went
+about a good deal with Melmotte. Nidderdale, Carbury, Montague, and
+Miles Grendall were members of the club, and gave the dinner. No
+expense was spared. Herr Vossner purveyed the viands and wines,--and
+paid for them. Lord Nidderdale took the chair, with Fisker on his
+right hand, and Melmotte on his left, and, for a fast-going young
+lord, was supposed to have done the thing well. There were only two
+toasts drunk, to the healths of Mr Melmotte and Mr Fisker, and two
+speeches were of course made by them. Mr Melmotte may have been held
+to have clearly proved the genuineness of that English birth which he
+claimed by the awkwardness and incapacity which he showed on the
+occasion. He stood with his hands on the table and with his face
+turned to his plate blurted out his assurance that the floating of
+this railway company would be one of the greatest and most successful
+commercial operations ever conducted on either side of the Atlantic.
+It was a great thing,--a very great thing;--he had no hesitation in saying
+that it was one of the greatest things out. He didn't believe a
+greater thing had ever come out. He was happy to give his humble
+assistance to the furtherance of so great a thing,--and so on. These
+assertions, not varying much one from the other, he jerked out like so
+many separate interjections, endeavouring to look his friends in the
+face at each, and then turning his countenance back to his plate as
+though seeking for inspiration for the next attempt. He was not
+eloquent; but the gentlemen who heard him remembered that he was the
+great Augustus Melmotte, that he might probably make them all rich
+men, and they cheered him to the echo. Lord Alfred had reconciled
+himself to be called by his Christian name, since he had been put in
+the way of raising two or three hundred pounds on the security of
+shares which were to be allotted to him, but of which in the flesh he
+had as yet seen nothing. Wonderful are the ways of trade! If one can
+only get the tip of one's little finger into the right pie, what noble
+morsels, what rich esculents, will stick to it as it is extracted!
+
+When Melmotte sat down Fisker made his speech, and it was fluent,
+fast, and florid. Without giving it word for word, which would be
+tedious, I could not adequately set before the reader's eye the
+speaker's pleasing picture of world-wide commercial love and harmony
+which was to be produced by a railway from Salt Lake City to Vera
+Cruz, nor explain the extent of gratitude from the world at large
+which might be claimed by, and would finally be accorded to, the great
+firms of Melmotte & Co, of London, and Fisker, Montague, and Montague
+of San Francisco. Mr Fisker's arms were waved gracefully about. His
+head was turned now this way and now that, but never towards his
+plate. It was very well done. But there was more faith in one
+ponderous word from Mr Melmotte's mouth than in all the American's
+oratory.
+
+There was not one of them then present who had not after some fashion
+been given to understand that his fortune was to be made, not by the
+construction of the railway, but by the floating of the railway
+shares. They had all whispered to each other their convictions on this
+head. Even Montague did not beguile himself into an idea that he was
+really a director in a company to be employed in the making and
+working of a railway. People out of doors were to be advertised into
+buying shares, and they who were so to say indoors were to have the
+privilege of manufacturing the shares thus to be sold. That was to be
+their work, and they all knew it. But now, as there were eight of them
+collected together, they talked of humanity at large and of the coming
+harmony of nations.
+
+After the first cigar, Melmotte withdrew, and Lord Alfred went with
+him. Lord Alfred would have liked to remain, being a man who enjoyed
+tobacco and soda-and-brandy,--but momentous days had come upon him, and
+he thought well to cling to his Melmotte. Mr Samuel Cohenlupe also
+went, not having taken a very distinguished part in the entertainment.
+Then the young men were left alone, and it was soon proposed that they
+should adjourn to the cardroom. It had been rather hoped that Fisker
+would go with the elders. Nidderdale, who did not understand much
+about the races of mankind, had his doubts whether the American
+gentleman might not be a 'Heathen Chinee,' such as he had read of in
+poetry. But Mr Fisker liked to have his amusement as well as did the
+others, and went up resolutely into the cardroom. Here they were
+joined by Lord Grasslough, and were very quickly at work, having
+chosen loo as their game. Mr Fisker made an allusion to poker as a
+desirable pastime, but Lord Nidderdale, remembering his poetry, shook
+his head. 'Oh! bother,' he said, 'let's have some game that Christians
+play.' Mr Fisker declared himself ready for any game,--irrespective of
+religious prejudices.
+
+It must be explained that the gambling at the Beargarden had gone on
+with very little interruption, and that on the whole Sir Felix Carbury
+kept his luck. There had of course been vicissitudes, but his star had
+been in the ascendant. For some nights together this had been so
+continual that Mr Miles Grendall had suggested to his friend Lord
+Grasslough that there must be foul play. Lord Grasslough, who had not
+many good gifts, was, at least, not suspicious, and repudiated the
+idea. 'We'll keep an eye on him,' Miles Grendall had said. 'You may do
+as you like, but I'm not going to watch any one,' Grasslough had
+replied. Miles 'had watched,' and had watched in vain, and it may as
+well be said at once that Sir Felix, with all his faults, was not as
+yet a blackleg. Both of them now owed Sir Felix a considerable sum of
+money, as did also Dolly Longestaffe, who was not present on this
+occasion. Latterly very little ready money had passed hands,--very
+little in proportion to the sums which had been written down on paper,--
+though Sir Felix was still so well in funds as to feel himself
+justified in repudiating any caution that his mother might give him.
+
+When I.O.U.'s have for some time passed freely in such a company as
+that now assembled the sudden introduction of a stranger is very
+disagreeable, particularly when that stranger intends to start for San
+Francisco on the following morning. If it could be arranged that the
+stranger should certainly lose, no doubt then he would be regarded as
+a godsend. Such strangers have ready money in their pockets, a portion
+of which would be felt to descend like a soft shower in a time of
+drought. When these dealings in unsecured paper have been going on for
+a considerable time real bank notes come to have a loveliness which
+they never possessed before. But should the stranger win, then there
+may arise complications incapable of any comfortable solution. In such
+a state of things some Herr Vossner must be called in, whose terms are
+apt to be ruinous. On this occasion things did not arrange themselves
+comfortably. From the very commencement Fisker won, and quite a budget
+of little papers fell into his possession, many of which were passed
+to him from the hands of Sir Felix,--bearing, however, a 'G' intended to
+stand for Grasslough, or an 'N' for Nidderdale, or a wonderful
+hieroglyphic which was known at the Beargarden to mean D. L.,--or Dolly
+Longestaffe, the fabricator of which was not present on the occasion.
+
+Then there was the M.G. of Miles Grendall, which was a species of
+paper peculiarly plentiful and very unattractive on these commercial
+occasions. Paul Montague hitherto had never given an I.O.U. at the
+Beargarden,--nor of late had our friend Sir Felix. On the present
+occasion Montague won, though not heavily. Sir Felix lost continually,
+and was almost the only loser. But Mr Fisker won nearly all that was
+lost. He was to start for Liverpool by train at 8.30 a.m., and at 6
+a.m., he counted up his bits of paper and found himself the winner of
+about £600. 'I think that most of them came from you, Sir Felix,' he
+said,--handing the bundle across the table.
+
+'I dare say they did, but they are all good against these other
+fellows.' Then Fisker, with most perfect good humour, extracted one
+from the mass which indicated Dolly Longestaffe's indebtedness to the
+amount of £50. 'That's Longestaffe,' said Felix, 'and I'll change that
+of course.' Then out of his pocket-book he extracted other minute
+documents bearing that M.G. which was so little esteemed among them,--
+and so made up the sum. 'You seem to have £150 from Grasslough, £145
+from Nidderdale, and £322 10s from Grendall,' said the baronet. Then
+Sir Felix got up as though he had paid his score. Fisker, with smiling
+good humour, arranged the little bits of paper before him and looked
+round upon the company.
+
+'This won't do, you know,' said Nidderdale. 'Mr Fisker must have his
+money before he leaves. You've got it, Carbury.'
+
+'Of course he has,' said Grasslough.
+
+'As it happens, I have not,' said Sir Felix,--'but what if I had?'
+
+'Mr Fisker starts for New York immediately,' said Lord Nidderdale. 'I
+suppose we can muster £600 among us. Ring the bell for Vossner. I
+think Carbury ought to pay the money as he lost it, and we didn't
+expect to have our I.O.U.'s brought up in this way.'
+
+'Lord Nidderdale,' said Sir Felix, 'I have already said that I have
+not got the money about me. Why should I have it more than you,
+especially as I knew I had I.O.U.'s more than sufficient to meet
+anything I could lose when I sat down?'
+
+'Mr Fisker must have his money at any rate,' said Lord Nidderdale,
+ringing the bell again.
+
+'It doesn't matter one straw, my lord,' said the American. 'Let it be
+sent to me to Frisco, in a bill, my lord.' And so he got up to take
+his hat, greatly to the delight of Miles Grendall.
+
+But the two young lords would not agree to this. 'If you must go this
+very minute I'll meet you at the train with the money,' said
+Nidderdale. Fisker begged that no such trouble should be taken. Of
+course he would wait ten minutes if they wished. But the affair was
+one of no consequence. Wasn't the post running every day? Then Herr
+Vossner came from his bed, suddenly arrayed in a dressing-gown, and
+there was a conference in a corner between him, the two lords, and Mr
+Grendall. In a very few minutes Herr Vossner wrote a cheque for the
+amount due by the lords, but he was afraid that he had not money at
+his banker's sufficient for the greater claim. It was well understood
+that Herr Vossner would not advance money to Mr Grendall unless others
+would pledge themselves for the amount.
+
+'I suppose I'd better send you a bill over to America,' said Miles
+Grendall, who had taken no part in the matter as long as he was in the
+same boat with the lords.
+
+'Just so. My partner, Montague, will tell you the address.' Then
+bustling off, taking an affectionate adieu of Paul, shaking hands with
+them all round, and looking as though he cared nothing for the money,
+he took his leave. 'One cheer for the South Central Pacific and
+Mexican Railway,' he, said as he went out of the room. Not one there
+had liked Fisker. His manners were not as their manners; his waistcoat
+not as their waistcoats. He smoked his cigar after a fashion different
+from theirs, and spat upon the carpet. He said 'my lord' too often,
+and grated their prejudices equally whether he treated them with
+familiarity or deference. But he had behaved well about the money, and
+they felt that they were behaving badly. Sir Felix was the immediate
+offender, as he should have understood that he was not entitled to pay
+a stranger with documents which, by tacit contract, were held to be
+good among themselves. But there was no use now in going back to that.
+Something must be done.
+
+'Vossner must get the money,' said Nidderdale. 'Let's have him up
+again.'
+
+'I don't think it's my fault,' said Miles. 'Of course no one thought
+he was to be called upon in this sort of way.'
+
+'Why shouldn't you be called upon?' said Carbury. 'You acknowledge
+that you owe the money.'
+
+'I think Carbury ought to have paid it,' said Grasslough.
+
+'Grassy, my boy,' said the baronet, 'your attempts at thinking are
+never worth much. Why was I to suppose that a stranger would be
+playing among us? Had you a lot of ready money with you to pay if you
+had lost it? I don't always walk about with six hundred pounds in my
+pocket;--nor do you!'
+
+'It's no good jawing,' said Nidderdale. 'let's get the money.' Then
+Montague offered to undertake the debt himself, saying that there were
+money transactions between him and his partner. But this could not be
+allowed. He had only lately come among them, had as yet had no dealing
+in I.O.U.'s, and was the last man in the company who ought to be made
+responsible for the impecuniosity of Miles Grendall. He, the
+impecunious one,--the one whose impecuniosity extended to the absolute
+want of credit,--sat silent, stroking his heavy moustache.
+
+There was a second conference between Herr Vossner and the two lords,
+in another room, which ended in the preparation of a document by which
+Miles Grendall undertook to pay to Herr Vossner £450 at the end of
+three months, and this was endorsed by the two lords, by Sir Felix,
+and by Paul Montague; and in return for this the German produced £322
+10s. in notes and gold. This had taken some considerable time. Then a
+cup of tea was prepared and swallowed; after which Nidderdale, with
+Montague, started off to meet Fisker at the railway station. 'It'll
+only be a trifle over £100 each,' said Nidderdale, in the cab.
+
+'Won't Mr Grendall pay it?'
+
+'Oh, dear no. How the devil should he?'
+
+'Then he shouldn't play.'
+
+'That'd be hard, on him, poor fellow. If you went to his uncle the
+duke, I suppose you could get it. Or Buntingford might put it right
+for you. Perhaps he might win, you know, some day, and then he'd make
+it square. He'd be fair enough if he had it. Poor Miles!'
+
+They found Fisker wonderfully brilliant with bright rugs, and
+greatcoats with silk linings. 'We've brought you the tin,' said
+Nidderdale, accosting him on the platform.
+
+'Upon my word, my lord, I'm sorry you have taken so much trouble about
+such a trifle.'
+
+'A man should always have his money when he wins.'
+
+'We don't think anything about such little matters at Frisco, my
+lord.'
+
+'You're fine fellows at Frisco, I dare say. Here we pay up when we
+can. Sometimes we can't, and then it is not pleasant.' Fresh adieus
+were made between the two partners, and between the American and the
+lord,--and then Fisker was taken off on his way towards Frisco.
+
+'He's not half a bad fellow, but he's not a bit like an Englishman,'
+said Lord Nidderdale, as he walked out of the station.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI - LADY CARBURY AT HOME
+
+
+During the last six weeks Lady Carbury had lived a life of very mixed
+depression and elevation. Her great work had come out,--the 'Criminal
+Queens,'--and had been very widely reviewed. In this matter it had been
+by no means all pleasure, inasmuch as many very hard words had been
+said of her. In spite of the dear friendship between herself and Mr
+Alf, one of Mr Alf's most sharp-nailed subordinates had been set upon
+her book, and had pulled it to pieces with almost rabid malignity. One
+would have thought that so slight a thing could hardly have been
+worthy of such protracted attention. Error after error was laid bare
+with merciless prolixity. No doubt the writer of the article must have
+had all history at his finger-ends, as in pointing out the various
+mistakes made he always spoke of the historical facts which had been
+misquoted, misdated, or misrepresented, as being familiar in all their
+bearings to every schoolboy of twelve years old. The writer of the
+criticism never suggested the idea that he himself, having been fully
+provided with books of reference, and having learned the art of
+finding in them what he wanted at a moment's notice, had, as he went
+on with his work, checked off the blunders without any more permanent
+knowledge of his own than a housekeeper has of coals when she counts
+so many sacks into the coal-cellar. He spoke of the parentage of one
+wicked ancient lady, and the dates of the frailties of another, with
+an assurance intended to show that an exact knowledge of all these
+details abided with him always. He must have been a man of vast and
+varied erudition, and his name was Jones. The world knew him not, but
+his erudition was always there at the command of Mr Alf,--and his
+cruelty. The greatness of Mr Alf consisted in this, that he always had
+a Mr Jones or two ready to do his work for him. It was a great
+business, this of Mr Alf's, for he had his Jones also for philology,
+for science, for poetry, for politics, as well as for history, and one
+special Jones, extraordinarily accurate and very well posted up in his
+references, entirely devoted to the Elizabethan drama.
+
+There is the review intended to sell a book,--which comes out
+immediately after the appearance of the book, or sometimes before it;
+the review which gives reputation, but does not affect the sale, and
+which comes a little later; the review which snuffs a book out
+quietly; the review which is to raise or lower the author a single
+peg, or two pegs, as the case may be; the review which is suddenly to
+make an author, and the review which is to crush him. An exuberant
+Jones has been known before now to declare aloud that he would crush a
+man, and a self-confident Jones has been known to declare that he has
+accomplished the deed. Of all reviews, the crushing review is the most
+popular, as being the most readable. When the rumour goes abroad that
+some notable man has been actually crushed,--been positively driven over
+by an entire Juggernaut's car of criticism till his literary body be a
+mere amorphous mass,--then a real success has been achieved, and the Alf
+of the day has done a great thing; but even the crushing of a poor
+Lady Carbury, if it be absolute, is effective. Such a review will not
+make all the world call for the 'Evening Pulpit', but it will cause
+those who do take the paper to be satisfied with their bargain.
+Whenever the circulation of such a paper begins to slacken, the
+proprietors should, as a matter of course, admonish their Alf to add a
+little power to the crushing department.
+
+Lady Carbury had been crushed by the 'Evening Pulpit.' We may fancy
+that it was easy work, and that Mr Alf's historical Mr Jones was not
+forced to fatigue himself by the handling of many books of reference.
+The errors did lie a little near the surface; and the whole scheme of
+the work, with its pandering to bad tastes by pretended revelations of
+frequently fabulous crime, was reprobated in Mr Jones's very best
+manner. But the poor authoress, though utterly crushed, and reduced to
+little more than literary pulp for an hour or two, was not destroyed.
+On the following morning she went to her publishers, and was closeted
+for half an hour with the senior partner, Mr Leadham. 'I've got it all
+in black and white,' she said, full of the wrong which had been done
+her, 'and can prove him to be wrong. It was in 1522 that the man first
+came to Paris, and he couldn't have been her lover before that. I got
+it all out of the "Biographie Universelle." I'll write to Mr Alf
+myself,--a letter to be published, you know.'
+
+'Pray don't do anything of the kind, Lady Carbury.'
+
+'I can prove that I'm right.'
+
+'And they can prove that you're wrong.'
+
+'I've got all the facts--and the figures.'
+
+Mr Leadham did not care a straw for facts or figures,--had no opinion
+of his own whether the lady or the reviewer were right; but he knew
+very well that the 'Evening Pulpit' would surely get the better of any
+mere author in such a contention. 'Never fight the newspapers, Lady
+Carbury. Who ever yet got any satisfaction by that kind of thing?
+It's their business, and you are not used to it.'
+
+'And Mr Alf my particular friend! It does seem so hard,' said Lady
+Carbury, wiping hot tears from her cheeks.
+
+'It won't do us the least harm, Lady Carbury.'
+
+'It'll stop the sale?'
+
+'Not much. A book of that sort couldn't hope to go on very long, you
+know. The "Breakfast Table" gave it an excellent lift, and came just
+at the right time. I rather like the notice in the "Pulpit," myself.'
+
+'Like it!' said Lady Carbury, still suffering in every fibre of her
+self-love from the soreness produced by those Juggernaut's car-wheels.
+
+'Anything is better than indifference, Lady Carbury. A great many
+people remember simply that the book has been noticed, but carry away
+nothing as to the purport of the review. It's a very good
+advertisement.'
+
+'But to be told that I have got to learn the A B C of history after
+working as I have worked!'
+
+'That's a mere form of speech, Lady Carbury.'
+
+'You think the book has done pretty well?'
+
+'Pretty well;--just about what we hoped, you know.'
+
+'There'll be something coming to me, Mr Leadham?'
+
+Mr Leadham sent for a ledger, and turned over a few pages and ran up a
+few figures, and then scratched his head. There would be something,
+but Lady Carbury was not to imagine that it could be very much. It did
+not often happen that a great deal could be made by a first book.
+Nevertheless, Lady Carbury, when she left the publisher's shop, did
+carry a cheque with her. She was smartly dressed and looked very well,
+and had smiled on Mr Leadham. Mr Leadham, too, was no more than man,
+and had written--a small cheque.
+
+Mr Alf certainly had behaved badly to her; but both Mr Broune, of the
+'Breakfast Table' and Mr Booker of the 'Literary Chronicle' had been
+true to her interests. Lady Carbury had, as she promised, 'done' Mr
+Booker's 'New Tale of a Tub' in the 'Breakfast Table.' That is, she
+had been allowed, as a reward for looking into Mr Broune's eyes, and
+laying her soft hand on Mr Broune's sleeve, and suggesting to Mr
+Broune that no one understood her so well as he did, to bedaub Mr
+Booker's very thoughtful book in a very thoughtless fashion,--and to be
+paid for her work. What had been said about his work in the 'Breakfast
+Table' had been very distasteful to poor Mr Booker. It grieved his
+inner contemplative intelligence that such rubbish should be thrown
+upon him; but in his outside experience of life he knew that even the
+rubbish was valuable, and that he must pay for it in the manner to
+which he had unfortunately become accustomed. So Mr Booker himself
+wrote the article on the 'Criminal Queens' in the 'Literary
+Chronicle,' knowing that what he wrote would also be rubbish.
+'Remarkable vivacity.' 'Power of delineating character.' 'Excellent
+choice of subject.' 'Considerable intimacy with the historical details
+of various periods.' 'The literary world would be sure to hear of Lady
+Carbury again.' The composition of the review, together with the
+reading of the book, consumed altogether perhaps an hour of Mr
+Booker's time. He made no attempt to cut the pages, but here and there
+read those that were open. He had done this kind of thing so often,
+that he knew well what he was about. He could have reviewed such a
+book when he was three parts asleep. When the work was done he threw
+down his pen and uttered a deep sigh. He felt it to be hard upon him
+that he should be compelled, by the exigencies of his position, to
+descend so low in literature; but it did not occur to him to reflect
+that in fact he was not compelled, and that he was quite at liberty to
+break stones, or to starve honestly, if no other honest mode of
+carrying on his career was open to him. 'If I didn't, somebody else
+would,' he said to himself.
+
+But the review in the 'Morning Breakfast Table' was the making of Lady
+Carbury's book, as far as it ever was made. Mr Broune saw the lady
+after the receipt of the letter given in the first chapter of this
+Tale, and was induced to make valuable promises which had been fully
+performed. Two whole columns had been devoted to the work, and the
+world had been assured that no more delightful mixture of amusement
+and instruction had ever been concocted than Lady Carbury's 'Criminal
+Queens.' It was the very book that had been wanted for years. It was a
+work of infinite research and brilliant imagination combined. There
+had been no hesitation in the laying on of the paint. At that last
+meeting Lady Carbury had been very soft, very handsome, and very
+winning; Mr Broune had given the order with good will, and it had been
+obeyed in the same feeling.
+
+Therefore, though the crushing had been very real, there had also been
+some elation; and as a net result, Lady Carbury was disposed to think
+that her literary career might yet be a success. Mr Leadham's cheque
+had been for a small amount, but it might probably lead the way to
+something better. People at any rate were talking about her, and her
+Tuesday evenings at home were generally full. But her literary life,
+and her literary successes, her flirtations with Mr Broune, her
+business with Mr Booker, and her crushing by Mr Alf's Mr Jones, were
+after all but adjuncts to that real inner life of hers of which the
+absorbing interest was her son. And with regard to him too she was
+partly depressed, and partly elated, allowing her hopes however to
+dominate her fears. There was very much to frighten her. Even the
+moderate reform in the young man's expenses which had been effected
+under dire necessity had been of late abandoned. Though he never told
+her anything, she became aware that during the last month of the
+hunting season he had hunted nearly every day. She knew, too, that he
+had a horse up in town. She never saw him but once in the day, when
+she visited him in his bed about noon, and was aware that he was
+always at his club throughout the night. She knew that he was
+gambling, and she hated gambling as being of all pastimes the most
+dangerous. But she knew that he had ready money for his immediate
+purposes, and that two or three tradesmen who were gifted with a
+peculiar power of annoying their debtors, had ceased to trouble her in
+Welbeck Street. For the present, therefore, she consoled herself by
+reflecting that his gambling was successful. But her elation sprang
+from a higher source than this. From all that she could hear, she
+thought it likely that Felix would carry off the great prize; and then,--
+should he do that,--what a blessed son would he have been to her! How
+constantly in her triumph would she be able to forget all his vices,
+his debts, his gambling, his late hours, and his cruel treatment of
+herself! As she thought of it the bliss seemed to be too great for the
+possibility of realisation. She was taught to understand that £10,000
+a year, to begin with, would be the least of it; and that the ultimate
+wealth might probably be such as to make Sir Felix Carbury the richest
+commoner in England. In her very heart of hearts she worshipped
+wealth, but desired it for him rather than for herself. Then her mind
+ran away to baronies and earldoms, and she was lost in the coming
+glories of the boy whose faults had already nearly engulfed her in his
+own ruin.
+
+And she had another ground for elation, which comforted her much,
+though elation from such a cause was altogether absurd. She had
+discovered that her son had become a Director of the South Central
+Pacific and Mexican Railway Company. She must have known,--she certainly
+did know,--that Felix, such as he was, could not lend assistance by his
+work to any company or commercial enterprise in the world. She was
+aware that there was some reason for such a choice hidden from the
+world, and which comprised and conveyed a falsehood. A ruined baronet
+of five-and-twenty, every hour of whose life since he had been left to
+go alone had been loaded with vice and folly,--whose egregious
+misconduct warranted his friends in regarding him as one incapable of
+knowing what principle is,--of what service could he be, that he should
+be made a Director? But Lady Carbury, though she knew that he could be
+of no service, was not at all shocked. She was now able to speak up a
+little for her boy, and did not forget to send the news by post to
+Roger Carbury. And her son sat at the same Board with Mr Melmotte!
+What an indication was this of coming triumphs!
+
+Fisker had started, as the reader will perhaps remember, on the
+morning of Saturday 19th April, leaving Sir Felix at the Club at about
+seven in the morning. All that day his mother was unable to see him.
+She found him asleep in his room at noon and again at two; and when
+she sought him again he had flown. But on the Sunday she caught him.
+'I hope,' she said, 'you'll stay at home on Tuesday evening.' Hitherto
+she had never succeeded in inducing him to grace her evening parties
+by his presence.
+
+'All your people are coming! You know, mother, it is such an awful
+bore.'
+
+'Madame Melmotte and her daughter will be here.'
+
+'One looks such a fool carrying on that kind of thing in one's own
+house. Everybody sees that it has been contrived. And it is such a
+pokey, stuffy little place!'
+
+Then Lady Carbury spoke out her mind. 'Felix, I think you must be a
+fool. I have given over ever expecting that you would do anything to
+please me. I sacrifice everything for you and I do not even hope for a
+return. But when I am doing everything to advance your own interests,
+when I am working night and day to rescue you from ruin, I think you
+might at any rate help a little,--not for me of course, but for
+yourself.'
+
+'I don't know what you mean by working day and night. I don't want you
+to work day and night.'
+
+'There is hardly a young man in London that is not thinking of this
+girl, and you have chances that none of them have. I am told they are
+going out of town at Whitsuntide, and that she's to meet Lord
+Nidderdale down in the country.'
+
+'She can't endure Nidderdale. She says so herself.'
+
+'She will do as she is told,--unless she can be made to be downright in
+love with some one like yourself. Why not ask her at once on
+Tuesday?'
+
+'If I'm to do it at all I must do it after my own fashion. I'm not
+going to be driven.'
+
+'Of course if you will not take the trouble to be here to see her when
+she comes to your own house, you cannot expect her to think that you
+really love her.'
+
+'Love her! what a bother there is about loving! Well;--I'll look in.
+What time do the animals come to feed?'
+
+'There will be no feeding. Felix, you are so heartless and so cruel
+that I sometimes think I will make up my mind to let you go your own
+way and never to speak to you again. My friends will be here about
+ten;--I should say from ten till twelve. I think you should be here to
+receive her, not later than ten.'
+
+'If I can get my dinner out of my throat by that time, I will come.'
+
+When the Tuesday came, the over-driven young man did contrive to get
+his dinner eaten, and his glass of brandy sipped, and his cigar
+smoked, and perhaps his game of billiards played, so as to present
+himself in his mother's drawing-room not long after half-past ten.
+Madame Melmotte and her daughter were already there,--and many others,
+of whom the majority were devoted to literature. Among them Mr Alf was
+in the room, and was at this very moment discussing Lady Carbury's
+book with Mr Booker. He had been quite graciously received, as though
+he had not authorised the crushing. Lady Carbury had given him her
+hand with that energy of affection with which she was wont to welcome
+her literary friends, and had simply thrown one glance of appeal into
+his eyes as she looked into his face,--as though asking him how he had
+found it in his heart to be so cruel to one so tender, so unprotected,
+so innocent as herself. 'I cannot stand this kind of thing,' said Mr
+Alf, to Mr Booker. 'There's a regular system of touting got abroad,
+and I mean to trample it down.'
+
+'If you're strong enough,' said Mr Booker.
+
+'Well, I think I am. I'm strong enough, at any rate, to show that I'm
+not afraid to lead the way. I've the greatest possible regard for our
+friend here,--but her book is a bad book, a thoroughly rotten book, an
+unblushing compilation from half-a-dozen works of established
+reputation, in pilfering from which she has almost always managed to
+misapprehend her facts, and to muddle her dates. Then she writes to me
+and asks me to do the best I can for her. I have done the best I
+could.'
+
+Mr Alf knew very well what Mr Booker had done, and Mr Booker was aware
+of the extent of Mr Alf's knowledge. 'What you say is all very right,'
+said Mr Booker; 'only you want a different kind of world to live in.'
+
+'Just so;--and therefore we must make it different. I wonder how our
+friend Broune felt when he saw that his critic had declared that the
+"Criminal Queens" was the greatest historical work of modern days.'
+
+'I didn't see the notice. There isn't much in the book, certainly, as
+far as I have looked at it. I should have said that violent censure or
+violent praise would be equally thrown away upon it. One doesn't want
+to break a butterfly on the wheel;--especially a friendly butterfly.'
+
+'As to the friendship, it should be kept separate. That's my idea,'
+said Mr Alf, moving away.
+
+'I'll never forget what you've done for me,--never!' said Lady Carbury,
+holding Mr Broune's hand for a moment, as she whispered to him.
+
+'Nothing more than my duty,' said he, smiling.
+
+'I hope you'll learn to know that a woman can really be grateful,' she
+replied. Then she let go his hand and moved away to some other guest.
+There was a dash of true sincerity in what she had said. Of enduring
+gratitude it may be doubtful whether she was capable: but at this
+moment she did feel that Mr Broune had done much for her, and that she
+would willingly make him some return of friendship. Of any feeling of
+another sort, of any turn at the moment towards flirtation, of any
+idea of encouragement to a gentleman who had once acted as though he
+were her lover, she was absolutely innocent. She had forgotten that
+little absurd episode in their joint lives. She was at any rate too
+much in earnest at the present moment to think about it. But it was
+otherwise with Mr Broune. He could not quite make up his mind whether
+the lady was or was not in love with him,--or whether, if she were, it
+was incumbent on him to indulge her;--and if so, in what manner. Then as
+he looked after her, he told himself that she was certainly very
+beautiful, that her figure was distinguished, that her income was
+certain, and her rank considerable. Nevertheless, Mr Broune knew of
+himself that he was not a marrying man. He had made up his mind that
+marriage would not suit his business, and he smiled to himself as he
+reflected how impossible it was that such a one as Lady Carbury should
+turn him from his resolution.
+
+'I am so glad that you have come to-night, Mr Alf,' Lady Carbury said
+to the high-minded editor of the 'Evening Pulpit.'
+
+'Am I not always glad to come, Lady Carbury?'
+
+'You are very good. But I feared--'
+
+'Feared what, Lady Carbury?'
+
+'That you might perhaps have felt that I should be unwilling to
+welcome you after,--well, after the compliments of last Thursday.'
+
+'I never allow the two things to join themselves together. You see,
+Lady Carbury, I don't write all these things myself.'
+
+'No indeed. What a bitter creature you would be if you did.'
+
+'To tell the truth, I never write any of them. Of course we endeavour
+to get people whose judgments we can trust, and if, as in this case,
+it should unfortunately happen that the judgment of our critic should
+be hostile to the literary pretensions of a personal friend of my own,
+I can only lament the accident, and trust that my friend may have
+spirit enough to divide me as an individual from that Mr Alf who has
+the misfortune to edit a newspaper.'
+
+'It is because you have so trusted me that I am obliged to you,' said
+Lady Carbury with her sweetest smile. She did not believe a word that
+Mr Alf had said to her. She thought, and thought rightly, that Mr
+Alf's Mr Jones had taken direct orders from his editor, as to his
+treatment of the 'Criminal Queens.' But she remembered that she
+intended to write another book, and that she might perhaps conquer
+even Mr Alf by spirit and courage under her present infliction.
+
+It was Lady Carbury's duty on the occasion to say pretty things to
+everybody. And she did her duty. But in the midst of it all she was
+ever thinking of her son and Marie Melmotte, and she did at last
+venture to separate the girl from her mother. Marie herself was not
+unwilling to be talked to by Sir Felix. He had never bullied her, had
+never seemed to scorn her; and then he was so beautiful! She, poor
+girl, bewildered among various suitors, utterly confused by the life
+to which she was introduced, troubled by fitful attacks of admonition
+from her father, who would again, fitfully, leave her unnoticed for a
+week at a time; with no trust in her pseudo-mother--for poor Marie, had
+in truth been born before her father had been a married man, and had
+never known what was her own mother's fate,--with no enjoyment in her
+present life, had come solely to this conclusion, that it would be
+well for her to be taken away somewhere by somebody. Many a varied
+phase of life had already come in her way. She could just remember the
+dirty street in the German portion of New York in which she had been
+born and had lived for the first four years of her life, and could
+remember too the poor, hardly-treated woman who had been her mother.
+She could remember being at sea, and her sickness,--but could not quite
+remember whether that woman had been with her. Then she had run about
+the streets of Hamburg, and had sometimes been very hungry, sometimes
+in rags,--and she had a dim memory of some trouble into which her father
+had fallen, and that he was away from her for a time. She had up to
+the present splendid moment her own convictions about that absence,
+but she had never mentioned them to a human being. Then her father had
+married her present mother in Frankfort. That she could remember
+distinctly, as also the rooms in which she was then taken to live, and
+the fact that she was told that from henceforth she was to be a
+Jewess. But there had soon come another change. They went from
+Frankfort to Paris, and there they were all Christians. From that time
+they had lived in various apartments in the French capital, but had
+always lived well. Sometimes there had been a carriage, sometimes
+there had been none. And then there came a time in which she was grown
+woman enough to understand that her father was being much talked
+about. Her father to her had always been alternately capricious and
+indifferent rather than cross or cruel, but, just at this period he
+was cruel both to her and to his wife. And Madame Melmotte would weep
+at times and declare that they were all ruined. Then, at a moment,
+they burst out into sudden splendour at Paris. There was an hotel,
+with carriages and horses almost unnumbered;--and then there came to
+their rooms a crowd of dark, swarthy, greasy men, who were entertained
+sumptuously; but there were few women. At this time Marie was hardly
+nineteen, and young enough in manner and appearance to be taken for
+seventeen. Suddenly again she was told that she was to be taken to
+London, and the migration had been effected with magnificence. She was
+first taken to Brighton, where the half of an hotel had been hired,
+and had then been brought to Grosvenor Square, and at once thrown into
+the matrimonial market. No part of her life had been more
+disagreeable to her, more frightful, than the first months in which
+she had been trafficked for by the Nidderdales and Grassloughs. She
+had been too frightened, too much of a coward to object to anything
+proposed to her, but still had been conscious of a desire to have some
+hand in her own future destiny. Luckily for her, the first attempts at
+trafficking with the Nidderdales and Grassloughs had come to nothing;
+and at length she was picking up a little courage, and was beginning
+to feel that it might be possible to prevent a disposition of herself
+which did not suit her own tastes. She was also beginning to think
+that there might be a disposition of herself which would suit her own
+tastes.
+
+Felix Carbury was standing leaning against a wall, and she was seated
+on a chair close to him. 'I love you better than anyone in the world,'
+he said, speaking plainly enough for her to hear, perhaps indifferent
+as to the hearing of others.
+
+'Oh, Sir Felix, pray do not talk like that.'
+
+'You knew that before. Now I want you to say whether you will be my
+wife.'
+
+'How can I answer that myself? Papa settles everything.'
+
+'May I go to papa?'
+
+'You may if you like,' she replied in a very low whisper. It was thus
+that the greatest heiress of the day, the greatest heiress of any day
+if people spoke truly, gave herself away to a man without a penny.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII - SIR FELIX IN HIS MOTHER'S HOUSE
+
+
+When all her friends were gone Lady Carbury looked about for her son,--
+not expecting to find him, for she knew how punctual was his nightly
+attendance at the Beargarden, but still with some faint hope that he
+might have remained on this special occasion to tell her of his
+fortune. She had watched the whispering, had noticed the cool
+effrontery with which Felix had spoken,--for without hearing the words
+she had almost known the very moment in which he was asking,--and had
+seen the girl's timid face, and eyes turned to the ground, and the
+nervous twitching of her hands as she replied. As a woman,
+understanding such things, who had herself been wooed, who had at
+least dreamed of love, she had greatly disapproved her son's manner.
+But yet, if it might be successful, if the girl would put up with
+love-making so slight as that, and if the great Melmotte would accept
+in return for his money a title so modest as that of her son, how
+glorious should her son be to her in spite of his indifference!
+
+'I heard him leave the house before the Melmottes went,' said
+Henrietta, when the mother spoke of going up to her son's bedroom.
+
+'He might have stayed to-night. Do you think he asked her?'
+
+'How can I say, mamma?'
+
+'I should have thought you would have been anxious about your brother.
+I feel sure he did,--and that she accepted him.'
+
+'If so I hope he will be good to her. I hope he loves her.'
+
+'Why shouldn't he love her as well as any one else? A girl need not be
+odious because she has money. There is nothing disagreeable about
+her.'
+
+'No,--nothing disagreeable. I do not know that she is especially
+attractive.'
+
+'Who is? I don't see anybody specially attractive. It seems to me you
+are quite indifferent about Felix.'
+
+'Do not say that, mamma.'
+
+'Yes you are. You don't understand all that he might be with this
+girl's fortune, and what he must be unless he gets money by marriage.
+He is eating us both up.'
+
+'I wouldn't let him do that, mamma.'
+
+'It's all very well to say that, but I have some heart. I love him. I
+could not see him starve. Think what he might be with £20,000 a-year!'
+
+'If he is to marry for that only, I cannot think that they will be
+happy.'
+
+'You had better go to bed, Henrietta. You never say a word to comfort
+me in all my troubles.'
+
+Then Henrietta went to bed, and Lady Carbury absolutely sat up the
+whole night waiting for her son, in order that she might hear his
+tidings. She went up to her room, disembarrassed herself of her
+finery, and wrapped herself in a white dressing-gown. As she sat
+opposite to her glass, relieving her head from its garniture of false
+hair, she acknowledged to herself that age was coming on her. She
+could hide the unwelcome approach by art,--hide it more completely than
+can most women of her age; but, there it was, stealing on her with
+short grey hairs over her ears and around her temples, with little
+wrinkles round her eyes easily concealed by objectionable cosmetics,
+and a look of weariness round the mouth which could only be removed by
+that self-assertion of herself which practice had made always possible
+to her in company, though it now so frequently deserted her when she
+was alone.
+
+But she was not a woman to be unhappy because she was growing old. Her
+happiness, like that of most of us, was ever in the future,--never
+reached but always coming. She, however, had not looked for happiness
+to love and loveliness, and need not therefore be disappointed on that
+score. She had never really determined what it was that might make her
+happy,--having some hazy aspiration after social distinction and
+literary fame, in which was ever commingled solicitude respecting
+money. But at the present moment her great fears and her great hopes
+were centred on her son. She would not care how grey might be her
+hair, or how savage might be Mr Alf, if her Felix were to marry this
+heiress. On the other hand, nothing that pearl-powder or the 'Morning
+Breakfast Table' could do would avail anything, unless he could be
+extricated from the ruin that now surrounded him. So she went down
+into the dining-room, that she might be sure to hear the key in the
+door, even should she sleep, and waited for him with a volume of
+French memoirs in her hand.
+
+Unfortunate woman! she might have gone to bed and have been duly
+called about her usual time, for it was past eight and the full
+staring daylight shone into her room when Felix's cab brought him to
+the door. The night had been very wretched to her. She had slept, and
+the fire had sunk nearly to nothing and had refused to become again
+comfortable. She could not keep her mind to her book, and while she
+was awake the time seemed to be everlasting. And then it was so
+terrible to her that he should be gambling at such hours as these! Why
+should he desire to gamble if this girl's fortune was ready to fall
+into his hands? Fool, to risk his health, his character, his beauty,
+the little money which at this moment of time might be so
+indispensable to his great project, for the chance of winning
+something which in comparison with Marie Melmotte's money must be
+despicable! But at last he came! She waited patiently till he had
+thrown aside his hat and coat, and then she appeared at the
+dining-room door. She had studied her part for the occasion. She would
+not say a harsh word, and now she endeavoured to meet him with a
+smile. 'Mother,' he said, 'you up at this hour!' His face was flushed,
+and she thought that there was some unsteadiness in his gait. She had
+never seen him tipsy, and it would be doubly terrible to her if such
+should be his condition.
+
+'I could not go to bed till I had seen you.'
+
+'Why not? why should you want to see me? I'll go to bed now. There'll
+be plenty of time by-and-by.'
+
+'Is anything the matter, Felix?'
+
+'Matter,--what should be the matter? There's been a gentle row among the
+fellows at the club;--that's all. I had to tell Grasslough a bit of my
+mind, and he didn't like it. I didn't mean that he should.'
+
+'There is not going to be any fighting, Felix?'
+
+'What, duelling; oh no,--nothing so exciting as that. Whether somebody
+may not have to kick somebody is more than I can say at present. You
+must let me go to bed now, for I am about used up.'
+
+'What did Marie Melmotte say to you?'
+
+'Nothing particular.' And he stood with his hand on the door as he
+answered her.
+
+'And what did you say to her?'
+
+'Nothing particular. Good heavens, mother, do you think that a man is
+in a condition to talk about such stuff as that at eight o'clock in
+the morning, when he has been up all night?'
+
+'If you knew all that I suffer on your behalf you would speak a word
+to me,' she said, imploring him, holding him by the arm, and looking
+into his purple face and bloodshot eyes. She was sure that he had been
+drinking. She could smell it in his breath.
+
+'I must go to the old fellow, of course.'
+
+'She told you to go to her father?'
+
+'As far as I remember, that was about it. Of course, he means to
+settle it as he likes. I should say that it's ten to one against me.'
+Pulling himself away with some little roughness from his mother's
+hold, he made his way up to his own bedroom, occasionally stumbling
+against the stairs.
+
+Then the heiress herself had accepted her son! If so, surely the thing
+might be done. Lady Carbury recalled to mind her old conviction that a
+daughter may always succeed in beating a hard-hearted parent in a
+contention about marriage, if she be well in earnest. But then the
+girl must be really in earnest, and her earnestness will depend on
+that of her lover. In this case, however, there was as yet no reason
+for supposing that the great man would object. As far as outward signs
+went, the great man had shown some partiality for her son. No doubt it
+was Mr Melmotte who had made Sir Felix a director of the great
+American Company. Felix had also been kindly received in Grosvenor
+Square. And then Sir Felix was Sir Felix,--a real baronet. Mr Melmotte
+had no doubt endeavoured to catch this and that lord; but, failing a
+lord, why should he not content himself with a baronet? Lady Carbury
+thought that her son wanted nothing but money to make him an
+acceptable suitor to such a father-in-law as Mr Melmotte;--not money in
+the funds, not a real fortune, not so many thousands a-year that could
+be settled;--the man's own enormous wealth rendered this unnecessary but
+such a one as Mr Melmotte would not like outward palpable signs of
+immediate poverty. There should be means enough for present sleekness
+and present luxury. He must have a horse to ride, and rings and coats
+to wear, and bright little canes to carry, and above all the means of
+making presents. He must not be seen to be poor. Fortunately, most
+fortunately, Chance had befriended him lately and had given him some
+ready money. But if he went on gambling Chance would certainly take it
+all away again. For aught that the poor mother knew, Chance might have
+done so already. And then again, it was indispensable that he should
+abandon the habit of play--at any rate for the present, while his
+prospects depended on the good opinions of Mr Melmotte. Of course such
+a one as Mr Melmotte could not like gambling at a club, however much
+he might approve of it in the City. Why, with such a preceptor to help
+him, should not Felix learn to do his gambling on the Exchange, or
+among the brokers, or in the purlieus of the Bank? Lady Carbury would
+at any rate instigate him to be diligent in his position as director
+of the Great Mexican Railway,--which position ought to be the beginning
+to him of a fortune to be made on his own account. But what hope could
+there be for him if he should take to drink? Would not all hopes be
+over with Mr Melmotte should he ever learn that his daughter's lover
+reached home and tumbled upstairs to bed between eight and nine
+o'clock in the morning?
+
+She watched for his appearance on the following day, and began at once
+on the subject.
+
+'Do you know, Felix, I think I shall go down to your cousin Roger for
+Whitsuntide.'
+
+'To Carbury Manor!' said he, as he eat some devilled kidneys which the
+cook had been specially ordered to get for his breakfast. 'I thought
+you found it so dull that you didn't mean to go there any more.'
+
+'I never said so, Felix. And now I have a great object.'
+
+'What will Hetta do?'
+
+'Go too--why shouldn't she?'
+
+'Oh; I didn't know. I thought that perhaps she mightn't like it.'
+
+'I don't see why she shouldn't like it. Besides, everything can't give
+way to her.'
+
+'Has Roger asked you?'
+
+'No; but I'm sure he'd be pleased to have us if I proposed that we
+should all go.'
+
+'Not me, mother!'
+
+'Yes; you especially.'
+
+'Not if I know it, mother. What on earth should I do at Carbury
+Manor?'
+
+'Madame Melmotte told me last night that they were all going down to
+Caversham to stay three or four days with the Longestaffes. She spoke
+of Lady Pomona as quite her particular friend.'
+
+'Oh--h! that explains it all.'
+
+'Explains what, Felix?' said Lady Carbury, who had heard of Dolly
+Longestaffe, and was not without some fear that this projected visit
+to Caversham might have some matrimonial purpose in reference to that
+delightful young heir.
+
+'They say at the club that Melmotte has taken up old Longestaffe's
+affairs, and means to put them straight. There's an old property in
+Sussex as well as Caversham, and they say that Melmotte is to have
+that himself. There's some bother because Dolly, who would do anything
+for anybody else, won't join his father in selling. So the Melmottes
+are going to Caversham!'
+
+'Madame Melmotte told me so.'
+
+'And the Longestaffes are the proudest people in England.'
+
+'Of course we ought to be at Carbury Manor while they are there. What
+can be more natural? Everybody goes out of town at Whitsuntide; and
+why shouldn't we run down to the family place?'
+
+'All very natural if you can manage it, mother.'
+
+'And you'll come?'
+
+'If Marie Melmotte goes, I'll be there at any rate for one day and
+night,' said Felix.
+
+His mother thought that, for him, the promise had been graciously
+made.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII - THE LONGESTAFFES
+
+
+Mr Adolphus Longestaffe, the squire of Caversham in Suffolk, and of
+Pickering Park in Sussex, was closeted on a certain morning for the
+best part of an hour with Mr Melmotte in Abchurch Lane, had there
+discussed all his private affairs, and was about to leave the room
+with a very dissatisfied air. There are men,--and old men too, who ought
+to know the world,--who think that if they can only find the proper
+Medea to boil the cauldron for them, they can have their ruined
+fortunes so cooked that they shall come out of the pot fresh and new
+and unembarrassed. These great conjurors are generally sought for in
+the City; and in truth the cauldrons are kept boiling though the
+result of the process is seldom absolute rejuvenescence. No greater
+Medea than Mr Melmotte had ever been potent in money matters, and Mr
+Longestaffe had been taught to believe that if he could get the
+necromancer even to look at his affairs everything would be made right
+for him. But the necromancer had explained to the squire that property
+could not be created by the waving of any wand or the boiling of any
+cauldron. He, Mr Melmotte, could put Mr Longestaffe in the way of
+realising property without delay, of changing it from one shape into
+another, or could find out the real market value of the property in
+question; but he could create nothing. 'You have only a life interest,
+Mr Longestaffe.'
+
+'No; only a life interest. That is customary with family estates in
+this country, Mr Melmotte.'
+
+'Just so. And therefore you can dispose of nothing else. Your son, of
+course, could join you, and then you could sell either one estate or
+the other.'
+
+'There is no question of selling Caversham, sir. Lady Pomona and I
+reside there.'
+
+'Your son will not join you in selling the other place?'
+
+'I have not directly asked him; but he never does do anything that I
+wish. I suppose you would not take Pickering Park on a lease for my
+life.'
+
+'I think not, Mr Longestaffe. My wife would not like the uncertainty.'
+
+Then Mr Longestaffe took his leave with a feeling of outraged
+aristocratic pride. His own lawyer would almost have done as much for
+him, and he need not have invited his own lawyer as a guest to
+Caversham,--and certainly not his own lawyer's wife and daughter. He had
+indeed succeeded in borrowing a few thousand pounds from the great man
+at a rate of interest which the great man's head clerk was to arrange,
+and this had been effected simply on the security of the lease of a
+house in town. There had been an ease in this, an absence of that
+delay which generally took place between the expression of his desire
+for money and the acquisition of it,--and this had gratified him. But he
+was already beginning to think that he might pay too dearly for that
+gratification. At the present moment, too, Mr Melmotte was odious to
+him for another reason. He had condescended to ask Mr Melmotte to make
+him a director of the South Central Pacific and Mexican Railway, and
+he,--Adolphus Longestaffe of Caversham,--had had his request refused! Mr
+Longestaffe had condescended very low. 'You have made Lord Alfred
+Grendall one!' he had said in a complaining tone. Then Mr Melmotte
+explained that Lord Alfred possessed peculiar aptitudes for the
+position. 'I'm sure I could do anything that he does,' said Mr
+Longestaffe. Upon this Mr Melmotte, knitting his brows and speaking
+with some roughness, replied that the number of directors required was
+completed. Since he had had two duchesses at his house Mr Melmotte was
+beginning to feel that he was entitled to bully any mere commoner,
+especially a commoner who could ask him for a seat at his board.
+
+Mr Longestaffe was a tall, heavy man, about fifty, with hair and
+whiskers carefully dyed, whose clothes were made with great care,
+though they always seemed to fit him too tightly, and who thought very
+much of his personal appearance. It was not that he considered himself
+handsome, but that he was specially proud of his aristocratic bearing.
+He entertained an idea that all who understood the matter would
+perceive at a single glance that he was a gentleman of the first
+water, and a man of fashion. He was intensely proud of his position in
+life, thinking himself to be immensely superior to all those who
+earned their bread. There were no doubt gentlemen of different
+degrees, but the English gentleman of gentlemen was he who had land,
+and family title-deeds, and an old family place, and family portraits,
+and family embarrassments, and a family absence of any usual
+employment. He was beginning even to look down upon peers, since so
+many men of much less consequence than himself had been made lords;
+and, having stood and been beaten three or four times for his county,
+he was of opinion that a seat in the House was rather a mark of bad
+breeding. He was a silly man, who had no fixed idea that it behoved
+him to be of use to any one; but, yet, he had compassed a certain
+nobility of feeling. There was very little that his position called
+upon him to do, but there was much that it forbad him to do. It was
+not allowed to him to be close in money matters. He could leave his
+tradesmen's bills unpaid till the men were clamorous, but he could not
+question the items in their accounts. He could be tyrannical to his
+servants, but he could not make inquiry as to the consumption of his
+wines in the servants' hall. He had no pity for his tenants in regard
+to game, but he hesitated much as to raising their rent. He had his
+theory of life and endeavoured to live up to it; but the attempt had
+hardly brought satisfaction to himself or to his family.
+
+At the present moment, it was the great desire of his heart to sell
+the smaller of his two properties and disembarrass the other. The debt
+had not been altogether of his own making, and the arrangement would,
+he believed, serve his whole family as well as himself. It would also
+serve his son, who was blessed with a third property of his own which
+he had already managed to burden with debt. The father could not bear
+to be refused; and he feared that his son would decline. 'But Adolphus
+wants money as much as any one,' Lady Pomona had said. He had shaken
+his head, and pished and pshawed. Women never could understand
+anything about money. Now he walked down sadly from Mr Melmotte's
+office and was taken in his brougham to his lawyer's chambers in
+Lincoln's Inn. Even for the accommodation of those few thousand pounds
+he was forced to condescend to tell his lawyers that the title-deeds
+of his house in town must be given up. Mr Longestaffe felt that the
+world in general was very hard on him.
+
+'What on earth are we to do with them?' said Sophia, the eldest Miss
+Longestaffe, to her mother.
+
+'I do think it's a shame of papa,' said Georgiana, the second
+daughter. 'I certainly shan't trouble myself to entertain them.'
+
+'Of course you will leave them all on my hands,' said Lady Pomona
+wearily.
+
+'But what's the use of having them?' urged Sophia. 'I can understand
+going to a crush at their house in town when everybody else goes. One
+doesn't speak to them, and need not know them afterwards. As to the
+girl, I'm sure I shouldn't remember her if I were to see her.'
+
+'It would be a fine thing if Adolphus would marry her,' said Lady
+Pomona.
+
+'Dolly will never marry anybody,' said Georgiana. 'The idea of his
+taking the trouble of asking a girl to have him! Besides, he won't
+come down to Caversham; cart-ropes wouldn't bring him. If that is to
+be the game, mamma, it is quite hopeless.'
+
+'Why should Dolly marry such a creature as that?' asked Sophia.
+
+'Because everybody wants money,' said Lady Pomona. 'I'm sure I don't
+know what your papa is to do, or how it is that there never is any
+money for anything, I don't spend it.'
+
+'I don't think that we do anything out of the way,' said Sophia. 'I
+haven't the slightest idea what papa's income is; but if we're to live
+at all, I don't know how we are to make a change.'
+
+'It's always been like this ever since I can remember,' said
+Georgiana, 'and I don't mean to worry about it any more. I suppose
+it's just the same with other people, only one doesn't know it.'
+
+'But, my dears--when we are obliged to have such people as these
+Melmottes!'
+
+'As for that, if we didn't have them somebody else would. I shan't
+trouble myself about them, I suppose it will only be for two days.'
+
+'My dear, they're coming for a week!'
+
+'Then papa must take them about the country, that's all. I never did
+hear of anything so absurd. What good can they do papa by being down
+there?'
+
+'He is wonderfully rich,' said Lady Pomona.
+
+'But I don't suppose he'll give papa his money,' continued Georgiana.
+'Of course I don't pretend to understand, but I think there is more
+fuss about these things than they deserve. If papa hasn't got money
+to live at home, why doesn't he go abroad for a year? The Sidney
+Beauchamps did that, and the girls had quite a nice time of it in
+Florence. It was there that Clara Beauchamp met young Lord Liffey. I
+shouldn't at all mind that kind of thing, but I think it quite
+horrible to have these sort of people brought down upon us at
+Caversham. No one knows who they are, or where they came from, or
+what they'll turn to.' So spoke Georgiana, who among the Longestaffes
+was supposed to have the strongest head, and certainly the sharpest
+tongue.
+
+This conversation took place in the drawing-room of the Longestaffes'
+family town-house in Bruton Street. It was not by any means a charming
+house, having but few of those luxuries and elegancies which have been
+added of late years to newly-built London residences. It was gloomy
+and inconvenient, with large drawing-rooms, bad bedrooms, and very
+little accommodation for servants. But it was the old family
+town-house, having been inhabited by three or four generations of
+Longestaffes, and did not savour of that radical newness which
+prevails, and which was peculiarly distasteful to Mr Longestaffe.
+Queen's Gate and the quarters around were, according to Mr
+Longestaffe, devoted to opulent tradesmen. Even Belgrave Square,
+though its aristocratic properties must be admitted, still smelt of
+the mortar. Many of those living there and thereabouts had never
+possessed in their families real family town-houses. The old streets
+lying between Piccadilly and Oxford Street, one or two well-known
+localities to the south and north of these boundaries, were the proper
+sites for these habitations. When Lady Pomona, instigated by some
+friend of high rank but questionable taste, had once suggested a
+change to Eaton Square, Mr Longestaffe had at once snubbed his wife.
+If Bruton Street wasn't good enough for her and the girls then they
+might remain at Caversham. The threat of remaining at Caversham had
+been often made, for Mr Longestaffe, proud as he was of his
+town-house, was, from year to year, very anxious to save the expense
+of the annual migration. The girls' dresses and the girls' horses, his
+wife's carriage and his own brougham, his dull London dinner-parties,
+and the one ball which it was always necessary that Lady Pomona should
+give, made him look forward to the end of July, with more dread than
+to any other period. It was then that he began to know what that
+year's season would cost him. But he had never yet been able to keep
+his family in the country during the entire year. The girls, who as
+yet knew nothing of the Continent beyond Paris, had signified their
+willingness to be taken about Germany and Italy for twelve months, but
+had shown by every means in their power that they would mutiny against
+any intention on their father's part to keep them at Caversham during
+the London season.
+
+Georgiana had just finished her strong-minded protest against the
+Melmottes, when her brother strolled into the room. Dolly did not
+often show himself in Bruton Street. He had rooms of his own, and
+could seldom even be induced to dine with his family. His mother wrote
+to him notes without end,--notes every day, pressing invitations of all
+sorts upon him; would he come and dine; would he take them to the
+theatre; would he go to this ball; would he go to that evening-party?
+These Dolly barely read, and never answered. He would open them,
+thrust them into some pocket, and then forget them. Consequently his
+mother worshipped him; and even his sisters, who were at any rate
+superior to him in intellect, treated him with a certain deference. He
+could do as he liked, and they felt themselves to be slaves, bound
+down by the dulness of the Longestaffe regime. His freedom was grand
+to their eyes, and very enviable, although they were aware that he had
+already so used it as to impoverish himself in the midst of his
+wealth.
+
+'My dear Adolphus,' said the mother, 'this is so nice of you.'
+
+'I think it is rather nice,' said Dolly, submitting himself to be
+kissed.
+
+'Oh Dolly, whoever would have thought of seeing you?' said Sophia.
+
+'Give him some tea,' said his mother. Lady Pomona was always having
+tea from four o'clock till she was taken away to dress for dinner.
+
+'I'd sooner have soda and brandy,' said Dolly.
+
+'My darling boy!'
+
+'I didn't ask for it, and I don't expect to get it; indeed I don't
+want it. I only said I'd sooner have it than tea. Where's the
+governor?' They all looked at him with wondering eyes. There must be
+something going on more than they had dreamed of, when Dolly asked to
+see his father.
+
+'Papa went out in the brougham immediately after lunch,' said Sophia
+gravely.
+
+'I'll wait a little for him,' said Dolly, taking out his watch.
+
+'Do stay and dine with us,' said Lady Pomona.
+
+'I could not do that, because I've got to go and dine with some
+fellow.'
+
+'Some fellow! I believe you don't know where you're going,' said
+Georgiana.
+
+'My fellow knows. At least he's a fool if he don't.'
+
+'Adolphus,' began Lady Pomona very seriously, 'I've got a plan and I
+want you to help me.'
+
+'I hope there isn't very much to do in it, mother.'
+
+'We're all going to Caversham, just for Whitsuntide, and we
+particularly want you to come.'
+
+'By George! no; I couldn't do that.'
+
+'You haven't heard half. Madame Melmotte and her daughter are coming.'
+
+'The d---- they are!' ejaculated Dolly.
+
+'Dolly!' said Sophia, 'do remember where you are.'
+
+'Yes I will;--and I'll remember too where I won't be. I won't go to
+Caversham to meet old mother Melmotte.'
+
+'My dear boy,' continued the mother, 'do you know that Miss Melmotte
+will have twenty thousand a year the day she marries; and that in all
+probability her husband will some day be the richest man in Europe?'
+
+'Half the fellows in London are after her,' said Dolly.
+
+'Why shouldn't you be one of them? She isn't going to stay in the
+same house with half the fellows in London,' suggested Georgiana. 'If
+you've a mind to try it you'll have a chance which nobody else can
+have just at present.'
+
+'But I haven't any mind to try it. Good gracious me;--oh dear! it isn't
+at all in my way, mother.'
+
+'I knew he wouldn't,' said Georgiana.
+
+'It would put everything so straight,' said Lady Pomona.
+
+'They'll have to remain crooked if nothing else will put them
+straight. There's the governor. I heard his voice. Now for a row.'
+Then Mr Longestaffe entered the room.
+
+'My dear,' said Lady Pomona, 'here's Adolphus come to see us.' The
+father nodded his head at his son but said nothing. 'We want him to
+stay and dine, but he's engaged.'
+
+'Though he doesn't know where,' said Sophia.
+
+'My fellow knows;--he keeps a book. I've got a letter, sir, ever so
+long, from those fellows in Lincoln's Inn. They want me to come and
+see you about selling something; so I've come. It's an awful bore,
+because I don't understand anything about it. Perhaps there isn't
+anything to be sold. If so I can go away again, you know.'
+
+'You'd better come with me into the study,' said the father. 'We
+needn't disturb your mother and sisters about business.' Then the
+squire led the way out of the room, and Dolly followed, making a
+woeful grimace at his sisters. The three ladies sat over their tea for
+about half-an-hour, waiting,--not the result of the conference, for with
+that they did not suppose that they would be made acquainted,--but
+whatever signs of good or evil might be collected from the manner and
+appearance of the squire when he should return to them. Dolly they did
+not expect to see again,--probably for a month. He and the squire never
+did come together without quarrelling, and careless as was the young
+man in every other respect, he had hitherto been obdurate as to his
+own rights in any dealings which he had with his father. At the end of
+the half-hour Mr Longestaffe returned to the drawing-room, and at once
+pronounced the doom of the family. 'My dear,' he said, 'we shall not
+return from Caversham to London this year.' He struggled hard to
+maintain a grand dignified tranquillity as he spoke, but his voice
+quivered with emotion.
+
+'Papa!' screamed Sophia.
+
+'My dear, you don't mean it,' said Lady Pomona.
+
+'Of course papa doesn't mean it,' said Georgiana, rising to her feet.
+
+'I mean it accurately and certainly,' said Mr Longestaffe. 'We go to
+Caversham in about ten days, and we shall not return from Caversham to
+London this year.'
+
+'Our ball is fixed,' said Lady Pomona.
+
+'Then it must be unfixed.' So saying, the master of the house left the
+drawing-room and descended to his study.
+
+The three ladies, when left to deplore their fate, expressed their
+opinions as to the sentence which had been pronounced very strongly.
+But the daughters were louder in their anger than was their mother.
+
+'He can't really mean it,' said Sophia.
+
+'He does,' said Lady Pomona, with tears in her eyes.
+
+'He must unmean it again;--that's all,' said Georgiana. 'Dolly has said
+something to him very rough, and he resents it upon us. Why did he
+bring us up at all if he means to take us down before the season has
+begun?'
+
+'I wonder what Adolphus has said to him. Your papa is always hard upon
+Adolphus.'
+
+'Dolly can take care of himself,' said Georgiana, 'and always does do
+so. Dolly does not care for us.'
+
+'Not a bit,' said Sophia.
+
+'I'll tell you what you must do, mamma. You mustn't stir from this at
+all. You must give up going to Caversham altogether, unless he
+promises to bring us back. I won't stir;--unless he has me carried out
+of the house.'
+
+'My dear, I couldn't say that to him.'
+
+'Then I will. To go and be buried down in that place for a whole year
+with no one near us but the rusty old bishop and Mr Carbury, who is
+rustier still. I won't stand it. There are some sort of things that
+one ought not to stand. If you go down I shall stay up with the
+Primeros. Mrs Primero would have me I know. It wouldn't be nice of
+course. I don't like the Primeros. I hate the Primeros. Oh yes;--it's
+quite true; I know that as well as you, Sophia; they are vulgar; but
+not half so vulgar, mamma, as your friend Madame Melmotte.'
+
+'That's ill-natured, Georgiana. She is not a friend of mine.'
+
+'But you're going to have her down at Caversham. I can't think what
+made you dream of going to Caversham just now, knowing as you do how
+hard papa is to manage.'
+
+'Everybody has taken to going out of town at Whitsuntide, my dear.'
+
+'No, mamma; everybody has not. People understand too well the trouble
+of getting up and down for that. The Primeros aren't going down. I
+never heard of such a thing in all my life. What does he expect is to
+become of us? If he wants to save money why doesn't he shut Caversham
+up altogether and go abroad? Caversham costs a great deal more than is
+spent in London, and it's the dullest house, I think, in all England.'
+
+The family party in Bruton Street that evening was not very gay.
+Nothing was being done, and they sat gloomily in each other's company.
+Whatever mutinous resolutions might be formed and carried out by the
+ladies of the family, they were not brought forward on that occasion.
+The two girls were quite silent, and would not speak to their father,
+and when he addressed them they answered simply by monosyllables. Lady
+Pomona was ill, and sat in a corner of a sofa, wiping her eyes. To her
+had been imparted upstairs the purport of the conversation between
+Dolly and his father. Dolly had refused to consent to the sale of
+Pickering unless half the produce of the sale were to be given to him
+at once. When it had been explained to him that the sale would be
+desirable in order that the Caversham property might be freed from
+debt, which Caversham property would eventually be his, he replied
+that he also had an estate of his own which was a little mortgaged and
+would be the better for money. The result seemed to be that Pickering
+could not be sold;--and, as a consequence of that, Mr Longestaffe had
+determined that there should be no more London expenses that year.
+
+The girls, when they got up to go to bed, bent over him and kissed his
+head, as was their custom. There was very little show of affection in
+the kiss. 'You had better remember that what you have to do in town
+must be done this week,' he said. They heard the words, but marched in
+stately silence out of the room without deigning to notice them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV - CARBURY MANOR
+
+
+'I don't think it quite nice, mamma; that's all. Of course if you have
+made up your mind to go, I must go with you.'
+
+'What on earth can be more natural than that you should go to your own
+cousin's house?'
+
+'You know what I mean, mamma.'
+
+'It's done now, my dear, and I don't think there is anything at all in
+what you say.' This little conversation arose from Lady Carbury's
+announcement to her daughter of her intention of soliciting the
+hospitality of Carbury Manor for the Whitsun week. It was very
+grievous to Henrietta that she should be taken to the house of a man
+who was in love with her, even though he was her cousin. But she had
+no escape. She could not remain in town by herself, nor could she even
+allude to her grievance to any one but her mother. Lady Carbury, in
+order that she might be quite safe from opposition, had posted the
+following letter to her cousin before she spoke to her daughter:--
+
+
+   Welbeck Street, 24th April, 18--.
+
+   My dear Roger,
+
+   We know how kind you are and how sincere, and that if what I am
+   going to propose doesn't suit you'll say so at once. I have been
+   working very hard too hard indeed, and I feel that nothing will do
+   me so much real good as getting into the country for a day or two.
+   Would you take us for a part of Whitsun week? We would come down
+   on the 20th May and stay over the Sunday if you would keep us.
+   Felix says he would run down though he would not trouble you for
+   so long a time as we talk of staying.
+
+   I'm sure you must have been glad to hear of his being put upon
+   that Great American Railway Board as a Director. It opens a new
+   sphere of life to him, and will enable him to prove that he can
+   make himself useful. I think it was a great confidence to place in
+   one so young.
+
+   Of course you will say so at once if my little proposal interferes
+   with any of your plans, but you have been so very very kind to us
+   that I have no scruple in making it.
+
+   Henrietta joins with me in kind love.
+
+   Your affectionate cousin,
+
+   MATILDA CARBURY.
+
+
+There was much in this letter that disturbed and even annoyed Roger
+Carbury. In the first place he felt that Henrietta should not be
+brought to his house. Much as he loved her, dear as her presence to
+him always was, he hardly wished to have her at Carbury unless she
+would come with a resolution to be its future mistress. In one respect
+he did Lady Carbury an injustice. He knew that she was anxious to
+forward his suit, and he thought that Henrietta was being brought to
+his house with that object. He had not heard that the great heiress
+was coming into his neighbourhood, and therefore knew nothing of Lady
+Carbury's scheme in that direction. He was, too, disgusted by the
+ill-founded pride which the mother expressed at her son's position as
+a director. Roger Carbury did not believe in the Railway. He did not
+believe in Fisker, nor in Melmotte, and certainly not in the Board
+generally. Paul Montague had acted in opposition to his advice in
+yielding to the seductions of Fisker. The whole thing was to his mind
+false, fraudulent, and ruinous. Of what nature could be a Company
+which should have itself directed by such men as Lord Alfred Grendall
+and Sir Felix Carbury? And then as to their great Chairman, did not
+everybody know, in spite of all the duchesses, that Mr Melmotte was a
+gigantic swindler? Although there was more than one immediate cause
+for bitterness between them, Roger loved Paul Montague well and could
+not bear with patience the appearance of his friend's name on such a
+list. And now he was asked for warm congratulations because Sir Felix
+Carbury was one of the Board! He did not know which to despise most,
+Sir Felix for belonging to such a Board, or the Board for having such
+a director. 'New sphere of life!' he said to himself. 'The only proper
+sphere for them all would be Newgate!'
+
+And there was another trouble. He had asked Paul Montague to come to
+Carbury for this special week, and Paul had accepted the invitation.
+With the constancy, which was perhaps his strongest characteristic, he
+clung to his old affection for the man. He could not bear the idea of
+a permanent quarrel, though he knew that there must be a quarrel if
+the man interfered with his dearest hopes. He had asked him down to
+Carbury intending that the name of Henrietta Carbury should not be
+mentioned between them;--and now it was proposed to him that Henrietta
+Carbury should be at the Manor House at the very time of Paul's visit!
+He made up his mind at once that he must tell Paul not to come.
+
+He wrote his two letters at once. That to Lady Carbury was very short.
+He would be delighted to see her and Henrietta at the time named,--and
+would be very glad should it suit Felix to come also. He did not say a
+word about the Board, or the young man's probable usefulness in his
+new sphere of life. To Montague his letter was longer. 'It is always
+best to be open and true,' he said. 'Since you were kind enough to say
+that you would come to me, Lady Carbury has proposed to visit me just
+at the same time and to bring her daughter. After what has passed
+between us I need hardly say that I could not make you both welcome
+here together. It is not pleasant to me to have to ask you to postpone
+your visit, but I think you will not accuse me of a want of
+hospitality towards you.' Paul wrote back to say that he was sure that
+there was no want of hospitality, and that he would remain in town.
+
+Suffolk is not especially a picturesque county, nor can it be said
+that the scenery round Carbury was either grand or beautiful; but
+there were little prettinesses attached to the house itself and the
+grounds around it which gave it a charm of its own. The Carbury River,--
+so called, though at no place is it so wide but that an active
+schoolboy might jump across it,--runs, or rather creeps into the
+Waveney, and in its course is robbed by a moat which surrounds Carbury
+Manor House. The moat has been rather a trouble to the proprietors,
+and especially so to Roger, as in these days of sanitary
+considerations it has been felt necessary either to keep it clean with
+at any rate moving water in it, or else to fill it up and abolish it
+altogether. That plan of abolishing it had to be thought of and was
+seriously discussed about ten years since; but then it was decided
+that such a proceeding would altogether alter the character of the
+house, would destroy the gardens, and would create a waste of mud all
+round the place which it would take years to beautify, or even to make
+endurable. And then an important question had been asked by an
+intelligent farmer who had long been a tenant on the property; 'Fill
+un oop;--eh, eh; sooner said than doone, squoire. Where be the stoof to
+come from?' The squire, therefore, had given up that idea, and instead
+of abolishing his moat had made it prettier than ever. The high road
+from Bungay to Beccles ran close to the house,--so close that the gable
+ends of the building were separated from it only by the breadth of the
+moat. A short, private road, not above a hundred yards in length, led
+to the bridge which faced the front door. The bridge was old, and
+high, with sundry architectural pretensions, and guarded by iron gates
+in the centre, which, however, were very rarely closed. Between the
+bridge and the front door there was a sweep of ground just sufficient
+for the turning of a carriage, and on either side of this the house
+was brought close to the water, so that the entrance was in a recess,
+or irregular quadrangle, of which the bridge and moat formed one side.
+At the back of the house there were large gardens screened from the
+road by a wall ten feet high, in which there were yew trees and
+cypresses said to be of wonderful antiquity. The gardens were partly
+inside the moat, but chiefly beyond them, and were joined by two
+bridges a foot bridge and one with a carriage way,--and there was
+another bridge at the end of the house furthest from the road, leading
+from the back door to the stables and farmyard.
+
+The house itself had been built in the time of Charles II., when that
+which we call Tudor architecture was giving way to a cheaper, less
+picturesque, though perhaps more useful form. But Carbury Manor House,
+through the whole county, had the reputation of being a Tudor
+building. The windows were long, and for the most part low, made with
+strong mullions, and still contained small, old-fashioned panes; for
+the squire had not as yet gone to the expense of plate glass. There
+was one high bow window, which belonged to the library, and which
+looked out on to the gravel sweep, at the left of the front door as
+you entered it. All the other chief rooms faced upon the garden. The
+house itself was built of a stone that had become buff, or almost
+yellow, with years, and was very pretty. It was still covered with
+tiles, as were all the attached buildings. It was only two stories
+high, except at the end, where the kitchens were placed and the
+offices, which thus rose above the other part of the edifice. The
+rooms throughout were low, and for the most part long and narrow, with
+large wide fireplaces and deep wainscotings. Taking it altogether, one
+would be inclined to say, that it was picturesque rather than
+comfortable. Such as it was its owner was very proud of it,--with a
+pride of which he never spoke to any one, which he endeavoured
+studiously to conceal, but which had made itself known to all who knew
+him well. The houses of the gentry around him were superior to his in
+material comfort and general accommodation, but to none of them
+belonged that thoroughly established look of old county position which
+belonged to Carbury. Bundlesham, where the Primeros lived, was the
+finest house in that part of the county, but it looked as if it had
+been built within the last twenty years. It was surrounded by new
+shrubs and new lawns, by new walls and new out-houses, and savoured of
+trade;--so at least thought Roger Carbury, though he never said the
+words. Caversham was a very large mansion, built in the early part of
+George III's reign, when men did care that things about them should be
+comfortable, but did not care that they should be picturesque. There
+was nothing at all to recommend Caversham but its size. Eardly Park,
+the seat of the Hepworths, had, as a park, some pretensions. Carbury
+possessed nothing that could be called a park, the enclosures beyond
+the gardens being merely so many home paddocks. But the house of
+Eardly was ugly and bad. The Bishop's palace was an excellent
+gentleman's residence, but then that too was comparatively modern, and
+had no peculiar features of its own. Now Carbury Manor House was
+peculiar, and in the eyes of its owner was pre-eminently beautiful.
+
+It often troubled him to think what would come of the place when he
+was gone. He was at present forty years old, and was perhaps as
+healthy a man as you could find in the whole county. Those around who
+had known him as he grew into manhood among them, especially the
+farmers of the neighbourhood, still regarded him as a young man. They
+spoke of him at the county fairs as the young squire. When in his
+happiest moods he could be almost a boy, and he still had something of
+old-fashioned boyish reverence for his elders. But of late there had
+grown up a great care within his breast,--a care which does not often,
+perhaps in these days bear so heavily on men's hearts as it used to
+do. He had asked his cousin to marry him,--having assured himself with
+certainty that he did love her better than any other woman,--and she had
+declined. She had refused him more than once, and he believed her
+implicitly when she told him that she could not love him. He had a way
+of believing people, especially when such belief was opposed to his
+own interests, and had none of that self-confidence which makes a man
+think that if opportunity be allowed him he can win a woman even in
+spite of herself. But if it were fated that he should not succeed with
+Henrietta, then,--so he felt assured,--no marriage would now be possible
+to him. In that case he must look out for an heir, and could regard
+himself simply as a stop-gap among the Carburys. In that case he could
+never enjoy the luxury of doing the best he could with the property in
+order that a son of his own might enjoy it.
+
+Now Sir Felix was the next heir. Roger was hampered by no entail, and
+could leave every acre of the property as he pleased. In one respect
+the natural succession to it by Sir Felix would generally be
+considered fortunate. It had happened that a title had been won in a
+lower branch of the family, and were this succession to take place the
+family title and the family property would go together. No doubt to
+Sir Felix himself such an arrangement would seem to be the most proper
+thing in the world,--as it would also to Lady Carbury were it not that
+she looked to Carbury Manor as the future home of another child. But
+to all this the present owner of the property had very strong
+objections. It was not only that he thought ill of the baronet himself,--
+so ill as to feel thoroughly convinced that no good could come from
+that quarter,--but he thought ill also of the baronetcy itself. Sir
+Patrick, to his thinking, had been altogether unjustifiable in
+accepting an enduring title, knowing that he would leave behind him no
+property adequate for its support. A baronet, so thought Roger
+Carbury, should be a rich man, rich enough to grace the rank which he
+assumed to wear. A title, according to Roger's doctrine on such
+subjects, could make no man a gentleman, but, if improperly worn,
+might degrade a man who would otherwise be a gentleman. He thought
+that a gentleman, born and bred, acknowledged as such without doubt,
+could not be made more than a gentleman by all the titles which the
+Queen could give. With these old-fashioned notions Roger hated the
+title which had fallen upon a branch of his family. He certainly would
+not leave his property to support the title which Sir Felix
+unfortunately possessed. But Sir Felix was the natural heir, and this
+man felt himself constrained, almost as by some divine law, to see
+that his land went by natural descent. Though he was in no degree
+fettered as to its disposition, he did not presume himself to have
+more than a life interest in the estate. It was his duty to see that
+it went from Carbury to Carbury as long as there was a Carbury to hold
+it, and especially his duty to see that it should go from his hands,
+at his death, unimpaired in extent or value. There was no reason why
+he should himself die for the next twenty or thirty years,--but were he
+to die Sir Felix would undoubtedly dissipate the acres, and then there
+would be an end of Carbury. But in such case he, Roger Carbury, would
+at any rate have done his duty. He knew that no human arrangements can
+be fixed, let the care in making them be ever so great. To his
+thinking it would be better that the estate should be dissipated by a
+Carbury than held together by a stranger. He would stick to the old
+name while there was one to bear it, and to the old family while a
+member of it was left. So thinking, he had already made his will,
+leaving the entire property to the man whom of all others he most
+despised, should he himself die without child.
+
+In the afternoon of the day on which Lady Carbury was expected, he
+wandered about the place thinking of all this. How infinitely better
+it would be that he should have an heir of his own! How wonderfully
+beautiful would the world be to him if at last his cousin would
+consent to be his wife! How wearily insipid must it be if no such
+consent could be obtained from her! And then he thought much of her
+welfare too. In very truth he did not like Lady Carbury. He saw
+through her character, judging her with almost absolute accuracy. The
+woman was affectionate, seeking good things for others rather than for
+herself; but she was essentially worldly, believing that good could
+come out of evil, that falsehood might in certain conditions be better
+than truth, that shams and pretences might do the work of true
+service, that a strong house might be built upon the sand! It was
+lamentable to him that the girl he loved should be subjected to this
+teaching, and live in an atmosphere so burdened with falsehood. Would
+not the touch of pitch at last defile her? In his heart of hearts he
+believed that she loved Paul Montague; and of Paul himself he was
+beginning to fear evil. What but a sham could be a man who consented
+to pretend to sit as one of a Board of Directors to manage an enormous
+enterprise with such colleagues as Lord Alfred Grendall and Sir Felix
+Carbury, under the absolute control of such a one as Mr Augustus
+Melmotte? Was not this building a house upon the sand with a
+vengeance? What a life it would be for Henrietta Carbury were she to
+marry a man striving to become rich without labour and without
+capital, and who might one day be wealthy and the next a beggar,--a city
+adventurer, who of all men was to him the vilest and most dishonest?
+He strove to think well of Paul Montague, but such was the life which
+he feared the young man was preparing for himself.
+
+Then he went into the house and wandered up through the rooms which
+the two ladies were to occupy. As their host, a host without a wife or
+mother or sister, it was his duty to see that things were comfortable,
+but it may be doubted whether he would have been so careful had the
+mother been coming alone. In the smaller room of the two the hangings
+were all white, and the room was sweet with May flowers; and he
+brought a white rose from the hot-house, and placed it in a glass on
+the dressing table. Surely she would know who put it there. Then he
+stood at the open window, looking down upon the lawn, gazing vacantly
+for half an hour, till he heard the wheels of the carriage before the
+front door. During that half-hour he resolved that he would try again
+as though there had as yet been no repulse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV 'YOU SHOULD REMEMBER THAT I AM HIS MOTHER'
+
+
+'This is so kind of you,' said Lady Carbury, grasping her cousin's
+hand as she got out of the carriage.
+
+'The kindness is on your part,' said Roger.
+
+'I felt so much before I dared to ask you to take us. But I did so
+long to get into the country, and I do so love Carbury. And--and--'
+
+'Where should a Carbury go to escape from London smoke, but to the
+old house? I am afraid Henrietta will find it dull.'
+
+'Oh no,' said Hetta smiling. 'You ought to remember that I am never
+dull in the country.'
+
+'The bishop and Mrs Yeld are coming here to dine to-morrow,--and the
+Hepworths.'
+
+'I shall be so glad to meet the bishop once more,' said Lady Carbury.
+
+'I think everybody must be glad to meet him, he is such a dear, good
+fellow, and his wife is just as good. And there is another gentleman
+coming whom you have never seen.'
+
+'A new neighbour?'
+
+'Yes,--a new neighbour;--Father John Barham, who has come to Beccles as
+priest. He has got a little cottage about a mile from here, in this
+parish, and does duty both at Beccles and Bungay. I used to know
+something of his family.'
+
+'He is a gentleman then?'
+
+'Certainly he is a gentleman. He took his degree at Oxford, and then
+became what we call a pervert, and what I suppose they call a convert.
+He has not got a shilling in the world beyond what they pay him as a
+priest, which I take it amounts to about as much as the wages of a day
+labourer. He told me the other day that he was absolutely forced to
+buy second-hand clothes.'
+
+'How shocking!' said Lady Carbury, holding up her hands.
+
+'He didn't seem to be at all shocked at telling it. We have got to be
+quite friends.'
+
+'Will the bishop like to meet him?'
+
+'Why should not the bishop like to meet him? I've told the bishop all
+about him, and the bishop particularly wishes to know him. He won't
+hurt the bishop. But you and Hetta will find it very dull.'
+
+'I shan't find it dull, Mr Carbury,' said Henrietta.
+
+'It was to escape from the eternal parties that we came down here,'
+said Lady Carbury.
+
+She had nevertheless been anxious to hear what guests were expected at
+the Manor House. Sir Felix had promised to come down on Saturday, with
+the intention of returning on Monday, and Lady Carbury had hoped that
+some visiting might be arranged between Caversham and the Manor House,
+so that her son might have the full advantage of his closeness to
+Marie Melmotte.
+
+'I have asked the Longestaffes for Monday,' said Roger.
+
+'They are down here then?'
+
+'I think they arrived yesterday. There is always a flustering breeze
+in the air and a perturbation generally through the county when they
+come or go, and I think I perceived the effects about four in the
+afternoon. They won't come, I dare say.'
+
+'Why not?'
+
+'They never do. They have probably a house full of guests, and they
+know that my accommodation is limited. I've no doubt they'll ask us on
+Tuesday or Wednesday, and if you like we will go.'
+
+'I know they are to have guests,' said Lady Carbury.
+
+'What guests?'
+
+'The Melmottes are coming to them.' Lady Carbury, as she made the
+announcement, felt that her voice and countenance and self-possession
+were failing her, and that she could not mention the thing as she
+would any matter that was indifferent to her.
+
+'The Melmottes coming to Caversham!' said Roger, looking at Henrietta,
+who blushed with shame as she remembered that she had been brought
+into her lover's house solely in order that her brother might have an
+opportunity of seeing Marie Melmotte in the country.
+
+'Oh yes,--Madame Melmotte told me. I take it they are very intimate.'
+
+'Mr Longestaffe ask the Melmottes to visit him at Caversham!'
+
+'Why not?'
+
+'I should almost as soon have believed that I myself might have been
+induced to ask them here.'
+
+'I fancy, Roger, that Mr Longestaffe does want a little pecuniary
+assistance.'
+
+'And he condescends to get it in this way! I suppose it will make no
+difference soon whom one knows, and whom one doesn't. Things aren't as
+they were, of course, and never will be again. Perhaps it's all for
+the better;--I won't say it isn't. But I should have thought that such a
+man as Mr Longestaffe might have kept such another man as Mr Melmotte
+out of his wife's drawing-room.' Henrietta became redder than ever.
+Even Lady Carbury flushed up, as she remembered that Roger Carbury
+knew that she had taken her daughter to Madame Melmotte's ball. He
+thought of this himself as soon as the words were spoken, and then
+tried to make some half apology. 'I don't approve of them in London,
+you know; but I think they are very much worse in the country.'
+
+Then there was a movement. The ladies were shown into their rooms, and
+Roger again went out into the garden. He began to feel that he
+understood it all. Lady Carbury had come down to his house in order
+that she might be near the Melmottes! There was something in this
+which he felt it difficult not to resent. It was for no love of him
+that she was there. He had felt that Henrietta ought not to have been
+brought to his house; but he could have forgiven that, because her
+presence there was a charm to him. He could have forgiven that, even
+while he was thinking that her mother had brought her there with the
+object of disposing of her. If it were so, the mother's object would
+be the same as his own, and such a manoeuvre he could pardon, though
+he could not approve. His self-love had to some extent been gratified.
+But now he saw that he and his house had been simply used in order
+that a vile project of marrying two vile people to each other might be
+furthered!
+
+As he was thinking of all this, Lady Carbury came out to him in the
+garden. She had changed her travelling dress, and made herself pretty,
+as she well knew how to do. And now she dressed her face in her
+sweetest smiles. Her mind, also, was full of the Melmottes, and she
+wished to explain to her stern, unbending cousin all the good that
+might come to her and hers by an alliance with the heiress. 'I can
+understand, Roger,' she said, taking his arm, 'that you should not
+like those people.'
+
+'What people?'
+
+'The Melmottes.'
+
+'I don't dislike them. How should I dislike people that I never saw? I
+dislike those who seek their society simply because they have the
+reputation of being rich.'
+
+'Meaning me.'
+
+'No; not meaning you. I don't dislike you, as you know very well,
+though I do dislike the fact that you should run after these people. I
+was thinking of the Longestaffes then.'
+
+'Do you suppose, my friend, that I run after them for my own
+gratification? Do you think that I go to their house because I find
+pleasure in their magnificence; or that I follow them down here for
+any good that they will do me?'
+
+'I would not follow them at all.'
+
+'I will go back if you bid me, but I must first explain what I mean.
+You know my son's condition,--better, I fear, than he does himself.'
+Roger nodded assent to this, but said nothing. 'What is he to do? The
+only chance for a young man in his position is that he should marry a
+girl with money. He is good-looking; you can't deny that.'
+
+'Nature has done enough for him.'
+
+'We must take him as he is. He was put into the army very young, and
+was very young when he came into possession of his own small fortune.
+He might have done better; but how many young men placed in such
+temptations do well? As it is, he has nothing left.'
+
+'I fear not.'
+
+'And therefore is it not imperative that he should marry a girl with
+money?'
+
+'I call that stealing a girl's money, Lady Carbury.'
+
+'Oh, Roger, how hard you are!'
+
+'A man must be hard or soft,--which is best?'
+
+'With women I think that a little softness has the most effect. I want
+to make you understand this about the Melmottes. It stands to reason
+that the girl will not marry Felix unless she loves him.'
+
+'But does he love her?'
+
+'Why should he not? Is a girl to be debarred from being loved because
+she has money? Of course she looks to be married, and why should she
+not have Felix if she likes him best? Cannot you sympathise with my
+anxiety so to place him that he shall not be a disgrace to the name
+and to the family?'
+
+'We had better not talk about the family, Lady Carbury.'
+
+'But I think so much about it.'
+
+'You will never get me to say that I think the family will be
+benefited by a marriage with the daughter of Mr Melmotte. I look upon
+him as dirt in the gutter. To me, in my old-fashioned way, all his
+money, if he has it, can make no difference. When there is a question
+of marriage, people at any rate should know something of each other.
+Who knows anything of this man? Who can be sure that she is his
+daughter?'
+
+'He would give her her fortune when she married.'
+
+'Yes; it all comes to that. Men say openly that he is an adventurer
+and a swindler. No one pretends to think that he is a gentleman. There
+is a consciousness among all who speak of him that he amasses his
+money not by honest trade, but by unknown tricks as does a
+card-sharper. He is one whom we would not admit into our kitchens,
+much less to our tables, on the score of his own merits. But because
+he has learned the art of making money, we not only put up with him,
+but settle upon his carcase as so many birds of prey.'
+
+'Do you mean that Felix should not marry the girl, even if they love
+each other?'
+
+He shook his head in disgust, feeling sure that any idea of love on
+the part of the young man was a sham and a pretence, not only as
+regarded him, but also his mother. He could not quite declare this,
+and yet he desired that she should understand that he thought so. 'I
+have nothing more to say about it,' he continued. 'Had it gone on in
+London I should have said nothing. It is no affair of mine. When I am
+told that the girl is in the neighbourhood, at such a house as
+Caversham, and that Felix is coming here in order that he may be near
+to his prey, and when I am asked to be a party to the thing, I can
+only say what I think. Your son would be welcome to my house, because
+he is your son and my cousin, little as I approve his mode of life;
+but I could have wished that he had chosen some other place for the
+work that he has on hand.'
+
+'If you wish it, Roger, we will return to London. I shall find it hard
+to explain to Hetta;--but we will go.'
+
+'No; I certainly do not wish that.'
+
+'But you have said such hard things! How are we to stay? You speak of
+Felix as though he were all bad.' She looked at him hoping to get from
+him some contradiction of this, some retractation, some kindly word;
+but it was what he did think, and he had nothing to say. She could
+bear much. She was not delicate as to censure implied, or even
+expressed. She had endured rough usage before, and was prepared to
+endure more. Had he found fault with herself, or with Henrietta, she
+would have put up with it, for the sake of benefits to come,--would have
+forgiven it the more easily because perhaps it might not have been
+deserved. But for her son she was prepared to fight. If she did not
+defend him, who would? 'I am grieved, Roger, that we should have
+troubled you with our visit, but I think that we had better go. You
+are very harsh, and it crushes me.'
+
+'I have not meant to be harsh.'
+
+'You say that Felix is seeking for his--prey, and that he is to be
+brought here to be near--his prey. What can be more harsh than that? At
+any rate, you should remember that I am his mother.'
+
+She expressed her sense of injury very well. Roger began to be ashamed
+of himself, and to think that he had spoken unkind words. And yet he
+did not know how to recall them. 'If I have hurt you, I regret it
+much.'
+
+'Of course you have hurt me. I think I will go in now. How very hard
+the world is! I came here thinking to find peace and sunshine, and
+there has come a storm at once.'
+
+'You asked me about the Melmottes, and I was obliged to speak. You
+cannot think that I meant to offend you.' They walked on in silence
+till they had reached the door leading from the garden into the house,
+and here he stopped her. 'If I have been over hot with you, let me beg
+your pardon,' She smiled and bowed; but her smile was not one of
+forgiveness; and then she essayed to pass on into the house. 'Pray do
+not speak of going, Lady Carbury.'
+
+'I think I will go to my room now. My head aches so that I can hardly
+stand.'
+
+It was late in the afternoon,--about six,--and according to his daily
+custom he should have gone round to the offices to see his men as they
+came from their work, but he stood still for a few moments on the spot
+where Lady Carbury had left him and went slowly across the lawn to the
+bridge and there seated himself on the parapet. Could it really be
+that she meant to leave his house in anger and to take her daughter
+with her? Was it thus that he was to part with the one human being in
+the world that he loved? He was a man who thought much of the duties
+of hospitality, feeling that a man in his own house was bound to
+exercise a courtesy towards his guests sweeter, softer, more gracious
+than the world required elsewhere. And of all guests those of his own
+name were the best entitled to such courtesy at Carbury. He held the
+place in trust for the use of others. But if there were one among all
+others to whom the house should be a house of refuge from care, not an
+abode of trouble, on whose behalf, were it possible, he would make the
+very air softer, and the flowers sweeter than their wont, to whom he
+would declare, were such words possible to his tongue, that of him and
+of his house, and of all things there, she was the mistress, whether
+she would condescend to love him or no,--that one was his cousin Hetta.
+And now he had been told by his guest that he had been so rough to her
+that she and her daughter must return to London!
+
+And he could not acquit himself. He knew that he had been rough. He had
+said very hard words. It was true that he could not have expressed his
+meaning without hard words, nor have repressed his meaning without
+self-reproach. But in his present mood he could not comfort himself by
+justifying himself. She had told him that he ought to have remembered
+that Felix was her son; and as she spoke she had acted well the part
+of an outraged mother. His heart was so soft that though he knew the
+woman to be false and the son to be worthless, he utterly condemned
+himself. Look where he would there was no comfort. When he had sat
+half an hour upon the bridge he turned towards the house to dress for
+dinner,--and to prepare himself for an apology, if any apology might be
+accepted. At the door, standing in the doorway as though waiting for
+him, he met his cousin Hetta. She had on her bosom the rose he had
+placed in her room, and as he approached her he thought that there was
+more in her eyes of graciousness towards him than he had ever seen
+there before.
+
+'Mr Carbury,' she said, 'mamma is so unhappy!'
+
+'I fear that I have offended her.'
+
+'It is not that, but that you should be so--so angry about Felix.'
+
+'I am vexed with myself that I have vexed her,--more vexed than I can
+tell you.'
+
+'She knows how good you are.'
+
+'No, I'm not. I was very bad just now. She was so offended with me
+that she talked of going back to London.' He paused for her to speak,
+but Hetta had no words ready for the moment. 'I should be wretched
+indeed if you and she were to leave my house in anger.'
+
+'I do not think she will do that.'
+
+'And you?'
+
+'I am not angry. I should never dare to be angry with you. I only wish
+that Felix would be better. They say that young men have to be bad,
+and that they do get to be better as they grow older. He is something
+in the city now, a director they call him, and mamma thinks that the
+work will be of service to him.' Roger could express no hope in this
+direction or even look as though he approved of the directorship. 'I
+don't see why he should not try at any rate.'
+
+'Dear Hetta, I only wish he were like you.'
+
+'Girls are so different, you know.'
+
+It was not till late in the evening, long after dinner, that he made
+his apology in form to Lady Carbury; but he did make it, and at last
+it was accepted. 'I think I was rough to you, talking about Felix,' he
+said,--'and I beg your pardon.'
+
+'You were energetic, that was all.'
+
+'A gentleman should never be rough to a lady, and a man should never
+be rough to his own guests. I hope you will forgive me.' She answered
+him by putting out her hand and smiling on him; and so the quarrel was
+over.
+
+Lady Carbury understood the full extent of her triumph, and was
+enabled by her disposition to use it thoroughly. Felix might now come
+down to Carbury, and go over from thence to Caversham, and prosecute
+his wooing, and the master of Carbury could make no further objection.
+And Felix, if he would come, would not now be snubbed. Roger would
+understand that he was constrained to courtesy by the former severity
+of his language. Such points as these Lady Carbury never missed. He
+understood it too, and though he was soft and gracious in his bearing,
+endeavouring to make his house as pleasant as he could to his two
+guests, he felt that he had been cheated out of his undoubted right to
+disapprove of all connection with the Melmottes. In the course of the
+evening there came a note,--or rather a bundle of notes,--from Caversham.
+That addressed to Roger was in the form of a letter. Lady Pomona was
+sorry to say that the Longestaffe party were prevented from having the
+pleasure of dining at Carbury Hall by the fact that they had a house
+full of guests. Lady Pomona hoped that Mr Carbury and his relatives,
+who, Lady Pomona heard, were with him at the Hall, would do the
+Longestaffes the pleasure of dining at Caversham either on the Monday
+or Tuesday following, as might best suit the Carbury plans. That was
+the purport of Lady Pomona's letter to Roger Carbury. Then there were
+cards of invitation for Lady Carbury and her daughter, and also for
+Sir Felix.
+
+Roger, as he read his own note, handed the others over to Lady
+Carbury, and then asked her what she would wish to have done. The tone
+of his, voice, as he spoke, grated on her ear, as there was something
+in it of his former harshness. But she knew how to use her triumph. 'I
+should like to go,' she said.
+
+'I certainly shall not go,' he replied; 'but there will be no
+difficulty whatever in sending you over. You must answer at once,
+because their servant is waiting.'
+
+'Monday will be best,' she said; '--that is, if nobody is coming here.'
+
+'There will be nobody here.'
+
+'I suppose I had better say that I, and Hetta,--and Felix will accept
+their invitation.'
+
+'I can make no suggestion,' said Roger, thinking how delightful it
+would be if Henrietta could remain with him; how objectionable it was
+that Henrietta should be taken to Caversham to meet the Melmottes.
+Poor Hetta herself could say nothing. She certainly did not wish to
+meet the Melmottes, nor did she wish to dine, alone, with her cousin
+Roger.
+
+'That will be best,' said Lady Carbury after a moment's thought. 'It
+is very good of you to let us go, and to send us.'
+
+'Of course you will do here just as you please,' he replied. But there
+was still that tone in his voice which Lady Carbury feared. A quarter
+of an hour later the Caversham servant was on his way home with two
+letters,--the one from Roger expressing his regret that he could not
+accept Lady Pomona's invitation, and the other from Lady Carbury
+declaring that she and her son and daughter would have great pleasure
+in dining at Caversham on the Monday.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI - THE BISHOP AND THE PRIEST
+
+
+The afternoon on which Lady Carbury arrived at her cousin's house had
+been very stormy. Roger Carbury had been severe, and Lady Carbury had
+suffered under his severity,--or had at least so well pretended to
+suffer as to leave on Roger's mind a strong impression that he had
+been cruel to her. She had then talked of going back at once to
+London, and when consenting to remain, had remained with a very bad
+feminine headache. She had altogether carried her point, but had done
+so in a storm. The next morning was very calm. That question of
+meeting the Melmottes had been settled, and there was no need for
+speaking of them again. Roger went out by himself about the farm,
+immediately after breakfast, having told the ladies that they could
+have the waggonette when they pleased. 'I'm afraid you'll find it
+tiresome driving about our lanes,' he said. Lady Carbury assured him
+that she was never dull when left alone with books. Just as he was
+starting he went into the garden and plucked a rose which he brought
+to Henrietta. He only smiled as he gave it her, and then went his way.
+He had resolved that he would say nothing to her of his suit till
+Monday. If he could prevail with her then he would ask her to remain
+with him when her mother and brother would be going out to dine at
+Caversham. She looked up into his face as she took the rose and
+thanked him in a whisper. She fully appreciated the truth, and honour,
+and honesty of his character, and could have loved him so dearly as
+her cousin if he would have contented himself with such cousinly love!
+She was beginning, within her heart, to take his side against her
+mother and brother, and to feel that he was the safest guide that she
+could have. But how could she be guided by a lover whom she did not
+love?
+
+'I am afraid, my dear, we shall have a bad time of it here,' said Lady
+Carbury.
+
+'Why so, mamma?'
+
+'It will be so dull. Your cousin is the best friend in all the world,
+and would make as good a husband as could be picked out of all the
+gentlemen of England; but in his present mood with me he is not a
+comfortable host. What nonsense he did talk about the Melmottes!'
+
+'I don't suppose, mamma, that Mr and Mrs Melmotte can be nice
+people.'
+
+'Why shouldn't they be as nice as anybody else? Pray, Henrietta, don't
+let us have any of that nonsense from you. When it comes from the
+superhuman virtue of poor dear Roger it has to be borne, but I beg
+that you will not copy him.'
+
+'Mamma, I think that is unkind.'
+
+'And I shall think it very unkind if you take upon yourself to abuse
+people who are able and willing to set poor Felix on his legs. A word
+from you might undo all that we are doing.'
+
+'What word?'
+
+'What word? Any word! If you have any influence with your brother you
+should use it in inducing him to hurry this on. I am sure the girl is
+willing enough. She did refer him to her father.'
+
+'Then why does he not go to Mr Melmotte?'
+
+'I suppose he is delicate about it on the score of money. If Roger
+could only let it be understood that Felix is the heir to this place,
+and that some day he will be Sir Felix Carbury of Carbury, I don't
+think there would be any difficulty even with old Melmotte.'
+
+'How could he do that, mamma?'
+
+'If your cousin were to die as he is now, it would be so. Your brother
+would be his heir.'
+
+'You should not think of such a thing, mamma.'
+
+'Why do you dare to tell me what I am to think? Am I not to think of
+my own son? Is he not to be dearer to me than any one? And what I say,
+is so. If Roger were to die to-morrow he would be Sir Felix Carbury of
+Carbury.'
+
+'But, mamma, he will live and have a family. Why should he not?'
+
+'You say he is so old that you will not look at him.'
+
+'I never said so. When we were joking, I said he was old. You know I
+did not mean that he was too old to get married. Men a great deal
+older get married every day.'
+
+'If you don't accept him he will never marry. He is a man of that kind,
+--so stiff and stubborn and old-fashioned that nothing will change him.
+He will go on boodying over it, till he will become an old
+misanthrope. If you would take him I would be quite contented. You are
+my child as well as Felix. But if you mean to be obstinate I do wish
+that the Melmottes should be made to understand that the property and
+title and name of the place will all go together. It will be so, and
+why should not Felix have the advantage?'
+
+'Who is to say it?'
+
+'Ah,--that's where it is. Roger is so violent and prejudiced that one
+cannot get him to speak rationally.'
+
+'Oh, mamma,--you wouldn't suggest it to him;--that this place is to go to
+--Felix, when he--is dead!'
+
+'It would not kill him a day sooner.'
+
+'You would not dare to do it, mamma.'
+
+'I would dare to do anything for my children. But you need not look
+like that, Henrietta. I am not going to say anything to him of the
+kind. He is not quick enough to understand of what infinite service he
+might be to us without in any way hurting himself.' Henrietta would
+fain have answered that their cousin was quick enough for anything,
+but was by far too honest to take part in such a scheme as that
+proposed. She refrained, however, and was silent. There was no
+sympathy on the matter between her and her mother. She was beginning
+to understand the tortuous mazes of manoeuvres in which her mother's
+mind had learned to work, and to dislike and almost to despise them.
+But she felt it to be her duty to abstain from rebukes.
+
+In the afternoon Lady Carbury, alone, had herself driven into Beccles
+that she might telegraph to her son. 'You are to dine at Caversham on
+Monday. Come on Saturday if you can. She is there.' Lady Carbury had
+many doubts as to the wording of this message. The female in the
+office might too probably understand who was the 'she' who was spoken
+of as being at Caversham, and might understand also the project, and
+speak of it publicly. But then it was essential that Felix should know
+how great and certain was the opportunity afforded to him. He had
+promised to come on Saturday and return on Monday,--and, unless warned,
+would too probably stick to his plan and throw over the Longestaffes
+and their dinner-party. Again if he were told to come simply for the
+Monday, he would throw over the chance of wooing her on the Sunday. It
+was Lady Carbury's desire to get him down for as long a period as was
+possible, and nothing surely would so tend to bring him and to keep
+him, as a knowledge that the heiress was already in the neighbourhood.
+Then she returned, and shut herself up in her bedroom, and worked for
+an hour or two at a paper which she was writing for the 'Breakfast
+Table.' Nobody should ever accuse her justly of idleness. And
+afterwards, as she walked by herself round and round the garden, she
+revolved in her mind the scheme of a new book. Whatever might happen
+she would persevere. If the Carburys were unfortunate their
+misfortunes should come from no fault of hers. Henrietta passed the
+whole day alone. She did not see her cousin from breakfast till he
+appeared in the drawing-room before dinner. But she was thinking of
+him during every minute of the day,--how good he was, how honest, how
+thoroughly entitled to demand at any rate kindness at her hand! Her
+mother had spoken of him as of one who might be regarded as all but
+dead and buried, simply because of his love for her. Could it be true
+that his constancy was such that he would never marry unless she would
+take his hand? She came to think of him with more tenderness than she
+had ever felt before, but, yet, she would not tell herself she loved
+him. It might, perhaps, be her duty to give herself to him without
+loving him,--because he was so good; but she was sure that she did not
+love him.
+
+In the evening the bishop came, and his wife, Mrs Yeld, and the
+Hepworths of Eardly, and Father John Barham, the Beccles priest. The
+party consisted of eight, which is, perhaps, the best number for a
+mixed gathering of men and women at a dinner-table,--especially if there
+be no mistress whose prerogative and duty it is to sit opposite to the
+master. In this case Mr Hepworth faced the giver of the feast, the
+bishop and the priest were opposite to each other, and the ladies
+graced the four corners. Roger, though he spoke of such things to no
+one, turned them over much in his mind, believing it to be the duty of
+a host to administer in all things to the comfort of his guests. In
+the drawing-room he had been especially courteous to the young priest,
+introducing him first to the bishop and his wife, and then to his
+cousins. Henrietta watched him through the whole evening, and told
+herself that he was a very mirror of courtesy in his own house. She
+had seen it all before, no doubt; but she had never watched him as she
+now watched him since her mother had told her that he would die
+wifeless and childless because she would not be his wife and the
+mother of his children.
+
+The bishop was a man sixty years of age, very healthy and handsome,
+with hair just becoming grey, clear eyes, a kindly mouth, and
+something of a double chin. He was all but six feet high, with a broad
+chest, large hands, and legs which seemed to have been made for
+clerical breeches and clerical stockings. He was a man of fortune
+outside his bishopric; and, as he never went up to London, and had no
+children on whom to spend his money, he was able to live as a nobleman
+in the country. He did live as a nobleman, and was very popular. Among
+the poor around him he was idolized, and by such clergy of his diocese
+as were not enthusiastic in their theology either on the one side or
+on the other, he was regarded as a model bishop. By the very high and
+the very low,--by those rather who regarded ritualism as being either
+heavenly or devilish,--he was looked upon as a timeserver, because he
+would not put to sea in either of those boats. He was an unselfish
+man, who loved his neighbour as himself, and forgave all trespasses,
+and thanked God for his daily bread from his heart, and prayed
+heartily to be delivered from temptation. But I doubt whether he was
+competent to teach a creed,--or even to hold one, if it be necessary
+that a man should understand and define his creed before he can hold
+it. Whether he was free from, or whether he was scared by, any inward
+misgivings, who shall say? If there were such he never whispered a
+word of them even to the wife of his bosom. From the tone of his voice
+and the look of his eye, you would say that he was unscathed by that
+agony which doubt on such a matter would surely bring to a man so
+placed. And yet it was observed of him that he never spoke of his
+faith, or entered into arguments with men as to the reasons on which
+he had based it. He was diligent in preaching,--moral sermons that were
+short, pithy, and useful. He was never weary in furthering the welfare
+of his clergymen. His house was open to them and to their wives. The
+edifice of every church in his diocese was a care to him. He laboured
+at schools, and was zealous in improving the social comforts of the
+poor; but he was never known to declare to man or woman that the human
+soul must live or die for ever according to its faith. Perhaps there
+was no bishop in England more loved or more useful in his diocese than
+the Bishop of Elmham.
+
+A man more antagonistic to the bishop than Father John Barham, the
+lately appointed Roman Catholic priest at Beccles, it would be
+impossible to conceive;--and yet they were both eminently good men.
+Father John was not above five feet nine in height, but so thin, so
+meagre, so wasted in appearance, that, unless when he stooped, he was
+taken to be tall. He had thick dark brown hair, which was cut short in
+accordance with the usage of his Church; but which he so constantly
+ruffled by the action of his hands, that, though short, it seemed to
+be wild and uncombed. In his younger days, when long locks straggled
+over his forehead, he had acquired a habit, while talking
+energetically, of rubbing them back with his finger, which he had not
+since dropped. In discussions he would constantly push back his hair,
+and then sit with his hand fixed on the top of his head. He had a
+high, broad forehead, enormous blue eyes, a thin, long nose, cheeks
+very thin and hollow, a handsome large mouth, and a strong square
+chin. He was utterly without worldly means, except those which came to
+him from the ministry of his church, and which did not suffice to find
+him food and raiment; but no man ever lived more indifferent to such
+matters than Father John Barham. He had been the younger son of an
+English country gentleman of small fortune, had been sent to Oxford
+that he might hold a family living, and on the eve of his ordination
+had declared himself a Roman Catholic. His family had resented this
+bitterly, but had not quarrelled with him till he had drawn a sister
+with him. When banished from the house he had still striven to achieve
+the conversion of other sisters by his letters, and was now absolutely
+an alien from his father's heart and care. But of this he never
+complained. It was a part of the plan of his life that he should
+suffer for his faith. Had he been able to change his creed without
+incurring persecution, worldly degradation, and poverty, his own
+conversion would not have been to him comfortable and satisfactory as
+it was. He considered that his father, as a Protestant,--and in his mind
+Protestant and heathen were all the same,--had been right to quarrel
+with him. But he loved his father, and was endless in prayer, wearying
+his saints with supplications, that his father might see the truth and
+be as he was.
+
+To him it was everything that a man should believe and obey,--that he
+should abandon his own reason to the care of another or of others, and
+allow himself to be guided in all things by authority. Faith being
+sufficient and of itself all in all, moral conduct could be nothing to
+a man, except as a testimony of faith; for to him, whose belief was
+true enough to produce obedience, moral conduct would certainly be
+added. The dogmas of his Church were to Father Barham a real religion,
+and he would teach them in season and out of season, always ready to
+commit himself to the task of proving their truth, afraid of no enemy,
+not even fearing the hostility which his perseverance would create. He
+had but one duty before him--to do his part towards bringing over the
+world to his faith. It might be that with the toil of his whole life
+he should convert but one; that he should but half convert one; that
+he should do no more than disturb the thoughts of one so that future
+conversion might be possible. But even that would be work done. He
+would sow the seed if it might be so; but if it were not given to him
+to do that, he would at any rate plough the ground.
+
+He had come to Beccles lately, and Roger Carbury had found out that he
+was a gentleman by birth and education. Roger had found out also that
+he was very poor, and had consequently taken him by the hand. The
+young priest had not hesitated to accept his neighbour's hospitality,
+having on one occasion laughingly protested that he should be
+delighted to dine at Carbury, as he was much in want of a dinner. He
+had accepted presents from the garden and the poultry yard, declaring
+that he was too poor to refuse anything. The apparent frankness of the
+man about himself had charmed Roger, and the charm had not been
+seriously disturbed when Father Barham, on one winter evening in the
+parlour at Carbury, had tried his hand at converting his host. 'I have
+the most thorough respect for your religion,' Roger had said; 'but it
+would not suit me.' The priest had gone on with his logic; if he could
+not sow the seed he might plough the ground. This had been repeated
+two or three times, and Roger had begun to feel it to be disagreeable.
+But the man was in earnest, and such earnestness commanded respect.
+And Roger was quite sure that though he might be bored, he could not
+be injured by such teaching. Then it occurred to him one day that he
+had known the Bishop of Elmham intimately for a dozen years, and had
+never heard from the bishop's mouth,--except when in the pulpit,--a single
+word of religious teaching; whereas this man, who was a stranger to
+him, divided from him by the very fact of his creed, was always
+talking to him about his faith. Roger Carbury was not a man given to
+much deep thinking, but he felt that the bishop's manner was the
+pleasanter of the two.
+
+Lady Carbury at dinner was all smiles and pleasantness. No one looking
+at her, or listening to her, could think that her heart was sore with
+many troubles. She sat between the bishop and her cousin, and was
+skilful enough to talk to each without neglecting the other. She had
+known the bishop before, and had on one occasion spoken to him of her
+soul. The first tone of the good man's reply had convinced her of her
+error, and she never repeated it. To Mr Alf she commonly talked of her
+mind; to Mr Broune, of her heart; to Mr Booker of her body--and its
+wants. She was quite ready to talk of her soul on a proper occasion,
+but she was much too wise to thrust the subject even on a bishop. Now
+she was full of the charms of Carbury and its neighbourhood. 'Yes,
+indeed,' said the bishop, 'I think Suffolk is a very nice county; and
+as we are only a mile or two from Norfolk, I'll say as much for
+Norfolk too. "It's an ill bird that fouls its own, nest."'.
+
+'I like a county in which there is something left of county feeling,'
+said Lady Carbury. 'Staffordshire and Warwickshire, Cheshire and
+Lancashire have become great towns, and have lost all local
+distinctions.'
+
+'We still keep our name and reputation,' said the bishop; 'silly
+Suffolk!'
+
+'But that was never deserved.'
+
+'As much, perhaps, as other general epithets. I think we are a sleepy
+people. We've got no coal, you see, and no iron. We have no beautiful
+scenery, like the lake country,--no rivers great for fishing, like
+Scotland,--no hunting grounds, like the shires.'
+
+'Partridges!' pleaded Lady Carbury, with pretty energy.
+
+'Yes; we have partridges, fine churches, and the herring fishery. We
+shall do very well if too much is not expected of us. We can't
+increase and multiply as they do in the great cities.'
+
+'I like this part of England so much the best for that very reason.
+What is the use of a crowded population?'
+
+'The earth has to be peopled, Lady Carbury.'
+
+'Oh, yes,' said her ladyship, with some little reverence added to her
+voice, feeling that the bishop was probably adverting to a divine
+arrangement. 'The world must be peopled; but for myself I like the
+country better than the town.'
+
+'So do I,' said Roger; 'and I like Suffolk. The people are hearty, and
+radicalism is not quite so rampant as it is elsewhere. The poor people
+touch their hats, and the rich people think of the poor. There is
+something left among us of old English habits.'
+
+'That is so nice,' said Lady Carbury.
+
+'Something left of old English ignorance,' said the bishop. 'All the
+same I dare say we're improving, like the rest of the world. What
+beautiful flowers you have here, Mr Carbury! At any rate, we can grow
+flowers in Suffolk.'
+
+Mrs Yeld, the bishop's wife, was sitting next to the priest, and was
+in truth somewhat afraid of her neighbour. She was, perhaps, a little
+stauncher than her husband in Protestantism; and though she was
+willing to admit that Mr Barham might not have ceased to be a
+gentleman when he became a Roman Catholic priest, she was not quite
+sure that it was expedient for her or her husband to have much to do
+with him. Mr Carbury had not taken them unawares. Notice had been
+given that the priest was to be there, and the bishop had declared
+that he would be very happy to meet the priest. But Mrs Yeld had had
+her misgivings. She never ventured to insist on her opinion after the
+bishop had expressed his; but she had an idea that right was right,
+and wrong wrong,--and that Roman Catholics were wrong, and therefore
+ought to be put down. And she thought also that if there were no
+priests there would be no Roman Catholics. Mr Barham was, no doubt, a
+man of good family, which did make a difference.
+
+Mr Barham always made his approaches very gradually. The taciturn
+humility with which he commenced his operations was in exact
+proportion to the enthusiastic volubility of his advanced intimacy.
+Mrs Yeld thought that it became her to address to him a few civil
+words, and he replied to her with a shame-faced modesty that almost
+overcame her dislike to his profession. She spoke of the poor of
+Beccles, being very careful to allude only to their material position.
+There was too much beer drunk, no doubt, and the young women would
+have finery. Where did they get the money to buy those wonderful
+bonnets which appeared every Sunday? Mr Barham was very meek, and
+agreed to everything that was said. No doubt he had a plan ready
+formed for inducing Mrs Yeld to have mass said regularly within her
+husband's palace, but he did not even begin to bring it about on this
+occasion. It was not till he made some apparently chance allusion to
+the superior church-attending qualities of 'our people,' that Mrs Yeld
+drew herself up and changed the conversation by observing that there
+had been a great deal of rain lately.
+
+When the ladies were gone the bishop at once put himself in the way of
+conversation with the priest, and asked questions as to the morality
+of Beccles. It was evidently Mr Barham's opinion that 'his people'
+were more moral than other people, though very much poorer. 'But the
+Irish always drink,' said Mr Hepworth.
+
+'Not so much as the English, I think,' said the priest. 'And you are
+not to suppose that we are all Irish. Of my flock the greater
+proportion are English.'
+
+'It is astonishing how little we know of our neighbours,' said the
+bishop. 'Of course I am aware that there are a certain number of
+persons of your persuasion round about us. Indeed, I could give the
+exact number in this diocese. But in my own immediate neighbourhood I
+could not put my hand upon any families which I know to be Roman
+Catholic.'
+
+'It is not, my lord, because there are none.'
+
+'Of course not. It is because, as I say, I do not know my neighbours.'
+
+'I think, here in Suffolk, they must be chiefly the poor,' said Mr
+Hepworth.
+
+'They were chiefly the poor who at first put their faith in our
+Saviour,' said the priest.
+
+'I think the analogy is hardly correctly drawn,' said the bishop, with
+a curious smile. 'We were speaking of those who are still attached to
+an old creed. Our Saviour was the teacher of a new religion. That the
+poor in the simplicity of their hearts should be the first to
+acknowledge the truth of a new religion is in accordance with our idea
+of human nature. But that an old faith should remain with the poor
+after it has been abandoned by the rich is not so easily
+intelligible.'
+
+'The Roman population still believed,' said Carbury, 'when the
+patricians had learned to regard their gods as simply useful
+bugbears.'
+
+'The patricians had not ostensibly abandoned their religion. The
+people clung to it thinking that their masters and rulers clung to it
+also.'
+
+'The poor have ever been the salt of the earth, my lord,' said the
+priest.
+
+'That begs the whole question,' said the bishop, turning to his host,
+and, beginning to talk about a breed of pigs which had lately been
+imported into the palace sties. Father Barham turned to Mr Hepworth
+and went on with his argument, or rather began another. It was a
+mistake to suppose that the Catholics in the county were all poor.
+There were the A s and the B s, and the C s and the D s. He knew all
+their names and was proud of their fidelity. To him these faithful
+ones were really the salt of the earth, who would some day be enabled
+by their fidelity to restore England to her pristine condition. The
+bishop had truly said that of many of his neighbours he did not know
+to what Church they belonged; but Father Barham, though he had not as
+yet been twelve months in the county, knew the name of nearly every
+Roman Catholic within its borders.
+
+'Your priest is a very zealous man,' said the bishop afterwards to
+Roger Carbury, 'and I do not doubt but that he is an excellent
+gentleman; but he is perhaps a little indiscreet.'
+
+'I like him because he is doing the best he can according to his
+lights; without any reference to his own worldly welfare.'
+
+'That is all very grand, and I am perfectly willing to respect him.
+But I do not know that I should care to talk very freely in his
+company.'
+
+'I am sure he would repeat nothing.'
+
+'Perhaps not; but he would always be thinking that he was going to get
+the best of me.'
+
+'I don't think it answers,' said Mrs Yeld to her husband as they went
+home. 'Of course I don't want to be prejudiced; but Protestants are
+Protestants, and Roman Catholics are Roman Catholics.'
+
+'You may say the same of Liberals and Conservatives, but you wouldn't
+have them decline to meet each other.'
+
+'It isn't quite the same, my dear. After all religion is religion.'
+
+'It ought to be,' said the bishop.
+
+'Of course I don't mean to put myself up against you, my dear; but I
+don't know that I want to meet Mr Barham again.'
+
+'I don't know that I do, either,' said the bishop; 'but if he comes in
+my way I hope I shall treat him civilly.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII - MARIE MELMOTTE HEARS A LOVE TALE
+
+
+On the following morning there came a telegram from Felix. He was to
+be expected at Beccles on that afternoon by a certain train; and
+Roger, at Lady Carbury's request, undertook to send a carriage to the
+station for him. This was done, but Felix did not arrive. There was
+still another train by which he might come so as to be just in time
+for dinner if dinner were postponed for half an hour. Lady Carbury
+with a tender look, almost without speaking a word, appealed to her
+cousin on behalf of her son. He knit his brows, as he always did,
+involuntarily, when displeased; but he assented. Then the carriage had
+to be sent again. Now carriages and carriage-horses were not numerous
+at Carbury. The squire kept a waggonette and a pair of horses which,
+when not wanted for house use, were employed about the farm. He
+himself would walk home from the train, leaving the luggage to be
+brought by some cheap conveyance. He had already sent the carriage
+once on this day,--and now sent it again, Lady Carbury having said a
+word which showed that she hoped that this would be done. But he did
+it with deep displeasure. To the mother her son was Sir Felix, the
+baronet, entitled to special consideration because of his position and
+rank,--because also of his intention to marry the great heiress of the
+day. To Roger Carbury, Felix was a vicious young man, peculiarly
+antipathetic to himself, to whom no respect whatever was due.
+Nevertheless the dinner was put off, and the waggonette was sent. But
+the waggonette again came back empty. That evening was spent by Roger,
+Lady Carbury, and Henrietta, in very much gloom.
+
+About four in the morning the house was roused by the coming of the
+baronet. Failing to leave town by either of the afternoon trains, he
+had contrived to catch the evening mail, and had found himself
+deposited at some distant town from which he had posted to Carbury.
+Roger came down in his dressing-gown to admit him, and Lady Carbury
+also left her room. Sir Felix evidently thought that he had been a
+very fine fellow in going through so much trouble. Roger held a very
+different opinion, and spoke little or nothing. 'Oh, Felix,' said the
+mother, 'you have so terrified us!'
+
+'I can tell you I was terrified myself when I found that I had to come
+fifteen miles across the country with a pair of old jades who could
+hardly get up a trot.'
+
+'But why didn't you come by the train you named?'
+
+'I couldn't get out of the city,' said the baronet with a ready lie.
+
+'I suppose you were at the Board?' To this Felix made no direct
+answer. Roger knew that there had been no Board. Mr Melmotte was in
+the country and there could be no Board, nor could Sir Felix have had
+business in the city. It was sheer impudence,--sheer indifference, and,
+into the bargain, a downright lie. The young man, who was of himself
+so unwelcome, who had come there on a project which he, Roger, utterly
+disapproved,--who had now knocked him and his household up at four
+o'clock in the morning,--had uttered no word of apology. 'Miserable
+cub!' Roger muttered between his teeth. Then he spoke aloud, 'You had
+better not keep your mother standing here. I will show you your room.'
+
+'All right, old fellow,' said Sir Felix. 'I'm awfully sorry to disturb
+you all in this way. I think I'll just take a drop of brandy and soda
+before I go to bed, though.' This was another blow to Roger.
+
+'I doubt whether we have soda-water in the house, and if we have, I
+don't know where to get it. I can give you some brandy if you will
+come with me.' He pronounced the word 'brandy' in a tone which implied
+that it was a wicked, dissipated beverage. It was a wretched work to
+Roger. He was forced to go upstairs and fetch a key in order that he
+might wait upon this cub,--this cur! He did it, however, and the cub
+drank his brandy-and-water, not in the least disturbed by his host's
+ill-humour. As he went to bed he suggested the probability of his not
+showing himself till lunch on the following day, and expressed a wish
+that he might have breakfast sent to him in bed. 'He is born to be
+hung,' said Roger to himself as he went to his room,--'and he'll deserve
+it.'
+
+On the following morning, being Sunday, they all went to church,--except
+Felix. Lady Carbury always went to church when she was in the country,
+never when she was at home in London. It was one of those moral
+habits, like early dinners and long walks, which suited country life.
+And she fancied that were she not to do so, the bishop would be sure
+to know it and would be displeased. She liked the bishop. She liked
+bishops generally; and was aware that it was a woman's duty to
+sacrifice herself for society. As to the purpose for which people go
+to church, it had probably never in her life occurred to Lady Carbury
+to think of it. On their return they found Sir Felix smoking a cigar
+on the gravel path, close in front of the open drawing-room window.
+
+'Felix,' said his cousin, 'take your cigar a little farther. You are
+filling the house with tobacco.'
+
+'Oh heavens,--what a prejudice!' said the baronet.
+
+'Let it be so, but still do as I ask you.' Sir Felix chucked the cigar
+out of his mouth on to the gravel walk, whereupon Roger walked up to
+the spot and kicked the offending weed away. This was the first
+greeting of the day between the two men.
+
+After lunch Lady Carbury strolled about with her son, instigating him
+to go over at once to Caversham. 'How the deuce am I to get there?'
+
+'Your cousin will lend you a horse.'
+
+'He's as cross as a bear with a sore head. He's a deal older than I
+am, and a cousin and all that, but I'm not going to put up with
+insolence. If it were anywhere else I should just go into the yard and
+ask if I could have a horse and saddle as a matter of course.'
+
+'Roger has not a great establishment.'
+
+'I suppose he has a horse and saddle, and a man to get it ready. I
+don't want anything grand.'
+
+'He is vexed because he sent twice to the station for you yesterday.'
+
+'I hate the kind of fellow who is always thinking of little
+grievances. Such a man expects you to go like clockwork, and because
+you are not wound up just as he is, he insults you. I shall ask him
+for a horse as I would any one else, and if he does not like it, he
+may lump it.' About half an hour after this he found his cousin. 'Can
+I have a horse to ride over to Caversham this afternoon?' he said.
+
+'Our horses never go out on Sunday,' said Roger. Then he added, after
+a pause, 'You can have it. I'll give the order.' Sir Felix would be
+gone on Tuesday, and it should be his own fault if that odious cousin
+ever found his way into Carbury House again! So he declared to himself
+as Felix rode out of the yard; but he soon remembered how probable it
+was that Felix himself would be the owner of Carbury. And should it
+ever come to pass,--as still was possible,--that Henrietta should be
+the mistress of Carbury, he could hardly forbid her to receive her
+brother. He stood for a while on the bridge watching his cousin as he
+cantered away upon the road, listening to the horse's feet. The young
+man was offensive in every possible way. Who does not know that ladies
+only are allowed to canter their friends' horses upon roads? A
+gentleman trots his horse, and his friend's horse. Roger Carbury had
+but one saddle horse,--a favourite old hunter that he loved as a friend.
+And now this dear old friend, whose legs probably were not quite so
+good as they once were, was being galloped along the hard road by that
+odious cub! 'Soda and brandy!' Roger exclaimed to himself almost aloud,
+thinking of the discomfiture of that early morning. 'He'll die some
+day of delirium tremens in a hospital!'
+
+Before the Longestaffes left London to receive their new friends the
+Melmottes at Caversham, a treaty had been made between Mr Longestaffe,
+the father, and Georgiana, the strong-minded daughter. The daughter on
+her side undertook that the guests should be treated with feminine
+courtesy. This might be called the most-favoured-nation clause. The
+Melmottes were to be treated exactly as though old Melmotte had been a
+gentleman and Madame Melmotte a lady. In return for this the
+Longestaffe family were to be allowed to return to town. But here
+again the father had carried another clause. The prolonged sojourn in
+town was to be only for six weeks. On the 10th of July the
+Longestaffes were to be removed into the country for the remainder of
+the year. When the question of a foreign tour was proposed, the father
+became absolutely violent in his refusal. 'In God's name where do you
+expect the money is to come from?' When Georgiana urged that other
+people had money to go abroad, her father told her that a time was
+coming in which she might think it lucky if she had a house over her
+head. This, however, she took as having been said with poetical
+licence, the same threat having been made more than once before. The
+treaty was very clear, and the parties to it were prepared to carry it
+out with fair honesty. The Melmottes were being treated with decent
+courtesy, and the house in town was not dismantled.
+
+The idea, hardly ever in truth entertained but which had been barely
+suggested from one to another among the ladies of the family, that
+Dolly should marry Marie Melmotte, had been abandoned. Dolly, with all
+his vapid folly, had a will of his own, which, among his own family,
+was invincible. He was never persuaded to any course either by his
+father or mother. Dolly certainly would not marry Marie Melmotte.
+Therefore when the Longestaffes heard that Sir Felix was coming to the
+country, they had no special objection to entertaining him at
+Caversham. He had been lately talked of in London as the favourite in
+regard to Marie Melmotte. Georgiana Longestaffe had a grudge of her
+own against Lord Nidderdale, and was on that account somewhat well
+inclined towards Sir Felix's prospects. Soon after the Melmottes'
+arrival she contrived to say a word to Marie respecting Sir Felix.
+'There is a friend of yours going to dine here on Monday, Miss
+Melmotte.' Marie, who was at the moment still abashed by the grandeur
+and size and general fashionable haughtiness of her new acquaintances,
+made hardly any answer. 'I think you know Sir Felix Carbury,' continued
+Georgiana.
+
+'Oh yes, we know Sir Felix Carbury.'
+
+'He is coming down to his cousin's. I suppose it is for your bright
+eyes, as Carbury Manor would hardly be just what he would like.'
+
+'I don't think he is coming because of me,' said Marie blushing. She
+had once told him that he might go to her father, which according to
+her idea had been tantamount to accepting his offer as far as her
+power of acceptance went. Since that she had seen him, indeed, but he
+had not said a word to press his suit, nor, as far as she knew, had he
+said a word to Mr Melmotte. But she had been very rigorous in
+declining the attentions of other suitors. She had made up her mind
+that she was in love with Felix Carbury, and she had resolved on
+constancy. But she had begun to tremble, fearing his faithlessness.
+
+'We had heard,' said Georgiana, 'that he was a particular friend of
+yours.' And she laughed aloud, with a vulgarity which Madame Melmotte
+certainly could not have surpassed.
+
+Sir Felix, on the Sunday afternoon, found all the ladies out on the
+lawn, and he also found Mr Melmotte there. At the last moment Lord
+Alfred Grendall had been asked,--not because he was at all in favour
+with any of the Longestaffes, but in order that he might be useful in
+disposing of the great Director. Lord Alfred was used to him and could
+talk to him, and might probably know what he liked to eat and drink.
+Therefore Lord Alfred had been asked to Caversham, and Lord Alfred had
+come, having all his expenses paid by the great Director. When Sir
+Felix arrived, Lord Alfred was earning his entertainment by talking to
+Mr Melmotte in a summerhouse. He had cool drink before him and a box
+of cigars, but was probably thinking at the time how hard the world
+had been to him. Lady Pomona was languid, but not uncivil in her
+reception. She was doing her best to perform her part of the treaty in
+reference to Madame Melmotte. Sophia was walking apart with a certain
+Mr Whitstable, a young squire in the neighbourhood, who had been asked
+to Caversham because as Sophia was now reputed to be twenty-eight,--they
+who decided the question might have said thirty-one without falsehood.--
+it was considered that Mr Whitstable was good enough, or at least as
+good as could be expected. Sophia was handsome, but with a big, cold,
+unalluring handsomeness, and had not quite succeeded in London.
+Georgiana had been more admired, and boasted among her friends of the
+offers which she had rejected. Her friends on the other hand were apt
+to tell of her many failures. Nevertheless she held her head up, and
+had not as yet come down among the rural Whitstables. At the present
+moment her hands were empty, and she was devoting herself to such a
+performance of the treaty as should make it impossible for her father
+to leave his part of it unfulfilled.
+
+For a few minutes Sir Felix sat on a garden chair making conversation
+to Lady Pomona and Madame Melmotte. 'Beautiful garden,' he said; 'for
+myself I don't much care for gardens; but if one is to live in the
+country, this is the sort of thing that one would like.'
+
+'Delicious,' said Madame Melmotte, repressing a yawn, and drawing her
+shawl higher round her throat. It was the end of May, and the weather
+was very warm for the time of the year; but, in her heart of hearts,
+Madame Melmotte did not like sitting out in the garden.
+
+'It isn't a pretty place; but the house is comfortable, and we make
+the best of it,' said Lady Pomona.
+
+'Plenty of glass, I see,' said Sir Felix. 'If one is to live in the
+country, I like that kind of thing. Carbury is a very poor place.'
+
+There was offence in this;--as though the Carbury property and the
+Carbury position could be compared to the Longestaffe property and the
+Longestaffe position. Though dreadfully hampered for money, the
+Longestaffes were great people. 'For a small place,' said Lady Pomona,
+'I think Carbury is one of the nicest in the county. Of course it is
+not extensive.'
+
+'No, by Jove,' said Sir Felix, 'you may say that, Lady Pomona. It's
+like a prison to me with that moat round it.' Then he jumped up and
+joined Marie Melmotte and Georgiana. Georgiana, glad to be released
+for a time from performance of the treaty, was not long before she
+left them together. She had understood that the two horses now in the
+running were Lord Nidderdale and Sir Felix; and though she would not
+probably have done much to aid Sir Felix, she was quite willing to
+destroy Lord Nidderdale.
+
+Sir Felix had his work to do, and was willing to do it,--as far as such
+willingness could go with him. The prize was so great, and the comfort
+of wealth was so sure, that even he was tempted to exert himself. It
+was this feeling which had brought him into Suffolk, and induced him
+to travel all night, across dirty roads, in an old cab. For the girl
+herself he cared not the least. It was not in his power really to care
+for anybody. He did not dislike her much. He was not given to
+disliking people strongly, except at the moments in which they
+offended him. He regarded her simply as the means by which a portion
+of Mr Melmotte's wealth might be conveyed to his uses. In regard to
+feminine beauty he had his own ideas, and his own inclinations. He was
+by no means indifferent to such attraction. But Marie Melmotte, from
+that point of view, was nothing to him. Such prettiness as belonged to
+her came from the brightness of her youth, and from a modest shy
+demeanour joined to an incipient aspiration for the enjoyment of
+something in the world which should be her own. There was, too,
+arising within her bosom a struggle to be something in the world, an
+idea that she, too, could say something, and have thoughts of her own,
+if only she had some friend near her whom she need not fear. Though
+still shy, she was always resolving that she would abandon her
+shyness, and already had thoughts of her own as to the perfectly open
+confidence which should exist between two lovers. When alone--and she
+was much alone--she would build castles in the air, which were bright
+with art and love, rather than with gems and gold. The books she read,
+poor though they generally were, left something bright on her
+imagination. She fancied to herself brilliant conversations in which
+she bore a bright part, though in real life she had hitherto hardly
+talked to any one since she was a child. Sir Felix Carbury, she knew,
+had made her an offer. She knew also, or thought that she knew, that
+she loved the man. And now she was with him alone! Now surely had come
+the time in which some one of her castles in the air might be found to
+be built of real materials.
+
+'You know why I have come down here?' he said.
+
+'To see your cousin.'
+
+'No, indeed. I'm not particularly fond of my cousin, who is a
+methodical stiff-necked old bachelor,--as cross as the mischief.'
+
+'How disagreeable!'
+
+'Yes; he is disagreeable. I didn't come down to see him, I can tell
+you. But when I heard that you were going to be here with the
+Longestaffes, I determined to come at once. I wonder whether you are
+glad to see me?'
+
+'I don't know,' said Marie, who could not at once find that brilliancy
+of words with which her imagination supplied her readily enough in her
+solitude.
+
+'Do you remember what you said to me that evening at my mother's?'
+
+'Did I say anything? I don't remember anything particular.'
+
+'Do you not? Then I fear you can't think very much of me.' He paused
+as though he supposed that she would drop into his mouth like a
+cherry. 'I thought you told me that you would love me.'
+
+'Did I?'
+
+'Did you not?'
+
+'I don't know what I said. Perhaps if I said that, I didn't mean it.'
+
+'Am I to believe that?'
+
+'Perhaps you didn't mean it yourself.'
+
+'By George, I did. I was quite in earnest. There never was a fellow
+more in earnest than I was. I've come down here on purpose to say it
+again.'
+
+'To say what?'
+
+'Whether you'll accept me?'
+
+'I don't know whether you love me well enough.' She longed to be told
+by him that he loved her. He had no objection to tell her so, but,
+without thinking much about it, felt it to be a bore. All that kind of
+thing was trash and twaddle. He desired her to accept him; and he
+would have wished, were it possible, that she should have gone to her
+father for his consent. There was something in the big eyes and heavy
+jaws of Mr Melmotte which he almost feared. 'Do you really love me
+well enough?' she whispered.
+
+'Of course I do. I'm bad at making pretty speeches, and all that, but
+you know I love you.'
+
+'Do you?'
+
+'By George, yes. I always liked you from the first moment I saw you. I
+did indeed.'
+
+It was a poor declaration of love, but it sufficed. 'Then I will love
+you,' she said. 'I will with all my heart.'
+
+'There's a darling!'
+
+'Shall I be your darling? Indeed I will. I may call you Felix now
+mayn't I?'
+
+'Rather.'
+
+'Oh, Felix, I hope you will love me. I will so dote upon you. You know
+a great many men have asked me to love them.'
+
+'I suppose so.'
+
+'But I have never, never cared for one of them in the least,--not in the
+least.'
+
+'You do care for me?'
+
+'Oh yes.' She looked up into his beautiful face as she spoke, and he
+saw that her eyes were swimming with tears. He thought at the moment
+that she was very common to look at. As regarded appearance only he
+would have preferred even Sophia Longestaffe. There was indeed a
+certain brightness of truth which another man might have read in
+Marie's mingled smiles and tears, but it was thrown away altogether
+upon him. They were walking in some shrubbery quite apart from the
+house, where they were unseen; so, as in duty bound, he put his arm
+round her waist and kissed her. 'Oh, Felix,' she said, giving her face
+up to him; 'no one ever did it before.' He did not in the least
+believe her, nor was the matter one of the slightest importance to
+him. 'Say that you will be good to me, Felix. I will be so good to
+you.'
+
+'Of course I will be good to you.'
+
+'Men are not always good to their wives. Papa is often very cross to
+mamma.'
+
+'I suppose he can be cross?'
+
+'Yes, he can. He does not often scold me. I don't know what he'll say
+when we tell him about this.'
+
+'But I suppose he intends that you shall be married?'
+
+'He wanted me to marry Lord Nidderdale and Lord Grasslough, but I
+hated them both. I think he wants me to marry Lord Nidderdale again
+now. He hasn't said so, but mamma tells me. But I never will,--never!'
+
+'I hope not, Marie.'
+
+'You needn't be a bit afraid. I would not do it if they were to kill
+me. I hate him,--and I do so love you.' Then she leaned with all her
+weight upon his arm and looked up again into his beautiful face. 'You
+will speak to papa; won't you?'
+
+'Will that be the best way?'
+
+'I suppose so. How else?'
+
+'I don't know whether Madame Melmotte ought not--'
+
+'Oh dear no. Nothing would induce her. She is more afraid of him than
+anybody;--more afraid of him than I am. I thought the gentleman always
+did that.'
+
+'Of course I'll do it,' said Sir Felix. 'I'm not afraid of him. Why
+should I? He and I are very good friends, you know.'
+
+'I'm glad of that.'
+
+'He made me a Director of one of his companies the other day.'
+
+'Did he? Perhaps he'll like you for a son-in-law.'
+
+'There's no knowing;--is there?'
+
+'I hope he will. I shall like you for papa's son-in-law. I hope it
+isn't wrong to say that. Oh, Felix, say that you love me.' Then she
+put her face up towards his again.
+
+'Of course I love you,' he said, not thinking it worth his while to
+kiss her. 'It's no good speaking to him here. I suppose I had better
+go and see him in the city.'
+
+'He is in a good humour now,' said Marie.
+
+'But I couldn't get him alone. It wouldn't be the thing to do down
+here.'
+
+'Wouldn't it?'
+
+'Not in the country,--in another person's house. Shall you tell Madame
+Melmotte?'
+
+'Yes, I shall tell mamma; but she won't say anything to him. Mamma
+does not care much about me. But I'll tell you all that another time.
+Of course I shall tell you everything now. I never yet had anybody to
+tell anything to, but I shall never be tired of telling you.' Then he
+left her as soon as he could, and escaped to the other ladies. Mr
+Melmotte was still sitting in the summerhouse, and Lord Alfred was
+still with him, smoking and drinking brandy and seltzer. As Sir Felix
+passed in front of the great man he told himself that it was much
+better that the interview should be postponed till they were all in
+London. Mr Melmotte did not look as though he were in a good humour.
+Sir Felix said a few words to Lady Pomona and Madame Melmotte. Yes; he
+hoped to have the pleasure of seeing them with his mother and sister
+on the following day. He was aware that his cousin was not coming. He
+believed that his cousin Roger never did go anywhere like any one
+else. No; he had not seen Mr Longestaffe. He hoped to have the
+pleasure of seeing him to-morrow. Then he escaped, and got on his
+horse, and rode away.
+
+'That's going to be the lucky man,' said Georgiana to her mother, that
+evening.
+
+'In what way lucky?'
+
+'He is going to get the heiress and all the money. What a fool Dolly
+has been!'
+
+'I don't think it would have suited Dolly,' said Lady Pomona. 'After
+all, why should not Dolly marry a lady?'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII - RUBY RUGGLES HEARS A LOVE TALE
+
+
+Ruby Ruggles, the granddaughter of old Daniel Ruggles, of Sheep's
+Acre, in the parish of Sheepstone, close to Bungay, received the
+following letter from the hands of the rural post letter-carrier on
+that Sunday morning;--'A friend will be somewhere near Sheepstone
+Birches between four and five o'clock on Sunday afternoon.' There was
+not another word in the letter, but Miss Ruby Ruggles knew well from
+whom it came.
+
+Daniel Ruggles was a farmer, who had the reputation of considerable
+wealth, but who was not very well looked on in the neighbourhood as
+being somewhat of a curmudgeon and a miser. His wife was dead;--he had
+quarrelled with his only son, whose wife was also dead, and had
+banished him from his home;--his daughters were married and away; and
+the only member of his family who lived with him was his granddaughter
+Ruby. And this granddaughter was a great trouble to the old man. She
+was twenty-three years old, and had been engaged to a prosperous young
+man at Bungay in the meal and pollard line, to whom old Ruggles had
+promised to give £500 on their marriage. But Ruby had taken it into
+her foolish young head that she did not like meal and pollard, and now
+she had received the above very dangerous letter. Though the writer
+had not dared to sign his name she knew well that it came from Sir
+Felix Carbury,--the most beautiful gentleman she had ever set her eyes
+upon. Poor Ruby Ruggles! Living down at Sheep's Acre, on the Waveney,
+she had heard both too much and too little of the great world beyond
+her ken. There were, she thought, many glorious things to be seen
+which she would never see were she in these her early years to become
+the wife of John Crumb, the dealer in meal and pollard at Bungay.
+Therefore she was full of a wild joy, half joy half fear, when she got
+her letter; and, therefore, punctually at four o'clock on that Sunday
+she was ensconced among the Sheepstone Birches, so that she might see
+without much danger of being seen. Poor Ruby Ruggles, who was left to
+be so much mistress of herself at the time of her life in which she
+most required the kindness of a controlling hand!
+
+Mr Ruggles held his land, or the greater part of it, on what is called
+a bishop's lease, Sheep's Acre Farm being a part of the property which
+did belong to the bishopric of Elmham, and which was still set apart
+for its sustentation;--but he also held a small extent of outlying
+meadow which belonged to the Carbury estate, so that he was one of the
+tenants of Roger Carbury. Those Sheepstone Birches, at which Felix
+made his appointment, belonged to Roger. On a former occasion, when
+the feeling between the two cousins was kinder than that which now
+existed, Felix had ridden over with the landlord to call on the old
+man, and had then first seen Ruby;--and had heard from Roger something
+of Ruby's history up to that date. It had then been just made known
+that she was to marry John Crumb. Since that time not a word had been
+spoken between the men respecting the girl. Mr Carbury had heard, with
+sorrow, that the marriage was either postponed or abandoned,--but his
+growing dislike to the baronet had made it very improbable that there
+should be any conversation between them on the subject. Sir Felix,
+however, had probably heard more of Ruby Ruggles than her
+grandfather's landlord.
+
+There is, perhaps, no condition of mind more difficult for the
+ordinarily well-instructed inhabitant of a city to realise than that
+of such a girl as Ruby Ruggles. The rural day labourer and his wife
+live on a level surface which is comparatively open to the eye. Their
+aspirations, whether for good or evil,--whether for food and drink to be
+honestly earned for themselves and children, or for drink first, to be
+come by either honestly or dishonestly,--are, if looked at at all, fairly
+visible. And with the men of the Ruggles class one can generally find
+out what they would be at, and in what direction their minds are at
+work. But the Ruggles woman,--especially the Ruggles young woman,--is
+better educated, has higher aspirations and a brighter imagination,
+and is infinitely more cunning than the man. If she be good-looking
+and relieved from the pressure of want, her thoughts soar into a world
+which is as unknown to her as heaven is to us, and in regard to which
+her longings are apt to be infinitely stronger than are ours for
+heaven. Her education has been much better than that of the man. She
+can read, whereas he can only spell words from a book. She can write a
+letter after her fashion, whereas he can barely spell words out on a
+paper. Her tongue is more glib, and her intellect sharper. But her
+ignorance as to the reality of things is much more gross than his. By
+such contact as he has with men in markets, in the streets of the
+towns he frequents, and even in the fields, he learns something
+unconsciously of the relative condition of his countrymen,--and, as to
+that which he does not learn, his imagination is obtuse. But the woman
+builds castles in the air, and wonders, and longs. To the young farmer
+the squire's daughter is a superior being very much out of his way. To
+the farmer's daughter the young squire is an Apollo, whom to look at
+is a pleasure,--by whom to be looked at is a delight. The danger for the
+most part is soon over. The girl marries after her kind, and then
+husband and children put the matter at rest for ever.
+
+A mind more absolutely uninstructed than that of Ruby Ruggles as to
+the world beyond Suffolk and Norfolk it would be impossible to find.
+But her thoughts were as wide as they were vague, and as active as
+they were erroneous. Why should she with all her prettiness, and all
+her cleverness,--with all her fortune to boot,--marry that dustiest of all
+men, John Crumb, before she had seen something of the beauties of the
+things of which she had read in the books which came in her way? John
+Crumb was not bad-looking. He was a sturdy, honest fellow, too,--slow of
+speech but sure of his points when be had got them within his grip,--
+fond of his beer but not often drunk, and the very soul of industry at
+his work. But though she had known him all her life she had never
+known him otherwise than dusty. The meal had so gotten within his
+hair, and skin, and raiment, that it never came out altogether even on
+Sundays. His normal complexion was a healthy pallor, through which
+indeed some records of hidden ruddiness would make themselves visible,
+but which was so judiciously assimilated to his hat and coat and
+waistcoat, that he was more like a stout ghost than a healthy young
+man. Nevertheless it was said of him that he could thrash any man in
+Bungay, and carry two hundredweight of flour upon his back. And Ruby
+also knew this of him,--that he worshipped the very ground on which she
+trod.
+
+But, alas, she thought there might be something better than such
+worship; and, therefore, when Felix Carbury came in her way, with his
+beautiful oval face, and his rich brown colour, and his bright hair
+and lovely moustache, she was lost in a feeling which she mistook for
+love; and when he sneaked over to her a second and a third time, she
+thought more of his listless praise than ever she had thought of John
+Crumb's honest promises. But, though she was an utter fool, she was
+not a fool without a principle. She was miserably ignorant; but she
+did understand that there was a degradation which it behoved her to
+avoid. She thought, as the moths seem to think, that she might fly
+into the flame and not burn her wings. After her fashion she was
+pretty, with long glossy ringlets, which those about the farm on week
+days would see confined in curl-papers, and large round dark eyes, and
+a clear dark complexion, in which the blood showed itself plainly
+beneath the soft brown skin. She was strong, and healthy, and tall,--
+and had a will of her own which gave infinite trouble to old Daniel
+Ruggles, her grandfather.
+
+Felix Carbury took himself two miles out of his way in order that he
+might return by Sheepstone Birches, which was a little copse distant
+not above half a mile from Sheep's Acre farmhouse. A narrow angle of
+the little wood came up to the road, by which there was a gate leading
+into a grass meadow, which Sir Felix had remembered when he made his
+appointment. The road was no more than a country lane, unfrequented at
+all times, and almost sure to be deserted on Sundays. He approached
+the gate in a walk, and then stood awhile looking into the wood. He
+had not stood long before he saw the girl's bonnet beneath a tree
+standing just outside the wood, in the meadow, but on the bank of the
+ditch. Thinking for a moment what he would do about his horse, he rode
+him into the field, and then, dismounting, fastened him to a rail
+which ran down the side of the copse. Then he sauntered on till he
+stood looking down upon Ruby Ruggles as she sat beneath the tree. 'I
+like your impudence,' she said, 'in calling yourself a friend.'
+
+'Ain't I a friend, Ruby?'
+
+'A pretty sort of friend, you! When you was going away, you was to be
+back at Carbury in a fortnight; and that is,--oh, ever so long ago now.'
+
+'But I wrote to you, Ruby.'
+
+'What's letters? And the postman to know all as in 'em for anything
+anybody knows, and grandfather to be almost sure to see 'em. I don't
+call letters no good at all, and I beg you won't write 'em any more.'
+
+'Did he see them?'
+
+'No thanks to you if he didn't. I don't know why you are come here,
+Sir Felix,--nor yet I don't know why I should come and meet you. It's
+all just folly like.'
+
+'Because I love you;--that's why I come; eh, Ruby? And you have come
+because you love me; eh, Ruby? Is not that about it?' Then he threw
+himself on the ground beside her, and got his arm round her waist.
+
+It would boot little to tell here all that they said to each other.
+The happiness of Ruby Ruggles for that half-hour was no doubt
+complete. She had her London lover beside her; and though in every
+word he spoke there was a tone of contempt, still he talked of love,
+and made her promises, and told her that she was pretty. He probably
+did not enjoy it much; he cared very little about her, and carried on
+the liaison simply because it was the proper sort of thing for a young
+man to do. He had begun to think that the odour of patchouli was
+unpleasant, and that the flies were troublesome, and the ground hard,
+before the half-hour was over. She felt that she could be content to
+sit there for ever and to listen to him. This was a realisation of
+those delights of life of which she had read in the thrice-thumbed old
+novels which she had gotten from the little circulating library at
+Bungay.
+
+But what was to come next? She had not dared to ask him to marry her,--
+had not dared to say those very words; and he had not dared to ask her
+to be his mistress. There was an animal courage about her, and an
+amount of strength also, and a fire in her eye, of which he had
+learned to be aware. Before the half-hour was over I think that he
+wished himself away;--but when he did go, he made a promise to see her
+again on the Tuesday morning. Her grandfather would be at Harlestone
+market, and she would meet him at about noon at the bottom of the
+kitchen garden belonging to the farm. As he made the promise he
+resolved that he would not keep it. He would write to her again, and
+bid her come to him in London, and would send her money for the
+journey.
+
+'I suppose I am to be his wedded wife,' said Ruby to herself, as she
+crept away down from the road, away also from her own home;--so that on
+her return her presence should not be associated with that of the
+young man, should any one chance to see the young man on the road.
+'I'll never be nothing unless I'm that,' she said to herself. Then she
+allowed her mind to lose itself in expatiating on the difference
+between John Crumb and Sir Felix Carbury.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX - HETTA CARBURY HEARS A LOVE TALE
+
+
+'I half a mind to go back to-morrow morning,' Felix said to his mother
+that Sunday evening after dinner. At that moment Roger was walking
+round the garden by himself, and Henrietta was in her own room.
+
+'To-morrow morning, Felix! You are engaged to dine with the
+Longestaffes!'
+
+'You could make any excuse you like about that.'
+
+'It would be the most uncourteous thing in the world. The Longestaffes
+you know are the leading people in this part of the country. No one
+knows what may happen. If you should ever be living at Carbury, how
+sad it would be that you should have quarrelled with them.'
+
+'You forget, mother, that Dolly Longestaffe is about the most intimate
+friend I have in the world.'
+
+'That does not justify you in being uncivil to the father and mother.
+And you should remember what you came here for.'
+
+'What did I come for?'
+
+'That you might see Marie Melmotte more at your ease than you can in
+their London house.'
+
+'That's all settled,' said Sir Felix, in the most indifferent tone
+that he could assume.
+
+'Settled!'
+
+'As far as the girl is concerned. I can't very well go to the old
+fellow for his consent down here.'
+
+'Do you mean to say, Felix, that Marie Melmotte has accepted you?'
+
+'I told you that before.'
+
+'My dear Felix. Oh, my boy!' In her joy the mother took her unwilling
+son in her arms and caressed him. Here was the first step taken not
+only to success, but to such magnificent splendour as should make her
+son to be envied by all young men, and herself to be envied by all
+mothers in England! 'No, you didn't tell me before. But I am so happy.
+Is she really fond of you? I don't wonder that any girl should be fond
+of you.'
+
+'I can't say anything about that, but I think she means to stick to
+it.'
+
+'If she is firm, of course her father will give way at last. Fathers
+always do give way when the girl is firm. Why should he oppose it?'
+
+'I don't know that he will.'
+
+'You are a man of rank, with a title of your own. I suppose what he
+wants is a gentleman for his girl. I don't see why he should not be
+perfectly satisfied. With all his enormous wealth a thousand a year or
+so can't make any difference. And then he made you one of the
+Directors at his Board. Oh Felix;--it is almost too good to be true.'
+
+'I ain't quite sure that I care very much about being married, you
+know.'
+
+'Oh, Felix, pray don't say that. Why shouldn't you like being married?
+She is a very nice girl, and we shall all be so fond of her! Don't let
+any feeling of that kind come over you; pray don't. You will be able
+to do just what you please when once the question of her money is
+settled. Of course you can hunt as often as you like, and you can have
+a house in any part of London you please. You must understand by this
+time how very disagreeable it is to have to get on without an
+established income.'
+
+'I quite understand that.'
+
+'If this were once done you would never have any more trouble of that
+kind. There would be plenty of money for everything as long as you
+live. It would be complete success. I don't know how to say enough to
+you, or to tell you how dearly I love you, or to make you understand
+how well I think you have done it all.' Then she caressed him again,
+and was almost beside herself in an agony of mingled anxiety and joy.
+If, after all, her beautiful boy, who had lately been her disgrace and
+her great trouble because of his poverty, should shine forth to the
+world as a baronet with £20,000 a year, how glorious would it be! She
+must have known,--she did know,--how poor, how selfish a creature he was.
+But her gratification at the prospect of his splendour obliterated the
+sorrow with which the vileness of his character sometimes oppressed
+her. Were he to win this girl with all her father's money, neither she
+nor his sister would be the better for it, except in this, that the
+burden of maintaining him would be taken from her shoulders. But his
+magnificence would be established. He was her son, and the prospect of
+his fortune and splendour was sufficient to elate her into a very
+heaven of beautiful dreams. 'But, Felix,' she continued, 'you really
+must stay and go to the Longestaffes' to-morrow. It will only be one
+day. And now were you to run away--'
+
+'Run away! What nonsense you talk.'
+
+'If you were to start back to London at once I mean, it would be an
+affront to her, and the very thing to set Melmotte against you. You
+should lay yourself out to please him;--indeed you should.'
+
+'Oh, bother!' said Sir Felix. But nevertheless he allowed himself to
+be persuaded to remain. The matter was important even to him, and he
+consented to endure the almost unendurable nuisance of spending
+another day at the Manor House. Lady Carbury, almost lost in delight,
+did not know where to turn for sympathy. If her cousin were not so
+stiff, so pig-headed, so wonderfully ignorant of the affairs of the
+world, he would have at any rate consented to rejoice with her. Though
+he might not like Felix,--who, as his mother admitted to herself, had
+been rude to her cousin,--he would have rejoiced for the sake of the
+family. But, as it was, she did not dare to tell him. He would have
+received her tidings with silent scorn. And even Henrietta would not
+be enthusiastic. She felt that though she would have delighted to
+expatiate on this great triumph, she must be silent at present. It
+should now be her great effort to ingratiate herself with Mr Melmotte
+at the dinner party at Caversham.
+
+During the whole of that evening Roger Carbury hardly spoke to his
+cousin Hetta. There was not much conversation between them till quite
+late, when Father Barham came in for supper. He had been over at
+Bungay among his people there, and had walked back, taking Carbury on
+the way. 'What did you think of our bishop?' Roger asked him, rather
+imprudently.
+
+'Not much of him as a bishop. I don't doubt that he makes a very nice
+lord, and that he does more good among his neighbours than an average
+lord. But you don't put power or responsibility into the hands of any
+one sufficient to make him a bishop.'
+
+'Nine-tenths of the clergy in the diocese would be guided by him in
+any matter of clerical conduct which might come before him.'
+
+'Because they know that he has no strong opinion of his own, and would
+not therefore desire to dominate theirs. Take any of your bishops that
+has an opinion,--if there be one left,--and see how far your clergy
+consent to his teaching!' Roger turned round and took up his book. He
+was already becoming tired of his pet priest. He himself always
+abstained from saying a word derogatory to his new friend's religion
+in the man's hearing; but his new friend did not by any means return
+the compliment. Perhaps also Roger felt that were he to take up the
+cudgels for an argument he might be worsted in the combat, as in such
+combats success is won by practised skill rather than by truth.
+Henrietta was also reading, and Felix was smoking elsewhere,--wondering
+whether the hours would ever wear themselves away in that castle of
+dulness, in which no cards were to be seen, and where, except at
+meal-times, there was nothing to drink. But Lady Carbury was quite
+willing to allow the priest to teach her that all appliances for the
+dissemination of religion outside his own Church must be naught.
+
+'I suppose our bishops are sincere in their beliefs,' she said with
+her sweetest smile.
+
+'I'm sure I hope so. I have no possible reason to doubt it as to the
+two or three whom I have seen,--nor indeed as to all the rest whom I
+have not seen.'
+
+'They are so much respected everywhere as good and pious men!'
+
+'I do not doubt it. Nothing tends so much to respect as a good income.
+But they may be excellent men without being excellent bishops. I find
+no fault with them, but much with the system by which they are
+controlled. Is it probable that a man should be fitted to select
+guides for other men's souls because he has succeeded by infinite
+labour in his vocation in becoming the leader of a majority in the
+House of Commons?'
+
+'Indeed, no,' said Lady Carbury, who did not in the least understand
+the nature of the question put to her.
+
+'And when you've got your bishop, is it likely that a man should be
+able to do his duty in that capacity who has no power of his own to
+decide whether a clergyman under him is or is not fit for his duty?'
+
+'Hardly, indeed.'
+
+'The English people, or some of them,--that some being the richest, and,
+at present, the most powerful,--like to play at having a Church, though
+there is not sufficient faith in them to submit to the control of a
+Church.'
+
+'Do you think men should be controlled by clergymen, Mr Barham?'
+
+'In matters of faith I do; and so, I suppose, do you; at least you
+make that profession. You declare it to be your duty to submit
+yourself to your spiritual pastors and masters.'
+
+'That, I thought, was for children,' said Lady Carbury. 'The
+clergyman, in the catechism, says, "My good child."'
+
+'It is what you were taught as a child before you had made profession
+of your faith to a bishop, in order that you might know your duty when
+you had ceased to be a child. I quite agree, however, that the matter,
+as viewed by your Church, is childish altogether, and intended only
+for children. As a rule, adults with you want no religion.'
+
+'I am afraid that is true of a great many.'
+
+'It is marvellous to me that, when a man thinks of it, he should not
+be driven by very fear to the comforts of a safer faith,--unless,
+indeed, he enjoy the security of absolute infidelity.'
+
+'That is worse than anything,' said Lady Carbury with a sigh and a
+shudder.
+
+'I don't know that it is worse than a belief which is no belief,' said
+the priest with energy;--'than a creed which sits so easily on a man
+that he does not even know what it contains, and never asks himself as
+he repeats it, whether it be to him credible or incredible.'
+
+'That is very bad,' said Lady Carbury.
+
+'We're getting too deep, I think,' said Roger, putting down the book
+which he had in vain been trying to read.
+
+'I think it is so pleasant to have a little serious conversation on
+Sunday evening,' said Lady Carbury. The priest drew himself back into
+his chair and smiled. He was quite clever enough to understand that
+Lady Carbury had been talking nonsense, and clever enough also to be
+aware of the cause of Roger's uneasiness. But Lady Carbury might be
+all the easier converted because she understood nothing and was fond
+of ambitious talking; and Roger Carbury might possibly be forced into
+conviction by the very feeling which at present made him unwilling to
+hear arguments.
+
+'I don't like hearing my Church ill-spoken of,' said Roger.
+
+'You wouldn't like me if I thought ill of it and spoke well of it,'
+said the priest.
+
+'And, therefore, the less said the sooner mended,' said Roger, rising
+from his chair. Upon this Father Barham look his departure and walked
+away to Beccles. It might be that he had sowed some seed. It might be
+that he had, at any rate, ploughed some ground. Even the attempt to
+plough the ground was a good work which would not be forgotten.
+
+The following morning was the time on which Roger had fixed for
+repeating his suit to Henrietta. He had determined that it should be
+so, and though the words had been almost on his tongue during that
+Sunday afternoon, he had repressed them because he would do as he had
+determined. He was conscious, almost painfully conscious, of a certain
+increase of tenderness in his cousin's manner towards him. All that
+pride of independence, which had amounted almost to roughness, when
+she was in London, seemed to have left her. When he greeted her
+morning and night, she looked softly into his face. She cherished the
+flowers which he gave her. He could perceive that if he expressed the
+slightest wish in any matter about the house she would attend to it.
+There had been a word said about punctuality, and she had become
+punctual as the hand of the clock. There was not a glance of her eye,
+nor a turn of her hand, that he did not watch, and calculate its
+effect as regarded himself. But because she was tender to him and
+observant, he did not by any means allow himself to believe that her
+heart was growing into love for him. He thought that he understood the
+working of her mind. She could see how great was his disgust at her
+brother's doings; how fretted he was by her mother's conduct. Her
+grace, and sweetness, and sense, took part with him against those who
+were nearer to herself, and therefore,--in pity,--she was kind to him. It
+was thus he read it, and he read it almost with exact accuracy.
+
+'Hetta,' he said after breakfast, 'come out into the garden awhile.'
+
+'Are not you going to the men?'
+
+'Not yet, at any rate. I do not always go to the men as you call it.'
+She put on her hat and tripped out with him, knowing well that she had
+been summoned to hear the old story. She had been sure, as soon as she
+found the white rose in her room, that the old story would be repeated
+again before she left Carbury;--and, up to this time, she had hardly
+made up her mind what answer she would give to it. That she could not
+take his offer, she thought she did know. She knew well that she loved
+the other man. That other man had never asked her for her love, but
+she thought that she knew that he desired it. But in spite of all this
+there had in truth grown up in her bosom a feeling of tenderness
+towards her cousin so strong that it almost tempted her to declare to
+herself that he ought to have what he wanted, simply because he wanted
+it. He was so good, so noble, so generous, so devoted, that it almost
+seemed to her that she could not be justified in refusing him. And she
+had gone entirely over to his side in regard to the Melmottes. Her
+mother had talked to her of the charm of Mr Melmotte's money, till her
+very heart had been sickened. There was nothing noble there; but, as
+contrasted with that, Roger's conduct and bearing were those of a fine
+gentleman who knew neither fear nor shame. Should such a one be doomed
+to pine for ever because a girl could not love him,--a man born to be
+loved, if nobility and tenderness and truth were lovely!
+
+'Hetta,' he said, 'put your arm here.' She gave him her arm. 'I was a
+little annoyed last night by that priest. I want to be civil to him,
+and now he is always turning against me.'
+
+'He doesn't do any harm, I suppose?'
+
+'He does do harm if he teaches you and me to think lightly of those
+things which we have been brought up to revere.' So, thought
+Henrietta, it isn't about love this time; it's only about the Church.
+'He ought not to say things before my guests as to our way of
+believing, which I wouldn't under any circumstances say as to his. I
+didn't quite like your hearing it.'
+
+'I don't think he'll do me any harm. I'm not at all that way given. I
+suppose they all do it. It's their business.'
+
+'Poor fellow! I brought him here just because I thought it was a pity
+that a man born and bred like a gentleman should never see the inside
+of a comfortable house.'
+
+'I liked him;--only I didn't like his saying stupid things about the
+bishop.'
+
+'And I like him.' Then there was a pause. 'I suppose your brother does
+not talk to you much about his own affairs.'
+
+'His own affairs, Roger? Do you mean money? He never says a word to me
+about money.'
+
+'I meant about the Melmottes.'
+
+'No; not to me. Felix hardly ever speaks to me about anything.'
+
+'I wonder whether she has accepted him.'
+
+'I think she very nearly did accept him in London.'
+
+'I can't quite sympathise with your mother in all her feelings about
+this marriage, because I do not think that I recognise as she does the
+necessity of money.'
+
+'Felix is so disposed to be extravagant.'
+
+'Well; yes. But I was going to say that though I cannot bring myself
+to say anything to encourage her about this heiress, I quite recognise
+her unselfish devotion to his interests.'
+
+'Mamma thinks more of him than of anything,' said Hetta, not in the
+least intending to accuse her mother of indifference to herself.
+
+'I know it; and though I happen to think myself that her other child
+would better repay her devotion,'--this he said, looking up to Hetta
+and smiling,--'I quite feel how good a mother she is to Felix. You know,
+when she first came the other day we almost had a quarrel.'
+
+'I felt that there was something unpleasant.'
+
+'And then Felix coming after his time put me out. I am getting old and
+cross, or I should not mind such things.'
+
+'I think you are so good and so kind.' As she said this she leaned
+upon his arm almost as though she meant to tell him that she loved
+him.
+
+'I have been angry with myself,' he said, 'and so I am making you my
+father confessor. Open confession is good for the soul sometimes, and
+I think that you would understand me better than your mother.'
+
+'I do understand you; but don't think there is any fault to confess.'
+
+'You will not exact any penance?' She only looked at him and smiled.
+'I am going to put a penance on myself all the same. I can't
+congratulate your brother on his wooing over at Caversham, as I know
+nothing about it, but I will express some civil wish to him about
+things in general.'
+
+'Will that be a penance?'
+
+'If you could look into my mind you'd find that it would. I'm full of
+fretful anger against him for half-a-dozen little frivolous things.
+Didn't he throw his cigar on the path? Didn't he lie in bed on Sunday
+instead of going to church?'
+
+'But then he was travelling all the Saturday night.'
+
+'Whose fault was that? But don't you see it is the triviality of the
+offence which makes the penance necessary. Had he knocked me over the
+head with a pickaxe, or burned the house down, I should have had a
+right to be angry. But I was angry because he wanted a horse on Sunday;--
+and therefore I must do penance.'
+
+There was nothing of love in all this. Hetta, however, did not wish
+him to talk of love. He was certainly now treating her as a friend,--as
+a most intimate friend. If he would only do that without making love
+to her, how happy could she be! But his determination still held good.
+'And now,' said he, altering his tone altogether, 'I must speak about
+myself.' Immediately the weight of her hand upon his arm was lessened.
+Thereupon he put his left hand round and pressed her arm to his. 'No,'
+he said; 'do not make any change towards me while I speak to you.
+Whatever comes of it we shall at any rate be cousins and friends.'
+
+'Always friends!' she said.
+
+'Yes,--always friends. And now listen to me for I have much to say. I
+will not tell you again that I love you. You know it, or else you must
+think me the vainest and falsest of men. It is not only that I love
+you, but I am so accustomed to concern myself with one thing only, so
+constrained by the habits and nature of my life to confine myself to
+single interests, that I cannot as it were escape from my love. I am
+thinking of it always, often despising myself because I think of it so
+much. For, after all, let a woman be ever so good,--and you to me are
+all that is good,--a man should not allow his love to dominate his
+intellect.'
+
+'Oh, no!'
+
+'I do. I calculate my chances within my own bosom almost as a man
+might calculate his chances of heaven. I should like you to know me
+just as I am, the weak and the strong together. I would not win you by
+a lie if I could. I think of you more than I ought to do. I am sure,--
+quite sure that you are the only possible mistress of this house
+during my tenure of it. If I am ever to live as other men do, and to
+care about the things which other men care for, it must be as your
+husband.'
+
+'Pray,--pray do not say that.'
+
+'Yes; I think that I have a right to say it,--and a right to expect that
+you should believe me. I will not ask you to be my wife if you do not
+love me. Not that I should fear aught for myself, but that you should
+not be pressed to make a sacrifice of yourself because I am your
+friend and cousin. But I think it is quite possible you might come to
+love me,--unless your heart be absolutely given away elsewhere.'
+
+'What am I to say?'
+
+'We each of us know of what the other is thinking. If Paul Montague
+has robbed me of my love?'
+
+'Mr Montague has never said a word.'
+
+'If he had, I think he would have wronged me. He met you in my house,
+and I think must have known what my feelings were towards you.'
+
+'But he never has.'
+
+'We have been like brothers together,--one brother being very much older
+than the other, indeed; or like father and son. I think he should
+place his hopes elsewhere.'
+
+'What am I to say? If he have such hope he has not told me. I think it
+almost cruel that a girl should be asked in that way.'
+
+'Hetta, I should not wish to be cruel to you. Of course I know the way
+of the world in such matters. I have no right to ask you about Paul
+Montague,--no right to expect an answer. But it is all the world to me.
+You can understand that I should think you might learn to love even
+me, if you loved no one else.' The tone of his voice was manly, and at
+the same time full of entreaty. His eyes as he looked at her were
+bright with love and anxiety. She not only believed him as to the tale
+which he now told her; but she believed in him altogether. She knew
+that he was a staff on which a woman might safely lean, trusting to it
+for comfort and protection in life. In that moment she all but yielded
+to him. Had he seized her in his arms and kissed her then, I think she
+would have yielded. She did all but love him. She so regarded him that
+had it been some other woman that he craved, she would have used every
+art she knew to have backed his suit, and would have been ready to
+swear that any woman was a fool who refused him. She almost hated
+herself because she was unkind to one who so thoroughly deserved
+kindness. As it was, she made him no answer, but continued to walk
+beside him trembling. 'I thought I would tell it you all, because I
+wish you to know exactly the state of my mind. I would show you if I
+could all my heart and all my thoughts about yourself as in a glass
+case. Do not coy your love for me if you can feel it. When you know,
+dear, that a man's heart is set upon a woman as mine is set on you, so
+that it is for you to make his life bright or dark, for you to open or
+to shut the gates of his earthly Paradise, I think you will be above
+keeping him in darkness for the sake of a girlish scruple.'
+
+'Oh, Roger!'
+
+'If ever there should come a time in which you can say it truly,
+remember my truth to you and say it boldly. I at least shall never
+change. Of course if you love another man and give yourself to him, it
+will be all over. Tell me that boldly also. I have said it all now.
+God bless you, my own heart's darling. I hope,--I hope I may be strong
+enough through it all to think more of your happiness than of my own.'
+Then he parted from her abruptly, taking his way over one of the
+bridges, and leaving her to find her way into the house alone.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX - LADY POMONA'S DINNER PARTY
+
+
+Roger Carbury's half-formed plan of keeping Henrietta at home while
+Lady Carbury and Sir Felix went to dine at Caversham fell to the
+ground. It was to be carried out only in the event of Hetta's yielding
+to his prayer. But he had in fact not made a prayer, and Hetta had
+certainly yielded nothing. When the evening came, Lady Carbury started
+with her son and daughter, and Roger was left alone. In the ordinary
+course of his life he was used to solitude. During the greater part of
+the year he would eat and drink and live without companionship; so
+that there was to him nothing peculiarly sad in this desertion. But on
+the present occasion he could not prevent himself from dwelling on the
+loneliness of his lot in life. These cousins of his who were his
+guests cared nothing for him. Lady Carbury had come to his house
+simply that it might be useful to her; Sir Felix did not pretend to
+treat him with even ordinary courtesy; and Hetta herself, though she
+was soft to him and gracious, was soft and gracious through pity
+rather than love. On this day he had, in truth, asked her for nothing;
+but he had almost brought himself to think that she might give all
+that he wanted without asking. And yet, when he told her of the
+greatness of his love, and of its endurance, she was simply silent.
+When the carriage taking them to dinner went away down the road, he
+sat on the parapet of the bridge in front of the house listening to
+the sound of the horses' feet, and telling himself that there was
+nothing left for him in life.
+
+If ever one man had been good to another, he had been good to Paul
+Montague, and now Paul Montague was robbing him of everything he
+valued in the world. His thoughts were not logical, nor was his mind
+exact. The more he considered it, the stronger was his inward
+condemnation of his friend. He had never mentioned to any one the
+services he had rendered to Montague. In speaking of him to Hetta he
+had alluded only to the affection which had existed between them. But
+he felt that because of those services his friend Montague had owed it
+to him not to fall in love with the girl he loved; and he thought that
+if, unfortunately, this had happened unawares, Montague should have
+retired as soon as he learned the truth. He could not bring himself to
+forgive his friend, even though Hetta had assured him that his friend
+had never spoken to her of love. He was sore all over, and it was Paul
+Montague who made him sore. Had there been no such man at Carbury when
+Hetta came there, Hetta might now have been mistress of the house. He
+sat there till the servant came to tell him that his dinner was on the
+table. Then he crept in and ate,--so that the man might not see his
+sorrow; and, after dinner, he sat with a book in his hand seeming to
+read. But he read not a word, for his mind was fixed altogether on
+his cousin Hetta. 'What a poor creature a man is,' he said to himself,
+'who is not sufficiently his own master to get over a feeling like
+this.'
+
+At Caversham there was a very grand party,--as grand almost as a dinner
+party can be in the country. There were the Earl and Countess of
+Loddon and Lady Jane Pewet from Loddon Park, and the bishop and his
+wife, and the Hepworths. These, with the Carburys and the parson's
+family, and the people staying in the house, made twenty-four at the
+dinner table. As there were fourteen ladies and only ten men, the
+banquet can hardly be said to have been very well arranged. But those
+things cannot be done in the country with the exactness which the
+appliances of London make easy; and then the Longestaffes, though they
+were decidedly people of fashion, were not famous for their excellence
+in arranging such matters. If aught, however, was lacking in
+exactness, it was made up in grandeur. There were three powdered
+footmen, and in that part of the country Lady Pomona alone was served
+after this fashion; and there was a very heavy butler, whose
+appearance of itself was sufficient to give éclat to a family. The
+grand saloon in which nobody ever lived was thrown open, and sofas and
+chairs on which nobody ever sat were uncovered. It was not above once
+in the year that this kind of thing vas done at Caversham; but when it
+was done, nothing was spared which could contribute to the
+magnificence of the fête. Lady Pomona and her two tall daughters
+standing up to receive the little Countess of Loddon and Lady Jane
+Pewet, who was the image of her mother on a somewhat smaller scale,
+while Madame Melmotte and Marie stood behind as though ashamed of
+themselves, was a sight to see. Then the Carburys came, and then Mrs
+Yeld with the bishop. The grand room was soon fairly full; but nobody
+had a word to say. The bishop was generally a man of much
+conversation, and Lady Loddon, if she were well pleased with her
+listeners, could talk by the hour without ceasing. But on this
+occasion nobody could utter a word. Lord Loddon pottered about, making
+a feeble attempt, in which he was seconded by no one. Lord Alfred
+stood, stock-still, stroking his grey moustache with his hand. That
+much greater man, Augustus Melmotte, put his thumbs into the arm-holes
+of his waistcoat, and was impassible. The bishop saw at a glance the
+hopelessness of the occasion, and made no attempt. The master of the
+house shook hands with each guest as he entered, and then devoted his
+mind to expectation of the next corner. Lady Pomona and her two
+daughters were grand and handsome, but weary and dumb. In accordance
+with the treaty, Madame Melmotte had been entertained civilly for four
+entire days. It could not be expected that the ladies of Caversham
+should come forth unwearied after such a struggle.
+
+When dinner was announced Felix was allowed to take in Marie Melmotte.
+There can be no doubt but that the Caversham ladies did execute their
+part of the treaty. They were led to suppose that this arrangement
+would be desirable to the Melmottes, and they made it. The great
+Augustus himself went in with Lady Carbury, much to her satisfaction.
+She also had been dumb in the drawing-room; but now, if ever, it would
+be her duty to exert herself. 'I hope you like Suffolk,' she said.
+
+'Pretty well, I thank you. Oh, yes;--very nice place for a little fresh
+air.'
+
+'Yes;--that's just it, Mr Melmotte. When the summer comes one does long
+so to see the flowers.'
+
+'We have better flowers in our balconies than any I see down here,'
+said Mr Melmotte.
+
+'No doubt;--because you can command the floral tribute of the world at
+large. What is there that money will not do? It can turn a London
+street into a bower of roses, and give you grottoes in Grosvenor
+Square.'
+
+'It's a very nice place, is London.'
+
+'If you have got plenty of money, Mr Melmotte.'
+
+'And if you have not, it's the best place I know to get it. Do you
+live in London, ma'am?' He had quite forgotten Lady Carbury even if he
+had seen her at his house, and with the dulness of hearing common to
+men, had not picked up her name when told to take her out to dinner.
+'Oh, yes, I live in London. I have had the honour of being entertained
+by you there.' This she said with her sweetest smile.
+
+'Oh, indeed. So many do come, that I don't always just remember.'
+
+'How should you,--with all the world flocking round you? I am Lady
+Carbury, the mother of Sir Felix Carbury, whom I think you will
+remember.'
+
+'Yes; I know Sir Felix. He's sitting there, next to my daughter.'
+
+'Happy fellow!'
+
+'I don't know much about that. Young men don't get their happiness in
+that way now. They've got other things to think of.'
+
+'He thinks so much of his business.'
+
+'Oh! I didn't know,' said Mr Melmotte.
+
+'He sits at the same Board with you, I think, Mr Melmotte.'
+
+'Oh;--that's his business!' said Mr Melmotte, with a grim smile.
+
+Lady Carbury was very clever as to many things, and was not
+ill-informed on matters in general that were going on around her; but
+she did not know much about the city, and was profoundly ignorant as
+to the duties of those Directors of whom, from time to time, she saw
+the names in a catalogue. 'I trust that he is diligent there,' she
+said; 'and that he is aware of the great privilege which he enjoys in
+having the advantage of your counsel and guidance.'
+
+'He don't trouble me much, ma'am, and I don't trouble him much.' After
+this Lady Carbury said no more as to her son's position in the city.
+She endeavoured to open various other subjects of conversation; but
+she found Mr Melmotte to be heavy on her hands. After a while she had
+to abandon him in despair, and give herself up to raptures in favour
+of Protestantism at the bidding of the Caversham parson, who sat on
+the other side of her, and who had been worked to enthusiasm by some
+mention of Father Barham's name.
+
+Opposite to her, or nearly so, sat Sir Felix and his love. 'I have told
+mamma,' Marie had whispered, as she walked in to dinner with him. She
+was now full of the idea so common to girls who are engaged,--and as
+natural as it is common,--that she might tell everything to her lover.
+
+'Did she say anything?' he asked. Then Marie had to take her place and
+arrange her dress before she could reply to him. 'As to her, I suppose
+it does not matter what she says, does it?'
+
+'She said a great deal. She thinks that papa will think you are not
+rich enough. Hush! Talk about something else, or people will hear.' So
+much she had been able to say during the bustle.
+
+Felix was not at all anxious to talk about his love, and changed the
+subject very willingly. 'Have you been riding?' he asked.
+
+'No; I don't think there are horses here,--not for visitors, that is.
+How did you get home? Did you have any adventures?'
+
+'None at all,' said Felix, remembering Ruby Ruggles. 'I just rode home
+quietly. I go to town to-morrow.'
+
+'And we go on Wednesday. Mind you come and see us before long.' This
+she said bringing her voice down to a whisper.
+
+'Of course I shall. I suppose I'd better go to your father in the
+city. Does he go every day?'
+
+'Oh yes, every day. He's back always about seven. Sometimes he's
+good-natured enough when he comes back, but sometimes he's very cross.
+He's best just after dinner. But it's so hard to get to him then. Lord
+Alfred is almost always there; and then other people come, and they
+play cards. I think the city will be best.'
+
+'You'll stick to it?' he asked.
+
+'Oh, yes;--indeed I will. Now that I've once said it nothing will ever
+turn me. I think papa knows that.' Felix looked at her as she said
+this, and thought that he saw more in her countenance than he had ever
+read there before. Perhaps she would consent to run away with him;
+and, if so, being the only child, she would certainly,--almost certainly,
+--be forgiven. But if he were to run away with her and marry her, and
+then find that she were not forgiven, and that Melmotte allowed her to
+starve without a shilling of fortune, where would he be then? Looking
+at the matter in all its bearings, considering among other things the
+trouble and the expense of such a measure, he thought that he could
+not afford to run away with her.
+
+After dinner he hardly spoke to her; indeed, the room itself,--the same
+big room in which they had been assembled before the feast,--seemed to
+be ill-adapted for conversation. Again nobody talked to anybody, and
+the minutes went very heavily till at last the carriages were there to
+take them all home. 'They arranged that you should sit next to her,'
+said Lady Carbury to her son, as they were in the carriage.
+
+'Oh, I suppose that came naturally;--one young man and one young woman,
+you know.'
+
+'Those things are always arranged, and they would not have done it
+unless they had thought that it would please Mr Melmotte. Oh, Felix!
+if you can bring it about.'
+
+'I shall if I can, mother; you needn't make a fuss about it.'
+
+'No, I won't. You cannot wonder that I should be anxious. You behaved
+beautifully to her at dinner; I was so happy to see you together. Good
+night, Felix, and God bless you!' she said again, as they were parting
+for the night. 'I shall be the happiest and the proudest mother in
+England if this comes about.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI - EVERYBODY GOES TO THEM
+
+
+When the Melmottes went from Caversham the house was very desolate.
+The task of entertaining these people was indeed over, and had the
+return to London been fixed for a certain near day, there would have
+been comfort at any rate among the ladies of the family. But this was
+so far from being the case that the Thursday and Friday passed without
+anything being settled, and dreadful fears began to fill the minds of
+Lady Pomona and Sophia Longestaffe. Georgiana was also impatient, but
+she asserted boldly that treachery, such as that which her mother and
+sister contemplated, was impossible. Their father, she thought, would
+not dare to propose it. On each of these days,--three or four times
+daily,--hints were given and questions were asked, but without avail. Mr
+Longestaffe would not consent to have a day fixed till he had received
+some particular letter, and would not even listen to the suggestion of
+a day. 'I suppose we can go at any rate on Tuesday,' Georgiana said on
+the Friday evening. 'I don't know why you should suppose anything of
+the kind,' the father replied. Poor Lady Pomona was urged by her
+daughters to compel him to name a day; but Lady Pomona was less
+audacious in urging the request than her younger child, and at the
+same time less anxious for its completion. On the Sunday morning
+before they went to church there was a great discussion upstairs. The
+Bishop of Elmham was going to preach at Caversham church, and the
+three ladies were dressed in their best London bonnets. They were in
+their mother's room, having just completed the arrangements of their
+church-going toilet. It was supposed that the expected letter had
+arrived. Mr Longestaffe had certainly received a despatch from his
+lawyer, but had not as yet vouchsafed any reference to its contents.
+He had been more than ordinarily silent at breakfast, and,--so Sophia
+asserted,--more disagreeable than ever. The question had now arisen
+especially in reference to their bonnets. 'You might as well wear
+them,' said Lady Pomona, 'for I am sure you will not be in London
+again this year.'
+
+'You don't mean it, mamma,' said Sophia.
+
+'I do, my dear. He looked like it when he put those papers back into
+his pocket. I know what his face means so well.'
+
+'It is not possible,' said Sophia. 'He promised, and he got us to have
+those horrid people because he promised.'
+
+'Well, my dear, if your father says that we can't go back, I suppose
+we must take his word for it. It is he must decide of course. What he
+meant I suppose was, that he would take us back if he could.'
+
+'Mamma!' shouted Georgiana. Was there to be treachery not only on the
+part of their natural adversary, who, adversary though he was, had
+bound himself to terms by a treaty, but treachery also in their own
+camp!
+
+'My dear, what can we do?' said Lady Pomona.
+
+'Do!' Georgiana was now going to speak out plainly. 'Make him
+understand that we are not going to be sat upon like that. I'll do
+something, if that's going to be the way of it. If he treats me like
+that I'll run off with the first man that will take me, let him be who
+it may.'
+
+'Don't talk like that, Georgiana, unless you wish to kill me.'
+
+'I'll break his heart for him. He does not care about us not the least
+whether we are happy or miserable; but he cares very much about the
+family name. I'll tell him that I'm not going to be a slave. I'll
+marry a London tradesman before I'll stay down here.' The younger Miss
+Longestaffe was lost in passion at the prospect before her.
+
+'Oh, Georgey, don't say such horrid things as that,' pleaded her
+sister.
+
+'It's all very well for you, Sophy. You've got George Whitstable.'
+
+'I haven't got George Whitstable.'
+
+'Yes, you have, and your fish is fried. Dolly does just what he
+pleases, and spends money as fast as he likes. Of course it makes no
+difference to you, mamma, where you are.'
+
+'You are very unjust,' said Lady Pomona, wailing, 'and you say horrid
+things.'
+
+'I ain't unjust at all. It doesn't matter to you. And Sophy is the
+same as settled. But I'm to be sacrificed! How am I to see anybody
+down here in this horrid hole? Papa promised and he must keep his
+word.'
+
+Then there came to them a loud voice calling to them from the hall.
+'Are any of you coming to church, or are you going to keep the
+carriage waiting all day?' Of course they were all going to church.
+They always did go to church when they were at Caversham; and would
+more especially do so to-day, because of the bishop and because of the
+bonnets. They trooped down into the hall and into the carriage, Lady
+Pomona leading the way. Georgiana stalked along, passing her father at
+the front door without condescending to look at him. Not a word was
+spoken on the way to church, or on the way home. During the service Mr
+Longestaffe stood up in the corner of his pew, and repeated the
+responses in a loud voice. In performing this duty he had been an
+example to the parish all his life. The three ladies knelt on their
+hassocks in the most becoming fashion, and sat during the sermon
+without the slightest sign either of weariness or of attention. They
+did not collect the meaning of any one combination of sentences. It
+was nothing to them whether the bishop had or had not a meaning.
+Endurance of that kind was their strength. Had the bishop preached for
+forty-five minutes instead of half an hour they would not have
+complained. It was the same kind of endurance which enabled Georgiana
+to go on from year to year waiting for a husband of the proper sort.
+She could put up with any amount of tedium if only the fair chance of
+obtaining ultimate relief were not denied to her. But to be kept at
+Caversham all the summer would be as bad as hearing a bishop preach
+for ever! After the service they came back to lunch, and that meal
+also was eaten in silence. When it was over the head of the family put
+himself into the dining-room arm-chair, evidently meaning to be left
+alone there. In that case he would have meditated upon his troubles
+till he went to sleep, and would have thus got through the afternoon
+with comfort. But this was denied to him. The two daughters remained
+steadfast while the things were being removed; and Lady Pomona, though
+she made one attempt to leave the room, returned when she found that
+her daughters would not follow her. Georgiana had told her sister
+that she meant to 'have it out' with her father, and Sophia had of
+course remained in the room in obedience to her sister's behest. When
+the last tray had been taken out, Georgiana began. 'Papa, don't you
+think you could settle now when we are to go back to town? Of course
+we want to know about engagements and all that. There is Lady
+Monogram's party on Wednesday. We promised to be there ever so long
+ago.'
+
+'You had better write to Lady Monogram and say you can't keep your
+engagement.'
+
+'But why not, papa? We could go up on Wednesday morning.'
+
+'You can't do anything of the kind.'
+
+'But, my dear, we should all like to have a day fixed,' said Lady
+Pomona. Then there was a pause. Even Georgiana, in her present state
+of mind, would have accepted some distant, even some undefined time,
+as a compromise.
+
+'Then you can't have a day fixed,' said Mr Longestaffe.
+
+'How long do you suppose that we shall be kept here?' said Sophia, in
+a low constrained voice.
+
+'I do not know what you mean by being kept here. This is your home,
+and this is where you may make up your minds to live.'
+
+'But we are to go back?' demanded Sophia. Georgiana stood by in
+silence, listening, resolving, and biding her time.
+
+'You'll not return to London this season,' said Mr Longestaffe,
+turning himself abruptly to a newspaper which he held in his hands.
+
+'Do you mean that that is settled?' said Lady Pomona. 'I mean to say
+that that is settled,' said Mr Longestaffe. Was there ever treachery
+like this! The indignation in Georgiana's mind approached almost to
+virtue as she thought of her father's falseness. She would not have
+left town at all but for that promise. She would not have contaminated
+herself with the Melmottes but for that promise. And now she was told
+that the promise was to be absolutely broken, when it was no longer
+possible that she could get back to London,--even to the house of the
+hated Primeros,--without absolutely running away from her father's
+residence! 'Then, papa,' she said, with affected calmness, 'you have
+simply and with premeditation broken your word to us.'
+
+'How dare you speak to me in that way, you wicked child!'
+
+'I am not a child, papa, as you know very well. I am my own mistress,--
+by law.'
+
+'Then go and be your own mistress. You dare to tell me, your father,
+that I have premeditated a falsehood! If you tell me that again, you
+shall eat your meals in your own room or not eat them in this house.'
+
+'Did you not promise that we should go back if we would come down and
+entertain these people?'
+
+'I will not argue with a child, insolent and disobedient as you are.
+If I have anything to say about it, I will say it to your mother. It
+should be enough for you that I, your father, tell you that you have
+to live here. Now go away, and if you choose to be sullen, go and be
+sullen where I shan't see you.' Georgiana looked round on her mother
+and sister and then marched majestically out of the room. She still
+meditated revenge, but she was partly cowed, and did not dare in her
+father's presence to go on with her reproaches. She stalked off into
+the room in which they generally lived, and there she stood panting
+with anger, breathing indignation through her nostrils.
+
+'And you mean to put up with it, mamma?' she said.
+
+'What can we do, my dear?'
+
+'I will do something. I'm not going to be cheated and swindled and
+have my life thrown away into the bargain. I have always behaved well
+to him. I have never run up bills without saying anything about them.'
+This was a cut at her elder sister, who had once got into some little
+trouble of that kind. 'I have never got myself talked about with
+anybody. If there is anything to be done I always do it. I have
+written his letters for him till I have been sick, and when you were
+ill I never asked him to stay out with us after two or half-past two
+at the latest. And now he tells me that I am to eat my meals up in my
+bedroom because I remind him that he distinctly promised to take us
+back to London! Did he not promise, mamma?'
+
+'I understood so, my dear.'
+
+'You know he promised, mamma. If I do anything now he must bear the
+blame of it. I am not going to keep myself straight for the sake of
+the family, and then be treated in that way.'
+
+'You do that for your own sake, I suppose,' said her sister.
+
+'It is more than you've been able to do for anybody's sake,' said
+Georgiana, alluding to a very old affair to an ancient flirtation, in
+the course of which the elder daughter had made a foolish and a futile
+attempt to run away with an officer of dragoons whose private fortune
+was very moderate. Ten years had passed since that, and the affair was
+never alluded to except in moments of great bitterness.
+
+'I've kept myself as straight as you have,' said Sophia. 'It's easy
+enough to be straight, when a person never cares for anybody, and
+nobody cares for a person.'
+
+'My dears, if you quarrel what am I to do?' said their mother.
+
+'It is I that have to suffer,' continued Georgiana. 'Does he expect me
+to find anybody here that I could take? Poor George Whitstable is not
+much; but there is nobody else at all.'
+
+'You may have him if you like,' said Sophia, with a chuck of her head.
+
+'Thank you, my dear, but I shouldn't like it at all. I haven't come to
+that quite yet.'
+
+'You were talking of running away with somebody.'
+
+'I shan't run away with George Whitstable; you may be sure of that.
+I'll tell you what I shall do,--I will write papa a letter. I suppose
+he'll condescend to read it. If he won't take me up to town himself,
+he must send me up to the Primeros. What makes me most angry in the
+whole thing is that we should have condescended to be civil to the
+Melmottes down in the country. In London one does those things, but to
+have them here was terrible!'
+
+During that entire afternoon nothing more was said. Not a word passed
+between them on any subject beyond those required by the necessities
+of life. Georgiana had been as hard to her sister as to her father,
+and Sophia in her quiet way resented the affront. She was now almost
+reconciled to the sojourn in the country, because it inflicted a
+fitting punishment on Georgiana, and the presence of Mr Whitstable at
+a distance of not more than ten miles did of course make a difference
+to herself. Lady Pomona complained of a headache, which was always an
+excuse with her for not speaking;--and Mr Longestaffe went to sleep.
+Georgiana during the whole afternoon remained apart, and on the next
+morning the head of the family found the following letter on his
+dressing-table:--
+
+
+   My DEAR PAPA
+
+   I don't think you ought to be surprised because we feel that our
+   going up to town is so very important to us. If we are not to be
+   in London at this time of the year we can never see anybody, and
+   of course you know what that must mean for me. If this goes on
+   about Sophia, it does not signify for her, and, though mamma likes
+   London, it is not of real importance. But it is very, very hard
+   upon me. It isn't for pleasure that I want to go up. There isn't
+   so very much pleasure in it. But if I'm to be buried down here at
+   Caversham, I might just as well be dead at once. If you choose to
+   give up both houses for a year, or for two years, and take us all
+   abroad, I should not grumble in the least. There are very nice
+   people to be met abroad, and perhaps things go easier that way
+   than in town. And there would be nothing for horses, and we could
+   dress very cheap and wear our old things. I'm sure I don't want to
+   run up bills. But if you would only think what Caversham must be
+   to me, without any one worth thinking about within twenty miles,
+   you would hardly ask me to stay here.
+
+   You certainly did say that if we would come down here with those
+   Melmottes we should be taken back to town, and you cannot be
+   surprised that we should be disappointed when we are told that we
+   are to be kept here after that. It makes me feel that life is so
+   hard that I can't bear it. I see other girls having such chances
+   when I have none, that sometimes I think I don't know what will
+   happen to me.' (This was the nearest approach which she dared to
+   make in writing to that threat which she had uttered to her mother
+   of running away with somebody.) 'I suppose that now it is useless
+   for me to ask you to take us all back this summer,--though it was
+   promised; but I hope you'll give me money to go up to the
+   Primeros. It would only be me and my maid. Julia Primero asked me
+   to stay with them when you first talked of not going up, and I
+   should not in the least object to reminding her, only it should be
+   done at once. Their house in Queen's Gate is very large, and I
+   know they've a room. They all ride, and I should want a horse; but
+   there would be nothing else, as they have plenty of carriages, and
+   the groom who rides with Julia would do for both of us. Pray
+   answer this at once, papa.
+
+   Your affectionate daughter,
+
+   GEORGIANA LONGESTAFFE.
+
+
+Mr Longestaffe did condescend to read the letter. He, though he had
+rebuked his mutinous daughter with stern severity, was also to some
+extent afraid of her. At a sudden burst he could stand upon his
+authority, and assume his position with parental dignity; but not the
+less did he dread the wearing toil of continued domestic strife. He
+thought that upon the whole his daughter liked a row in the house. If
+not, there surely would not be so many rows. He himself thoroughly
+hated them. He had not any very lively interest in life. He did not
+read much; he did not talk much; he was not specially fond of eating
+and drinking; he did not gamble, and he did not care for the farm. To
+stand about the door and hall and public rooms of the clubs to which he
+belonged and hear other men talk politics or scandal, was what he
+liked better than anything else in the world. But he was quite willing
+to give this up for the good of his family. He would be contented to
+drag through long listless days at Caversham, and endeavour to nurse
+his property, if only his daughter would allow it. By assuming a
+certain pomp in his living, which had been altogether unserviceable to
+himself and family, by besmearing his footmen's heads, and bewigging
+his coachmen, by aping, though never achieving, the grand ways of
+grander men than himself, he had run himself into debt. His own
+ambition had been a peerage, and he had thought that this was the way
+to get it. A separate property had come to his son from his wife's
+mother,--some £2,000 or £3,000 a year, magnified by the world into
+double its amount,--and the knowledge of this had for a time reconciled
+him to increasing the burdens on the family estates. He had been sure
+that Adolphus, when of age, would have consented to sell the Sussex
+property in order that the Suffolk property might be relieved. But
+Dolly was now in debt himself, and though in other respects the most
+careless of men, was always on his guard in any dealings with his
+father. He would not consent to the sale of the Sussex property unless
+half of the proceeds were to be at once handed to himself. The father
+could not bring himself to consent to this, but, while refusing it,
+found the troubles of the world very hard upon him. Melmotte had done
+something for him,--but in doing this Melmotte was very hard and
+tyrannical. Melmotte, when at Caversham, had looked into his affairs,
+and had told him very plainly that with such an establishment in the
+country he was not entitled to keep a house in town. Mr Longestaffe
+had then said something about his daughters,--something especially about
+Georgiana,--and Mr Melmotte had made a suggestion.
+
+Mr Longestaffe, when he read his daughter's appeal, did feel for her,
+in spite of his anger. But if there was one man he hated more than
+another, it was his neighbour Mr Primero; and if one woman, it was Mrs
+Primero. Primero, whom Mr Longestaffe regarded as quite an upstart,
+and anything but a gentleman, owed no man anything. He paid his
+tradesmen punctually, and never met the squire of Caversham without
+seeming to make a parade of his virtue in that direction. He had spent
+many thousands for his party in county elections and borough
+elections, and was now himself member for a metropolitan district. He
+was a radical, of course, or, according to Mr Longestaffe's view of
+his political conduct, acted and voted on the radical side because
+there was nothing to be got by voting and acting on the other. And now
+there had come into Suffolk a rumour that Mr Primero was to have a
+peerage. To others the rumour was incredible, but Mr Longestaffe
+believed it, and to Mr Longestaffe that belief was an agony. A Baron
+Bundlesham just at his door, and such a Baron Bundlesham, would be
+more than Mr Longestaffe could endure. It was quite impossible that
+his daughter should be entertained in London by the Primeros.
+
+But another suggestion had been made. Georgiana's letter had been laid
+on her father's table on the Monday morning. On the following morning,
+when there could have been no intercourse with London by letter, Lady
+Pomona called her younger daughter to her, and handed her a note to
+read. 'Your papa has this moment given it me. Of course you must judge
+for yourself.' This was the note;--
+
+
+   MY DEAR MR LONGESTAFFE,
+
+   As you seem determined not to return to London this season,
+   perhaps one of your young ladies would like to come to us. Mrs
+   Melmotte would be delighted to have Miss Georgiana for June and
+   July. If so, she need only give Mrs Melmotte a day's notice.
+
+   Yours truly,
+
+   AUGUSTUS MELMOTTE
+
+
+Georgiana, as soon as her eye had glanced down the one side of note
+paper on which this invitation was written, looked up for the date. It
+was without a date, and had, she felt sure, been left in her father's
+hands to be used as he might think fit. She breathed very hard. Both
+her father and mother had heard her speak of these Melmottes, and knew
+what she thought of them. There was an insolence in the very
+suggestion. But at the first moment she said nothing of that. 'Why
+shouldn't I go to the Primeros?' she asked.
+
+'Your father will not hear of it. He dislikes them especially.'
+
+'And I dislike the Melmottes. I dislike the Primeros of course, but
+they are not so bad as the Melmottes. That would be dreadful.'
+
+'You must judge for yourself; Georgiana.'
+
+'It is that,--or staying here?'
+
+'I think so, my dear.'
+
+'If papa chooses I don't know why I am to mind. It will be awfully
+disagreeable,--absolutely disgusting!'
+
+'She seemed to be very quiet.'
+
+'Pooh, mamma! Quiet! She was quiet here because she was afraid of us.
+She isn't yet used to be with people like us. She'll get over that if
+I'm in the house with her. And then she is, oh! so frightfully vulgar!
+She must have been the very sweeping of the gutters. Did you not see
+it, mamma? She could not even open her mouth, she was so ashamed of
+herself. I shouldn't wonder if they turned out to be something quite
+horrid. They make me shudder. Was there ever anything so dreadful to
+look at as he is?'
+
+'Everybody goes to them,' said Lady Pomona. 'The Duchess of Stevenage
+has been there over and over again, and so has Lady Auld Reekie.
+Everybody goes to their house.'
+
+'But everybody doesn't go and live with them. Oh, mamma,--to have to sit
+down to breakfast every day for ten weeks with that man and that
+woman!'
+
+'Perhaps they'll let you have your breakfast upstairs.'
+
+'But to have to go out with them;--walking into the room after her! Only
+think of it!'
+
+'But you are so anxious to be in London, my dear.'
+
+'Of course I am anxious. What other chance have I, mamma? And, oh
+dear, I am so tired of it! Pleasure, indeed! Papa talks of pleasure.
+If papa had to work half as hard as I do, I wonder what he'd think of
+it. I suppose I must do it. I know it will make me so ill that I shall
+almost die under it. Horrid, horrid people! And papa to propose it,
+who has always been so proud of everything,--who used to think so much
+of being with the right set'
+
+'Things are changed, Georgiana,' said the anxious mother.
+
+'Indeed they are when papa wants me to go and stay with people like
+that. Why, mamma, the apothecary in Bungay is a fine gentleman
+compared with Mr Melmotte, and his wife is a fine lady compared with
+Madame Melmotte. But I'll go. If papa chooses me to be seen with such
+people it is not my fault. There will be no disgracing one's self
+after that. I don't believe in the least that any decent man would
+propose to a girl in such a house, and you and papa must not be
+surprised if I take some horrid creature from the Stock Exchange. Papa
+has altered his ideas; and so, I suppose, I had better alter mine.'
+
+Georgiana did not speak to her father that night, but Lady Pomona
+informed Mr Longestaffe that Mr Melmotte's invitation was to be
+accepted. She herself would write a line to Madame Melmotte, and
+Georgiana would go up on the Friday following. 'I hope she'll like
+it,' said Mr Longestaffe. The poor man had no intention of irony. It
+was not in his nature to be severe after that fashion. But to poor
+Lady Pomona the words sounded very cruel. How could any one like to
+live in a house with Mr and Madame Melmotte!
+
+On the Friday morning there was a little conversation between the two
+sisters, just before Georgiana's departure to the railway station,
+which was almost touching. She had endeavoured to hold up her head as
+usual, but had failed. The thing that she was going to do cowed her
+even in the presence of her sister. 'Sophy, I do so envy you staying
+here.'
+
+'But it was you who were so determined to be in London.'
+
+'Yes; I was determined, and am determined. I've got to get myself
+settled somehow, and that can't be done down here. But you are not
+going to disgrace yourself.'
+
+'There's no disgrace in it, Georgey.'
+
+'Yes, there is. I believe the man to be a swindler and a thief; and I
+believe her to be anything low that you can think of. As to their
+pretensions to be gentlefolk, it is monstrous. The footmen and
+housemaids would be much better.'
+
+'Then don't go, Georgey.'
+
+'I must go. It's the only chance that is left. If I were to remain
+down here everybody would say that I was on the shelf. You are going
+to marry Whitstable, and you'll do very well. It isn't a big place,
+but there's no debt on it, and Whitstable himself isn't a bad sort of
+fellow.'
+
+'Is he, now?'
+
+'Of course he hasn't much to say for himself; for he's always at home.
+But he is a gentleman.'
+
+'That he certainly is.'
+
+'As for me I shall give over caring about gentlemen now. The first man
+that comes to me with four or five thousand a year, I'll take him,
+though he'd come out of Newgate or Bedlam. And I shall always say it
+has been papa's doing.'
+
+And so Georgiana Longestaffe went up to London and stayed with the
+Melmottes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII - LORD NIDDERDALE'S MORALITY
+
+
+It was very generally said in the city about this time that the Great
+South Central Pacific and Mexican Railway was the very best thing out.
+It was known that Mr Melmotte had gone into it with heart and hand.
+There were many who declared,--with gross injustice to the Great
+Fisker,--that the railway was Melmotte's own child, that he had
+invented it, advertised it, agitated it, and floated it; but it was not
+the less popular on that account. A railway from Salt Lake City to
+Mexico no doubt had much of the flavour of a castle in Spain. Our
+far-western American brethren are supposed to be imaginative. Mexico has
+not a reputation among us for commercial security, or that stability
+which produces its four, five, or six per cent, with the regularity of
+clockwork. But there was the Panama railway, a small affair which had
+paid twenty-five per cent.; and there was the great line across the
+continent to San Francisco, in which enormous fortunes had been made.
+It came to be believed that men with their eyes open might do as well
+with the Great South Central as had ever been done before with other
+speculations, and this belief was no doubt founded on Mr Melmotte's
+partiality for the enterprise. Mr Fisker had 'struck 'ile' when he
+induced his partner, Montague, to give him a note to the great man.
+
+Paul Montague himself, who cannot be said to have been a man having
+his eyes open, in the city sense of the word, could not learn how the
+thing was progressing. At the regular meetings of the Board, which
+never sat for above half an hour, two or three papers were read by
+Miles Grendall. Melmotte himself would speak a few slow words,
+intended to be cheery, and always indicative of triumph, and then
+everybody would agree to everything, somebody would sign something,
+and the 'Board' for that day would be over. To Paul Montague this was
+very unsatisfactory. More than once or twice he endeavoured to stay
+the proceedings, not as disapproving, but simply as desirous of being
+made to understand; but the silent scorn of his chairman put him out
+of countenance, and the opposition of his colleagues was a barrier
+which he was not strong enough to overcome. Lord Alfred Grendall would
+declare that he 'did not think all that was at all necessary.' Lord
+Nidderdale, with whom Montague had now become intimate at the
+Beargarden, would nudge him in the ribs and bid him hold his tongue.
+Mr Cohenlupe would make a little speech in fluent but broken English,
+assuring the Committee that everything was being done after the
+approved city fashion. Sir Felix, after the first two meetings, was
+never there. And thus Paul Montague, with a sorely burdened
+conscience, was carried along as one of the Directors of the Great
+South Central Pacific and Mexican Railway Company.
+
+I do not know whether the burden was made lighter to him or heavier, by
+the fact that the immediate pecuniary result was certainly very
+comfortable. The Company had not yet been in existence quite six
+weeks,--or at any rate Melmotte had not been connected with it above
+that time,--and it had already been suggested to him twice that he
+should sell fifty shares at £112 10s. He did not even yet know how many
+shares he possessed, but on both occasions he consented to the
+proposal, and on the following day received a cheque for £625,--that
+sum representing the profit over and above the original nominal price
+of £100 a share. The suggestion was made to him by Miles Grendall, and
+when he asked some questions as to the manner in which the shares had
+been allocated, he was told that all that would be arranged in
+accordance with the capital invested and must depend on the final
+disposition of the Californian property. 'But from what we see, old
+fellow,' said Miles, 'I don't think you have anything to fear. You seem
+to be about the best in of them all. Melmotte wouldn't advise you to
+sell out gradually, if he didn't look upon the thing as a certain
+income as far as you are concerned.'
+
+Paul Montague understood nothing of all this, and felt that he was
+standing on ground which might be blown from under his feet at any
+moment. The uncertainty, and what he feared might be the dishonesty,
+of the whole thing, made him often very miserable. In those wretched
+moments his conscience was asserting itself. But again there were
+times in which he also was almost triumphant, and in which he felt the
+delight of his wealth. Though he was snubbed at the Board when he
+wanted explanations, he received very great attention outside the
+board-room from those connected with the enterprise. Melmotte had
+asked him to dine two or three times. Mr Cohenlupe had begged him to
+go down to his little place at Rickmansworth,--an entreaty with which
+Montague had not as yet complied. Lord Alfred was always gracious to
+him, and Nidderdale and Carbury were evidently anxious to make him one
+of their set at the club. Many other houses became open to him from
+the same source. Though Melmotte was supposed to be the inventor of
+the railway, it was known that Fisker, Montague, and Montague were
+largely concerned in it, and it was known also that Paul Montague was
+one of the Montagues named in that firm. People, both in the City and
+the West End, seemed to think that he knew all about it, and treated
+him as though some of the manna falling from that heaven were at his
+disposition. There were results from this which were not unpleasing to
+the young man. He only partially resisted the temptation; and though
+determined at times to probe the affair to the bottom, was so
+determined only at times. The money was very pleasant to him. The
+period would now soon arrive before which he understood himself to be
+pledged not to make a distinct offer to Henrietta Carbury; and when
+that period should have been passed, it would be delightful to him to
+know that he was possessed of property sufficient to enable him to
+give a wife a comfortable home. In all his aspirations, and in all his
+fears, he was true to Hetta Carbury, and made her the centre of his
+hopes. Nevertheless, had Hetta known everything, it may be feared that
+she would have at any rate endeavoured to dismiss him from her heart.
+
+There was considerable uneasiness in the bosoms of others of the
+Directors, and a disposition to complain against the Grand Director,
+arising from a grievance altogether different from that which
+afflicted Montague. Neither had Sir Felix Carbury nor Lord Nidderdale
+been invited to sell shares, and consequently neither of them had
+received any remuneration for the use of their names. They knew well
+that Montague had sold shares. He was quite open on the subject, and
+had told Felix, whom he hoped some day to regard as his
+brother-in-law, exactly what shares he had sold, and for how much;--and
+the two men had endeavoured to make the matter intelligible between
+themselves. The original price of the shares being £100 each, and £12
+10s. a share having been paid to Montague as the premium, it was to be
+supposed that the original capital was re-invested in other shares.
+But each owned to the other that the matter was very complicated to
+him, and Montague could only write to Hamilton K. Fisker at San
+Francisco asking for explanation. As yet he had received no answer.
+But it was not the wealth flowing into Montague's hands which
+embittered Nidderdale and Carbury. They understood that he had really
+brought money into the concern, and was therefore entitled to take
+money out of it. Nor did it occur to them to grudge Melmotte his more
+noble pickings, for they knew how great a man was Melmotte. Of
+Cohenlupe's doings they heard nothing; but he was a regular city man,
+and had probably supplied funds. Cohenlupe was too deep for their
+inquiry. But they knew that Lord Alfred had sold shares, and had
+received the profit; and they knew also how utterly impossible it was
+that Lord Alfred should have produced capital. If Lord Alfred Grendall
+was entitled to plunder, why were not they? And if their day for
+plunder had not yet come, why Lord Alfred's? And if there was so much
+cause to fear Lord Alfred that it was necessary to throw him a bone,
+why should not they also make themselves feared? Lord Alfred passed
+all his time with Melmotte,--had, as these young men said, become
+Melmotte's head valet,--and therefore had to be paid. But that reason
+did not satisfy the young men.
+
+'You haven't sold any shares;--have you?' This question Sir Felix asked
+Lord Nidderdale at the club. Nidderdale was constant in his attendance
+at the Board, and Felix was not a little afraid that he might be
+jockied also by him.
+
+'Not a share.'
+
+'Nor got any profits?'
+
+'Not a shilling of any kind. As far as money is concerned my only
+transaction has been my part of the expense of Fisker's dinner.'
+
+'What do you get then, by going into the city?' asked Sir Felix.
+
+'I'm blessed if I know what I get. I suppose something will turn up
+some day.'
+
+'In the meantime, you know, there are our names. And Grendall is
+making a fortune out of it.'
+
+'Poor old duffer,' said his lordship. 'If he's doing so well, I think
+Miles ought to be made to pay up something of what he owes. I think we
+ought to tell him that we shall expect him to have the money ready
+when that bill of Vossner's comes round.'
+
+'Yes, by George; let's tell him that. Will you do it?'
+
+'Not that it will be the least good. It would be quite unnatural to
+him to pay anything.'
+
+'Fellows used to pay their gambling debts,' said Sir Felix, who was
+still in funds, and who still held a considerable assortment of
+I.O.U.'s.
+
+'They don't now,--unless they like it. How did a fellow manage before,
+if he hadn't got it?'
+
+'He went smash,' said Sir Felix, 'and disappeared and was never heard
+of any more. It was just the same as if he'd been found cheating. I
+believe a fellow might cheat now and nobody'd say anything!'
+
+'I shouldn't,' said Lord Nidderdale. 'What's the use of being beastly
+ill-natured? I'm not very good at saying my prayers, but I do think
+there's something in that bit about forgiving people. Of course
+cheating isn't very nice: and it isn't very nice for a fellow to play
+when he knows he can't pay; but I don't know that it's worse than
+getting drunk like Dolly Longestaffe, or quarrelling with everybody as
+Grasslough does,--or trying to marry some poor devil of a girl merely
+because she's got money. I believe in living in glass houses, but I
+don't believe in throwing stones. Do you ever read the Bible,
+Carbury?'
+
+'Read the Bible! Well;--yes;--no;--that is, I suppose, I used to do.'
+
+'I often think I shouldn't have been the first to pick up a stone and
+pitch it at that woman. Live and let;--live that's my motto.'
+
+'But you agree that we ought to do something about these shares?' said
+Sir Felix, thinking that this doctrine of forgiveness might be carried
+too far.
+
+'Oh, certainly. I'll let old Grendall live with all my heart; but then
+he ought to let me live too. Only, who's to bell the cat?'
+
+'What cat?'
+
+'It's no good our going to old Grendall,' said Lord Nidderdale, who
+had some understanding in the matter, 'nor yet to young Grendall. The
+one would only grunt and say nothing, and the other would tell every
+lie that came into his head. The cat in this matter I take to be our
+great master, Augustus Melmotte.'
+
+This little meeting occurred on the day after Felix Carbury's return
+from Suffolk, and at a time at which, as we know, it was the great
+duty of his life to get the consent of old Melmotte to his marriage
+with Marie Melmotte. In doing that he would have to put one bell on
+the cat, and he thought that for the present that was sufficient. In
+his heart of hearts he was afraid of Melmotte. But, then, as be knew
+very well, Nidderdale was intent on the same object. Nidderdale, he
+thought, was a very queer fellow. That talking about the Bible, and
+the forgiving of trespasses, was very queer; and that allusion to the
+marrying of heiresses very queer indeed. He knew that Nidderdale
+wanted to marry the heiress, and Nidderdale must also know that he
+wanted to marry her. And yet Nidderdale was indelicate enough to talk
+about it! And now the man asked who should bell the cat! 'You go there
+oftener than I do, and perhaps you could do it best,' said Sir Felix.
+
+'Go where?'
+
+'To the Board.'
+
+'But you're always at his house. He'd be civil to me, perhaps, because
+I'm a lord: but then, for the same reason, he'd think I was the bigger
+fool of the two.'
+
+'I don't see that at all,' said Sir Felix.
+
+'I ain't afraid of him, if you mean that,' continued Lord Nidderdale.
+'He's a wretched old reprobate, and I don't doubt but he'd skin you
+and me if he could make money off our carcases. But as he can't skin
+me, I'll have a shy at him. On the whole I think he rather likes me,
+because I've always been on the square with him. If it depended on
+him, you know, I should have the girl to-morrow.'
+
+'Would you?' Sir Felix did not at all mean to doubt his friend's
+assertion, but felt it hard to answer so very strange a statement.
+
+'But then she don't want me, and I ain't quite sure that I want her.
+Where the devil would a fellow find himself if the money wasn't all
+there?' Lord Nidderdale then sauntered away, leaving the baronet in a
+deep study of thought as to such a condition of things as that which
+his lordship had suggested. Where the mischief would he, Sir Felix
+Carbury, be, if he were to marry the girl, and then to find that the
+money was not all there?
+
+On the following Friday, which was the Board day, Nidderdale went to
+the great man's offices in Abchurch Lane, and so contrived that he
+walked with the great man to the Board meeting. Melmotte was always
+very gracious in his manner to Lord Nidderdale, but had never, up to
+this moment, had any speech with his proposed son-in-law about
+business. 'I wanted just to ask you something,' said the lord, hanging
+on the chairman's arm.
+
+'Anything you please, my lord.'
+
+'Don't you think that Carbury and I ought to have some shares to
+sell?'
+
+'No, I don't,--if you ask me.'
+
+'Oh;--I didn't know. But why shouldn't we as well as the others?'
+
+'Have you and Sir Felix put any money into it?'
+
+'Well, if you come to that, I don't suppose we have. How much has Lord
+Alfred put into it?'
+
+'I have taken shares for Lord Alfred,' said Melmotte, putting very
+heavy emphasis on the personal pronoun. 'If it suits me to advance
+money to Lord Alfred Grendall, I suppose I may do so without asking
+your lordship's consent, or that of Sir Felix Carbury.'
+
+'Oh, certainly. I don't want to make inquiry as to what you do with
+your money.'
+
+'I'm sure you don't, and, therefore, we won't say anything more about
+it. You wait awhile, Lord Nidderdale, and you'll find it will come all
+right. If you've got a few thousand pounds loose, and will put them
+into the concern, why, of course you can sell; and, if the shares are
+up, can sell at a profit. It's presumed just at present that, at some
+early day, you'll qualify for your directorship by doing so, and till
+that is done, the shares are allocated to you, but cannot be
+transferred to you.'
+
+'That's it, is it?' said Lord Nidderdale, pretending to understand all
+about it.
+
+'If things go on as we hope they will between you and Marie, you can
+have pretty nearly any number of shares that you please;--that is, if
+your father consents to a proper settlement.'
+
+'I hope it'll all go smooth, I'm sure,' said Nidderdale. 'Thank you;
+I'm ever so much obliged to you, and I'll explain it all to Carbury.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII - 'YES I'M A BARONET'
+
+
+How eager Lady Carbury was that her son should at once go in form to
+Marie's father and make his proposition may be easily understood. 'My
+dear Felix,' she said, standing over his bedside a little before noon,
+'pray don't put it off; you don't know how many slips there may be
+between the cup and the lip.'
+
+'It's everything to get him in a good humour,' pleaded Sir Felix.
+
+'But the young lady will feel that she is ill-used.'
+
+'There's no fear of that; she's all right. What am I to say to him
+about money? That's the question.'
+
+'I shouldn't think of dictating anything, Felix.'
+
+'Nidderdale, when he was on before, stipulated for a certain sum down;
+or his father did for him. So much cash was to be paid over before the
+ceremony, and it only went off because Nidderdale wanted the money to
+do what he liked with.'
+
+'You wouldn't mind having it settled?'
+
+'No;--I'd consent to that on condition that the money was paid down, and
+the income insured to me,--say £7,000 or £8,000 a year. I wouldn't do it
+for less, mother; it wouldn't be worth while.'
+
+'But you have nothing left of your own.'
+
+'I've got a throat that I can cut, and brains that I can blow out,'
+said the son, using an argument which he conceived might be
+efficacious with his mother; though, had she known him, she might have
+been sure that no man lived less likely to cut his own throat or blow
+out his own brains.
+
+'Oh, Felix! how brutal it is to speak to me in that way.'
+
+'It may be brutal; but you know, mother, business is business. You
+want me to marry this girl because of her money.'
+
+'You want to marry her yourself.'
+
+'I'm quite a philosopher about it. I want her money; and when one
+wants money, one should make up one's mind how much or how little one
+means to take,--and whether one is sure to get it.'
+
+'I don't think there can be any doubt.'
+
+'If I were to marry her, and if the money wasn't there, it would be
+very like cutting my throat then, mother. If a man plays and loses, he
+can play again and perhaps win; but when a fellow goes in for an
+heiress, and gets the wife without the money, he feels a little
+hampered you know.'
+
+'Of course he'd pay the money first.'
+
+'It's very well to say that. Of course he ought; but it would be
+rather awkward to refuse to go into church after everything had been
+arranged because the money hadn't been paid over. He's so clever, that
+he'd contrive that a man shouldn't know whether the money had been
+paid or not. You can't carry £10,000 a year about in your pocket, you
+know. If you'll go, mother, perhaps I might think of getting up.'
+
+Lady Carbury saw the danger, and turned over the affair on every side
+in her own mind. But she could also see the house in Grosvenor Square,
+the expenditure without limit, the congregating duchesses, the general
+acceptation of the people, and the mercantile celebrity of the man.
+And she could weigh against that the absolute pennilessness of her
+baronet-son. As he was, his condition was hopeless. Such a one must
+surely run some risk. The embarrassments of such a man as Lord
+Nidderdale were only temporary. There were the family estates, and the
+marquisate, and a golden future for him; but there was nothing coming
+to Felix in the future.
+
+All the goods he would ever have of his own, he had now;--position, a
+title, and a handsome face. Surely he could afford to risk something!
+Even the ruins and wreck of such wealth as that displayed in Grosvenor
+Square would be better than the baronet's present condition. And then,
+though it was possible that old Melmotte should be ruined some day,
+there could be no doubt as to his present means; and would it not be
+probable that he would make hay while the sun shone by securing his
+daughter's position? She visited her son again on the next morning,
+which was Sunday, and again tried to persuade him to the marriage. 'I
+think you should be content to run a little risk,' she said.
+
+Sir Felix had been unlucky at cards on Saturday night, and had taken,
+perhaps, a little too much wine. He was at any rate sulky, and in a
+humour to resent interference. 'I wish you'd leave me alone,' he said,
+'to manage my own business.'
+
+'Is it not my business too?'
+
+'No; you haven't got to marry her, and to put up with these people. I
+shall make up my mind what to do myself, and I don't want anybody to
+meddle with me.'
+
+'You ungrateful boy!'
+
+'I understand all about that. Of course I'm ungrateful when I don't do
+everything just as you wish it. You don't do any good. You only set me
+against it all.'
+
+'How do you expect to live, then? Are you always to be a burden on me
+and your sister? I wonder that you've no shame. Your cousin Roger is
+right. I will quit London altogether, and leave you to your own
+wretchedness.'
+
+'That's what Roger says; is it? I always thought Roger was a fellow of
+that sort.'
+
+'He is the best friend I have.' What would Roger have thought had he
+heard this assertion from Lady Carbury?
+
+'He's an ill-tempered, close-fisted, interfering cad, and if he
+meddles with my affairs again, I shall tell him what I think of him.
+Upon my word, mother, these little disputes up in my bedroom ain't
+very pleasant. Of course it's your house; but if you do allow me a
+room, I think you might let me have it to myself.' It was impossible
+for Lady Carbury, in her present mood, and in his present mood, to
+explain to him that in no other way and at no other time could she
+ever find him. If she waited till he came down to breakfast, he
+escaped from her in five minutes, and then he returned no more till
+some unholy hour in the morning. She was as good a pelican as ever
+allowed the blood to be torn from her own breast to satisfy the greed
+of her young, but she felt that she should have something back for her
+blood,--some return for her sacrifices. This chick would take all as
+long as there was a drop left, and then resent the fondling of the
+mother-bird as interference. Again and again there came upon her
+moments in which she thought that Roger Carbury was right. And yet she
+knew that when the time came she would not be able to be severe. She
+almost hated herself for the weakness of her own love,--but she
+acknowledged it. If he should fall utterly, she must fall with him. In
+spite of his cruelty, his callous hardness, his insolence to herself,
+his wickedness, and ruinous indifference to the future, she must cling
+to him to the last. All that she had done, and all that she had borne,
+all that she was doing and bearing,--was it not for his sake?
+
+Sir Felix had been in Grosvenor Square since his return from Carbury,
+and had seen Madame Melmotte and Marie; but he had seen them together,
+and not a word had been said about the engagement. He could not make
+much use of the elder woman. She was as gracious as was usual with
+her; but then she was never very gracious. She had told him that Miss
+Longestaffe was coming to her, which was a great bore, as the young
+lady was 'fatigante.' Upon this Marie had declared that she intended
+to like the young lady very much. 'Pooh!' said Madame Melmotte. 'You
+never like no person at all.' At this Marie had looked over to her
+lover and smiled. 'Ah, yes; that is all very well,--while it lasts; but
+you care for no friend.' From which Felix had judged that Madame
+Melmotte at any rate knew of his offer, and did not absolutely
+disapprove of it. On the Saturday he had received a note at his club
+from Marie. 'Come on Sunday at half-past two. You will find papa after
+lunch.' This was in his possession when his mother visited him in his
+bedroom, and he had determined to obey the behest. But he would not
+tell her of his intention, because he had drunk too much wine, and was
+sulky.
+
+At about three on Sunday he knocked at the door in Grosvenor Square
+and asked for the ladies. Up to the moment of his knocking,--even after
+he had knocked, and when the big porter was opening the door,--he
+intended to ask for Mr Melmotte; but at the last his courage failed
+him, and he was shown up into the drawing-room. There he found Madame
+Melmotte, Marie, Georgiana Longestaffe, and--Lord Nidderdale. Marie
+looked anxiously into his face, thinking that he had already been with
+her father. He slid into a chair close to Madame Melmotte, and
+endeavoured to seem at his ease. Lord Nidderdale continued his
+flirtation with Miss Longestaffe,--a flirtation which she carried on in
+a half whisper, wholly indifferent to her hostess or the young lady of
+the house. 'We know what brings you here,' she said.
+
+'I came on purpose to see you.'
+
+'I'm sure, Lord Nidderdale, you didn't expect to find me here.'
+
+'Lord bless you, I knew all about it, and came on purpose. It's a
+great institution; isn't it?'
+
+'It's an institution you mean to belong to,--permanently.'
+
+'No, indeed. I did have thoughts about it as fellows do when they talk
+of going into the army or to the bar; but I couldn't pass. That fellow
+there is the happy man. I shall go on coming here, because you're
+here. I don't think you'll like it a bit, you know.'
+
+'I don't suppose I shall, Lord Nidderdale.'
+
+After a while Marie contrived to be alone with her lover near one of
+the windows for a few seconds. 'Papa is downstairs in the book-room,'
+she said. 'Lord Alfred was told when he came that he was out.' It was
+evident to Sir Felix that everything was prepared for him. 'You go
+down,' she continued, 'and ask the man to show you into the
+book-room.'
+
+'Shall I come up again?'
+
+'No; but leave a note for me here under cover to Madame Didon.' Now
+Sir Felix was sufficiently at home in the house to know that Madame
+Didon was Madame Melmotte's own woman, commonly called Didon by the
+ladies of the family. 'Or send it by post,--under cover to her. That
+will be better. Go at once, now.' It certainly did seem to Sir Felix
+that the very nature of the girl was altered. But he went, just
+shaking hands with Madame Melmotte, and bowing to Miss Longestaffe.
+
+In a few moments he found himself with Mr Melmotte in the chamber
+which had been dignified with the name of the book-room. The great
+financier was accustomed to spend his Sunday afternoons here,
+generally with the company of Lord Alfred Grendall. It may be supposed
+that he was meditating on millions, and arranging the prices of money
+and funds for the New York, Paris, and London Exchanges. But on this
+occasion he was waked from slumber, which he seemed to have been
+enjoying with a cigar in his mouth. 'How do you do, Sir Felix?' he
+said. 'I suppose you want the ladies.'
+
+'I've just been in the drawing-room, but I thought I'd look in on you
+as I came down.' It immediately occurred to Melmotte that the baronet
+had come about his share of the plunder out of the railway, and he at
+once resolved to be stern in his manner, and perhaps rude also. He
+believed that he should thrive best by resenting any interference with
+him in his capacity as financier. He thought that he had risen high
+enough to venture on such conduct, and experience had told him that
+men who were themselves only half-plucked, might easily be cowed by a
+savage assumption of superiority. And he, too, had generally the
+advantage of understanding the game, while those with whom he was
+concerned did not, at any rate, more than half understand it. He
+could thus trade either on the timidity or on the ignorance of his
+colleagues. When neither of these sufficed to give him undisputed
+mastery, then he cultivated the cupidity of his friends. He liked
+young associates because they were more timid and less greedy than
+their elders. Lord Nidderdale's suggestions had soon been put at rest,
+and Mr Melmotte anticipated no greater difficulty with Sir Felix. Lord
+Alfred he had been obliged to buy.
+
+'I'm very glad to see you, and all that,' said Melmotte, assuming a
+certain exaltation of the eyebrows which they who had many dealings
+with him often found to be very disagreeable; 'but this is hardly a
+day for business, Sir Felix, nor,--yet a place for business.'
+
+Sir Felix wished himself at the Beargarden. He certainly had come
+about business,--business of a particular sort; but Marie had told him
+that of all days Sunday would be the best, and had also told him that
+her father was more likely to be in a good humour on Sunday than on
+any other day. Sir Felix felt that he had not been received with good
+humour. 'I didn't mean to intrude, Mr Melmotte,' he said.
+
+'I dare say not. I only thought I'd tell you. You might have been
+going to speak about that railway.'
+
+'Oh dear no.'
+
+'Your mother was saying to me down in the county that she hoped you
+attended to the business. I told her that there was nothing to attend
+to.'
+
+'My mother doesn't understand anything at all about it,' said Sir
+Felix.
+
+'Women never do. Well;--what can I do for you, now that you are here?'
+
+'Mr Melmotte, I'm come,--I'm come to;--in short, Mr Melmotte, I want to
+propose myself as a suitor for your daughter's hand.'
+
+'The d---- you do!'
+
+'Well, yes; and we hope you'll give us your consent.'
+
+'She knows you're coming, then?'
+
+'Yes;--she knows.'
+
+'And my wife,--does she know?'
+
+'I've never spoken to her about it. Perhaps Miss Melmotte has.'
+
+'And how long have you and she understood each other?'
+
+'I've been attached to her ever since I saw her,' said Sir Felix. 'I
+have indeed. I've spoken to her sometimes. You know how that kind of
+thing goes on.'
+
+'I'm blessed if I do. I know how it ought to go on. I know that when
+large sums of money are supposed to be concerned, the young man should
+speak to the father before he speaks to the girl. He's a fool if he
+don't, if he wants to get the father's money. So she has given you a
+promise?'
+
+'I don't know about a promise.'
+
+'Do you consider that she's engaged to you?'
+
+'Not if she's disposed to get out of it,' said Sir Felix, hoping that
+he might thus ingratiate himself with the father. 'Of course, I should
+be awfully disappointed.'
+
+'She has consented to your coming to me?'
+
+'Well, yes;--in a sort of a way. Of course she knows that it all depends
+on you.'
+
+'Not at all. She's of age. If she chooses to marry you she can marry
+you. If that's all you want, her consent is enough. You're a baronet,
+I believe?'
+
+'Oh, yes, I'm a baronet.'
+
+'And therefore you've come to your own property. You haven't to wait
+for your father to die, and I dare say you are indifferent about
+money.'
+
+This was a view of things which Sir Felix felt that he was bound to
+dispel, even at the risk of offending the father. 'Not exactly that,'
+he said. 'I suppose you will give your daughter a fortune, of course.'
+
+'Then I wonder you didn't come to me before you went to her. If my
+daughter marries to please me, I shall give her money, no doubt. How
+much is neither here nor there. If she marries to please herself,
+without considering me, I shan't give her a farthing.'
+
+'I had hoped that you might consent, Mr Melmotte.'
+
+'I've said nothing about that. It is possible. You're a man of fashion
+and have a title of your own,--and no doubt a property. If you'll show
+me that you've an income fit to maintain her, I'll think about it at
+any rate. What is your property, Sir Felix?'
+
+What could three or four thousand a year, or even five or six, matter
+to a man like Melmotte? It was thus that Sir Felix looked at it. When
+a man can hardly count his millions he ought not to ask questions
+about trifling sums of money. But the question had been asked, and the
+asking of such a question was no doubt within the prerogative of a
+proposed father-in-law. At any rate, it must be answered. For a moment
+it occurred to Sir Felix that he might conveniently tell the truth. It
+would be nasty for the moment, but there would be nothing to come
+after. Were he to do so he could not be dragged down lower and lower
+into the mire by cross-examinings. There might be an end of all his
+hopes, but there would at the same time be an end of all his misery.
+But he lacked the necessary courage. 'It isn't a large property, you
+know,' he said.
+
+'Not like the Marquis of Westminster's, I suppose,' said the horrid,
+big, rich scoundrel.
+
+'No;--not quite like that,' said Sir Felix, with a sickly laugh.
+
+'But you have got enough to support a baronet's title?'
+
+'That depends on how you want to support it,' said Sir Felix, putting
+off the evil day.
+
+'Where's your family seat?'
+
+'Carbury Manor, down in Suffolk, near the Longestaffes, is the old
+family place.'
+
+'That doesn't belong to you,' said Melmotte, very sharply.
+
+'No; not yet. But I'm the heir.'
+
+Perhaps if there is one thing in England more difficult than another
+to be understood by men born and bred out of England, it is the system
+under which titles and property descend together, or in various lines.
+The jurisdiction of our Courts of Law is complex, and so is the
+business of Parliament. But the rules regulating them, though
+anomalous, are easy to the memory compared with the mixed anomalies of
+the peerage and primogeniture. They who are brought up among it, learn
+it as children do a language, but strangers who begin the study in
+advanced life, seldom make themselves perfect in it. It was everything
+to Melmotte that he should understand the ways of the country which he
+had adopted; and when he did not understand, he was clever at hiding
+his ignorance. Now he was puzzled. He knew that Sir Felix was a
+baronet, and therefore presumed him to be the head of the family. He
+knew that Carbury Manor belonged to Roger Carbury, and he judged by
+the name it must be an old family property. And now the baronet
+declared that he was heir to the man who was simply an Esquire. 'Oh,
+the heir are you? But how did he get it before you? You're the head of
+the family?'
+
+'Yes, I am the head of the family, of course,' said Sir Felix, lying
+directly. 'But the place won't be mine till he dies. It would take a
+long time to explain it all.'
+
+'He's a young man, isn't he?'
+
+'No;--not what you'd call a young man. He isn't very old.'
+
+'If he were to marry and have children, how would it be then?'
+
+Sir Felix was beginning to think that he might have told the truth
+with discretion. 'I don't quite know how it would be. I have always
+understood that I am the heir. It's not very likely that he will
+marry.'
+
+'And in the meantime what is your own property?'
+
+'My father left me money in the funds and in railway stock,--and then I
+am my mother's heir.'
+
+'You have done me the honour of telling me that you wish to marry my
+daughter.'
+
+'Certainly.'
+
+'Would you then object to inform me the amount and nature of the
+income on which you intend to support your establishment as a married
+man? I fancy that the position you assume justifies the question on my
+part.' The bloated swindler, the vile city ruffian, was certainly
+taking a most ungenerous advantage of the young aspirant for wealth.
+It was then that Sir Felix felt his own position. Was he not a
+baronet, and a gentleman, and a very handsome fellow, and a man of the
+world who had been in a crack regiment? If this surfeited sponge of
+speculation, this crammed commercial cormorant, wanted more than that
+for his daughter why could he not say so without asking disgusting
+questions such as these,--questions which it was quite impossible that a
+gentleman should answer? Was it not sufficiently plain that any
+gentleman proposing to marry the daughter of such a man as Melmotte,
+must do so under the stress of pecuniary embarrassment? Would it not
+be an understood bargain that, as he provided the rank and position,
+she would provide the money? And yet the vulgar wretch took advantage
+of his assumed authority to ask these dreadful questions! Sir Felix
+stood silent, trying to look the man in the face, but failing;--wishing
+that he was well out of the house, and at the Beargarden. 'You don't
+seem to be very clear about your own circumstances, Sir Felix. Perhaps
+you will get your lawyer to write to me.'
+
+'Perhaps that will be best,' said the lover.
+
+'Either that, or to give it up. My daughter, no doubt, will have
+money; but money expects money.' At this moment Lord Alfred entered
+the room. 'You're very late to-day, Alfred. Why didn't you come as you
+said you would?'
+
+'I was here more than an hour ago, and they said you were out.'
+
+'I haven't been out of this room all day,--except to lunch. Good
+morning, Sir Felix. Ring the bell, Alfred, and we'll have a little
+soda and brandy.' Sir Felix had gone through some greeting with his
+fellow Director Lord Alfred, and at last succeeded in getting Melmotte
+to shake hands with him before he went. 'Do you know anything about
+that young fellow?' Melmotte asked as soon as the door was closed.
+
+'He's a baronet without a shilling;--was in the army and had to leave
+it,' said Lord Alfred as he buried his face in a big tumbler.
+
+'Without a shilling! I supposed so. But he's heir to a place down in
+Suffolk;--eh?'
+
+'Not a bit of it. It's the same name, and that's about all. Mr Carbury
+has a small property there, and he might give it to me to-morrow. I
+wish he would, though there isn't much of it. That young fellow has
+nothing to do with it whatever.'
+
+'Hasn't he now!' Mr Melmotte, as he speculated upon it, almost admired
+the young man's impudence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV - MILES GRENDALL'S TRIUMPH
+
+
+Sir Felix as he walked down to his club felt that he had been
+checkmated,--and was at the same time full of wrath at the insolence of
+the man who had so easily beaten him out of the field. As far as he
+could see, the game was over. No doubt he might marry Marie Melmotte.
+The father had told him so much himself, and he perfectly believed the
+truth of that oath which Marie had sworn. He did not doubt but that
+she'd stick to him close enough. She was in love with him, which was
+natural; and was a fool,--which was perhaps also natural. But romance
+was not the game which he was playing. People told him that when girls
+succeeded in marrying without their parents' consent, fathers were
+always constrained to forgive them at last. That might be the case
+with ordinary fathers. But Melmotte was decidedly not an ordinary
+father. He was,--so Sir Felix declared to himself,--perhaps the greatest
+brute ever created. Sir Felix could not but remember that elevation of
+the eyebrows, and the brazen forehead, and the hard mouth. He had
+found himself quite unable to stand up against Melmotte, and now he
+cursed and swore at the man as he was carried down to the Beargarden
+in a cab.
+
+But what should he do? Should he abandon Marie Melmotte altogether,
+never go to Grosvenor Square again, and drop the whole family,
+including the Great Mexican Railway? Then an idea occurred to him.
+Nidderdale had explained to him the result of his application for
+shares. 'You see we haven't bought any and therefore can't sell any.
+There seems to be something in that. I shall explain it all to my
+governor, and get him to go a thou' or two. If he sees his way to get
+the money back, he'd do that and let me have the difference.' On that
+Sunday afternoon Sir Felix thought over all this. 'Why shouldn't he
+"go a thou," and get the difference?' He made a mental calculation.
+£12 10s per £100! £125 for a thousand! and all paid in ready money. As
+far as Sir Felix could understand, directly the one operation had been
+perfected the thousand pounds would be available for another. As he
+looked into it with all his intelligence he thought that he began to
+perceive that that was the way in which the Melmottes of the world
+made their money. There was but one objection. He had not got the
+entire thousand pounds. But luck had been on the whole very good to
+him. He had more than the half of it in real money, lying at a bank in
+the city at which he had opened an account. And he had very much more
+than the remainder in I.O.U.'s from Dolly Longestaffe and Miles
+Grendall. In fact if every man had his own,--and his bosom glowed with
+indignation as he reflected on the injustice with which he was kept
+out of his own,--he could go into the city and take up his shares
+to-morrow, and still have ready money at his command. If he could do
+this, would not such conduct on his part be the best refutation of
+that charge of not having any fortune which Melmotte had brought
+against him? He would endeavour to work the money out of Dolly
+Longestaffe;--and he entertained an idea that though it would be
+impossible to get cash from Miles Grendall, he might use his claim
+against Miles in the city. Miles was Secretary to the Board, and might
+perhaps contrive that the money required for the shares should not be
+all ready money. Sir Felix was not very clear about it, but thought
+that he might possibly in this way use the indebtedness of Miles
+Grendall. 'How I do hate a fellow who does not pay up,' he said to
+himself as he sat alone in his club, waiting for some friend to come
+in. And he formed in his head Draconic laws which he would fain have
+executed upon men who lost money at play and did not pay. 'How the
+deuce fellows can look one in the face, is what I can't understand,'
+he said to himself.
+
+He thought over this great stroke of exhibiting himself to Melmotte as
+a capitalist till he gave up his idea of abandoning his suit. So he
+wrote a note to Marie Melmotte in accordance with her instructions.
+
+
+   DEAR M.,
+
+   Your father cut up very rough about money. Perhaps you had better
+   see him yourself; or would your mother?
+
+   Yours always,
+
+   F.
+
+
+This, as directed, he put under cover to Madame Didon,--Grosvenor
+Square, and posted at the club. He had put nothing at any rate in the
+letter which would commit him.
+
+There was generally on Sundays a house dinner, so called, at eight
+o'clock. Five or six men would sit down, and would always gamble
+afterwards. On this occasion Dolly Longestaffe sauntered in at about
+seven in quest of sherry and bitters, and Felix found the opportunity
+a good one to speak of his money. 'You couldn't cash your I.O.U.'s
+for me to-morrow;--could you?'
+
+'To-morrow! oh, lord!'
+
+'I'll tell you why. You know I'd tell you anything because I think we
+are really friends. I'm after that daughter of Melmotte's.'
+
+'I'm told you're to have her.'
+
+'I don't know about that. I mean to try at any rate. I've gone in you
+know for that Board in the city.'
+
+'I don't know anything about Boards, my boy.'
+
+'Yes, you do, Dolly. You remember that American fellow, Montague's
+friend, that was here one night and won all our money.'
+
+'The chap that had the waistcoat, and went away in the morning to
+California. Fancy starting to California after a hard night. I always
+wondered whether he got there alive.'
+
+'Well;--I can't explain to you all about it, because you hate those
+kinds of things.'
+
+'And because I am such a fool.'
+
+'I don't think you're a fool at all, but it would take a week. But
+it's absolutely essential for me to take up a lot of shares in the
+city to-morrow;--or perhaps Wednesday might do. I'm bound to pay for
+them, and old Melmotte will think that I'm utterly hard up if I don't.
+Indeed he said as much, and the only objection about me and this girl
+of his is as to money. Can't you understand, now, how important it may
+be?'
+
+'It's always important to have a lot of money. I know that.'
+
+'I shouldn't have gone in for this kind of thing if I hadn't thought I
+was sure. You know how much you owe me, don't you?'
+
+'Not in the least.'
+
+'It's about eleven hundred pounds!'
+
+'I shouldn't wonder.'
+
+'And Miles Grendall owes me two thousand. Grasslough and Nidderdale
+when they lose always pay with Miles's I.O.U.'s.'
+
+'So should I, if I had them.'
+
+'It'll come to that soon that there won't be any other stuff going,
+and they really ain't worth anything. I don't see what's the use of
+playing when this rubbish is shoved about the table. As for Grendall
+himself, he has no feeling about it.'
+
+'Not the least, I should say.'
+
+'You'll try and get me the money, won't you, Dolly?'
+
+'Melmotte has been at me twice. He wants me to agree to sell
+something. He's an old thief, and of course he means to rob me. You
+may tell him that if he'll let me have the money in the way I've
+proposed, you are to have a thousand pounds out of it. I don't know
+any other way.'
+
+'You could write me that,--in a business sort of way.'
+
+'I couldn't do that, Carbury. What's the use? I never write any
+letters, I can't do it. You tell him that; and if the sale comes off,
+I'll make it straight.'
+
+Miles Grendall also dined there, and after dinner, in the
+smoking-room, Sir Felix tried to do a little business with the
+Secretary. He began his operations with unusual courtesy, believing
+that the man must have some influence with the great distributor of
+shares.
+
+'I'm going to take up my shares in that company,' said Sir Felix.
+
+'Ah;--indeed.' And Miles enveloped himself from head to foot in smoke.
+
+'I didn't quite understand about it, but Nidderdale saw Melmotte and
+he has explained it, I think I shall go in for a couple of thousand on
+Wednesday.'
+
+'Oh;--ah.'
+
+'It will be the proper thing to do--won't it?'
+
+'Very good--thing to do!' Miles Grendall smoked harder and harder as
+the suggestions were made to him.
+
+'Is it always ready money?'
+
+'Always ready money,' said Miles shaking his head, as though in
+reprobation of so abominable an institution.
+
+'I suppose they allow some time to their own Directors, if a deposit,
+say 50 per cent., is made for the shares?'
+
+'They'll give you half the number, which would come to the same
+thing.'
+
+Sir Felix turned this over in his mind, but let him look at it as he
+would, could not see the truth of his companion's remark. 'You know I
+should want to sell again,--for the rise.'
+
+'Oh; you'll want to sell again.'
+
+'And therefore I must have the full number.'
+
+'You could sell half the number, you know,' said Miles.
+
+'I'm determined to begin with ten shares;--that's £1,000. Well;--I
+have got the money, but I don't want to draw out so much. Couldn't
+you manage for me that I should get them on paying 50 per cent,
+down?'
+
+'Melmotte does all that himself.'
+
+'You could explain, you know, that you are a little short in your own
+payments to me.' This Sir Felix said, thinking it to be a delicate
+mode of introducing his claim upon the Secretary.
+
+'That's private,' said Miles frowning.
+
+'Of course it's private; but if you would pay me the money I could buy
+the shares with it though they are public.'
+
+'I don't think we could mix the two things together, Carbury.'
+
+'You can't help me?'
+
+'Not in that way.'
+
+'Then, when the deuce will you pay me what you owe me?' Sir Felix was
+driven to this plain expression of his demand by the impassibility of
+his debtor. Here was a man who did not pay his debts of honour, who
+did not even propose any arrangement for paying them, and who yet had
+the impudence to talk of not mixing up private matters with affairs of
+business! It made the young baronet very sick. Miles Grendall smoked
+on in silence. There was a difficulty in answering the question, and
+he therefore made no answer. 'Do you know how much you owe me?'
+continued the baronet, determined to persist now that he had commenced
+the attack. There was a little crowd of other men in the room, and the
+conversation about the shares had been commenced in an undertone.
+These two last questions Sir Felix had asked in a whisper, but his
+countenance showed plainly that he was speaking in anger.
+
+'Of course I know,' said Miles.
+
+'Well?'
+
+'I'm not going to talk about it here,'
+
+'Not going to talk about it here?'
+
+'No. This is a public room.'
+
+'I am going to talk about it,' said Sir Felix, raising his voice.
+
+'Will any fellow come upstairs and play a game of billiards?' said
+Miles Grendall rising from his chair. Then he walked slowly out of the
+room, leaving Sir Felix to take what revenge he pleased. For a moment
+Sir Felix thought that he would expose the transaction to the whole
+room; but he was afraid, thinking that Miles Grendall was a more
+popular man than himself.
+
+It was Sunday night; but not the less were the gamblers assembled in
+the card-room at about eleven. Dolly Longestaffe was there, and with
+him the two lords, and Sir Felix, and Miles Grendall of course, and, I
+regret to say, a much better man than any of them, Paul Montague. Sir
+Felix had doubted much as to the propriety of joining the party. What
+was the use of playing with a man who seemed by general consent to be
+liberated from any obligation to pay? But then if he did not play with
+him, where should he find another gambling table? They began with
+whist, but soon laid that aside and devoted themselves to loo. The
+least respected man in that confraternity was Grendall, and yet it was
+in compliance with the persistency of his suggestion that they gave up
+the nobler game. 'Let's stick to whist; I like cutting out,' said
+Grasslough. 'It's much more jolly having nothing to do now and then;
+one can always bet,' said Dolly shortly afterwards. 'I hate loo,' said
+Sir Felix in answer to a third application. 'I like whist best,' said
+Nidderdale, 'but I'll play anything anybody likes,--pitch and toss if
+you please.' But Miles Grendall had his way, and loo was the game.
+
+At about two o'clock Grendall was the only winner. The play had not
+been very high, but nevertheless he had won largely. Whenever a large
+pool had collected itself he swept it into his garners. The men
+opposed to him hardly grudged him this stroke of luck. He had hitherto
+been unlucky; and they were able to pay him with his own paper, which
+was so valueless that they parted with it without a pang. Even Dolly
+Longestaffe seemed to have a supply of it. The only man there not so
+furnished was Montague, and while the sums won were quite small he was
+allowed to pay with cash. But to Sir Felix it was frightful to see
+ready money going over to Miles Grendall, as under no circumstances
+could it be got back from him. 'Montague,' he said, 'just change these
+for the time. I'll take them back, if you still have them when we've
+done.' And he handed a lot of Miles's paper across the table. The
+result of course would be that Felix would receive so much real money,
+and that Miles would get back more of his own worthless paper. To
+Montague it would make no difference, and he did as he was asked,--or
+rather was preparing to do so, when Miles interfered. On what
+principle of justice could Sir Felix come between him and another man?
+'I don't understand this kind of thing,' he said. 'When I win from
+you, Carbury, I'll take my I.O.U.'s, as long as you have any.'
+
+'By George, that's kind.'
+
+'But I won't have them handed about the table to be changed.'
+
+'Pay them yourself, then,' said Sir Felix, laying a handful down on
+the table.
+
+'Don't let's have a row,' said Lord Nidderdale.
+
+'Carbury is always making a row,' said Grasslough.
+
+'Of course he is,' said Miles Grendall.
+
+'I don't make more row than anybody else; but I do say that as we have
+such a lot of these things, and as we all know that we don't get cash
+for them as we want it, Grendall shouldn't take money and walk off
+with it.'
+
+'Who is walking off?' said Miles.
+
+'And why should you be entitled to Montague's money more than any of
+us?' asked Grasslough.
+
+The matter was debated, and was thus decided. It was not to be allowed
+that Miles's paper should be negotiated at the table in the manner
+that Sir Felix had attempted to adopt. But Mr Grendall pledged his
+honour that when they broke up the party he would apply any money that
+he might have won to the redemption of his I.O.U.'s, paying a regular
+percentage to the holders of them. The decision made Sir Felix very
+cross. He knew that their condition at six or seven in the morning
+would not be favourable to such commercial accuracy,--which indeed would
+require an accountant to effect it; and he felt sure that Miles, if
+still a winner, would in truth walk off with the ready money.
+
+For a considerable time he did not speak, and became very moderate in
+his play, tossing his cards about, almost always losing, but losing a
+minimum, and watching the board. He was sitting next to Grendall, and
+he thought that he observed that his neighbour moved his chair farther
+and farther away from him, and nearer to Dolly Longestaffe, who was
+next to him on the other side. This went on for an hour, during which
+Grendall still won,--and won heavily from Paul Montague. 'I never saw a
+fellow have such a run of luck in my life,' said Grasslough. 'You've
+had two trumps dealt to you every hand almost since we began!'
+
+'Ever so many hands I haven't played at all,' said Miles.
+
+'You've always won when I've played,' said Dolly. 'I've been looed
+every time.'
+
+'You oughtn't to begrudge me one run of luck, when I've lost so much,'
+said Miles, who, since he began, had destroyed paper counters of his
+own making, supposed to represent considerably above £1,000, and had
+also,--which was of infinitely greater concern to him,--received an amount
+of ready money which was quite a godsend to him.
+
+'What's the good of talking about it?' said Nidderdale. 'I hate all
+this row about winning and losing. Let's go on, or go to bed.' The
+idea of going to bed was absurd. So they went on. Sir Felix, however,
+hardly spoke at all, played very little, and watched Miles Grendall
+without seeming to watch him. At last he felt certain that he saw a
+card go into the man's sleeve, and remembered at the moment that the
+winner had owed his success to a continued run of aces. He was tempted
+to rush at once upon the player, and catch the card on his person. But
+he feared. Grendall was a big man; and where would he be if there
+should be no card there? And then, in the scramble, there would
+certainly be at any rate a doubt. And he knew that the men around him
+would be most unwilling to believe such an accusation. Grasslough was
+Grendall's friend, and Nidderdale and Dolly Longestaffe would
+infinitely rather be cheated than suspect any one of their own set of
+cheating them. He feared both the violence of the man he should
+accuse, and also the unpassive good humour of the others. He let that
+opportunity pass by, again watched, and again saw the card abstracted.
+Thrice he saw it, till it was wonderful to him that others also should
+not see it. As often as the deal came round, the man did it. Felix
+watched more closely, and was certain that in each round the man had
+an ace at least once. It seemed to him that nothing could be easier.
+At last he pleaded a headache, got up, and went away, leaving the
+others playing. He had lost nearly a thousand pounds, but it had been
+all in paper. 'There's something the matter with that fellow,' said
+Grasslough.
+
+'There's always something the matter with him, I think,' said Miles.
+'He is so awfully greedy about his money.' Miles had become somewhat
+triumphant in his success.
+
+'The less said about that, Grendall, the better,' said Nidderdale. 'We
+have put up with a good deal, you know, and he has put up with as much
+as anybody.' Miles was cowed at once, and went on dealing without
+manoeuvring a card on that hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV - IN GROSVENOR SQUARE
+
+
+Marie Melmotte was hardly satisfied with the note which she received
+from Didon early on the Monday morning. With a volubility of French
+eloquence, Didon declared that she would be turned out of the house if
+either Monsieur or Madame were to know what she was doing. Marie told
+her that Madame would certainly never dismiss her. 'Well, perhaps not
+Madame,' said Didon, who knew too much about Madame to be dismissed;
+'but Monsieur!' Marie declared that by no possibility could Monsieur
+know anything about it. In that house nobody ever told anything to
+Monsieur. He was regarded as the general enemy, against whom the whole
+household was always making ambushes, always firing guns from behind
+rocks and trees. It is not a pleasant condition for a master of a
+house; but in this house the master at any rate knew how he was
+placed. It never occurred to him to trust any one. Of course his
+daughter might run away. But who would run away with her without
+money? And there could be no money except from him. He knew himself
+and his own strength. He was not the man to forgive a girl, and then
+bestow his wealth on the Lothario who had injured him. His daughter
+was valuable to him because she might make him the father-in-law of a
+Marquis or an Earl; but the higher that he rose without such
+assistance, the less need had he of his daughter's aid. Lord Alfred
+was certainly very useful to him. Lord Alfred had whispered into his
+ear that by certain conduct and by certain uses of his money, he
+himself might be made a baronet. 'But if they should say that I'm not
+an Englishman?' suggested Melmotte. Lord Alfred had explained that it
+was not necessary that he should have been born in England, or even
+that he should have an English name. No questions would be asked. Let
+him first get into Parliament, and then spend a little money on the
+proper side,--by which Lord Alfred meant the Conservative side,--and be
+munificent in his entertainments, and the baronetcy would be almost a
+matter of course. Indeed, there was no knowing what honours might not
+be achieved in the present days by money scattered with a liberal
+hand. In these conversations, Melmotte would speak of his money and
+power of making money as though they were unlimited,--and Lord Alfred
+believed him.
+
+Marie was dissatisfied with her letter,--not because it described her
+father as 'cutting up rough.' To her who had known her father all her
+life that was a matter of course. But there was no word of love in the
+note. An impassioned correspondence carried on through Didon would be
+delightful to her. She was quite capable of loving, and she did love
+the young man. She had, no doubt, consented to accept the addresses of
+others whom she did not love,--but this she had done at the moment
+almost of her first introduction to the marvellous world in which she
+was now living. As days went on she ceased to be a child, and her
+courage grew within her. She became conscious of an identity of her
+own, which feeling was produced in great part by the contempt which
+accompanied her increasing familiarity with grand people and grand
+names and grand things. She was no longer afraid of saying No to the
+Nidderdales on account of any awe of them personally. It might be that
+she should acknowledge herself to be obliged to obey her father,
+though she was drifting away even from the sense of that obligation.
+Had her mind been as it was now when Lord Nidderdale first came to
+her, she might indeed have loved him, who, as a man, was infinitely
+better than Sir Felix, and who, had he thought it to be necessary,
+would have put some grace into his lovemaking. But at that time she
+had been childish. He, finding her to be a child, had hardly spoken to
+her. And she, child though she was, had resented such usage. But a few
+months in London had changed all this, and now she was a child no
+longer. She was in love with Sir Felix, and had told her love.
+Whatever difficulties there might be, she intended to be true. If
+necessary, she would run away. Sir Felix was her idol, and she
+abandoned herself to its worship. But she desired that her idol should
+be of flesh and blood, and not of wood. She was at first half-inclined
+to be angry; but as she sat with his letter in her hand, she
+remembered that he did not know Didon as well as she did, and that he
+might be afraid to trust his raptures to such custody. She could write
+to him at his club, and having no such fear, she could write warmly.
+
+
+   Grosvenor Square. Early Monday Morning.
+
+   DEAREST, DEAREST FELIX,
+
+   I have just got your note;--such a scrap! Of course papa would
+   talk about money because he never thinks of anything else. I don't
+   know anything about money, and I don't care in the least how much
+   you have got. Papa has got plenty, and I think he would give us
+   some if we were once married. I have told mamma, but mamma is
+   always afraid of everything. Papa is very cross to her sometimes;--
+   more so than to me. I will try to tell him, though I can't always
+   get at him. I very often hardly see him all day long. But I don't
+   mean to be afraid of him, and will tell him that on my word and
+   honour I will never marry any one except you. I don't think he
+   will beat me, but if he does, I'll bear it,--for your sake. He does
+   beat mamma sometimes, I know.
+
+   You can write to me quite safely through Didon. I think if you
+   would call some day and give her something, it would help, as she
+   is very fond of money. Do write and tell me that you love me. I
+   love you better than anything in the world, and I will never,--never
+   give you up. I suppose you can come and call,--unless papa tells the
+   man in the hall not to let you in. I'll find that out from Didon,
+   but I can't do it before sending this letter. Papa dined out
+   yesterday somewhere with that Lord Alfred, so I haven't seen him
+   since you were here. I never see him before he goes into the city
+   in the morning. Now I am going downstairs to breakfast with mamma
+   and that Miss Longestaffe. She is a stuck-up thing. Didn't you
+   think so at Caversham?
+
+   Good-bye. You are my own, own, own darling Felix.
+
+   And I am your own, own affectionate ladylove,
+
+   MARIE.
+
+
+Sir Felix when he read this letter at his club in the afternoon of the
+Monday, turned up his nose and shook his head. He thought if there
+were much of that kind of thing to be done, he could not go on with
+it, even though the marriage were certain, and the money secure. 'What
+an infernal little ass!' he said to himself as he crumpled the letter
+up.
+
+Marie having intrusted her letter to Didon, together with a little
+present of gloves and shoes, went down to breakfast. Her mother was
+the first there, and Miss Longestaffe soon followed. That lady, when
+she found that she was not expected to breakfast with the master of
+the house, abandoned the idea of having her meal sent to her in her
+own room. Madame Melmotte she must endure. With Madame Melmotte she
+had to go out in the carriage every day. Indeed she could only go to
+those parties to which Madame Melmotte accompanied her. If the London
+season was to be of any use at all, she must accustom herself to the
+companionship of Madame Melmotte. The man kept himself very much apart
+from her. She met him only at dinner, and that not often. Madame
+Melmotte was very bad; but she was silent, and seemed to understand
+that her guest was only her guest as a matter of business.
+
+But Miss Longestaffe already perceived that her old acquaintances were
+changed in their manner to her. She had written to her dear friend
+Lady Monogram, whom she had known intimately as Miss Triplex, and
+whose marriage with Sir Damask Monogram had been splendid preferment,
+telling how she had been kept down in Suffolk at the time of her
+friend's last party, and how she had been driven to consent to return
+to London as the guest of Madame Melmotte. She hoped her friend would
+not throw her off on that account. She had been very affectionate,
+with a poor attempt at fun, and rather humble. Georgiana Longestaffe
+had never been humble before; but the Monograms were people so much
+thought of and in such an excellent set! She would do anything rather
+then lose the Monograms. But it was of no use. She had been humble in
+vain, for Lady Monogram had not even answered her note. 'She never
+really cared for anybody but herself,' Georgiana said in her wretched
+solitude. Then, too, she had found that Lord Nidderdale's manner to
+her had been quite changed. She was not a fool, and could read these
+signs with sufficient accuracy. There had been little flirtations
+between her and Nidderdale,--meaning nothing, as every one knew that
+Nidderdale must marry money; but in none of them had he spoken to her
+as he spoke when he met her in Madame Melmotte's drawing-room. She
+could see it in the faces of people as they greeted her in the park,--
+especially in the faces of the men. She had always carried herself
+with a certain high demeanour, and had been able to maintain it. All
+that was now gone from her, and she knew it. Though the thing was as
+yet but a few days old she understood that others understood that she
+had degraded herself. 'What's all this about?' Lord Grasslough had
+said to her, seeing her come into a room behind Madame Melmotte. She
+had simpered, had tried to laugh, and had then turned away her face.
+
+'Impudent scoundrel!' she said to herself, knowing that a fortnight
+ago he would not have dared to address her in such a tone.
+
+A day or two afterwards an occurrence took place worthy of
+commemoration. Dolly Longestaffe called on his sister! His mind must
+have been much stirred when he allowed himself to be moved to such
+uncommon action. He came too at a very early hour, not much after
+noon, when it was his custom to be eating his breakfast in bed. He
+declared at once to the servant that he did not wish to see Madame
+Melmotte or any of the family. He had called to see his sister. He was
+therefore shown into a separate room where Georgiana joined him.
+
+'What's all this about?'
+
+She tried to laugh as she tossed her head. 'What brings you here, I
+wonder? This is quite an unexpected compliment.'
+
+'My being here doesn't matter. I can go anywhere without doing much
+harm. Why are you staying with these people?'
+
+'Ask papa.'
+
+'I don't suppose he sent you here?'
+
+'That's just what he did do.'
+
+'You needn't have come, I suppose, unless you liked it. Is it because
+they are none of them coming up?'
+
+'Exactly that, Dolly. What a wonderful young man you are for
+guessing!'
+
+'Don't you feel ashamed of yourself?'
+
+'No;--not a bit.'
+
+'Then I feel ashamed for you.'
+
+'Everybody comes here.'
+
+'No;--everybody does not come and stay here as you are doing. Everybody
+doesn't make themselves a part of the family. I have heard of nobody
+doing it except you. I thought you used to think so much of yourself.'
+
+'I think as much of myself as ever I did,' said Georgiana, hardly able
+to restrain her tears.
+
+'I can tell you nobody else will think much of you if you remain here.
+I could hardly believe it when Nidderdale told me.'
+
+'What did he say, Dolly?'
+
+'He didn't say much to me, but I could see what he thought. And of
+course everybody thinks the same. How you can like the people yourself
+is what I can't understand!'
+
+'I don't like them,--I hate them.'
+
+'Then why do you come and live with them?'
+
+'Oh, Dolly, it is impossible to make you understand. A man is so
+different. You can go just where you please, and do what you like. And
+if you're short of money, people will give you credit. And you can
+live by yourself and all that sort of thing. How should you like to be
+shut up down at Caversham all the season?'
+
+'I shouldn't mind it,--only for the governor.'
+
+'You have got a property of your own. Your fortune is made for you.
+What is to become of me?'
+
+'You mean about marrying?'
+
+'I mean altogether,' said the poor girl, unable to be quite as
+explicit with her brother, as she had been with her father, and
+mother, and sister. 'Of course I have to think of myself.'
+
+'I don't see how the Melmottes are to help you. The long and the short
+of it is, you oughtn't to be here. It's not often I interfere, but
+when I heard it I thought I'd come and tell you. I shall write to the
+governor, and tell him too. He should have known better.'
+
+'Don't write to papa, Dolly!'
+
+'Yes, I shall. I am not going to see everything going to the devil
+without saying a word. Good-bye.'
+
+As soon as he had left he hurried down to some club that was open,--not
+the Beargarden, as it was long before the Beargarden hours,--and
+actually did write a letter to his father.
+
+
+'MY DEAR FATHER,
+
+I have seen Georgiana at Mr Melmotte's house. She ought not to be
+there. I suppose you don't know it, but everybody says he's a
+swindler. For the sake of the family I hope you will get her home
+again. It seems to me that Bruton Street is the proper place for the
+girls at this time of the year.
+
+Your affectionate son,
+
+ADOLPHUS LONGESTAFFE.'
+
+
+This letter fell upon old Mr Longestaffe at Caversham like a
+thunderbolt. It was marvellous to him that his son should have been
+instigated to write a letter. The Melmottes must be very bad indeed,--
+worse than he had thought,--or their iniquities would not have brought
+about such energy as this. But the passage which angered him most was
+that which told him that he ought to have taken his family back to
+town. This had come from his son, who had refused to do anything to
+help him in his difficulties.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI - MRS HURTLE
+
+
+Paul Montague at this time lived in comfortable lodgings in Sackville
+Street, and ostensibly the world was going well with him. But he had
+many troubles. His troubles in reference to Fisker, Montague, and
+Montague,--and also their consolation,--are already known to the reader.
+He was troubled too about his love, though when he allowed his mind to
+expatiate on the success of the great railway he would venture to hope
+that on that side his life might perhaps be blessed. Henrietta had at
+any rate as yet showed no disposition to accept her cousin's offer. He
+was troubled too about the gambling, which he disliked, knowing that
+in that direction there might be speedy ruin, and yet returning to it
+from day to day in spite of his own conscience. But there was yet
+another trouble which culminated just at this time. One morning, not
+long after that Sunday night which had been so wretchedly spent at the
+Beargarden, he got into a cab in Piccadilly and had himself taken to a
+certain address in Islington. Here he knocked at a decent, modest door,--
+at such a house as men live in with two or three hundred a year,--and
+asked for Mrs Hurtle. Yes;--Mrs Hurtle lodged there, and he was shown
+into the drawing-room. There he stood by the round table for a quarter
+of an hour turning over the lodging-house books which lay there, and
+then Mrs Hurtle entered the room. Mrs Hurtle was a widow whom he had
+once promised to marry. 'Paul,' she said, with a quick, sharp voice,
+but with a voice which could be very pleasant when she pleased,--taking
+him by the hand as she spoke, 'Paul, say that that letter of yours
+must go for nothing. Say that it shall be so, and I will forgive
+everything.'
+
+'I cannot say that,' he replied, laying his hand on hers.
+
+'You cannot say it! What do you mean? Will you dare to tell me that
+your promises to me are to go for nothing?'
+
+'Things are changed,' said Paul hoarsely. He had come thither at her
+bidding because he had felt that to remain away would be cowardly, but
+the meeting was inexpressibly painful to him. He did think that he had
+sufficient excuse for breaking his troth to this woman, but the
+justification of his conduct was founded on reasons which he hardly
+knew how to plead to her. He had heard that of her past life which,
+had he heard it before, would have saved him from his present
+difficulty. But he had loved her,--did love her in a certain fashion;
+and her offences, such as they were, did not debar her from his
+sympathies.
+
+'How are they changed? I am two years older, if you mean that.' As she
+said this she looked round at the glass, as though to see whether she
+was become so haggard with age as to be unfit to become this man's
+wife. She was very lovely, with a kind of beauty which we seldom see
+now. In these days men regard the form and outward lines of a woman's
+face and figure more than either the colour or the expression, and
+women fit themselves to men's eyes. With padding and false hair
+without limit a figure may be constructed of almost any dimensions.
+The sculptors who construct them, male and female, hairdressers and
+milliners, are very skilful, and figures are constructed of noble
+dimensions, sometimes with voluptuous expansion, sometimes with
+classic reticence, sometimes with dishevelled negligence which becomes
+very dishevelled indeed when long out of the sculptor's hands. Colours
+indeed are added, but not the colours which we used to love. The taste
+for flesh and blood has for the day given place to an appetite for
+horsehair and pearl powder. But Mrs Hurtle was not a beauty after the
+present fashion. She was very dark,--a dark brunette,--with large round
+blue eyes, that could indeed be soft, but could also be very severe.
+Her silken hair, almost black, hung in a thousand curls all round her
+head and neck. Her cheeks and lips and neck were full, and the blood
+would come and go, giving a varying expression to her face with almost
+every word she spoke. Her nose also was full, and had something of the
+pug. But nevertheless it was a nose which any man who loved her would
+swear to be perfect. Her mouth was large, and she rarely showed her
+teeth. Her chin was full, marked by a large dimple, and as it ran down
+to her neck was beginning to form a second. Her bust was full and
+beautifully shaped; but she invariably dressed as though she were
+oblivious, or at any rate neglectful, of her own charms. Her dress, as
+Montague had seen her, was always black,--not a sad weeping widow's
+garment, but silk or woollen or cotton as the case might be, always
+new, always nice, always well-fitting, and most especially always
+simple. She was certainly a most beautiful woman, and she knew it. She
+looked as though she knew it,--but only after that fashion in which a
+woman ought to know it. Of her age she had never spoken to Montague.
+She was in truth over thirty,--perhaps almost as near thirty-five as
+thirty. But she was one of those whom years hardly seem to touch.
+
+'You are beautiful as ever you were,' he said.
+
+'Psha! Do not tell me of that. I care nothing for my beauty unless it
+can bind me to your love. Sit down there and tell me what it means.'
+Then she let go his hand, and seated herself opposite to the chair
+which she gave him.
+
+'I told you in my letter.'
+
+'You told me nothing in your letter,--except that it was to be--off. Why
+is it to be--off? Do you not love me?' Then she threw herself upon her
+knees, and leaned upon his, and looked up in his face. 'Paul,' she
+said, 'I have come across the Atlantic on purpose to see you,--after so
+many months,--and will you not give me one kiss? Even though you should
+leave me for ever, give me one kiss.' Of course he kissed her, not
+once, but with a long, warm embrace. How could it have been otherwise?
+With all his heart he wished that she would have remained away, but
+while she knelt there at his feet what could he do but embrace her?
+'Now tell me everything,' she said, seating herself on a footstool at
+his feet.
+
+She certainly did not look like a woman whom a man might ill-treat or
+scorn with impunity. Paul felt, even while she was lavishing her
+caresses upon him, that she might too probably turn and rend him
+before he left her. He had known something of her temper before,
+though he had also known the truth and warmth of her love. He had
+travelled with her from San Francisco to England, and she had been
+very good to him in illness, in distress of mind and in poverty,--for he
+had been almost penniless in New York. When they landed at Liverpool
+they were engaged as man and wife. He had told her all his affairs,
+had given her the whole history of his life. This was before his
+second journey to America, when Hamilton K. Fisker was unknown to him.
+But she had told him little or nothing of her own life,--but that she
+was a widow, and that she was travelling to Paris on business. When he
+left her at the London railway station, from which she started for
+Dover, he was full of all a lover's ardour. He had offered to go with
+her, but that she had declined. But when he remembered that he must
+certainly tell his friend Roger of his engagement, and remembered also
+how little he knew of the lady to whom he was engaged, he became
+embarrassed. What were her means he did not know. He did know that she
+was some years older than himself, and that she had spoken hardly a
+word to him of her own family. She had indeed said that her husband
+had been one of the greatest miscreants ever created, and had spoken
+of her release from him as the one blessing she had known before she
+had met Paul Montague. But it was only when he thought of all this
+after she had left him,--only when he reflected how bald was the story
+which he must tell Roger Carbury,--that he became dismayed. Such had
+been the woman's cleverness, such her charm, so great her power of
+adaptation, that he had passed weeks in her daily company, with still
+progressing intimacy and affection, without feeling that anything had
+been missing.
+
+He had told his friend, and his friend had declared to him that it was
+impossible that he should marry a woman whom he had met in a railway
+train without knowing something about her. Roger did all he could to
+persuade the lover to forget his love,--and partially succeeded. It is
+so pleasant and so natural that a young man should enjoy the company
+of a clever, beautiful woman on a long journey,--so natural that during
+the journey he should allow himself to think that she may during her
+whole life be all in all to him as she is at that moment;--and so
+natural again that he should see his mistake when he has parted from
+her! But Montague, though he was half false to his widow, was half
+true to her. He had pledged his word, and that he said ought to bind
+him. Then he returned to California, and learned, through the
+instrumentality of Hamilton K. Fisker, that in San Francisco Mrs
+Hurtle was regarded as a mystery. Some people did not quite believe
+that there ever had been a Mr Hurtle. Others said that there certainly
+had been a Mr Hurtle, and that to the best of their belief he still
+existed. The fact, however, best known of her was that she had shot a
+man through the head somewhere in Oregon. She had not been tried for
+it, as the world of Oregon had considered that the circumstances
+justified the deed. Everybody knew that she was very clever and very
+beautiful,--but everybody also thought that she was very dangerous. 'She
+always had money when she was here,' Hamilton Fisker said, 'but no one
+knew where it came from.' Then he wanted to know why Paul inquired. 'I
+don't think, you know, that I should like to go in for a life
+partnership, if you mean that,' said Hamilton K. Fisker.
+
+Montague had seen her in New York as he passed through on his second
+journey to San Francisco, and had then renewed his promises in spite
+of his cousin's caution. He told her that he was going to see what he
+could make of his broken fortunes,--for at this time, as the reader will
+remember, there was no great railway in existence,--and she had promised
+to follow him. Since that, they had never met till this day. She had
+not made the promised journey to San Francisco, at any rate before he
+had left it. Letters from her had reached him in England, and these he
+had answered by explaining to her, or endeavouring to explain, that
+their engagement must be at an end. And now she had followed him to
+London! 'Tell me everything,' she said, leaning upon him and looking
+up into his face.
+
+'But you,--when did you arrive here?'
+
+'Here, at this house, I arrived the night before last. On Tuesday I
+reached Liverpool. There I found that you were probably in London, and
+so I came on. I have come only to see you. I can understand that you
+should have been estranged from me. That journey home is now so long
+ago! Our meeting in New York was so short and wretched. I would not
+tell you because you then were poor yourself, but at that moment I was
+penniless. I have got my own now out from the very teeth of robbers.'
+As she said this, she looked as though she could be very persistent in
+claiming her own,--or what she might think to be her own. 'I could not
+get across to San Francisco as I said I would, and when I was there
+you had quarrelled with your uncle and returned. And now I am here. I
+at any rate have been faithful.' As she said this his arm was again
+thrown over her, so as to press her head to his knee. 'And now,' she
+said, 'tell me about yourself?'
+
+His position was embarrassing and very odious to himself. Had he done
+his duty properly, he would gently have pushed her from him, have
+sprung to his legs, and have declared that, however faulty might have
+been his previous conduct, he now found himself bound to make her
+understand that he did not intend to become her husband. But he was
+either too much of a man or too little of a man for conduct such as
+that. He did make the avowal to himself, even at that moment as she
+sat there. Let the matter go as it would, she should never be his
+wife. He would marry no one unless it was Hetta Carbury. But he did
+not at all know how to get this said with proper emphasis, and yet
+with properly apologetic courtesy. 'I am engaged here about this
+railway,' he said. 'You have heard, I suppose, of our projected
+scheme?'
+
+'Heard of it! San Francisco is full of it. Hamilton Fisker is the
+great man of the day there, and, when I left, your uncle was buying a
+villa for seventy-four thousand dollars. And yet they say that the
+best of it all has been transferred to you Londoners. Many there are
+very hard upon Fisker for coming here and doing as he did.'
+
+'It's doing very well, I believe,' said Paul, with some feeling of
+shame, as he thought how very little he knew about it.
+
+'You are the manager here in England?'
+
+'No,--I am a member of the firm that manages it at San Francisco; but
+the real manager here is our chairman, Mr Melmotte.'
+
+'Ah I have heard of him. He is a great man;--a Frenchman, is he not?
+There was a talk of inviting him to California. You know him, of
+course?'
+
+'Yes,--I know him. I see him once a week.'
+
+'I would sooner see that man than your Queen, or any of your dukes or
+lords. They tell me that he holds the world of commerce in his right
+hand. What power;--what grandeur!'
+
+'Grand enough,' said Paul, 'if it all came honestly.'
+
+'Such a man rises above honesty,' said Mrs Hurtle, 'as a great general
+rises above humanity when he sacrifices an army to conquer a nation.
+Such greatness is incompatible with small scruples. A pigmy man is
+stopped by a little ditch, but a giant stalks over the rivers.'
+
+'I prefer to be stopped by the ditches,' said Montague.
+
+'Ah, Paul, you were not born for commerce. And I will grant you this,
+that commerce is not noble unless it rises to great heights. To live
+in plenty by sticking to your counter from nine in the morning to nine
+at night, is not a fine life. But this man with a scratch of his pen
+can send out or call in millions of dollars. Do they say here that he
+is not honest?'
+
+'As he is my partner in this affair perhaps I had better say nothing
+against him.'
+
+'Of course such a man will be abused. People have said that Napoleon
+was a coward, and Washington a traitor. You must take me where I shall
+see Melmotte. He is a man whose hand I would kiss; but I would not
+condescend to speak even a word of reverence to any of your Emperors.'
+
+'I fear you will find that your idol has feet of clay.'
+
+'Ah,--you mean that he is bold in breaking those precepts of yours about
+coveting worldly wealth. All men and women break that commandment, but
+they do so in a stealthy fashion, half drawing back the grasping hand,
+praying to be delivered from temptation while they filch only a
+little, pretending to despise the only thing that is dear to them in
+the world. Here is a man who boldly says that he recognises no such
+law; that wealth is power, and that power is good, and that the more a
+man has of wealth the greater and the stronger and the nobler be can
+be. I love a man who can turn the hobgoblins inside out and burn the
+wooden bogies that he meets.'
+
+Montague had formed his own opinions about Melmotte. Though connected
+with the man, he believed their Grand Director to be as vile a
+scoundrel as ever lived. Mrs Hurtle's enthusiasm was very pretty, and
+there was something of feminine eloquence in her words. But it was
+shocking to see them lavished on such a subject. 'Personally, I do not
+like him,' said Paul.
+
+'I had thought to find that you and he were hand and glove.'
+
+'Oh no.'
+
+'But you are prospering in this business?'
+
+'Yes,--I suppose we are prospering. It is one of those hazardous things
+in which a man can never tell whether he be really prosperous till he
+is out of it. I fell into it altogether against my will. I had no
+alternative.'
+
+'It seems to me to have been a golden chance.'
+
+'As far as immediate results go it has been golden.'
+
+'That at any rate is well, Paul. And now,--now that we have got back
+into our old way of talking, tell me what all this means. I have
+talked to no one after this fashion since we parted. Why should our
+engagement be over? You used to love me, did you not?'
+
+He would willingly have left her question unanswered, but she waited
+for an answer. 'You know I did,' he said.
+
+'I thought so. This I know, that you were sure and are sure of my love
+to you. Is it not so? Come, speak openly like a man. Do you doubt me?'
+
+He did not doubt her, and was forced to say so. 'No, indeed.'
+
+'Oh, with what bated, half-mouthed words you speak,--fit for a girl from
+a nursery! Out with it if you have anything to say against me! You owe
+me so much at any rate. I have never ill-treated you. I have never
+lied to you. I have taken nothing from you,--if I have not taken your
+heart. I have given you all that I can give.' Then she leaped to her
+feet and stood a little apart from him. 'If you hate me, say so.'
+
+'Winifred,' he said, calling her by her name.
+
+'Winifred! Yes, now for the first time, though I have called you Paul
+from the moment you entered the room. Well, speak out. Is there
+another woman that you love?'
+
+At this moment Paul Montague proved that at any rate he was no coward.
+Knowing the nature of the woman, how ardent, how impetuous she could
+be, and how full of wrath, he had come at her call intending to tell
+her the truth which he now spoke. 'There is another,' he said.
+
+She stood silent, looking into his face, thinking how she would
+commence her attack upon him. She fixed her eyes upon him, standing
+quite upright, squeezing her own right hand with the fingers of the
+left. 'Oh,' she said, in a whisper 'that is the reason why I am told
+that I am to be--off.'
+
+'That was not the reason.'
+
+'What,--can there be more reason than that,--better reason than that?
+Unless, indeed, it be that as you have learned to love another so also
+you have learned to--hate me.'
+
+'Listen to me, Winifred.'
+
+'No, sir; no Winifred now! How did you dare to kiss me, knowing that
+it was on your tongue to tell me I was to be cast aside? And so you
+love--some other woman! I am too old to please you, too rough,--too
+little like the dolls of your own country! What were your--other
+reasons? Let me hear your--other reasons, that I may tell you that they
+are lies.'
+
+The reasons were very difficult to tell, though when put forward by
+Roger Carbury they had been easily pleaded. Paul knew but little about
+Winifred Hurtle, and nothing at all about the late Mr Hurtle. His
+reasons curtly put forward might have been so stated. 'We know too
+little of each other,' he said.
+
+'What more do you want to know? You can know all for the asking. Did I
+ever refuse to answer you? As to my knowledge of you and your affairs,
+if I think it sufficient, need you complain? What is it that you want
+to know? Ask anything and I will tell you. Is it about my money? You
+knew when you gave me your word that I had next to none. Now I have
+ample means of my own. You knew that I was a widow. What more? If you
+wish to hear of the wretch that was my husband, I will deluge you with
+stories. I should have thought that a man who loved would not have
+cared to hear much of one--who perhaps was loved once.'
+
+He knew that his position was perfectly indefensible. It would have
+been better for him not to have alluded to any reasons, but to have
+remained firm to his assertion that he loved another woman. He must
+have acknowledged himself to be false, perjured, inconstant, and very
+base. A fault that may be venial to those who do not suffer, is
+damnable, deserving of an eternity of tortures, in the eyes of the
+sufferer. He must have submitted to be told that he was a fiend, and
+might have had to endure whatever of punishment a lady in her wrath
+could inflict upon him. But he would have been called upon for no
+further mental effort. His position would have been plain. But now he
+was all at sea. 'I wish to hear nothing,' he said.
+
+'Then why tell me that we know so little of each other? That, surely,
+is a poor excuse to make to a woman,--after you have been false to her.
+Why did you not say that when we were in New York together? Think of
+it, Paul. Is not that mean?'
+
+'I do not think that I am mean.'
+
+'No;--a man will lie to a woman, and justify it always. Who is--this
+lady?'
+
+He knew that he could not at any rate be warranted in mentioning Hetta
+Carbury's name. He had never even asked her for her love, and
+certainly had received no assurance that he was loved. 'I cannot name
+her.'
+
+'And I, who have come hither from California to see you, am to return
+satisfied because you tell me that you have--changed your affections?
+That is to be all, and you think that fair? That suits your own mind,
+and leaves no sore spot in your heart? You can do that, and shake
+hands with me, and go away,--without a pang, without a scruple?'
+
+'I did not say so.'
+
+'And you are the man who cannot bear to hear me praise Augustus
+Melmotte because you think him dishonest! Are you a liar?'
+
+'I hope not.'
+
+'Did you say you would be my husband? Answer me, sir.'
+
+'I did say so.'
+
+'Do you now refuse to keep your promise? You shall answer me.'
+
+'I cannot marry you.'
+
+'Then, sir, are you not a liar?' It would have taken him long to
+explain to her, even had he been able, that a man may break a promise
+and yet not tell a lie. He had made up his mind to break his
+engagement before he had seen Hetta Carbury, and therefore he could
+not accuse himself of falseness on her account. He had been brought to
+his resolution by the rumours he had heard of her past life, and as to
+his uncertainty about her husband. If Mr Hurtle were alive, certainly
+then he would not be a liar because he did not marry Mrs Hurtle. He
+did not think himself to be a liar, but he was not at once ready with
+his defence. 'Oh, Paul,' she said, changing at once into softness,--'I
+am pleading to you for my life. Oh, that I could make you feel that I
+am pleading for my life. Have you given a promise to this lady also?'
+
+'No,' said he. 'I have given no promise.'
+
+'But she loves you?'
+
+'She has never said so.'
+
+'You have told her of your love?'
+
+'Never.'
+
+'There is nothing, then, between you? And you would put her against
+me,--some woman who has nothing to suffer, no cause of complaint,
+who, for aught you know, cares nothing for you. Is that so?'
+
+'I suppose it is,' said Paul.
+
+'Then you may still be mine. Oh, Paul, come back to me. Will any woman
+love you as I do,--live for you as I do? Think what I have done in
+coming here, where I have no friend,--not a single friend,--unless you are
+a friend. Listen to me. I have told the woman here that I am engaged
+to marry you.'
+
+'You have told the woman of the house?'
+
+'Certainly I have. Was I not justified? Were you not engaged to me? Am
+I to have you to visit me here, and to risk her insults, perhaps to be
+told to take myself off and to find accommodation elsewhere, because I
+am too mealy-mouthed to tell the truth as to the cause of my being
+here? I am here because you have promised to make me your wife, and,
+as far as I am concerned, I am not ashamed to have the fact advertised
+in every newspaper in the town. I told her that I was the promised
+wife of one Paul Montague, who was joined with Mr Melmotte in managing
+the new great American railway, and that Mr Paul Montague would be
+with me this morning. She was too far-seeing to doubt me, but had she
+doubted, I could have shown her your letters. Now go and tell her that
+what I have said is false,--if you dare.' The woman was not there, and
+it did not seem to be his immediate duty to leave the room in order
+that he might denounce a lady whom he certainly had ill-used. The
+position was one which required thought. After a while he took up his
+hat to go. 'Do you mean to tell her that my statement is untrue?'
+
+'No,--' he said; 'not to-day.'
+
+'And you will come back to me?'
+
+'Yes;--I will come back.'
+
+'I have no friend here, but you, Paul. Remember that. Remember all
+your promises. Remember all our love,--and be good to me.' Then she let
+him go without another word.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII - MRS HURTLE GOES TO THE PLAY
+
+
+On the day after the visit just recorded, Paul Montague received the
+following letter from Mrs Hurtle:--
+
+
+   MY DEAR PAUL,--
+
+   I think that perhaps we hardly made ourselves understood to each
+   other yesterday, and I am sure that you do not understand how
+   absolutely my whole life is now at stake. I need only refer you to
+   our journey from San Francisco to London to make you conscious
+   that I really love you. To a woman such love is all important. She
+   cannot throw it from her as a man may do amidst the affairs of the
+   world. Nor, if it has to be thrown from her, can she bear the loss
+   as a man bears it. Her thoughts have dwelt on it with more
+   constancy than his;--and then too her devotion has separated her
+   from other things. My devotion to you has separated me from
+   everything.
+
+   But I scorn to come to you as a suppliant. If you choose to say
+   after hearing me that you will put me away from you because you
+   have seen some one fairer than I am, whatever course I may take in
+   my indignation, I shall not throw myself at your feet to tell you
+   of my wrongs. I wish, however, that you should hear me. You say
+   that there is some one you love better than you love me, but that
+   you have not committed yourself to her. Alas, I know too much of
+   the world to be surprised that a man's constancy should not stand
+   out two years in the absence of his mistress. A man cannot wrap
+   himself up and keep himself warm with an absent love as a woman
+   does. But I think that some remembrance of the past must come back
+   upon you now that you have seen me again. I think that you must
+   have owned to yourself that you did love me, and that you could
+   love me again. You sin against me to my utter destruction if you
+   leave me. I have given up every friend I have to follow you. As
+   regards the other--nameless lady, there can be no fault; for, as
+   you tell me, she knows nothing of your passion.
+
+   You hinted that there were other reasons,--that we know too little
+   of each other. You meant no doubt that you knew too little of me.
+   Is it not the case that you were content when you knew only what
+   was to be learned in those days of our sweet intimacy, but that
+   you have been made discontented by stories told you by your
+   partners at San Francisco? If this be so, trouble yourself at any
+   rate to find out the truth before you allow yourself to treat a
+   woman as you propose to treat me. I think you are too good a man
+   to cast aside a woman you have loved,--like a soiled glove,--
+   because ill-natured words have been spoken of her by men, or
+   perhaps by women, who know nothing of her life. My late husband,
+   Caradoc Hurtle, was Attorney-General in the State of Kansas when I
+   married him, I being then in possession of a considerable fortune
+   left to me by my mother. There his life was infamously bad. He
+   spent what money he could get of mine, and then left me and the
+   State, and took himself to Texas;--where he drank himself to
+   death. I did not follow him, and in his absence I was divorced
+   from him in accordance with the laws of Kansas State. I then went
+   to San Francisco about property of my mother's, which my husband
+   had fraudulently sold to a countryman of ours now resident in
+   Paris,--having forged my name. There I met you, and in that short
+   story I tell you all that there is to be told. It may be that you
+   do not believe me now; but if so, are you not bound to go where
+   you can verify your own doubts or my word?
+
+   I try to write dispassionately, but I am in truth overborne by
+   passion. I also have heard in California rumours about myself, and
+   after much delay I received your letter. I resolved to follow you
+   to England as soon as circumstances would permit me. I have been
+   forced to fight a battle about my property, and I have won it. I
+   had two reasons for carrying this through by my personal efforts
+   before I saw you. I had begun it and had determined that I would
+   not be beaten by fraud. And I was also determined that I would not
+   plead to you as a pauper. We have talked too freely together in
+   past days of our mutual money matters for me to feel any delicacy
+   in alluding to them. When a man and woman have agreed to be
+   husband and wife there should be no delicacy of that kind. When we
+   came here together we were both embarrassed. We both had some
+   property, but neither of us could enjoy it. Since that I have made
+   my way through my difficulties. From what I have heard at San
+   Francisco I suppose that you have done the same. I at any rate
+   shall be perfectly contented if from this time our affairs can be
+   made one.
+
+   And now about myself,--immediately. I have come here all alone.
+   Since I last saw you in New York I have not had altogether a good
+   time. I have had a great struggle and have been thrown on my own
+   resources and have been all alone. Very cruel things have been
+   said of me. You heard cruel things said, but I presume them to
+   have been said to you with reference to my late husband. Since
+   that they have been said to others with reference to you. I have
+   not now come, as my countrymen do generally, backed with a trunk
+   full of introductions and with scores of friends ready to receive
+   me. It was necessary to me that I should see you and hear my
+   fate,--and here I am. I appeal to you to release me in some degree
+   from the misery of my solitude. You know,--no one so well,--that
+   my nature is social and that I am not given to be melancholy. Let
+   us be cheerful together, as we once were, if it be only for a day.
+   Let me see you as I used to see you, and let me be seen as I used
+   to be seen.
+
+   Come to me and take me out with you, and let us dine together, and
+   take me to one of your theatres. If you wish it I will promise you
+   not to allude to that revelation you made to me just now, though
+   of course it is nearer to my heart than any other matter. Perhaps
+   some woman's vanity makes me think that if you would only see me
+   again, and talk to me as you used to talk, you would think of me
+   as you used to think.
+
+   You need not fear but you will find me at home. I have no whither
+   to go,--and shall hardly stir from the house till you come to me.
+   Send me a line, however, that I may have my hat on if you are
+   minded to do as I ask you.
+
+   Yours with all my heart,
+
+   WINIFRED HURTLE.
+
+
+This letter took her much time to write, though she was very careful
+so to write as to make it seem that it had flown easily from her pen.
+She copied it from the first draught, but she copied it rapidly, with
+one or two premeditated erasures, so that it should look to have been
+done hurriedly. There had been much art in it. She had at any rate
+suppressed any show of anger. In calling him to her she had so written
+as to make him feel that if he would come he need not fear the claws
+of an offended lioness:--and yet she was angry as a lioness who had lost
+her cub. She had almost ignored that other lady whose name she had not
+yet heard. She had spoken of her lover's entanglement with that other
+lady as a light thing which might easily be put aside. She had said
+much of her own wrongs, but had not said much of the wickedness of the
+wrong-doer. Invited as she had invited him, surely he could not but
+come to her! And then, in her reference to money, not descending to
+the details of dollars and cents, she had studied how to make him feel
+that he might marry her without imprudence. As she read it over to
+herself she thought that there was a tone through it of natural
+feminine uncautious eagerness. She put her letter up in an envelope,
+stuck a stamp on it and addressed it,--and then threw herself back in
+her chair to think of her position.
+
+He should marry her,--or there should be something done which should
+make the name of Winifred Hurtle known to the world! She had no plan
+of revenge yet formed. She would not talk of revenge,--she told herself
+that she would not even think of revenge till she was quite sure that
+revenge would be necessary. But she did think of it, and could not
+keep her thoughts from it for a moment. Could it be possible that she,
+with all her intellectual gifts as well as those of her outward
+person, should be thrown over by a man whom well as she loved him,--and
+she did love him with all her heart,--she regarded as greatly inferior
+to herself! He had promised to marry her; and he should marry her, or
+the world should hear the story of his perjury!
+
+Paul Montague felt that he was surrounded by difficulties as soon as
+he read the letter. That his heart was all the other way he was quite
+sure; but yet it did seem to him that there was no escape from his
+troubles open to him. There was not a single word in this woman's
+letter that he could contradict. He had loved her and had promised to
+make her his wife,--and had determined to break his word to her because
+he found that she was enveloped in dangerous mystery. He had so
+resolved before he had ever seen Hetta Carbury, having been made to
+believe by Roger Carbury that a marriage with an unknown American
+woman,--of whom he only did know that she was handsome and clever would
+be a step to ruin. The woman, as Roger said, was an adventuress,--might
+never have had a husband,--might at this moment have two or three,--might
+be overwhelmed with debt,--might be anything bad, dangerous, and
+abominable. All that he had heard at San Francisco had substantiated
+Roger's views. 'Any scrape is better than that scrape,' Roger had said
+to him. Paul had believed his Mentor, and had believed with a double
+faith as soon as he had seen Hetta Carbury.
+
+But what should he do now? It was impossible, after what had passed
+between them, that he should leave Mrs Hurtle at her lodgings at
+Islington without any notice. It was clear enough to him that she
+would not consent to be so left. Then her present proposal,--though it
+seemed to be absurd and almost comical in the tragical condition of
+their present circumstances,--had in it some immediate comfort. To take
+her out and give her a dinner, and then go with her to some theatre,
+would be easy and perhaps pleasant. It would be easier, and certainly
+much pleasanter, because she had pledged herself to abstain from
+talking of her grievances. Then he remembered some happy evenings,
+delicious hours, which he had so passed with her, when they were first
+together at New York. There could be no better companion for such a
+festival. She could talk,--and she could listen as well as talk. And she
+could sit silent, conveying to her neighbour the sense of her feminine
+charms by her simple proximity. He had been very happy when so placed.
+Had it been possible he would have escaped the danger now, but the
+reminiscence of past delights in some sort reconciled him to the
+performance of this perilous duty.
+
+But when the evening should be over, how would he part with her? When
+the pleasant hour should have passed away and he had brought her back
+to her door, what should he say to her then? He must make some
+arrangement as to a future meeting. He knew that he was in a great
+peril, and he did not know how he might best escape it. He could not
+now go to Roger Carbury for advice; for was not Roger Carbury his
+rival? It would be for his friend's interest that he should marry the
+widow. Roger Carbury, as he knew well, was too honest a man to allow
+himself to be guided in any advice he might give by such a feeling,
+but, still, on this matter, he could no longer tell everything to
+Roger Carbury. He could not say all that he would have to say without
+speaking of Hetta,--and of his love for Hetta he could not speak to his
+rival.
+
+He had no other friend in whom he could confide. There was no other
+human being he could trust, unless it was Hetta herself. He thought
+for a moment that he would write a stern and true letter to the woman,
+telling her that as it was impossible that there should ever be
+marriage between them, he felt himself bound to abstain from her
+society. But then he remembered her solitude, her picture of herself
+in London without even an acquaintance except himself, and he
+convinced himself that it would be impossible that he should leave her
+without seeing her. So he wrote to her thus:--
+
+
+   DEAR WINIFRED,
+
+   I will come for you to-morrow at half-past five. We will dine
+   together at the Thespian;--and then I will have a box at the
+   Haymarket. The Thespian is a good sort of place, and lots of
+   ladies dine there. You can dine in your bonnet.
+
+   Yours affectionately,
+
+   P. M.
+
+
+Some half-formed idea ran through his brain that P. M. was a safer
+signature than Paul Montague. Then came a long train of thoughts as to
+the perils of the whole proceeding. She had told him that she had
+announced herself to the keeper of the lodging-house as engaged to
+him, and he had in a manner authorized the statement by declining to
+contradict it at once. And now, after that announcement, he was
+assenting to her proposal that they should go out and amuse themselves
+together. Hitherto she had always seemed to him to be open, candid,
+and free from intrigue. He had known her to be impulsive, capricious,
+at times violent, but never deceitful. Perhaps he was unable to read
+correctly the inner character of a woman whose experience of the world
+had been much wider than his own. His mind misgave him that it might
+be so; but still he thought that he knew that she was not treacherous.
+And yet did not her present acts justify him in thinking that she was
+carrying on a plot against him? The note, however, was sent, and he
+prepared for the evening of the play, leaving the dangers of the
+occasion to adjust themselves. He ordered the dinner and he took the
+box, and at the hour fixed he was again at her lodgings.
+
+The woman of the house with a smile showed him into Mrs Hurtle's
+sitting-room, and he at once perceived that the smile was intended to
+welcome him as an accepted lover. It was a smile half of
+congratulation to the lover, half of congratulation to herself as a
+woman that another man had been caught by the leg and made fast. Who
+does not know the smile? What man, who has been caught and made sure,
+has not felt a certain dissatisfaction at being so treated,
+understanding that the smile is intended to convey to him a sense of
+his own captivity? It has, however, generally mattered but little to
+us. If we have felt that something of ridicule was intended, because
+we have been regarded as cocks with their spurs cut away, then we also
+have a pride when we have declared to ourselves that upon the whole we
+have gained more than we have lost. But with Paul Montague at the
+present moment there was no satisfaction, no pride,--only a feeling of
+danger which every hour became deeper, and stronger, with less chance
+of escape. He was almost tempted at this moment to detain the woman,
+and tell her the truth,--and bear the immediate consequences. But there
+would be treason in doing so, and he would not, could not do it.
+
+He was left hardly a moment to think of this. Almost before the woman
+had shut the door, Mrs Hurtle came to him out of her bedroom, with her
+hat on her head. Nothing could be more simple than her dress, and
+nothing prettier. It was now June, and the weather was warm, and the
+lady wore a light gauzy black dress,--there is a fabric which the
+milliners I think call grenadine,--coming close up round her throat. It
+was very pretty, and she was prettier even than her dress. And she had
+on a hat, black also, small and simple, but very pretty. There are
+times at which a man going to a theatre with a lady wishes her to be
+bright in her apparel,--almost gorgeous; in which he will hardly be
+contented unless her cloak be scarlet, and her dress white, and her
+gloves of some bright hue,--unless she wear roses or jewels in her hair.
+It is thus our girls go to the theatre now, when they go intending
+that all the world shall know who they are. But there are times again
+in which a man would prefer that his companion should be very quiet in
+her dress,--but still pretty; in which he would choose that she should
+dress herself for him only. All this Mrs Hurtle had understood
+accurately; and Paul Montague, who understood nothing of it, was
+gratified. 'You told me to have a hat, and here I am,--hat and all.' She
+gave him her hand, and laughed, and looked pleasantly at him, as
+though there was no cause of unhappiness between them. The
+lodging-house woman saw them enter the cab, and muttered some little
+word as they went off. Paul did not hear the word, but was sure that
+it bore some indistinct reference to his expected marriage.
+
+Neither during the drive, nor at the dinner, nor during the
+performance at the theatre, did she say a word in allusion to her
+engagement. It was with them, as in former days it had been at New
+York. She whispered pleasant words to him, touching his arm now and
+again with her finger as she spoke, seeming ever better inclined to
+listen than to speak. Now and again she referred, after some slightest
+fashion, to little circumstances that had occurred between them, to
+some joke, some hour of tedium, some moment of delight; but it was
+done as one man might do it to another,--if any man could have done it
+so pleasantly. There was a scent which he had once approved, and now
+she bore it on her handkerchief. There was a ring which he had once
+given her, and she wore it on the finger with which she touched his
+sleeve. With his own hands he had once adjusted her curls, and each
+curl was as he had placed it. She had a way of shaking her head, that
+was very pretty,--a way that might, one would think, have been dangerous
+at her age, as likely to betray those first grey hairs which will come
+to disturb the last days of youth. He had once told her in sport to be
+more careful. She now shook her head again, and, as he smiled, she
+told him that she could still dare to be careless. There are a
+thousand little silly softnesses which are pretty and endearing
+between acknowledged lovers, with which no woman would like to
+dispense, to which even men who are in love submit sometimes with
+delight; but which in other circumstances would be vulgar,--and to the
+woman distasteful. There are closenesses and sweet approaches, smiles
+and nods and pleasant winkings, whispers, innuendoes and hints, little
+mutual admirations and assurances that there are things known to those
+two happy ones of which the world beyond is altogether ignorant. Much
+of this comes of nature, but something of it sometimes comes by art.
+Of such art as there may be in it Mrs Hurtle was a perfect master. No
+allusion was made to their engagement,--not an unpleasant word was
+spoken; but the art was practised with all its pleasant adjuncts. Paul
+was flattered to the top of his bent; and, though the sword was
+hanging over his head, though he knew that the sword must fall,--must
+partly fall that very night,--still he enjoyed it.
+
+There are men who, of their natures, do not like women, even though
+they may have wives and legions of daughters, and be surrounded by
+things feminine in all the affairs of their lives. Others again have
+their strongest affinities and sympathies with women, and are rarely
+altogether happy when removed from their influence. Paul Montague was
+of the latter sort. At this time he was thoroughly in love with Hetta
+Carbury, and was not in love with Mrs Hurtle. He would have given much
+of his golden prospects in the American railway to have had Mrs Hurtle
+reconveyed suddenly to San Francisco. And yet he had a delight in her
+presence. 'The acting isn't very good,' he said when the piece was
+nearly over.
+
+'What does it signify? What we enjoy or what we suffer depends upon
+the humour. The acting is not first-rate, but I have listened and
+laughed and cried, because I have been happy.'
+
+He was bound to tell her that he also had enjoyed the evening, and was
+bound to say it in no voice of hypocritical constraint. 'It has been
+very jolly,' he said.
+
+'And one has so little that is really jolly, as you call it. I wonder
+whether any girl ever did sit and cry like that because her lover
+talked to another woman. What I find fault with is that the writers
+and actors are so ignorant of men and women as we see them every day.
+It's all right that she should cry, but she wouldn't cry there.' The
+position described was so nearly her own, that he could say nothing to
+this. She had so spoken on purpose,--fighting her own battle after her
+own fashion, knowing well that her words would confuse him. 'A woman
+hides such tears. She may be found crying because she is unable to
+hide them;--but she does not willingly let the other woman see them.
+Does she?'
+
+'I suppose not.'
+
+'Medea did not weep when she was introduced to Creusa.'
+
+'Women are not all Medeas,' he replied.
+
+'There's a dash of the savage princess about most of them. I am quite
+ready if you like. I never want to see the curtain fall. And I have
+had no nosegay brought in a wheelbarrow to throw on to the stage. Are
+you going to see me home?'
+
+'Certainly.'
+
+'You need not. I'm not a bit afraid of a London cab by myself.' But of
+course he accompanied her to Islington. He owed her at any rate as
+much as that. She continued to talk during the whole journey. What a
+wonderful place London was,--so immense, but so dirty! New York of
+course was not so big, but was, she thought, pleasanter. But Paris was
+the gem of gems among towns. She did not like Frenchmen, and she liked
+Englishmen even better than Americans; but she fancied that she could
+never like English women. 'I do so hate all kinds of buckram. I like
+good conduct, and law, and religion too if it be not forced down one's
+throat; but I hate what your women call propriety. I suppose what we
+have been doing to-night is very improper; but I am quite sure that it
+has not been in the least wicked.'
+
+'I don't think it has,' said Paul Montague very tamely. It is a long
+way from the Haymarket to Islington, but at last the cab reached the
+lodging-house door. 'Yes, this is it,' she said. 'Even about the
+houses there is an air of stiff-necked propriety which frightens me.'
+She was getting out as she spoke, and he had already knocked at the
+door. 'Come in for one moment,' she said as he paid the cabman. The
+woman the while was standing with the door in her hand. It was near
+midnight,--but, when people are engaged, hours do not matter. The woman
+of the house, who was respectability herself,--a nice kind widow, with
+five children, named Pipkin,--understood that and smiled again as he
+followed the lady into the sitting-room. She had already taken off her
+hat and was flinging it on to the sofa as he entered. 'Shut the door
+for one moment,' she said; and he shut it. Then she threw herself into
+his arms, not kissing him but looking up into his face. 'Oh Paul,' she
+exclaimed, 'my darling! Oh Paul, my love! I will not bear to be
+separated from you. No, no;--never. I swear it, and you may believe me.
+There is nothing I cannot do for love of you,--but to lose you.' Then
+she pushed him from her and looked away from him, clasping her hands
+together. 'But Paul, I mean to keep my pledge to you to-night. It was
+to be an island in our troubles, a little holiday in our hard
+school-time, and I will not destroy it at its close. You will see me
+again soon,--will you not?' He nodded assent, then took her in his arms
+and kissed her, and left her without a word.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII - DOLLY LONGESTAFFE GOES INTO THE CITY
+
+
+It has been told how the gambling at the Beargarden went on one Sunday
+night. On the following Monday Sir Felix did not go to the club. He
+had watched Miles Grendall at play, and was sure that on more than one
+or two occasions the man had cheated. Sir Felix did not quite know
+what in such circumstances it would be best for him to do. Reprobate
+as he was himself, this work of villainy was new to him and seemed to
+be very terrible. What steps ought he to take? He was quite sure of
+his facts, and yet he feared that Nidderdale and Grasslough and
+Longestaffe would not believe him. He would have told Montague, but
+Montague had, he thought, hardly enough authority at the club to be of
+any use to him. On the Tuesday again he did not go to the club. He
+felt severely the loss of the excitement to which he had been
+accustomed, but the thing was too important to him to be slurred over.
+He did not dare to sit down and play with the man who had cheated him
+without saying anything about it. On the Wednesday afternoon life was
+becoming unbearable to him and he sauntered into the building at about
+five in the afternoon. There, as a matter of course, he found Dolly
+Longestaffe drinking sherry and bitters. 'Where the blessed angels
+have you been?' said Dolly. Dolly was at that moment alert with the
+sense of a duty performed. He had just called on his sister and
+written a sharp letter to his father, and felt himself to be almost a
+man of business.
+
+'I've had fish of my own to fry,' said Felix, who had passed the last
+two days in unendurable idleness. Then he referred again to the money
+which Dolly owed him, not making any complaint, not indeed asking for
+immediate payment, but explaining with an air of importance that if a
+commercial arrangement could be made, it might, at this moment, be
+very serviceable to him. 'I'm particularly anxious to take up those
+shares,' said Felix.
+
+'Of course you ought to have your money.'
+
+'I don't say that at all, old fellow. I know very well that you're all
+right. You're not like that fellow, Miles Grendall.'
+
+'Well; no. Poor Miles has got nothing to bless himself with. I suppose
+I could get it, and so I ought to pay.'
+
+'That's no excuse for Grendall,' said Sir Felix, shaking his head.
+
+'A chap can't pay if he hasn't got it, Carbury. A chap ought to pay of
+course. I've had a letter from our lawyer within the last half hour--
+here it is.' And Dolly pulled a letter out of his pocket which he had
+opened and read indeed the last hour, but which had been duly
+delivered at his lodgings early in the morning. 'My governor wants to
+sell Pickering, and Melmotte wants to buy the place. My governor can't
+sell without me, and I've asked for half the plunder. I know what's
+what. My interest in the property is greater than his. It isn't much
+of a place, and they are talking of £50,000, over and above the debt
+upon it. £25,000 would pay off what I owe on my own property, and make
+me very square. From what this fellow says I suppose they're going to
+give in to my terms.'
+
+'By George, that'll be a grand thing for you, Dolly.'
+
+'Oh yes. Of course I want it. But I don't like the place going. I'm
+not much of a fellow, I know. I'm awfully lazy and can't get myself to
+go in for things as I ought to do; but I've a sort of feeling that I
+don't like the family property going to pieces. A fellow oughtn't to
+let his family property go to pieces.'
+
+'You never lived at Pickering.'
+
+'No;--and I don't know that it is any good. It gives us 3 per cent. on
+the money it's worth, while the governor is paying 6 per cent., and
+I'm paying 25, for the money we've borrowed. I know more about it than
+you'd think. It ought to be sold, and now I suppose it will be sold.
+Old Melmotte knows all about it, and if you like I'll go with you to
+the city to-morrow and make it straight about what I owe you. He'll
+advance me £1,000, and then you can get the shares. Are you going to
+dine here?'
+
+Sir Felix said that he would dine at the club, but declared, with
+considerable mystery in his manner, that he could not stay and play
+whist afterwards. He acceded willingly to Dolly's plans of visiting
+Abchurch Lane on the following day, but had some difficulty in
+inducing his friend to consent to fix on an hour early enough for city
+purposes. Dolly suggested that they should meet at the club at 4 p.m.
+Sir Felix had named noon, and promised to call at Dolly's lodgings.
+They split the difference at last and agreed to start at two. They
+then dined together, Miles Grendall dining alone at the next table to
+them. Dolly and Grendall spoke to each other frequently, but in that
+conversation the young baronet would not join. Nor did Grendall ever
+address himself to Sir Felix. 'Is there anything up between you and
+Miles?' said Dolly, when they had adjourned to the smoking-room.
+
+'I can't bear him.'
+
+'There never was any love between you two, I know. But you used to
+speak, and you've played with him all through.'
+
+'Played with him! I should think I have. Though he did get such a haul
+last Sunday he owes me more than you do now.'
+
+'Is that the reason you haven't played the last two nights?'
+
+Sir Felix paused a moment. 'No;--that is not the reason. I'll tell you
+all about it in the cab to-morrow.' Then he left the club, declaring
+that he would go up to Grosvenor Square and see Marie Melmotte. He did
+go up to the Square, and when he came to the house he would not go in.
+What was the good? He could do nothing further till he got old
+Melmotte's consent, and in no way could he so probably do that as by
+showing that he had got money wherewith to buy shares in the railway.
+What he did with himself during the remainder of the evening the
+reader need not know, but on his return home at some comparatively
+early hour, he found this note from Marie.
+
+
+   Wednesday Afternoon.
+
+   DEAREST FELIX,
+
+   Why don't we see you? Mamma would say nothing if you came. Papa is
+   never in the drawing-room. Miss Longestaffe is here of course, and
+   people always come in in the evening. We are just going to dine out
+   at the Duchess of Stevenage's. Papa, and mamma and I. Mamma told me
+   that Lord Nidderdale is to be there, but you need not be a bit
+   afraid. I don't like Lord Nidderdale, and I will never take any one
+   but the man I love. You know who that is. Miss Longestaffe is so
+   angry because she can't go with us. What do you think of her
+   telling me that she did not understand being left alone? We are to
+   go afterwards to a musical party at Lady Gamut's. Miss Longestaffe
+   is going with us, but she says she hates music. She is such a set-up
+   thing! I wonder why papa has her here. We don't go anywhere
+   to-morrow evening, so pray come.
+
+   And why haven't you written me something and sent it to Didon? She
+   won't betray us. And if she did, what matters? I mean to be true.
+   If papa were to beat me into a mummy I would stick to you. He told
+   me once to take Lord Nidderdale, and then he told me to refuse him.
+   And now he wants me to take him again. But I won't. I'll take no
+   one but my own darling.
+
+   Yours for ever and ever,
+
+   MARIE
+
+
+Now that the young lady had begun to have an interest of her own in
+life, she was determined to make the most of it. All this was
+delightful to her, but to Sir Felix it was simply 'a bother.' Sir
+Felix was quite willing to marry the girl to-morrow,--on condition of
+course that the money was properly arranged; but he was not willing to
+go through much work in the way of love-making with Marie Melmotte. In
+such business he preferred Ruby Ruggles as a companion.
+
+On the following day Felix was with his friend at the appointed time,
+and was only kept an hour waiting while Dolly ate his breakfast and
+struggled into his coat and boots. On their way to the city Felix told
+his dreadful story about Miles Grendall. 'By George!' said Dolly. 'And
+you think you saw him do it!'
+
+'It's not thinking at all. I'm sure I saw him do it three times. I
+believe he always had an ace somewhere about him.' Dolly sat quite
+silent thinking of it. 'What had I better do?' asked Sir Felix.
+
+'By George;--I don't know.'
+
+'What should you do?'
+
+'Nothing at all. I shouldn't believe my own eyes. Or if I did, should
+take care not to look at him.'
+
+'You wouldn't go on playing with him?'
+
+'Yes I should. It'd be such a bore breaking up.'
+
+'But Dolly,--if you think of it!'
+
+'That's all very fine, my dear fellow, but I shouldn't think of it.'
+
+'And you won't give me your advice.'
+
+'Well--no; I think I'd rather not. I wish you hadn't told me. Why did
+you pick me out to tell me? Why didn't you tell Nidderdale?'
+
+'He might have said, why didn't you tell Longestaffe?'
+
+'No, he wouldn't. Nobody would suppose that anybody would pick me out
+for this kind of thing. If I'd known that you were going to tell me
+such a story as this I wouldn't have come with you.'
+
+'That's nonsense, Dolly.'
+
+'Very well. I can't bear these kind of things. I feel all in a twitter
+already.'
+
+'You mean to go on playing just the same?'
+
+'Of course I do. If he won anything very heavy I should begin to think
+about it, I suppose. Oh; this is Abchurch Lane, is it? Now for the man
+of money.'
+
+The man of money received them much more graciously than Felix had
+expected. Of course nothing was said about Marie and no further
+allusion was made to the painful subject of the baronet's 'property.'
+Both Dolly and Sir Felix were astonished by the quick way in which the
+great financier understood their views and the readiness with which he
+undertook to comply with them. No disagreeable questions were asked as
+to the nature of the debt between the young men. Dolly was called upon
+to sign a couple of documents, and Sir Felix to sign one,--and then they
+were assured that the thing was done. Mr Adolphus Longestaffe had paid
+Sir Felix Carbury a thousand pounds, and Sir Felix Carbury's
+commission had been accepted by Mr Melmotte for the purchase of
+railway stock to that amount. Sir Felix attempted to say a word. He
+endeavoured to explain that his object in this commercial transaction
+was to make money immediately by reselling the shares,--and to go on
+continually making money by buying at a low price and selling at a
+high price. He no doubt did believe that, being a Director, if he
+could once raise the means of beginning this game, he could go on with
+it for an unlimited period;--buy and sell, buy and sell;--so that he
+would have an almost regular income. This, as far as he could
+understand, was what Paul Montague was allowed to do,--simply because
+he had become a Director with a little money. Mr Melmotte was
+cordiality itself, but he could not be got to go into particulars. It
+was all right. 'You will wish to sell again, of course,--of course. I'll
+watch the market for you.' When the young men left the room all they
+knew, or thought that they knew, was, that Dolly Longestaffe had
+authorized Melmotte to pay a thousand pounds on his behalf to Sir Felix,
+and that Sir Felix had instructed the same great man to buy shares with
+the amount. 'But why didn't he give you the scrip?' said Dolly on his
+way westwards.
+
+'I suppose it's all right with him,' said Sir Felix.
+
+'Oh yes;--it's all right. Thousands of pounds to him are only like
+half-crowns to us fellows. I should say it's all right. All the same,
+he's the biggest rogue out, you know.' Sir Felix already began to be
+unhappy about his thousand pounds.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX - MISS MELMOTTE'S COURAGE
+
+
+Lady Carbury continued to ask frequent questions as to the prosecution
+of her son's suit, and Sir Felix began to think that he was
+persecuted. 'I have spoken to her father,' he said crossly.
+
+'And what did Mr Melmotte say?'
+
+'Say;--what should he say? He wanted to know what income I had got.
+After all he's an old screw.'
+
+'Did he forbid you to come there any more?'
+
+'Now, mother, it's no use your cross-examining me. If you'll let me
+alone I'll do the best I can.'
+
+'She has accepted you, herself?'
+
+'Of course she has. I told you that at Carbury.'
+
+'Then, Felix, if I were you I'd run off with her. I would indeed. It's
+done every day, and nobody thinks any harm of it when you marry the
+girl. You could do it now because I know you've got money. From all I
+can hear she's just the sort of girl that would go with you.' The son
+sat silent, listening to these maternal councils. He did believe that
+Marie would go off with him, were he to propose the scheme to her. Her
+own father had almost alluded to such a proceeding,--had certainly
+hinted that it was feasible,--but at the same time had very clearly
+stated that in such case the ardent lover would have to content
+himself with the lady alone. In any such event as that there would be
+no fortune. But then, might not that only be a threat? Rich fathers
+generally do forgive their daughters, and a rich father with only one
+child would surely forgive her when she returned to him, as she would
+do in this instance, graced with a title. Sir Felix thought of all
+this as he sat there silent. His mother read his thoughts as she
+continued. 'Of course, Felix, there must be some risk.'
+
+'Fancy what it would be to be thrown over at last!' he exclaimed. 'I
+couldn't bear it. I think I should kill her.'
+
+'Oh no, Felix; you wouldn't do that. But when I say there would be
+some risk I mean that there would be very little. There would be
+nothing in it that ought to make him really angry. He has nobody else
+to give his money to, and it would be much nicer to have his daughter,
+Lady Carbury, with him, than to be left all alone in the world.'
+
+'I couldn't live with him, you know. I couldn't do it.'
+
+'You needn't live with him, Felix. Of course she would visit her
+parents. When the money was once settled you need see as little of
+them as you pleased. Pray do not allow trifles to interfere with you.
+If this should not succeed, what are you to do? We shall all starve
+unless something be done. If I were you, Felix, I would take her away
+at once. They say she is of age.'
+
+'I shouldn't know where to take her,' said Sir Felix, almost stunned
+into thoughtfulness by the magnitude of the proposition made to him.
+'All that about Scotland is done with now.'
+
+'Of course you would marry her at once.'
+
+'I suppose so,--unless it were better to stay as we were, till the money
+was settled.'
+
+'Oh no; no! Everybody would be against you. If you take her off in a
+spirited sort of way and then marry her, everybody will be with you.
+That's what you want. The father and mother will be sure to come
+round, if--'
+
+'The mother is nothing.'
+
+'He will come round if people speak up in your favour. I could get Mr
+Alf and Mr Broune to help. I'd try it, Felix; indeed I would. Ten
+thousand a year is not to be had every year.'
+
+Sir Felix gave no assent to his mother's views. He felt no desire to
+relieve her anxiety by an assurance of activity in the matter. But the
+prospect was so grand that it had excited even him. He had money
+sufficient for carrying out the scheme, and if he delayed the matter
+now, it might well be that he would never again find himself so
+circumstanced. He thought that he would ask somebody whither he ought
+to take her, and what he ought to do with her;--and that he would then
+make the proposition to herself. Miles Grendall would be the man to
+tell him, because, with all his faults, Miles did understand things.
+But he could not ask Miles. He and Nidderdale were good friends; but
+Nidderdale wanted the girl for himself. Grasslough would be sure to
+tell Nidderdale. Dolly would be altogether useless. He thought that,
+perhaps, Herr Vossner would be the man to help him. There would be no
+difficulty out of which Herr Vossner would not extricate 'a fellow,'--
+if 'the fellow' paid him.
+
+On Thursday evening he went to Grosvenor Square, as desired by Marie,--
+but unfortunately found Melmotte in the drawing-room. Lord Nidderdale
+was there also, and his lordship's old father, the Marquis of Auld
+Reekie, whom Felix, when he entered the room, did not know. He was a
+fierce-looking, gouty old man, with watery eyes, and very stiff grey
+hair,--almost white. He was standing up supporting himself on two sticks
+when Sir Felix entered the room. There were also present Madame
+Melmotte, Miss Longestaffe, and Marie. As Felix had entered the hail
+one huge footman had said that the ladies were not at home; then there
+had been for a moment a whispering behind a door,--in which he
+afterwards conceived that Madame Didon had taken a part;--and upon that
+a second tall footman had contradicted the first and had ushered him
+up to the drawing-room. He felt considerably embarrassed, but shook
+hands with the ladies, bowed to Melmotte, who seemed to take no notice
+of him, and nodded to Lord Nidderdale. He had not had time to place
+himself, when the Marquis arranged things. 'Suppose we go downstairs,'
+said the Marquis.
+
+'Certainly, my lord,' said Melmotte. 'I'll show your lordship the
+way.' The Marquis did not speak to his son, but poked at him with his
+stick, as though poking him out of the door. So instigated, Nidderdale
+followed the financier, and the gouty old Marquis toddled after them.
+
+Madame Melmotte was beside herself with trepidation. 'You should not
+have been made to come up at all,' she said. 'Il faut que vous vous
+retiriez.'
+
+'I am very sorry,' said Sir Felix, looking quite aghast. 'I think that
+I had at any rate better retire,' said Miss Longestaffe, raising
+herself to her full height and stalking out of the room.
+
+'Qu'elle est méchante,' said Madame Melmotte. 'Oh, she is so bad. Sir
+Felix, you had better go too. Yes indeed.'
+
+'No,' said Marie, running to him, and taking hold of his arm. 'Why
+should he go? I want papa to know.'
+
+'Il vous tuera,' said Madame Melmotte. 'My God, yes.'
+
+'Then he shall,' said Marie, clinging to her lover. 'I will never
+marry Lord Nidderdale. If he were to cut me into bits I wouldn't do
+it. Felix, you love me; do you not?'
+
+'Certainly,' said Sir Felix, slipping his arm round her waist.
+
+'Mamma,' said Marie, 'I will never have any other man but him;--never,
+never, never. Oh, Felix, tell her that you love me.'
+
+'You know that, don't you, ma'am?' Sir Felix was a little troubled in
+his mind as to what he should say, or what he should do.
+
+'Oh, love! It is a beastliness,' said Madame Melmotte. 'Sir Felix, you
+had better go. Yes, indeed. Will you be so obliging?'
+
+'Don't go,' said Marie. 'No, mamma, he shan't go. What has he to be
+afraid of? I will walk down among them into papa's room, and say that
+I will never marry that man, and that this is my lover. Felix, will
+you come?'
+
+Sir Felix did not quite like the proposition. There had been a savage
+ferocity in that Marquis's eye, and there was habitually a heavy
+sternness about Melmotte, which together made him resist the
+invitation. 'I don't think I have a right to do that,' he said,
+'because it is Mr Melmotte's own house.'
+
+'I wouldn't mind,' said Marie. 'I told papa to-day that I wouldn't
+marry Lord Nidderdale.'
+
+'Was he angry with you?'
+
+'He laughed at me. He manages people till he thinks that everybody
+must do exactly what he tells them. He may kill me, but I will not do
+it. I have quite made up my mind. Felix, if you will be true to me,
+nothing shall separate us. I will not be ashamed to tell everybody
+that I love you.'
+
+Madame Melmotte had now thrown herself into a chair and was sighing.
+Sir Felix stood on the rug with his arm round Marie's waist listening
+to her protestations, but saying little in answer to them,--when,
+suddenly, a heavy step was heard ascending the stairs. 'C'est lui,'
+screamed Madame Melmotte, bustling up from her seat and hurrying out
+of the room by a side door. The two lovers were alone for one moment,
+during which Marie lifted up her face, and Sir Felix kissed her lips.
+'Now be brave,' she said, escaping from his arm, 'and I'll be brave.'
+Mr Melmotte looked round the room as he entered. 'Where are the
+others?' he asked.
+
+'Mamma has gone away, and Miss Longestaffe went before mamma.'
+
+'Sir Felix, it is well that I should tell you that my daughter is
+engaged to marry Lord Nidderdale.'
+
+'Sir Felix, I am not engaged--to--marry Lord Nidderdale,' said Marie.
+'It's no good, papa. I won't do it. If you chop me to pieces, I won't
+do it.'
+
+'She will marry Lord Nidderdale,' continued Mr Melmotte, addressing
+himself to Sir Felix. 'As that is arranged, you will perhaps think it
+better to leave us. I shall be happy to renew my acquaintance with you
+as soon as the fact is recognized;--or happy to see you in the city at
+any time.'
+
+'Papa, he is my lover,' said Marie.
+
+'Pooh!'
+
+'It is not pooh. He is. I will never have any other. I hate Lord
+Nidderdale; and as for that dreadful old man, I could not bear to look
+at him. Sir Felix is as good a gentleman as he is. If you loved me,
+papa, you would not want to make me unhappy all my life.'
+
+Her father walked up to her rapidly with his hand raised, and she
+clung only the closer to her lover's arm. At this moment Sir Felix did
+not know what he might best do, but he thoroughly wished himself out
+in the square. 'Jade,' said Melmotte, 'get to your room.'
+
+'Of course I will go to bed, if you tell me, papa.'
+
+'I do tell you. How dare you take hold of him in that way before me!
+Have you no idea of disgrace?'
+
+'I am not disgraced. It is not more disgraceful to love him than that
+other man. Oh, papa, don't. You hurt me. I am going.' He took her by
+the arm and dragged her to the door, and then thrust her out.
+
+'I am very sorry, Mr Melmotte,' said Sir Felix, 'to have had a hand in
+causing this disturbance.'
+
+'Go away, and don't come back any more;--that's all. You can't both
+marry her. All you have got to understand is this. I'm not the man to
+give my daughter a single shilling if she marries against my consent.
+By the God that hears me, Sir Felix, she shall not have one shilling.
+But look you,--if you'll give this up, I shall be proud to co-operate
+with you in anything you may wish to have done in the city.'
+
+After this Sir Felix left the room, went down the stairs, had the door
+opened for him, and was ushered into the square. But as he went
+through the hall a woman managed to shove a note into his hand which
+he read as soon as he found himself under a gas lamp. It was dated
+that morning, and had therefore no reference to the fray which had
+just taken place. It ran as follows:
+
+
+   I hope you will come to-night. There is something I cannot tell you
+   then, but you ought to know it. When we were in France papa thought
+   it wise to settle a lot of money on me. I don't know how much, but
+   I suppose it was enough to live on if other things went wrong. He
+   never talked to me about it, but I know it was done. And it hasn't
+   been undone, and can't be without my leave. He is very angry about
+   you this morning, for I told him I would never give you up. He says
+   he won't give me anything if I marry without his leave. But I am
+   sure he cannot take it away. I tell you, because I think I ought to
+   tell you everything.'
+
+   M.
+
+
+Sir Felix as he read this could not but think that he had become
+engaged to a very enterprising young lady. It was evident that she did
+not care to what extent she braved her father on behalf of her lover,
+and now she coolly proposed to rob him. But Sir Felix saw no reason
+why he should not take advantage of the money made over to the girl's
+name, if he could lay his bands on it. He did not know much of such
+transactions, but he knew more than Marie Melmotte, and could
+understand that a man in Melmotte's position should want to secure a
+portion of his fortune against accidents, by settling it on his
+daughter. Whether, having so settled it, he could again resume it
+without the daughter's assent, Sir Felix did not know. Marie, who had
+no doubt been regarded as an absolutely passive instrument when the
+thing was done, was now quite alive to the benefit which she might
+possibly derive from it. Her proposition, put into plain English,
+amounted to this: 'Take me and marry me without my father's consent,--
+and then you and I together can rob my father of the money which, for
+his own purposes, he has settled upon me.' He had looked upon the lady
+of his choice as a poor weak thing, without any special character of
+her own, who was made worthy of consideration only by the fact that
+she was a rich man's daughter; but now she began to loom before his
+eyes as something bigger than that. She had had a will of her own when
+the mother had none. She had not been afraid of her brutal father when
+he, Sir Felix, had trembled before him. She had offered to be beaten,
+and killed, and chopped to pieces on behalf of her lover. There could
+be no doubt about her running away if she were asked.
+
+It seemed to him that within the last month he had gained a great deal
+of experience, and that things which heretofore had been troublesome
+to him, or difficult, or perhaps impossible, were now coming easily
+within his reach. He had won two or three thousand pounds at cards,
+whereas invariable loss had been the result of the small play in which
+he had before indulged. He had been set to marry this heiress, having
+at first no great liking for the attempt, because of its difficulties
+and the small amount of hope which it offered him. The girl was
+already willing and anxious to jump into his arms. Then he had
+detected a man cheating at cards,--an extent of iniquity that was awful
+to him before he had seen it,--and was already beginning to think that
+there was not very much in that. If there was not much in it, if such
+a man as Miles Grendall could cheat at cards and be brought to no
+punishment, why should not he try it? It was a rapid way of winning,
+no doubt. He remembered that on one or two occasions he had asked his
+adversary to cut the cards a second time at whist, because he had
+observed that there was no honour at the bottom. No feeling of honesty
+had interfered with him. The little trick had hardly been
+premeditated, but when successful without detection had not troubled
+his conscience. Now it seemed to him that much more than that might be
+done without detection. But nothing had opened his eyes to the ways of
+the world so widely as the sweet lover-like proposition made by Miss
+Melmotte for robbing her father. It certainly recommended the girl to
+him. She had been able at an early age, amidst the circumstances of a
+very secluded life, to throw off from her altogether those scruples of
+honesty, those bugbears of the world, which are apt to prevent great
+enterprises in the minds of men.
+
+What should he do next? This sum of money of which Marie wrote so
+easily was probably large. It would not have been worth the while of
+such a man as Mr Melmotte to make a trifling provision of this nature.
+It could hardly be less than £50,000,--might probably be very much more.
+But this was certain to him,--that if he and Marie were to claim this
+money as man and wife, there could then be no hope of further
+liberality. It was not probable that such a man as Mr Melmotte would
+forgive even an only child such an offence as that. Even if it were
+obtained, £50,000 would not be very much. And Melmotte might probably
+have means, even if the robbery were duly perpetrated, of making the
+possession of the money very uncomfortable. These were deep waters
+into which Sir Felix was preparing to plunge; and he did not feel
+himself to be altogether comfortable, although he liked the deep
+waters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX - MR MELMOTTE'S PROMISE
+
+
+On the following Saturday there appeared in Mr Alf's paper, the
+'Evening Pulpit,' a very remarkable article on the South Central
+Pacific and Mexican Railway. It was an article that attracted a great
+deal of attention and was therefore remarkable, but it was in nothing
+more remarkable than in this,--that it left on the mind of its reader no
+impression of any decided opinion about the railway. The Editor would
+at any future time be able to refer to his article with equal pride
+whether the railway should become a great cosmopolitan fact, or
+whether it should collapse amidst the foul struggles of a horde of
+swindlers. In utrumque paratus, the article was mysterious,
+suggestive, amusing, well-informed,--that in the 'Evening Pulpit' was a
+matter of course,--and, above all things, ironical. Next to its
+omniscience its irony was the strongest weapon belonging to the
+'Evening Pulpit.' There was a little praise given, no doubt in irony,
+to the duchesses who served Mr Melmotte. There was a little praise,
+given of course in irony, to Mr Melmotte's Board of English Directors.
+There was a good deal of praise, but still alloyed by a dash of irony,
+bestowed on the idea of civilizing Mexico by joining it to California.
+Praise was bestowed upon England for taking up the matter, but
+accompanied by some ironical touches at her incapacity to believe
+thoroughly in any enterprise not originated by herself. Then there was
+something said of the universality of Mr Melmotte's commercial genius,
+but whether said in a spirit prophetic of ultimate failure and
+disgrace, or of heavenborn success and unequalled commercial
+splendour, no one could tell.
+
+It was generally said at the clubs that Mr Alf had written this
+article himself. Old Splinter, who was one of a body of men possessing
+an excellent cellar of wine and calling themselves Paides Pallados,
+and who had written for the heavy quarterlies any time this last forty
+years, professed that he saw through the article. The 'Evening Pulpit'
+had been, he explained, desirous of going as far as it could in
+denouncing Mr Melmotte without incurring the danger of an action for
+libel. Mr Splinter thought that the thing was clever but mean. These
+new publications generally were mean. Mr Splinter was constant in that
+opinion; but, putting the meanness aside, he thought that the article
+was well done. According to his view it was intended to expose Mr
+Melmotte and the railway. But the Paides Pallados generally did not
+agree with him. Under such an interpretation, what had been the
+meaning of that paragraph in which the writer had declared that the
+work of joining one ocean to another was worthy of the nearest
+approach to divinity that had been granted to men? Old Splinter
+chuckled and gabbled as he heard this, and declared that there was not
+wit enough left now even among the Paides Pallados to understand a
+shaft of irony. There could be no doubt, however, at the time, that
+the world did not go with old Splinter, and that the article served to
+enhance the value of shares in the great railway enterprise.
+
+Lady Carbury was sure that the article was intended to write up the
+railway, and took great joy in it. She entertained in her brain a
+somewhat confused notion that if she could only bestir herself in the
+right direction and could induce her son to open his eyes to his own
+advantage, very great things might be achieved, so that wealth might
+become his handmaid and luxury the habit and the right of his life. He
+was the beloved and the accepted suitor of Marie Melmotte. He was a
+Director of this great company, sitting at the same board with the
+great commercial hero. He was the handsomest young man in London. And
+he was a baronet. Very wild Ideas occurred to her. Should she take Mr
+Alf into her entire confidence? If Melmotte and Alf could be brought
+together what might they not do? Alf could write up Melmotte, and
+Melmotte could shower shares upon Alf. And if Melmotte would come and
+be smiled upon by herself, be flattered as she thought that she could
+flatter him, be told that he was a god, and have that passage about
+the divinity of joining ocean to ocean construed to him as she could
+construe it, would not the great man become plastic under her hands?
+And if, while this was a-doing, Felix would run away with Marie, could
+not forgiveness be made easy? And her creative mind ranged still
+farther. Mr Broune might help, and even Mr Booker. To such a one as
+Melmotte, a man doing great things through the force of the confidence
+placed in him by the world at large, the freely-spoken support of the
+Press would be everything. Who would not buy shares in a railway as to
+which Mr Broune and Mr Alf would combine in saying that it was managed
+by 'divinity'? Her thoughts were rather hazy, but from day to day she
+worked hard to make them clear to herself.
+
+On the Sunday afternoon Mr Booker called on her and talked to her
+about the article. She did not say much to Mr Booker as to her own
+connection with Mr Melmotte, telling herself that prudence was
+essential in the present emergency. But she listened with all her
+ears. It was Mr Booker's idea that the man was going 'to make a spoon
+or spoil a horn.' 'You think him honest;--don't you?' asked Lady
+Carbury. Mr Booker smiled and hesitated. 'Of course, I mean honest as
+men can be in such very large transactions.'
+
+'Perhaps that is the best way of putting it,' said Mr Booker.
+
+'If a thing can be made great and beneficent, a boon to humanity,
+simply by creating a belief in it, does not a man become a benefactor
+to his race by creating that belief?'
+
+'At the expense of veracity?' suggested Mr Booker.
+
+'At the expense of anything?' rejoined Lady Carbury with energy. 'One
+cannot measure such men by the ordinary rule.'
+
+'You would do evil to produce good?' asked Mr Booker.
+
+'I do not call it doing evil. You have to destroy a thousand living
+creatures every time you drink a glass of water, but you do not think
+of that when you are athirst. You cannot send a ship to sea without
+endangering lives. You do send ships to sea though men perish yearly.
+You tell me this man may perhaps ruin hundreds, but then again he may
+create a new world in which millions will be rich and happy.'
+
+'You are an excellent casuist, Lady Carbury.'
+
+'I am an enthusiastic lover of beneficent audacity,' said Lady Carbury,
+picking her words slowly, and showing herself to be quite satisfied
+with herself as she picked them. 'Did I hold your place, Mr Booker, in
+the literature of my country--'
+
+'I hold no place, Lady Carbury.'
+
+'Yes;--and a very distinguished place. Were I circumstanced as you are I
+should have no hesitation in lending the whole weight of my
+periodical, let it be what it might, to the assistance of so great a
+man and so great an object as this.'
+
+'I should be dismissed to-morrow,' said Mr Booker, getting up and
+laughing as he took his departure. Lady Carbury felt that, as regarded
+Mr Booker, she had only thrown out a chance word that could not do any
+harm. She had not expected to effect much through Mr Booker's
+instrumentality. On the Tuesday evening,--her regular Tuesday as she
+called it,--all her three editors came to her drawing-room; but there
+came also a greater man than either of them. She had taken the bull by
+the horns, and without saying anything to anybody had written to Mr
+Melmotte himself, asking him to honour her poor house with his
+presence. She had written a very pretty note to him, reminding him of
+their meeting at Caversham, telling him that on a former occasion
+Madame Melmotte and his daughter had been so kind as to come to her,
+and giving him to understand that of all the potentates now on earth
+he was the one to whom she could bow the knee with the purest
+satisfaction. He wrote back,--or Miles Grendall did for him,--a very plain
+note, accepting the honour of Lady Carbury's invitation.
+
+The great man came, and Lady Carbury took him under her immediate wing
+with a grace that was all her own. She said a word about their dear
+friends at Caversham, expressed her sorrow that her son's engagements
+did not admit of his being there, and then with the utmost audacity
+rushed off to the article in the 'Pulpit.' Her friend, Mr Alf, the
+editor, had thoroughly appreciated the greatness of Mr Melmotte's
+character, and the magnificence of Mr Melmotte's undertakings. Mr
+Melmotte bowed and muttered something that was inaudible. 'Now I must
+introduce you to Mr Alf,' said the lady. The introduction was
+effected, and Mr Alf explained that it was hardly necessary, as he had
+already been entertained as one of Mr Melmotte's guests.
+
+'There were a great many there I never saw, and probably never shall
+see,' said Mr Melmotte.
+
+'I was one of the unfortunates,' said Mr Alf.
+
+'I'm sorry you were unfortunate. If you had come into the whist room
+you would have found me.'
+
+'Ah,--if I had but known!' said Mr Alf. The editor, as was proper,
+carried about with him samples of the irony which his paper used so
+effectively, but it was altogether thrown away upon Melmotte.
+
+Lady Carbury, finding that no immediate good results could be expected
+from this last introduction, tried another. 'Mr Melmotte,' she said,
+whispering to him, 'I do so want to make you known to Mr Broune. Mr
+Broune I know you have never met before. A morning paper is a much
+heavier burden to an editor than one published in the afternoon. Mr
+Broune, as of course you know, manages the "Breakfast Table." There is
+hardly a more influential man in London than Mr Broune. And they
+declare, you know,' she said, lowering the tone of her whisper as she
+communicated the fact, 'that his commercial articles are gospel,--
+absolutely gospel.' Then the two men were named to each other, and
+Lady Carbury retreated;--but not out of hearing.
+
+'Getting very hot,' said Mr Melmotte.
+
+'Very hot indeed,' said Mr Broune.
+
+'It was over 70 in the city to-day. I call that very hot for June.'
+
+'Very hot indeed,' said Mr Broune again. Then the conversation was
+over. Mr Broune sidled away, and Mr Melmotte was left standing in the
+middle of the room. Lady Carbury told herself at the moment that Rome
+was not built in a day. She would have been better satisfied certainly
+if she could have laid a few more bricks on this day. Perseverance,
+however, was the thing wanted.
+
+But Mr Melmotte himself had a word to say, and before he left the
+house he said it. 'It was very good of you to ask me, Lady Carbury;--
+very good.' Lady Carbury intimated her opinion that the goodness was
+all on the other side. 'And I came,' continued Mr Melmotte, 'because I
+had something particular to say. Otherwise I don't go out much to
+evening parties. Your son has proposed to my daughter.' Lady Carbury
+looked up into his face with all her eyes;--clasped both her hands
+together; and then, having unclasped them, put one upon his sleeve.
+
+'My daughter, ma'am, is engaged to another man.'
+
+'You would not enslave her affections, Mr Melmotte?'
+
+'I won't give her a shilling if she marries any one else; that's all.
+You reminded me down at Caversham that your son is a Director at our
+Board.'
+
+'I did;--I did.'
+
+'I have a great respect for your son, ma'am. I don't want to hurt him
+in any way. If he'll signify to my daughter that he withdraws from
+this offer of his, because I'm against it, I'll see that he does
+uncommon well in the city. I'll be the making of him. Good night,
+ma'am.' Then Mr Melmotte took his departure without another word.
+
+Here at any rate was an undertaking on the part of the great man that
+he would be the 'making of Felix,' if Felix would only obey him,--
+accompanied, or rather preceded, by a most positive assurance that if
+Felix were to succeed in marrying his daughter he would not give his
+son-in-law a shilling! There was very much to be considered in this.
+She did not doubt that Felix might be 'made' by Mr Melmotte's city
+influences, but then any perpetuity of such making must depend on
+qualifications in her son which she feared that he did not possess.
+The wife without the money would be terrible! That would be absolute
+ruin! There could be no escape then; no hope. There was an
+appreciation of real tragedy in her heart while she contemplated the
+position of Sir Felix married to such a girl as she supposed Marie
+Melmotte to be, without any means of support for either of them but
+what she could supply. It would kill her. And for those young people
+there would be nothing before them, but beggary and the workhouse. As
+she thought of this she trembled with true maternal instincts. Her
+beautiful boy,--so glorious with his outward gifts, so fit, as she
+thought him, for all the graces of the grand world! Though the
+ambition was vilely ignoble, the mother's love was noble and
+disinterested.
+
+But the girl was an only child. The future honours of the house of
+Melmotte could be made to settle on no other head. No doubt the father
+would prefer a lord for a son-in-law; and, having that preference,
+would of course do as he was now doing. That he should threaten to
+disinherit his daughter if she married contrary to his wishes was to
+be expected. But would it not be equally a matter of course that he
+should make the best of the marriage if it were once effected? His
+daughter would return to him with a title, though with one of a lower
+degree than his ambition desired. To herself personally, Lady Carbury
+felt that the great financier had been very rude. He had taken
+advantage of her invitation that he might come to her house and
+threaten her. But she would forgive that. She could pass that over
+altogether if only anything were to be gained by passing it over.
+
+She looked round the room, longing for a friend, whom she might
+consult with a true feeling of genuine womanly dependence. Her most
+natural friend was Roger Carbury. But even had he been there she could
+not have consulted him on any matter touching the Melmottes. His
+advice would have been very clear. He would have told her to have
+nothing at all to do with such adventurers. But then dear Roger was
+old-fashioned, and knew nothing of people as they are now. He lived in
+a world which, though slow, had been good in its way; but which,
+whether bad or good, had now passed away. Then her eye settled on Mr
+Broune. She was afraid of Mr Alf. She had almost begun to think that
+Mr Alf was too difficult of management to be of use to her. But Mr
+Broune was softer. Mr Booker was serviceable for an article, but would
+not be sympathetic as a friend.
+
+Mr Broune had been very courteous to her lately;--so much so that on one
+occasion she had almost feared that the 'susceptible old goose' was
+going to be a goose again. That would be a bore; but still she might
+make use of the friendly condition of mind which such susceptibility
+would produce. When her guests began to leave her, she spoke a word
+aside to him. She wanted his advice. Would he stay for a few minutes
+after the rest of the company? He did stay, and when all the others
+were gone she asked her daughter to leave them. 'Hetta,' she said, 'I
+have something of business to communicate to Mr Broune.' And so they
+were left alone.
+
+'I'm afraid you didn't make much of Mr Melmotte,' she said smiling. He
+had seated himself on the end of a sofa, close to the arm-chair which
+she occupied. In reply, he only shook his head and laughed. 'I saw how
+it was, and I was sorry for it; for he certainly is a wonderful man.'
+
+'I suppose he is, but he is one of those men whose powers do not lie,
+I should say, chiefly in conversation. Though, indeed, there is no
+reason why he should not say the same of me,--for if he said little, I
+said less.'
+
+'It didn't just come off,' Lady Carbury suggested with her sweetest
+smile. 'But now I want to tell you something. I think I am justified
+in regarding you as a real friend.'
+
+'Certainly,' he said, putting out his hand for hers.
+
+She gave it to him for a moment, and then took it back again,--finding
+that he did not relinquish it of his own accord. 'Stupid old goose!'
+she said to herself. 'And now to my story. You know my boy, Felix?'
+The editor nodded his head. 'He is engaged to marry that man's
+daughter.'
+
+'Engaged to marry Miss Melmotte?' Then Lady Carbury nodded her head.
+'Why, she is said to be the greatest heiress that the world has ever
+produced. I thought she was to marry Lord Nidderdale.'
+
+'She has engaged herself to Felix. She is desperately in love with him,--
+as is he with her.' She tried to tell her story truly, knowing that no
+advice can be worth anything that is not based on a true story;--but
+lying had become her nature. 'Melmotte naturally wants her to marry
+the lord. He came here to tell me that if his daughter married Felix
+she would not have a penny.'
+
+'Do you mean that he volunteered that as a threat?'
+
+'Just so;--and he told me that he had come here simply with the object
+of saying so. It was more candid than civil, but we must take it as we
+get it.'
+
+'He would be sure to make some such threat.'
+
+'Exactly. That is just what I feel. And in these days young people are
+often kept from marrying simply by a father's fantasy. But I must tell
+you something else. He told me that if Felix would desist, he would
+enable him to make a fortune in the city.'
+
+'That's bosh,' said Broune with decision.
+
+'Do you think it must be so;--certainly?'
+
+'Yes, I do. Such an undertaking, if intended by Melmotte, would give
+me a worse opinion of him than I have ever held.'
+
+'He did make it.'
+
+'Then he did very wrong. He must have spoken with the purpose of
+deceiving.'
+
+'You know my son is one of the Directors of that great American
+Railway. It was not just as though the promise were made to a young
+man who was altogether unconnected with him.'
+
+'Sir Felix's name was put there, in a hurry, merely because he has a
+title, and because Melmotte thought he, as a young man, would not be
+likely to interfere with him. It may be that he will be able to sell a
+few shares at a profit; but, if I understand the matter rightly, he
+has no capital to go into such a business.'
+
+'No;--he has no capital.'
+
+'Dear Lady Carbury, I would place no dependence at all on such a
+promise as that.'
+
+'You think he should marry the girl then in spite of the father?'
+
+Mr Broune hesitated before he replied to this question. But it was to
+this question that Lady Carbury especially wished for a reply. She
+wanted some one to support her under the circumstances of an
+elopement. She rose from her chair, and he rose at the same time.
+
+'Perhaps I should have begun by saying that Felix is all but prepared
+to take her off. She is quite ready to go. She is devoted to him. Do
+you think he would be wrong?'
+
+'That is a question very hard to answer.'
+
+'People do it every day. Lionel Goldsheiner ran away the other day
+with Lady Julia Start, and everybody visits them.'
+
+'Oh yes, people do run away, and it all comes right. It was the
+gentleman had the money then, and it is said you know that old Lady
+Catchboy, Lady Julia's mother, had arranged the elopement herself as
+offering the safest way of securing the rich prize. The young lord
+didn't like it, so the mother had it done in that fashion.'
+
+'There would be nothing disgraceful.'
+
+'I didn't say there would;--but nevertheless it is one of those things a
+man hardly ventures to advise. If you ask me whether I think that
+Melmotte would forgive her, and make her an allowance afterwards,--I
+think he would.'
+
+'I am so glad to hear you say that.'
+
+'And I feel quite certain that no dependence whatever should be placed
+on that promise of assistance.'
+
+'I quite agree with you. I am so much obliged to you,' said Lady
+Carbury, who was now determined that Felix should run off with the
+girl. 'You have been so very kind.' Then again she gave him her hand,
+as though to bid him farewell for the night.
+
+'And now,' he said, 'I also have something to say to you.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI - MR BROUNE HAS MADE UP HIS MIND
+
+
+'And now I have something to say to you.' Mr Broune as he thus spoke
+to Lady Carbury rose up to his feet and then sat down again. There was
+an air of perturbation about him which was very manifest to the lady,
+and the cause and coming result of which she thought that she
+understood. 'The susceptible old goose is going to do something highly
+ridiculous and very disagreeable.' It was thus that she spoke to
+herself of the scene that she saw was prepared for her, but she did
+not foresee accurately the shape in which the susceptibility of the
+'old goose' would declare itself. 'Lady Carbury,' said Mr Broune,
+standing up a second time, 'we are neither of us so young as we used
+to be.'
+
+'No, indeed;--and therefore it is that we can afford to ourselves the
+luxury of being friends. Nothing but age enables men and women to know
+each other intimately.'
+
+This speech was a great impediment to Mr Broune's progress. It was
+evidently intended to imply that he at least had reached a time of
+life at which any allusion to love would be absurd. And yet, as a
+fact, he was nearer fifty than sixty, was young of his age, could walk
+his four or five miles pleasantly, could ride his cob in the park with
+as free an air as any man of forty, and could afterwards work through
+four or five hours of the night with an easy steadiness which nothing
+but sound health could produce. Mr Broune, thinking of himself and his
+own circumstances, could see no reason why he should not be in love.
+'I hope we know each other intimately at any rate,' he said somewhat
+lamely.
+
+'Oh, yes;--and it is for that reason that I have come to you for advice.
+Had I been a young woman I should not have dared to ask you.'
+
+'I don't see that. I don't quite understand that. But it has nothing
+to do with my present purpose. When I said that we were neither of us
+so young as we once were, I uttered what was a stupid platitude,--a
+foolish truism.'
+
+'I do not think so,' said Lady Carbury smiling.
+
+'Or would have been, only that I intended something further.' Mr
+Broune had got himself into a difficulty and hardly knew how to get
+out of it. 'I was going on to say that I hoped we were not too old
+to--love.'
+
+Foolish old darling! What did he mean by making such an ass of
+himself? This was worse even than the kiss, as being more troublesome
+and less easily pushed on one side and forgotten. It may serve to
+explain the condition of Lady Carbury's mind at the time if it be
+stated that she did not even at this moment suppose that the editor of
+the 'Morning Breakfast Table' intended to make her an offer of
+marriage. She knew, or thought she knew, that middle-aged men are fond
+of prating about love, and getting up sensational scenes. The
+falseness of the thing, and the injury which may come of it, did not
+shock her at all. Had she known that the editor professed to be in
+love with some lady in the next street, she would have been quite
+ready to enlist the lady in the next street among her friends that she
+might thus strengthen her own influence with Mr Broune. For herself
+such make-believe of an improper passion would be inconvenient, and
+therefore to be avoided. But that any man, placed as Mr Broune was in
+the world,--blessed with power, with a large income, with influence
+throughout all the world around him, courted, fêted, feared and almost
+worshipped,--that he should desire to share her fortunes, her
+misfortunes, her struggles, her poverty and her obscurity, was not
+within the scope of her imagination. There was a homage in it, of
+which she did not believe any man to be capable,--and which to her would
+be the more wonderful as being paid to herself. She thought so badly
+of men and women generally, and of Mr Broune and herself as a man and
+a woman individually, that she was unable to conceive the possibility
+of such a sacrifice. 'Mr Broune,' she said, 'I did not think that you
+would take advantage of the confidence I have placed in you to annoy
+me in this way.'
+
+'To annoy you, Lady Carbury! The phrase at any rate is singular. After
+much thought I have determined to ask you to be my wife. That I should
+be--annoyed, and more than annoyed by your refusal, is a matter of
+course. That I ought to expect such annoyance is perhaps too true. But
+you can extricate yourself from the dilemma only too easily.'
+
+The word 'wife' came upon her like a thunder-clap. It at once changed
+all her feelings towards him. She did not dream of loving him. She
+felt sure that she never could love him. Had it been on the cards with
+her to love any man as a lover, it would have been some handsome
+spendthrift who would have hung from her neck like a nether millstone.
+This man was a friend to be used,--to be used because he knew the world.
+And now he gave her this clear testimony that he knew as little of the
+world as any other man. Mr Broune of the 'Daily Breakfast Table'
+asking her to be his wife! But mixed with her other feelings there was
+a tenderness which brought back some memory of her distant youth, and
+almost made her weep. That a man,--such a man,--should offer to take half
+her burdens, and to confer upon her half his blessings! What an idiot!
+But what a god! She had looked upon the man as all intellect, alloyed
+perhaps by some passionless remnants of the vices of his youth; and
+now she found that he not only had a human heart in his bosom, but a
+heart that she could touch. How wonderfully sweet! How infinitely
+small!
+
+It was necessary that she should answer him;--and to her it was only
+natural that she should think what answer would best assist her own
+views without reference to his. It did not occur to her that she could
+love him; but it did occur to her that he might lift her out of her
+difficulties. What a benefit it would be to her to have a father, and
+such a father, for Felix! How easy would be a literary career to the
+wife of the editor of the 'Morning Breakfast Table!' And then it
+passed through her mind that somebody had told her that the man was
+paid £3,000 a year for his work. Would not the world, or any part of
+it that was desirable, come to her drawing-room if she were the wife
+of Mr Broune? It all passed through her brain at once during that
+minute of silence which she allowed herself after the declaration was
+made to her. But other ideas and other feelings were present to her
+also. Perhaps the truest aspiration of her heart had been the love of
+freedom which the tyranny of her late husband had engendered. Once she
+had fled from that tyranny and had been almost crushed by the censure
+to which she had been subjected. Then her husband's protection and his
+tyranny had been restored to her.
+
+After that the freedom had come. It had been accompanied by many hopes
+never as yet fulfilled, and embittered by many sorrows which had been
+always present to her; but still the hopes were alive and the
+remembrance of the tyranny was very clear to her. At last the minute
+was over and she was bound to speak. 'Mr Broune,' she said, 'you have
+quite taken away my breath. I never expected anything of this kind.'
+
+And now Mr Broune's mouth was opened, and his voice was free. 'Lady
+Carbury,' he said, 'I have lived a long time without marrying, and I
+have sometimes thought that it would be better for me to go on the
+same way to the end. I have worked so hard all my life that when I was
+young I had no time to think of love. And, as I have gone on, my mind
+has been so fully employed, that I have hardly realized the want which
+nevertheless I have felt. And so it has been with me till I fancied,
+not that I was too old for love, but that others would think me so.
+Then I met you. As I said at first, perhaps with scant gallantry, you
+also are not as young as you once were. But you keep the beauty of
+your youth, and the energy, and something of the freshness of a young
+heart. And I have come to love you. I speak with absolute frankness,
+risking your anger. I have doubted much before I resolved upon this.
+It is so hard to know the nature of another person. But I think I
+understand yours;--and if you can confide your happiness with me, I am
+prepared to entrust mine to your keeping.' Poor Mr Broune! Though
+endowed with gifts peculiarly adapted for the editing of a daily
+newspaper, he could have had but little capacity for reading a woman's
+character when he talked of the freshness of Lady Carbury's young
+mind! And he must have surely been much blinded by love, before
+convincing himself that he could trust his happiness to such keeping.
+
+'You do me infinite honour. You pay me a great compliment,' ejaculated
+Lady Carbury.
+
+'Well?'
+
+'How am I to answer you at a moment? I expected nothing of this. As
+God is to be my judge it has come upon me like a dream. I look upon
+your position as almost the highest in England,--on your prosperity as
+the uttermost that can be achieved.'
+
+'That prosperity, such as it is, I desire most anxiously to share with
+you.'
+
+'You tell me so;--but I can hardly yet believe it. And then how am I to
+know my own feelings so suddenly? Marriage as I have found it, Mr
+Broune, has not been happy. I have suffered much. I have been wounded
+in every joint, hurt in every nerve,--tortured till I could hardly
+endure my punishment. At last I got my liberty, and to that I have
+looked for happiness.'
+
+'Has it made you happy?'
+
+'It has made me less wretched. And there is so much to be considered!
+I have a son and a daughter, Mr Broune.'
+
+'Your daughter I can love as my own. I think I prove my devotion to
+you when I say that I am willing for your sake to encounter the
+troubles which may attend your son's future career.'
+
+'Mr Broune, I love him better,--always shall love him better,--than
+anything in the world.' This was calculated to damp the lover's
+ardour, but he probably reflected that should he now be successful,
+time might probably change the feeling which had just been expressed.
+'Mr Broune,' she said, 'I am now so agitated that you had better leave
+me. And it is very late. The servant is sitting up, and will wonder
+that you should remain. It is near two o'clock.'
+
+'When may I hope for an answer?'
+
+'You shall not be kept waiting. I will write to you, almost at once. I
+will write to you,--to-morrow; say the day after to-morrow, on Thursday. I
+feel that I ought to have been prepared with an answer; but I am so
+surprised that I have none ready.' He took her hand in his, and
+kissing it, left her without another word.
+
+As he was about to open the front door to let himself out, a key from
+the other side raised the latch, and Sir Felix, returning from his
+club, entered his mother's house. The young man looked up into Mr
+Broune's face with mingled impudence and surprise. 'Halloo, old
+fellow,' he said, 'you've been keeping it up late here; haven't you?'
+He was nearly drunk, and Mr Broune, perceiving his condition, passed
+him without a word. Lady Carbury was still standing in the
+drawing-room, struck with amazement at the scene which had just
+passed, full of doubt as to her future conduct, when she heard her son
+tumbling up the stairs. It was impossible for her not to go out to
+him. 'Felix,' she said, 'why do you make so much noise as you come
+in?'
+
+'Noish! I'm not making any noish. I think I'm very early. Your
+people's only just gone. I shaw shat editor fellow at the door that
+won't call himself Brown. He'sh great ass'h, that fellow. All right,
+mother. Oh, ye'sh, I'm all right.' And so he tumbled up to bed, and
+his mother followed him to see that the candle was at any rate placed
+squarely on the table, beyond the reach of the bed curtains.
+
+Mr Broune as he walked to his newspaper office experienced all those
+pangs of doubt which a man feels when he has just done that which for
+days and weeks past he has almost resolved that he had better leave
+undone. That last apparition which he had encountered at his lady
+love's door certainly had not tended to reassure him. What curse can
+be much greater than that inflicted by a drunken, reprobate son? The
+evil, when in the course of things it comes upon a man, has to be
+borne; but why should a man in middle life unnecessarily afflict
+himself with so terrible a misfortune? The woman, too, was devoted to
+the cub! Then thousands of other thoughts crowded upon him. How would
+this new life suit him? He must have a new house, and new ways; must
+live under a new dominion, and fit himself to new pleasures. And what
+was he to gain by it? Lady Carbury was a handsome woman, and he liked
+her beauty. He regarded her too as a clever woman; and, because she
+had flattered him, he had liked her conversation. He had been long
+enough about town to have known better,--and as he now walked along the
+streets, he almost felt that he ought to have known better. Every now
+and again he warmed himself a little with the remembrance of her
+beauty, and told himself that his new home would be pleasanter, though
+it might perhaps be less free, than the old one. He tried to make the
+best of it; but as he did so was always repressed by the memory of the
+appearance of that drunken young baronet.
+
+Whether for good or for evil, the step had been taken and the thing
+was done. It did not occur to him that the lady would refuse him. All
+his experience of the world was against such refusal. Towns which
+consider, always render themselves. Ladies who doubt always solve
+their doubts in the one direction. Of course she would accept him;--and
+of course he would stand to his guns. As he went to his work he
+endeavoured to bathe himself in self-complacency; but, at the bottom
+of it, there was a substratum of melancholy which leavened his
+prospects.
+
+Lady Carbury went from the door of her son's room to her own chamber,
+and there sat thinking through the greater part of the night. During
+these hours she perhaps became a better woman, as being more oblivious
+of herself, than she had been for many a year. It could not be for the
+good of this man that he should marry her,--and she did in the midst of
+her many troubles try to think of the man's condition. Although in the
+moments of her triumph,--and such moments were many,--she would buoy
+herself up with assurances that her Felix would become a rich man,
+brilliant with wealth and rank, an honour to her, a personage whose
+society would be desired by many, still in her heart of hearts she
+knew how great was the peril, and in her imagination she could foresee
+the nature of the catastrophe which might come. He would go utterly to
+the dogs and would take her with him. And whithersoever he might go,
+to what lowest canine regions he might descend, she knew herself well
+enough to be sure that whether married or single she would go with
+him. Though her reason might be ever so strong in bidding her to
+desert him, her heart, she knew, would be stronger than her reason. He
+was the one thing in the world that overpowered her. In all other
+matters she could scheme, and contrive, and pretend; could get the
+better of her feelings and fight the world with a double face,
+laughing at illusions and telling herself that passions and
+preferences were simply weapons to be used. But her love for her son
+mastered her,--and she knew it. As it was so, could it be fit that she
+should marry another man?
+
+And then her liberty! Even though Felix should bring her to utter
+ruin, nevertheless she would be and might remain a free woman. Should
+the worse come to the worst she thought that she could endure a
+Bohemian life in which, should all her means have been taken from her,
+she could live on what she earned. Though Felix was a tyrant after a
+kind, he was not a tyrant who could bid her do this or that. A
+repetition of marriage vows did not of itself recommend itself to her.
+As to loving the man, liking his caresses, and being specially happy
+because he was near her,--no romance of that kind ever presented itself
+to her imagination. How would it affect Felix and her together,--and Mr
+Broune as connected with her and Felix? If Felix should go to the
+dogs, then would Mr Broune not want her. Should Felix go to the stars
+instead of the dogs, and become one of the gilded ornaments of the
+metropolis, then would not he and she want Mr Broune. It was thus that
+she regarded the matter.
+
+She thought very little of her daughter as she considered all this.
+There was a home for Hetta, with every comfort, if Hetta would only
+condescend to accept it. Why did not Hetta marry her cousin Roger
+Carbury and let there be an end of that trouble? Of course Hetta must
+live wherever her mother lived till she should marry; but Hetta's life
+was so much at her own disposal that her mother did not feel herself
+bound to be guided in the great matter by Hetta's predispositions.
+
+But she must tell Hetta should she ultimately make up her mind to
+marry the man, and in that case the sooner this was done the better.
+On that night she did not make up her mind. Ever and again as she
+declared to herself that she would not marry him, the picture of a
+comfortable assured home over her head, and the conviction that the
+editor of the 'Morning Breakfast Table' would be powerful for all
+things, brought new doubts to her mind. But she could not convince
+herself, and when at last she went to her bed her mind was still
+vacillating. The next morning she met Hetta at breakfast, and with
+assumed nonchalance asked a question about the man who was perhaps
+about to be her husband. 'Do you like Mr Broune, Hetta?'
+
+'Yes;--pretty well. I don't care very much about him. What makes you
+ask, mamma?'
+
+'Because among my acquaintances in London there is no one so truly
+kind to me as he is.'
+
+'He always seems to me to like to have his own way.'
+
+'Why shouldn't he like it?'
+
+'He has to me that air of selfishness which is so very common with
+people in London;--as though what he said were all said out of surface
+politeness.'
+
+'I wonder what you expect, Hetta, when you talk of London people? Why
+should not London people be as kind as other people? I think Mr Broune
+is as obliging a man as any one I know. But if I like anybody, you
+always make little of him. The only person you seem to think well of
+is Mr Montague.'
+
+'Mamma, that is unfair and unkind. I never mention Mr Montague's name
+if I can help it,--and I should not have spoken of Mr Broune, had you
+not asked me.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII - LADY MONOGRAM
+
+
+Georgiana Longestaffe had now been staying with the Melmottes for a
+fortnight, and her prospects in regard to the London season had not
+much improved. Her brother had troubled her no further, and her family
+at Caversham had not, as far as she was aware, taken any notice of
+Dolly's interference. Twice a week she received a cold, dull letter
+from her mother,--such letters as she had been accustomed to receive
+when away from home; and these she had answered, always endeavouring
+to fill her sheet with some customary description of fashionable
+doings, with some bit of scandal such as she would have repeated for
+her mother's amusement,--and her own delectation in the telling of it,--
+had there been nothing painful in the nature of her sojourn in London.
+Of the Melmottes she hardly spoke. She did not say that she was taken
+to the houses in which it was her ambition to be seen. She would have
+lied directly in saying so. But she did not announce her own
+disappointment. She had chosen to come up to the Melmottes in
+preference to remaining at Caversham, and she would not declare her
+own failure. 'I hope they are kind to you,' Lady Pomona always said.
+But Georgiana did not tell her mother whether the Melmottes were kind
+or unkind.
+
+In truth, her 'season' was a very unpleasant season. Her mode of living
+was altogether different to anything she had already known. The house
+in Bruton Street had never been very bright, but the appendages of
+life there had been of a sort which was not known in the gorgeous
+mansion in Grosvenor Square. It had been full of books and little toys
+and those thousand trifling household gods which are accumulated in
+years, and which in their accumulation suit themselves to the taste of
+their owners. In Grosvenor Square there were no Lares;--no toys, no
+books, nothing but gold and grandeur, pomatum, powder and pride. The
+Longestaffe life had not been an easy, natural, or intellectual life;
+but the Melmotte life was hardly endurable even by a Longestaffe. She
+had, however, come prepared to suffer much, and was endowed with
+considerable power of endurance in pursuit of her own objects. Having
+willed to come, even to the Melmottes, in preference to remaining at
+Caversham, she fortified herself to suffer much. Could she have ridden
+in the park at mid-day in desirable company, and found herself in
+proper houses at midnight, she would have borne the rest, bad as it
+might have been. But it was not so. She had her horse, but could with
+difficulty get any proper companion. She had been in the habit of
+riding with one of the Primero girls,--and old Primero would accompany
+them, or perhaps a brother Primero, or occasionally her own father.
+And then, when once out, she would be surrounded by a cloud of young
+men,--and though there was but little in it, a walking round and round
+the same bit of ground with the same companions and with the smallest
+attempt at conversation, still it had been the proper thing and had
+satisfied her. Now it was with difficulty that she could get any
+cavalier such as the laws of society demand. Even Penelope Primero
+snubbed her,--whom she, Georgiana Longestaffe, had hitherto endured and
+snubbed. She was just allowed to join them when old Primero rode, and
+was obliged even to ask for that assistance.
+
+But the nights were still worse. She could only go where Madame
+Melmotte went, and Madame Melmotte was more prone to receive people at
+home than to go out. And the people she did receive were antipathetic
+to Miss Longestaffe. She did not even know who they were, whence they
+came, or what was their nature. They seemed to be as little akin to
+her as would have been the shopkeepers in the small town near
+Caversham. She would sit through long evenings almost speechless,
+trying to fathom the depth of the vulgarity of her associates.
+Occasionally she was taken out, and was then, probably, taken to very
+grand houses. The two duchesses and the Marchioness of Auld Reekie
+received Madame Melmotte, and the garden parties of royalty were open
+to her. And some of the most elaborate fêtes of the season.--which
+indeed were very elaborate on behalf of this and that travelling
+potentate,--were attained. On these occasions Miss Longestaffe was fully
+aware of the struggle that was always made for invitations, often
+unsuccessfully, but sometimes with triumph. Even the bargains,
+conducted by the hands of Lord Alfred and his mighty sister, were not
+altogether hidden from her. The Emperor of China was to be in London
+and it was thought proper that some private person, some untitled
+individual, should give the Emperor a dinner, so that the Emperor
+might see how an English merchant lives. Mr Melmotte was chosen on
+condition that he would spend £10,000 on the banquet;--and, as a part of
+his payment for this expenditure, was to be admitted with his family,
+to a grand entertainment given to the Emperor at Windsor Park. Of
+these good things Georgiana Longestaffe would receive her share. But
+she went to them as a Melmotte and not as a Longestaffe,--and when
+amidst these gaieties, though she could see her old friends, she was
+not with them. She was ever behind Madame Melmotte, till she hated the
+make of that lady's garments and the shape of that lady's back.
+
+She had told both her father and mother very plainly that it behoved
+her to be in London at this time of the year that she might--look for a
+husband. She had not hesitated in declaring her purpose; and that
+purpose, together with the means of carrying it out, had not appeared
+to them to be unreasonable. She wanted to be settled in life. She had
+meant, when she first started on her career, to have a lord;--but lords
+are scarce. She was herself not very highly born, not very highly
+gifted, not very lovely, not very pleasant, and she had no fortune.
+She had long made up her mind that she could do without a lord, but
+that she must get a commoner of the proper sort. He must be a man with
+a place in the country and sufficient means to bring him annually to
+London. He must be a gentleman,--and, probably, in parliament. And above
+all things he must be in the right set. She would rather go on for
+ever struggling than take some country Whitstable as her sister was
+about to do. But now the men of the right sort never came near her.
+The one object for which she had subjected herself to all this
+ignominy seemed to have vanished altogether in the distance. When by
+chance she danced or exchanged a few words with the Nidderdales and
+Grassloughs whom she used to know, they spoke to her with a want of
+respect which she felt and tasted but could hardly analyse. Even Miles
+Grendall, who had hitherto been below her notice, attempted to
+patronize her in a manner that bewildered her. All this nearly broke
+her heart.
+
+And then from time to time little rumours reached her ears which made
+her aware that, in the teeth of all Mr Melmotte's social successes, a
+general opinion that he was a gigantic swindler was rather gaining
+ground than otherwise. 'Your host is a wonderful fellow, by George!'
+said Lord Nidderdale. 'No one seems to know which way he'll turn up at
+last.' 'There's nothing like being a robber, if you can only rob
+enough,' said Lord Grasslough,--not exactly naming Melmotte, but very
+clearly alluding to him. There was a vacancy for a member of
+parliament at Westminster, and Melmotte was about to come forward as a
+candidate. 'If he can manage that I think he'll pull through,' she
+heard one man say. 'If money'll do it, it will be done,' said another.
+She could understand it all. Mr Melmotte was admitted into society,
+because of some enormous power which was supposed to lie in his hands;
+but even by those who thus admitted him he was regarded as a thief and
+a scoundrel. This was the man whose house had been selected by her
+father in order that she might make her search for a husband from
+beneath his wing!
+
+In her agony she wrote to her old friend Julia Triplex, now the wife
+of Sir Damask Monogram. She had been really intimate with Julia
+Triplex, and had been sympathetic when a brilliant marriage had been
+achieved. Julia had been without fortune, but very pretty. Sir Damask
+was a man of great wealth, whose father had been a contractor. But Sir
+Damask himself was a sportsman, keeping many horses on which other men
+often rode, a yacht in which other men sunned themselves, a deer
+forest, a moor, a large machinery for making pheasants. He shot
+pigeons at Hurlingham, drove four-in-hand in the park, had a box at
+every race-course, and was the most good-natured fellow known. He had
+really conquered the world, had got over the difficulty of being the
+grandson of a butcher, and was now as good as though the Monograms had
+gone to the crusades. Julia Triplex was equal to her position, and
+made the very most of it. She dispensed champagne and smiles, and made
+everybody, including herself, believe that she was in love with her
+husband. Lady Monogram had climbed to the top of the tree, and in that
+position had been, of course, invaluable to her old friend. We must
+give her her due and say that she had been fairly true to friendship
+while Georgiana--behaved herself. She thought that Georgiana in going
+to the Melmottes had not behaved herself, and therefore she had
+determined to drop Georgiana. 'Heartless, false, purse-proud
+creature,' Georgiana said to herself as she wrote the following letter
+in humiliating agony.
+
+
+   DEAR LADY MONOGRAM,
+
+   I think you hardly understand my position. Of course you have cut
+   me. Haven't you? And of course I must feel it very much. You did
+   not use to be ill-natured, and I hardly think you can have become
+   so now when you have everything pleasant around you. I do not
+   think that I have done anything that should make an old friend
+   treat me in this way, and therefore I write to ask you to let me
+   see you. Of course it is because I am staying here. You know me
+   well enough to be sure that it can't be my own choice. Papa
+   arranged it all. If there is anything against these people, I
+   suppose papa does not know it. Of course they are not nice. Of
+   course they are not like anything that I have been used to. But
+   when papa told me that the house in Bruton Street was to be shut
+   up and that I was to come here, of course I did as I was bid. I
+   don't think an old friend like you, whom I have always liked more
+   than anybody else, ought to cut me for it. It's not about the
+   parties, but about yourself that I mind. I don't ask you to come
+   here, but if you will see me I can have the carriage and will go
+   to you.
+
+   Yours, as ever,
+
+   GEORGIANA LONGESTAFFE.
+
+
+It was a troublesome letter to get written. Lady Monogram was her
+junior in age and had once been lower than herself in social position.
+In the early days of their friendship she had sometimes domineered
+over Julia Triplex, and had been entreated by Julia, in reference to
+balls here and routes there. The great Monogram marriage had been
+accomplished very suddenly, and had taken place,--exalting Julia very
+high,--just as Georgiana was beginning to allow her aspirations to
+descend. It was in that very season that she moved her castle in the
+air from the Upper to the Lower House. And now she was absolutely
+begging for notice, and praying that she might not be cut! She sent
+her letter by post and on the following day received a reply, which
+was left by a footman.
+
+
+   DEAR GEORGIANA,
+
+   Of course I shall be delighted to see you. I don't know what you
+   mean by cutting. I never cut anybody. We happen to have got into
+   different sets, but that is not my fault. Sir Damask won't let me
+   call on the Melmottes. I can't help that. You wouldn't have me go
+   where he tells me not. I don't know anything about them myself,
+   except that I did go to their ball. But everybody knows that's
+   different. I shall be at home all to-morrow till three,--that is
+   to-day I mean, for I'm writing after coming home from Lady
+   Killarney's ball; but if you wish to see me alone you had better
+   come before lunch.
+
+   Yours affectionately,
+
+   J. MONOGRAM.
+
+
+Georgiana condescended to borrow the carriage and reached her friend's
+house a little after noon. The two ladies kissed each other when they
+met--of course, and then Miss Longestaffe at once began. 'Julia, I did
+think that you would at any rate have asked me to your second ball.'
+
+'Of course you would have been asked if you had been up in Bruton
+Street. You know that as well as I do. It would have been a matter of
+course.'
+
+'What difference does a house make?'
+
+'But the people in a house make a great deal of difference, my dear. I
+don't want to quarrel with you, my dear; but I can't know the
+Melmottes.'
+
+'Who asks you?'
+
+'You are with them.'
+
+'Do you mean to say that you can't ask anybody to your house without
+asking everybody that lives with that person? It's done every day.'
+
+'Somebody must have brought you.'
+
+'I would have come with the Primeros, Julia.'
+
+'I couldn't do it. I asked Damask and he wouldn't have it. When that
+great affair was going on in February, we didn't know much about the
+people. I was told that everybody was going and therefore I got Sir
+Damask to let me go. He says now that he won't let me know them; and
+after having been at their house I can't ask you out of it, without
+asking them too.'
+
+'I don't see it at all, Julia.'
+
+'I'm very sorry, my dear, but I can't go against my husband.'
+
+'Everybody goes to their house,' said Georgiana, pleading her cause
+to the best of her ability. 'The Duchess of Stevenage has dined in
+Grosvenor Square since I have been there.'
+
+'We all know what that means,' replied Lady Monogram.
+
+'And people are giving their eyes to be asked to the dinner party
+which he is to give to the Emperor in July;--and even to the reception
+afterwards.'
+
+'To hear you talk, Georgiana, one would think that you didn't
+understand anything,' said Lady Monogram. 'People are going to see the
+Emperor, not to see the Melmottes. I dare say we might have gone only
+I suppose we shan't now,--because of this row.'
+
+'I don't know what you mean by a row, Julia.'
+
+'Well;--it is a row, and I hate rows. Going there when the Emperor of
+China is there, or anything of that kind, is no more than going to the
+play. Somebody chooses to get all London into his house, and all
+London chooses to go. But it isn't understood that that means
+acquaintance. I should meet Madame Melmotte in the park afterwards and
+not think of bowing to her.'
+
+'I should call that rude.'
+
+'Very well. Then we differ. But really it does seem to me that you
+ought to understand these things as well as anybody. I don't find any
+fault with you for going to the Melmottes,--though I was very sorry to
+hear it; but when you have done it, I don't think you should complain
+of people because they won't have the Melmottes crammed down their
+throats.'
+
+'Nobody has wanted it,' said Georgiana sobbing. At this moment the
+door was opened, and Sir Damask came in. 'I'm talking to your wife
+about the Melmottes,' she continued, determined to take the bull by
+the horns. 'I'm staying there, and--I think it--unkind that Julia--hasn't
+been--to see me. That's all.'
+
+'How'd you do, Miss Longestaffe? She doesn't know them.' And Sir
+Damask, folding his hands together, raising his eyebrows, and standing
+on the rug, looked as though he had solved the whole difficulty.
+
+'She knows me, Sir Damask.'
+
+'Oh yes;--she knows you. That's a matter of course. We're delighted to
+see you, Miss Longestaffe--I am, always. Wish we could have had you at
+Ascot. But--.' Then he looked as though he had again explained
+everything.
+
+'I've told her that you don't want me to go to the Melmottes,' said
+Lady Monogram.
+
+'Well, no;--not just to go there. Stay and have lunch, Miss
+Longestaffe.'
+
+'No, thank you.'
+
+'Now you're here, you'd better,' said Lady Monogram.
+
+'No, thank you. I'm sorry that I have not been able to make you
+understand me. I could not allow our very long friendship to be
+dropped without a word.'
+
+'Don't say--dropped,' exclaimed the baronet.
+
+'I do say dropped, Sir Damask. I thought we should have understood
+each other;--your wife and I. But we haven't. Wherever she might have
+gone, I should have made it my business to see her; but she feels
+differently. Good-bye.'
+
+'Good-bye, my dear. If you will quarrel, it isn't my doing.' Then Sir
+Damask led Miss Longestaffe out, and put her into Madame Melmotte's
+carriage. 'It's the most absurd thing I ever knew in my life,' said
+the wife as soon as her husband had returned to her. 'She hasn't been
+able to bear to remain down in the country for one season, when all
+the world knows that her father can't afford to have a house for them
+in town. Then she condescends to come and stay with these abominations
+and pretends to feel surprised that her old friends don't run after
+her. She is old enough to have known better.'
+
+'I suppose she likes parties,' said Sir Damask.
+
+'Likes parties! She'd like to get somebody to take her. It's twelve
+years now since Georgiana Longestaffe came out. I remember being told
+of the time when I was first entered myself. Yes, my dear, you know
+all about it, I dare say. And there she is still. I can feel for her,
+and do feel for her. But if she will let herself down in that way she
+can't expect not to be dropped. You remember the woman;--don't you?'
+
+'What woman?'
+
+'Madame Melmotte?'
+
+'Never saw her in my life.'
+
+'Oh yes, you did. You took me there that night when Prince--danced with
+the girl. Don't you remember the blowsy fat woman at the top of the
+stairs;--a regular horror?'
+
+'Didn't look at her. I was only thinking what a lot of money it all
+cost.'
+
+'I remember her, and if Georgiana Longestaffe thinks I'm going there
+to make an acquaintance with Madame Melmotte she is very much
+mistaken. And if she thinks that that is the way to get married, I
+think she is mistaken again.' Nothing perhaps is so efficacious in
+preventing men from marrying as the tone in which married women speak
+of the struggles made in that direction by their unmarried friends.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII - JOHN CRUMB
+
+
+Sir Felix Carbury made an appointment for meeting Ruby Ruggles a
+second time at the bottom of the kitchen-garden belonging to Sheep's
+Acre farm, which appointment he neglected, and had, indeed, made
+without any intention of keeping it. But Ruby was there, and remained
+hanging about among the cabbages till her grandfather returned from
+Harlestone market. An early hour had been named; but hours may be
+mistaken, and Ruby had thought that a fine gentleman, such as was her
+lover, used to live among fine people up in London, might well mistake
+the afternoon for the morning. If he would come at all she could
+easily forgive such a mistake. But he did not come, and late in the
+afternoon she was obliged to obey her grandfather's summons as he
+called her into the house.
+
+After that for three weeks she heard nothing of her London lover, but
+she was always thinking of him;--and though she could not altogether
+avoid her country lover, she was in his company as little as possible.
+One afternoon her grandfather returned from Bungay and told her that
+her country lover was coming to see her. 'John Crumb be a coming over
+by-and-by,' said the old man. 'See and have a bit o' supper ready for
+him.'
+
+'John Crumb coming here, grandfather? He's welcome to stay away then,
+for me.'
+
+'That be dommed.' The old man thrust his old hat on to his head and
+seated himself in a wooden arm-chair that stood by the kitchen-fire.
+Whenever he was angry he put on his hat, and the custom was well
+understood by Ruby. 'Why not welcome, and he all one as your husband?
+Look ye here, Ruby, I'm going to have an eend o' this. John Crumb is
+to marry you next month, and the banns is to be said.'
+
+'The parson may say what he pleases, grandfather. I can't stop his
+saying of 'em. It isn't likely I shall try, neither. But no parson
+among 'em all can marry me without I'm willing.'
+
+'And why should you no be willing, you contrairy young jade, you?'
+
+'You've been a'drinking, grandfather.'
+
+He turned round at her sharp, and threw his old hat at her head;--
+nothing to Ruby's consternation, as it was a practice to which she
+was well accustomed. She picked it up, and returned it to him with a
+cool indifference which was intended to exasperate him. 'Look ye here,
+Ruby,' he said, 'out o' this place you go. If you go as John Crumb's
+wife you'll go with five hun'erd pound, and we'll have a dinner here,
+and a dance, and all Bungay.'
+
+'Who cares for all Bungay,--a set of beery chaps as knows nothing but
+swilling and smoking;--and John Crumb the main of 'em all? There never
+was a chap for beer like John Crumb.'
+
+'Never saw him the worse o' liquor in all my life.' And the old
+farmer, as he gave this grand assurance, rattled his fist down upon
+the table.
+
+'It ony just makes him stoopider and stoopider the more he swills. You
+can't tell me, grandfather, about John Crumb, I knows him.'
+
+'Didn't ye say as how ye'd have him? Didn't ye give him a promise?'
+
+'If I did, I ain't the first girl as has gone back of her word,--and I
+shan't be the last.'
+
+'You means you won't have him?'
+
+'That's about it, grandfather.'
+
+'Then you'll have to have somebody to fend for ye, and that pretty
+sharp,--for you won't have me.'
+
+'There ain't no difficulty about that, grandfather.'
+
+'Very well. He's a coming here to-night, and you may settle it along
+wi' him. Out o' this ye shall go. I know of your doings.'
+
+'What doings! You don't know of no doings. There ain't no doings. You
+don't know nothing ag'in me.'
+
+'He's a coming here to-night, and if you can make it up wi' him, well
+and good. There's five hun'erd pound, and ye shall have the dinner and
+dance and all Bungay. He ain't a going to be put off no longer;--he
+ain't.'
+
+'Whoever wanted him to be put on? Let him go his own gait.'
+
+'If you can't make it up wi' him--'
+
+'Well, grandfather, I shan't anyways.'
+
+'Let me have my say, will ye, yer jade, you? There's five hun'erd
+pound! and there ain't ere a farmer in Suffolk or Norfolk paying rent
+for a bit of land like this can do as well for his darter as that,--let
+alone only a granddarter. You never thinks o' that;--you don't. If you
+don't like to take it,--leave it. But you'll leave Sheep's Acre too.'
+
+'Bother Sheep's Acre. Who wants to stop at Sheep's Acre? It's the
+stoopidest place in all England.'
+
+'Then find another. Then find another. That's all aboot it. John
+Crumb's a coming up for a bit o' supper. You tell him your own mind.
+I'm dommed if I trouble aboot it. On'y you don't stay here. Sheep's
+Acre ain't good enough for you, and you'd best find another home.
+Stoopid, is it? You'll have to put up wi' places stoopider nor Sheep's
+Acre, afore you've done.'
+
+In regard to the hospitality promised to Mr Crumb, Miss Ruggles went
+about her work with sufficient alacrity. She was quite willing that
+the young man should have a supper, and she did understand that, so
+far as the preparation of the supper went, she owed her service to her
+grandfather. She therefore went to work herself, and gave directions
+to the servant girl who assisted her in keeping her grandfather's
+house. But as she did this, she determined that she would make John
+Crumb understand that she would never be his wife. Upon that she was
+now fully resolved. As she went about the kitchen, taking down the ham
+and cutting the slices that were to be broiled, and as she trussed the
+fowl that was to be boiled for John Crumb, she made mental comparisons
+between him and Sir Felix Carbury. She could see, as though present
+to her at the moment, the mealy, floury head of the one, with hair
+stiff with perennial dust from his sacks, and the sweet glossy dark
+well-combed locks of the other, so bright, so seductive, that she was
+ever longing to twine her fingers among them. And she remembered the
+heavy, flat, broad honest face of the mealman, with his mouth slow in
+motion, and his broad nose looking like a huge white promontory, and
+his great staring eyes, from the corners of which he was always
+extracting meal and grit;--and then also she remembered the white teeth,
+the beautiful soft lips, the perfect eyebrows, and the rich complexion
+of her London lover. Surely a lease of Paradise with the one, though
+but for one short year, would be well purchased at the price of a life
+with the other! 'It's no good going against love,' she said to herself,
+'and I won't try. He shall have his supper, and be told all about it,
+and then go home. He cares more for his supper than he do for me.' And
+then, with this final resolution firmly made, she popped the fowl into
+the pot. Her grandfather wanted her to leave Sheep's Acre. Very well.
+She had a little money of her own, and would take herself off to
+London. She knew what people would say, but she cared nothing for old
+women's tales. She would know how to take care of herself, and could
+always say in her own defence that her grandfather had turned her out
+of Sheep's Acre.
+
+Seven had been the hour named, and punctually at that hour John Crumb
+knocked at the back door of Sheep's Acre farm-house. Nor did he come
+alone. He was accompanied by his friend Joe Mixet, the baker of
+Bungay, who, as all Bungay knew, was to be his best man at his
+marriage. John Crumb's character was not without any fine attributes.
+He could earn money,--and having earned it could spend and keep it in
+fair proportion. He was afraid of no work, and,--to give him his due,--
+was afraid of no man. He was honest, and ashamed of nothing that he
+did. And after his fashion he had chivalrous ideas about women. He was
+willing to thrash any man that ill-used a woman, and would certainly
+be a most dangerous antagonist to any man who would misuse a woman
+belonging to him. But Ruby had told the truth of him in saying that he
+was slow of speech, and what the world calls stupid in regard to all
+forms of expression. He knew good meal from bad as well as any man,
+and the price at which he could buy it so as to leave himself a fair
+profit at the selling. He knew the value of a clear conscience, and
+without much argument had discovered for himself that honesty is in
+truth the best policy. Joe Mixet, who was dapper of person and glib of
+tongue, had often declared that any one buying John Crumb for a fool
+would lose his money. Joe Mixet was probably right; but there had been
+a want of prudence, a lack of worldly sagacity, in the way in which
+Crumb had allowed his proposed marriage with Ruby Ruggles to become a
+source of gossip to all Bungay. His love was now an old affair; and,
+though he never talked much, whenever he did talk, he talked about
+that. He was proud of Ruby's beauty, and of her fortune, and of his
+own status as her acknowledged lover,--and he did not hide his light
+under a bushel. Perhaps the publicity so produced had some effect in
+prejudicing Ruby against the man whose offer she had certainly once
+accepted. Now when he came to settle the day,--having heard more than
+once or twice that there was a difficulty with Ruby,--he brought his
+friend Mixet with him as though to be present at his triumph. 'If here
+isn't Joe Mixet,' said Ruby to herself. 'Was there ever such a stoopid
+as John Crumb? There's no end to his being stoopid.'
+
+The old man had slept off his anger and his beer while Ruby had been
+preparing the feast, and now roused himself to entertain his guests.
+'What, Joe Mixet; is that thou? Thou'rt welcome. Come in, man. Well,
+John, how is it wi' you? Ruby's stewing o' something for us to eat a
+bit. Don't e' smell it?'--John Crumb lifted up his great nose, sniffed
+and grinned.
+
+'John didn't like going home in the dark like,' said the baker, with
+his little joke. 'So I just come along to drive away the bogies.'
+
+'The more the merrier;--the more the merrier. Ruby'll have enough for
+the two o' you, I'll go bail. So John Crumb's afraid of bogies;--is he?
+The more need he to have some 'un in his house to scart 'em away.'
+
+The lover had seated himself without speaking a word; but now he was
+instigated to ask a question. 'Where be she, Muster Ruggles?' They
+were seated in the outside or front kitchen, in which the old man and
+his granddaughter always lived; while Ruby was at work in the back
+kitchen. As John Crumb asked this question she could be heard
+distinctly among the pots and the plates. She now came out, and wiping
+her hands on her apron, shook hands with the two young men. She had
+enveloped herself in a big household apron when the cooking was in
+hand, and had not cared to take it off for the greeting of this lover.
+'Grandfather said as how you was a coming out for your supper, so I've
+been a seeing to it. You'll excuse the apron, Mr Mixet.'
+
+'You couldn't look nicer, miss, if you was to try ever so. My mother
+says as it's housifery as recommends a girl to the young men. What do
+you say, John?'
+
+'I loiks to see her loik o' that,' said John rubbing his hands down
+the back of his trowsers, and stooping till he had brought his eyes
+down to a level with those of his sweetheart.
+
+'It looks homely; don't it John?' said Mixet.
+
+'Bother!' said Ruby, turning round sharp, and going back to the other
+kitchen. John Crumb turned round also, and grinned at his friend, and
+then grinned at the old man.
+
+'You've got it all afore you,' said the farmer,--leaving the lover to
+draw what lesson he might from this oracular proposition.
+
+'And I don't care how soon I ha'e it in hond;--that I don't,' said John.
+
+'That's the chat,' said Joe Mixet. 'There ain't nothing wanting in his
+house;--is there, John? It's all there,--cradle, caudle-cup, and the rest
+of it. A young woman going to John knows what she'll have to eat when
+she gets up, and what she'll lie down upon when she goes to bed.' This
+he declared in a loud voice for the benefit of Ruby in the back
+kitchen.
+
+'That she do,' said John, grinning again. 'There's a hun'erd and fifty
+poond o' things in my house forbye what mother left behind her.'
+
+After this there was no more conversation till Ruby reappeared with
+the boiled fowl, and without her apron. She was followed by the girl
+with a dish of broiled ham and an enormous pyramid of cabbage. Then
+the old man got up slowly and opening some private little door of
+which he kept the key in his breeches pocket, drew a jug of ale and
+placed it on the table. And from a cupboard of which he also kept the
+key, he brought out a bottle of gin. Everything being thus prepared,
+the three men sat round the table, John Crumb looking at his chair
+again and again before he ventured to occupy it. 'If you'll sit
+yourself down, I'll give you a bit of something to eat,' said Ruby at
+last. Then he sank at once into has chair. Ruby cut up the fowl
+standing, and dispensed the other good things, not even placing a
+chair for herself at the table,--and apparently not expected to do so,
+for no one invited her. 'Is it to be spirits or ale, Mr Crumb?' she
+said, when the other two men had helped themselves. He turned round
+and gave her a look of love that might have softened the heart of an
+Amazon; but instead of speaking he held up his tumbler, and bobbed his
+head at the beer jug. Then she filled it to the brim, frothing it in
+the manner in which he loved to have it frothed. He raised it to his
+mouth slowly, and poured the liquor in as though to a vat. Then she
+filled it again. He had been her lover, and she would be as kind to
+him as she knew how,--short of love.
+
+There was a good deal of eating done, for more ham came in, and
+another mountain of cabbage; but very little or nothing was said. John
+Crumb ate whatever was given to him of the fowl, sedulously picking
+the bones, and almost swallowing them; and then finished the second
+dish of ham, and after that the second instalment of cabbage. He did
+not ask for more beer, but took it as often as Ruby replenished his
+glass. When the eating was done, Ruby retired into the back kitchen,
+and there regaled herself with some bone or merry-thought of the fowl,
+which she had with prudence reserved, sharing her spoils however with
+the other maiden. This she did standing, and then went to work,
+cleaning the dishes. The men lit their pipes and smoked in silence,
+while Ruby went through her domestic duties. So matters went on for
+half an hour; during which Ruby escaped by the back door, went round
+into the house, got into her own room, and formed the grand resolution
+of going to bed. She began her operations in fear and trembling, not
+being sure that her grandfather would bring the man upstairs to her.
+As she thought of this she stayed her hand, and looked to the door.
+She knew well that there was no bolt there. It would be terrible to
+her to be invaded by John Crumb after his fifth or sixth glass of
+beer. And, she declared to herself, that should he come he would be
+sure to bring Joe Mixet with him to speak his mind for him. So she
+paused and listened.
+
+When they had smoked for some half hour the old man called for his
+granddaughter, but called of course in vain. 'Where the mischief is
+the jade gone?' he said, slowly making his way into the back kitchen.
+The maid, as soon as she heard her master moving, escaped into the
+yard and made no response, while the old man stood bawling at the back
+door. 'The devil's in them. They're off some gates,' he said
+aloud. 'She'll make the place hot for her, if she goes on this way.'
+Then he returned to the two young men. 'She's playing off her games
+somewheres,' he said. 'Take a glass of sperrits and water, Mr Crumb,
+and I'll see after her.'
+
+'I'll just take a drop of y'ell,' said John Crumb, apparently quite
+unmoved by the absence of his sweetheart.
+
+It was sad work for the old man. He went down the yard and into the
+garden, hobbling among the cabbages, not daring to call very loud, as
+he did not wish to have it supposed that the girl was lost; but still
+anxious, and sore at heart as to the ingratitude shown to him. He was
+not bound to give the girl a home at all. She was not his own child.
+And he had offered her £500! 'Domm her,' he said aloud as he made his
+way back to the house. After much search and considerable loss of time
+he returned to the kitchen in which the two men were sitting, leading
+Ruby in his hand. She was not smart in her apparel, for she had half
+undressed herself, and been then compelled by her grandfather to make
+herself fit to appear in public. She had acknowledged to herself that
+she had better go down and tell John Crumb the truth. For she was
+still determined that she would never be John Crumb's wife. 'You can
+answer him as well as I, grandfather,' she had said. Then the farmer
+had cuffed her, and told her that she was an idiot. 'Oh, if it comes
+to that,' said Ruby, 'I'm not afraid of John Crumb, nor yet of nobody
+else. Only I didn't think you'd go to strike me, grandfather.' 'I'll
+knock the life out of thee, if thou goest on this gate,' he had said.
+But she had consented to come down, and they entered the room
+together.
+
+'We're a disturbing you a'most too late, miss,' said Mr Mixet.
+
+'It ain't that at all, Mr Mixet. If grandfather chooses to have a few
+friends, I ain't nothing against it. I wish he'd have a few friends a
+deal oftener than he do. I likes nothing better than to do for 'em;--
+only when I've done for 'em and they're smoking their pipes and that
+like, I don't see why I ain't to leave 'em to 'emselves.'
+
+'But we've come here on a hauspicious occasion, Miss Ruby.'
+
+'I don't know nothing about auspicious, Mr Mixet. If you and Mr
+Crumb've come out to Sheep's Acre farm for a bit of supper--'
+
+'Which we ain't,' said John Crumb very loudly;--'nor yet for beer;--not
+by no means.'
+
+'We've come for the smiles of beauty,' said Joe Mixet. Ruby chucked up
+her head. 'Mr Mixet, if you'll be so good as to stow that! There ain't
+no beauty here as I knows of, and if there was it isn't nothing to
+you.'
+
+'Except in the way of friendship,' said Mixet.
+
+'I'm just as sick of all this as a man can be,' said Mr Ruggles, who
+was sitting low in his chair, with his back bent, and his head
+forward. 'I won't put up with it no more.'
+
+'Who wants you to put up with it?' said Ruby. 'Who wants 'em to come
+here with their trash? Who brought 'em to-night? I don't know what
+business Mr Mixet has interfering along o' me. I never interfere along
+o' him.'
+
+'John Crumb, have you anything to say?' asked the old man.
+
+Then John Crumb slowly arose from his chair, and stood up at his full
+height. 'I hove,' said he, swinging his head to one side.
+
+'Then say it.'
+
+'I will,' said he. He was still standing bolt upright with his hands
+down by his side. Then he stretched out his left to his glass which
+was half full of beer, and strengthened himself as far as that would
+strengthen him. Having done this he slowly deposited the pipe which he
+still held in his right hand.
+
+'Now speak your mind, like a man,' said Mixet.
+
+'I intends it,' said John. But he still stood dumb, looking down upon
+old Ruggles, who from his crouched position was looking up at him.
+Ruby was standing with both her hands upon the table and her eyes
+intent upon the wall over the fire-place.
+
+'You've asked Miss Ruby to be your wife a dozen times;--haven't you,
+John?' suggested Mixet.
+
+'I hove.'
+
+'And you mean to be as good as your word?'
+
+'I do.'
+
+'And she has promised to have you?'
+
+'She hove.'
+
+'More nor once or twice?' To this proposition Crumb found it only
+necessary to bob his head. 'You're ready?--and willing?'
+
+'I am.'
+
+'You're wishing to have the banns said without any more delay?'
+
+'There ain't no delay 'bout me;--never was.'
+
+'Everything is ready in your own house?'
+
+'They is.'
+
+'And you will expect Miss Ruby to come to the scratch?'
+
+'I sholl.'
+
+'That's about it, I think,' said Joe Mixet, turning to the
+grandfather. 'I don't think there was ever anything much more
+straightforward than that. You know, I know, Miss Ruby knows all about
+John Crumb. John Crumb didn't come to Bungay yesterday nor yet the day
+before. There's been a talk of five hundred pounds, Mr Ruggles.' Mr
+Ruggles made a slight gesture of assent with his head. 'Five hundred
+pounds is very comfortable; and added to what John has will make
+things that snug that things never was snugger. But John Crumb isn't
+after Miss Ruby along of her fortune.'
+
+'Nohows,' said the lover, shaking his head and still standing upright
+with his hands by his side.
+
+'Not he;--it isn't his ways, and them as knows him'll never say it of
+him. John has a heart in his buzsom.'
+
+'I has,' said John, raising his hand a little above his stomach.
+
+'And feelings as a man. It's true love as has brought John Crumb to
+Sheep's Acre farm this night;--love of that young lady, if she'll let me
+make so free. He's a proposed to her, and she's a haccepted him, and
+now it's about time as they was married. That's what John Crumb has to
+say.'
+
+'That's what I has to say,' repeated John Crumb, 'and I means it.'
+
+'And now, miss,' continued Mixet, addressing himself to Ruby, 'you've
+heard what John has to say.'
+
+'I've heard you, Mr Mixet, and I've heard quite enough.'
+
+'You can't have anything to say against it, Miss; can you? There's
+your grandfather as is willing, and the-money as one may say counted
+out,--and John Crumb is willing, with his house so ready that there
+isn't a ha'porth to do. All we want is for you to name the day.'
+
+'Say to-morrow, Ruby, and I'll not be agen it,' said John Crumb,
+slapping his thigh.
+
+'I won't say to-morrow, Mr Crumb, nor yet the day after to-morrow, nor
+yet no day at all. I'm not going to have you. I've told you as much
+before.'
+
+'That was only in fun, loike.'
+
+'Then now I tell you in earnest. There's some folk wants such a deal
+of telling.'
+
+'You don't mean,--never?'
+
+'I do mean never, Mr Crumb.'
+
+'Didn't you say as you would, Ruby? Didn't you say so as plain as the
+nose on my face?' John as he asked these questions could hardly
+refrain from tears.
+
+'Young women is allowed to change their minds,' said Ruby.
+
+'Brute!' exclaimed old Ruggles. 'Pig! Jade! I'll tell you what, John.
+She'll go out o' this into the streets;--that's what she wull. I won't
+keep her here, no longer;--nasty, ungrateful, lying slut.'
+
+'She ain't that;--she ain't that,' said John. 'She ain't that at all.
+She's no slut. I won't hear her called so;--not by her grandfather. But,
+oh, she has a mind to put me so abouts, that I'll have to go home and
+hang myself'
+
+'Dash it, Miss Ruby, you ain't a going to serve a young man that way,'
+said the baker.
+
+'If you'll jist keep yourself to yourself, I'll be obliged to you, Mr
+Mixet,' said Ruby. 'If you hadn't come here at all things might have
+been different.'
+
+'Hark at that now,' said John, looking at his friend almost with
+indignation.
+
+Mr Mixet, who was fully aware of his rare eloquence and of the
+absolute necessity there had been for its exercise if any arrangement
+were to be made at all, could not trust himself to words after this.
+He put on his hat and walked out through the back kitchen into the
+yard declaring that his friend would find him there, round by the
+pigsty wall, whenever he was ready to return to Bungay. As soon as
+Mixet was gone John looked at his sweetheart out of the corners of his
+eyes and made a slow motion towards her, putting out his right hand as
+a feeler. 'He's aff now, Ruby,' said John.
+
+'And you'd better be aff after him,' said the cruel girl.
+
+'And when'll I come back again?'
+
+'Never. It ain't no use. What's the good of more words, Mr Crumb?'
+
+'Domm her; domm her,' said old Ruggles. 'I'll even it to her. She'll
+have to be out on the roads this night.'
+
+'She shall have the best bed in my house if she'll come for it,' said
+John, 'and the old woman to look arter her; and I won't come nigh her
+till she sends for me.'
+
+'I can find a place for myself, thank ye, Mr Crumb.' Old Ruggles sat
+grinding his teeth, and swearing to himself, taking his hat off and
+putting it on again, and meditating vengeance.
+
+'And now if you please, Mr Crumb, I'll go upstairs to my own room.'
+
+'You don't go up to any room here, you jade you.' The old man as he
+said this got up from his chair as though to fly at her. And he would
+have struck her with his stick but that he was stopped by John Crumb.
+
+'Don't hit the girl, no gate, Mr Ruggles.'
+
+'Domm her, John; she breaks my heart.' While her lover held her
+grandfather Ruby escaped, and seated herself on the bedside, again
+afraid to undress, lest she should be disturbed by her grandfather.
+'Ain't it more nor a man ought to have to bear;--ain't it, Mr Crumb?'
+said the grandfather appealing to the young man.
+
+'It's the ways on 'em, Mr Ruggles.'
+
+'Ways on 'em! A whipping at the cart-tail ought to be the ways on her.
+She's been and seen some young buck.'
+
+Then John Crumb turned red all over, through the flour, and sparks of
+anger flashed from his eyes. 'You ain't a meaning of it, master?'
+
+'I'm told there's been the squoire's cousin aboot,--him as they call the
+baronite.'
+
+'Been along wi' Ruby?' The old man nodded at him. 'By the mortials
+I'll baronite him;--I wull,' said John, seizing his hat and stalking off
+through the back kitchen after his friend.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV - RUBY RUGGLES OBEYS HER GRANDFATHER
+
+
+The next day there was a great surprise at Sheep's Acre farm, which
+communicated itself to the towns of Bungay and Beccles, and even
+affected the ordinary quiet life of Carbury Manor. Ruby Ruggles had
+gone away, and at about twelve o'clock in the day the old farmer
+became aware of the fact. She had started early, at about seven in the
+morning; but Ruggles himself had been out long before that, and had
+not condescended to ask for her when he returned to the house for his
+breakfast. There had been a bad scene up in the bedroom overnight,
+after John Crumb had left the farm. The old man in his anger had tried
+to expel the girl; but she had hung on to the bed-post and would not
+go; and he had been frightened, when the maid came up crying and
+screaming murder. 'You'll be out o' this to-morrow as sure as my name's
+Dannel Ruggles,' said the farmer panting for breath. But for the gin
+which he had taken he would hardly have struck her;--but he had
+struck her, and pulled her by the hair, and knocked her about;--and in
+the morning she took him at his word and was away. About twelve he
+heard from the servant girl that she had gone. She had packed a box
+and had started up the road carrying the box herself. 'Grandfather
+says I'm to go, and I'm gone,' she had said to the girl. At the first
+cottage she had got a boy to carry her box into Beccles, and to
+Beccles she had walked. For an hour or two Ruggles sat, quiet, within
+the house, telling himself that she might do as she pleased with
+herself,--that he was well rid of her, and that from henceforth he
+would trouble himself no more about her. But by degrees there came
+upon him a feeling half of compassion and half of fear, with perhaps
+some mixture of love, instigating him to make search for her. She had
+been the same to him as a child, and what would people say of him if
+he allowed her to depart from him after this fashion? Then he
+remembered his violence the night before, and the fact that the
+servant girl had heard if she had not seen it. He could not drop his
+responsibility in regard to Ruby, even if he would. So, as a first
+step, he sent in a message to John Crumb, at Bungay, to tell him that
+Ruby Ruggles had gone off with a box to Beccles. John Crumb went
+open-mouthed with the news to Joe Mixet, and all Bungay soon knew
+that Ruby Ruggles had run away.
+
+After sending his message to Crumb the old man still sat thinking, and
+at last made up his mind that he would go to his landlord. He held a
+part of his farm under Roger Carbury, and Roger Carbury would tell him
+what he ought to do. A great trouble had come upon him. He would fain
+have been quiet, but his conscience and his heart and his terrors all
+were at work together,--and he found that he could not eat his dinner.
+So he had out his cart and horse and drove himself off to Carbury
+Hall.
+
+It was past four when he started, and he found the squire seated on
+the terrace after an early dinner, and with him was Father Barham, the
+priest. The old man was shown at once round into the garden, and was
+not long in telling his story. There had been words between him and
+his granddaughter about her lover. Her lover had been accepted and had
+come to the farm to claim his bride. Ruby had behaved very badly. The
+old man made the most of Ruby's bad behaviour, and of course as little
+as possible of his own violence. But he did explain that there had
+been threats used when Ruby refused to take the man, and that Ruby
+had, this day, taken herself off.
+
+'I always thought it was settled that they were to be man and wife,'
+said Roger.
+
+'It was settled, squoire;--and he war to have five hun'erd pound
+down;--money as I'd saved myself. Drat the jade.'
+
+'Didn't she like him, Daniel?'
+
+'She liked him well enough till she'd seed somebody else.' Then old
+Daniel paused, and shook his head, and was evidently the owner of a
+secret. The squire got up and walked round the garden with him,--and
+then the secret was told. The farmer was of opinion that there was
+something between the girl and Sir Felix. Sir Felix some weeks since
+had been seen near the farm and on the same occasion Ruby had been
+observed at some little distance from the house with her best clothes
+on.
+
+'He's been so little here, Daniel,' said the squire.
+
+'It goes as tinder and a spark o' fire, that does,' said the farmer.
+'Girls like Ruby don't want no time to be wooed by one such as that,
+though they'll fall-lall with a man like John Crumb for years.'
+
+'I suppose she's gone to London.'
+
+'Don't know nothing of where she's gone, squoire;--only she have gone
+some'eres. May be it's Lowestoft. There's lots of quality at
+Lowestoft a'washing theyselves in the sea.'
+
+Then they returned to the priest, who might be supposed to be
+cognizant of the guiles of the world and competent to give advice on
+such an occasion as this. 'If she was one of our people,' said Father
+Barham, 'we should have her back quick enough.'
+
+'Would ye now?' said Ruggles, wishing at the moment that he and all
+his family had been brought up as Roman Catholics.
+
+'I don't see how you would have more chance of catching her than we
+have,' said Carbury.
+
+'She'd catch herself. Wherever she might be she'd go to the priest,
+and he wouldn't leave her till he'd seen her put on the way back to
+her friends.'
+
+'With a flea in her lug,' suggested the farmer.
+
+'Your people never go to a clergyman in their distress. It's the last
+thing they'd think of. Any one might more probably be regarded as a
+friend than the parson. But with us the poor know where to look for
+sympathy.'
+
+'She ain't that poor, neither,' said the grandfather.
+
+'She had money with her?'
+
+'I don't know just what she had; but she ain't been brought up poor.
+And I don't think as our Ruby'd go of herself to any clergyman. It
+never was her way.'
+
+'It never is the way with a Protestant,' said the priest.
+
+'We'll say no more about that for the present,' said Roger, who was
+waxing wroth with the priest. That a man should be fond of his own
+religion is right; but Roger Carbury was beginning to think that
+Father Barham was too fond of his religion. 'What had we better do? I
+suppose we shall hear something of her at the railway. There are not
+so many people leaving Beccles but that she may be remembered.' So the
+waggonette was ordered, and they all prepared to go off to the station
+together.
+
+But before they started John Crumb rode up to the door. He had gone at
+once to the farm on hearing of Ruby's departure, and had followed the
+farmer from thence to Carbury. Now he found the squire and the priest
+and the old man standing around as the horses were being put to the
+carriage. 'Ye ain't a' found her, Mr Ruggles, ha' ye?' he asked as he
+wiped the sweat from his brow.
+
+'Noa;--we ain't a' found no one yet.'
+
+'If it was as she was to come to harm, Mr Carbury, I'd never forgive
+myself,--never,' said Crumb.
+
+'As far as I can understand it is no doing of yours, my friend,' said
+the squire.
+
+'In one way, it ain't; and in one way it is. I was over there last
+night a bothering of her. She'd a' come round may be, if she'd a' been
+left alone. She wouldn't a' been off now, only for our going over to
+Sheep's Acre. But,--oh!'
+
+'What is it, Mr Crumb?'
+
+'He's a coosin o' yours, squoire; and long as I've known Suffolk, I've
+never known nothing but good o' you and yourn. But if your baronite
+has been and done this! Oh, Mr Carbury! If I was to wring his neck
+round, you wouldn't say as how I was wrong; would ye, now?' Roger
+could hardly answer the question. On general grounds the wringing of
+Sir Felix's neck, let the immediate cause for such a performance have
+been what it might, would have seemed to him to be a good deed. The
+world would be better, according to his thinking, with Sir Felix out
+of it than in it. But still the young man was his cousin and a
+Carbury, and to such a one as John Crumb he was bound to defend any
+member of his family as far as he might be defensible. 'They says as
+how he was groping about Sheep's Acre when he was last here, a hiding
+himself and skulking behind hedges. Drat 'em all. They've gals enough
+of their own,--them fellows. Why can't they let a fellow alone? I'll do
+him a mischief, Master Roger; I wull;--if he's had a hand in this.' Poor
+John Crumb! When he had his mistress to win he could find no words for
+himself; but was obliged to take an eloquent baker with him to talk
+for him. Now in his anger he could talk freely enough.
+
+'But you must first learn that Sir Felix has had anything to do with
+this, Mr Crumb.'
+
+'In coorse; in coorse. That's right. That's right. Must l'arn as he
+did it, afore I does it. But when I have l'arned--!' And John Crumb
+clenched his fist as though a very short lesson would suffice for him
+upon this occasion.
+
+They all went to the Beccles Station, and from thence to the Beccles
+Post-office,--so that Beccles soon knew as much about it as Bungay. At
+the railway station Ruby was distinctly remembered. She had taken a
+second-class ticket by the morning train for London, and had gone off
+without any appearance of secrecy. She had been decently dressed, with
+a hat and cloak, and her luggage had been such as she might have been
+expected to carry, had all her friends known that she was going. So
+much was made clear at the railway station, but nothing more could be
+learned there. Then a message was sent by telegraph to the station in
+London, and they all waited, loitering about the Post-office, for a
+reply. One of the porters in London remembered seeing such a girl as
+was described, but the man who was supposed to have carried her box
+for her to a cab had gone away for the day. It was believed that she
+had left the station in a four-wheel cab. 'I'll be arter her. I'll be
+arter her at once,' said John Crumb. But there was no train till
+night, and Roger Carbury was doubtful whether his going would do any
+good. It was evidently fixed on Crumb's mind that the first step
+towards finding Ruby would be the breaking of every bone in the body
+of Sir Felix Carbury. Now it was not at all apparent to the squire
+that his cousin had had anything to do with this affair. It had been
+made quite clear to him that the old man had quarrelled with his
+granddaughter and had threatened to turn her out of his house, not
+because she had misbehaved with Sir Felix, but on account of her
+refusing to marry John Crumb. John Crumb had gone over to the farm
+expecting to arrange it all, and up to that time there had been no
+fear about Felix Carbury. Nor was it possible that there should have
+been communication between Ruby and Felix since the quarrel at the
+farm. Even if the old man were right in supposing that Ruby and the
+baronet had been acquainted,--and such acquaintance could not but be
+prejudicial to the girl,--not on that account would the baronet be
+responsible for her abduction. John Crumb was thirsting for blood and
+was not very capable in his present mood of arguing the matter out
+coolly, and Roger, little as he toyed his cousin, was not desirous
+that all Suffolk should know that Sir Felix Carbury had been thrashed
+within an inch of his life by John Crumb of Bungay. 'I'll tell you
+what I'll do,' said he, putting his hand kindly on the old man's
+shoulder. 'I'll go up myself by the first train to-morrow. I can trace
+her better than Mr Crumb can do, and you will both trust me.'
+
+'There's not one in the two counties I'd trust so soon,' said the old
+man.
+
+'But you'll let us know the very truth,' said John Crumb. Roger
+Carbury made him an indiscreet promise that he would let him know the
+truth. So the matter was settled, and the grandfather and lover
+returned together to Bungay.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV - MELMOTTE'S GLORY
+
+
+Augustus Melmotte was becoming greater and greater in every direction,--
+mightier and mightier every day. He was learning to despise mere
+lords, and to feel that he might almost domineer over a duke. In truth
+he did recognize it as a fact that he must either domineer over dukes,
+or else go to the wall. It can hardly be said of him that he had
+intended to play so high a game, but the game that he had intended to
+play had become thus high of its own accord. A man cannot always
+restrain his own doings and keep them within the limits which he had
+himself planned for them. They will very often fall short of the
+magnitude to which his ambition has aspired. They will sometimes soar
+higher than his own imagination. So it had now been with Mr Melmotte.
+He had contemplated great things; but the things which he was
+achieving were beyond his contemplation.
+
+The reader will not have thought much of Fisker on his arrival in
+England. Fisker was, perhaps, not a man worthy of much thought. He had
+never read a book. He had never written a line worth reading. He had
+never said a prayer. He cared nothing for humanity. He had sprung out
+of some Californian gully, was perhaps ignorant of his own father and
+mother, and had tumbled up in the world on the strength of his own
+audacity. But, such as he was, he had sufficed to give the necessary
+impetus for rolling Augustus Melmotte onwards into almost
+unprecedented commercial greatness. When Mr Melmotte took his offices
+in Abchurch Lane, he was undoubtedly a great man, but nothing so great
+as when the South Central Pacific and Mexican Railway had become not
+only an established fact, but a fact established in Abchurch Lane. The
+great company indeed had an office of its own, where the Board was
+held; but everything was really managed in Mr Melmotte's own commercial
+sanctum. Obeying, no doubt, some inscrutable law of commerce, the
+grand enterprise,--'perhaps the grandest when you consider the amount
+of territory manipulated, which has ever opened itself before the eyes
+of a great commercial people,' as Mr Fisker with his peculiar
+eloquence observed through his nose, about this time, to a meeting
+of shareholders at San Francisco,--had swung itself across from
+California to London, turning itself to the centre of the commercial
+world as the needle turns to the pole, till Mr Fisker almost regretted
+the deed which himself had done. And Melmotte was not only the head,
+but the body also, and the feet of it all. The shares seemed to be all
+in Melmotte's pocket, so that he could distribute them as he would;
+and it seemed also that when distributed and sold, and when bought
+again and sold again, they came back to Melmotte's pocket. Men were
+contented to buy their shares and to pay their money, simply on
+Melmotte's word. Sir Felix had realized a large portion of his
+winnings at cards,--with commendable prudence for one so young and
+extravagant,--and had brought his savings to the great man. The great
+man had swept the earnings of the Beargarden into his till, and had
+told Sir Felix that the shares were his. Sir Felix had been not only
+contented, but supremely happy. He could now do as Paul Montague was
+doing,--and Lord Alfred Grendall. He could realize a perennial income,
+buying and selling. It was only after the reflection of a day or two
+that he found that he had as yet got nothing to sell. It was not only
+Sir Felix that was admitted into these good things after this fashion.
+Sir Felix was but one among hundreds. In the meantime the bills in
+Grosvenor Square were no doubt paid with punctuality,--and these
+bills must have been stupendous. The very servants were as tall, as
+gorgeous, almost as numerous, as the servants of royalty,--and
+remunerated by much higher wages. There were four coachmen with
+egregious wigs, and eight footmen, not one with a circumference of
+calf less than eighteen inches.
+
+And now there appeared a paragraph in the 'Morning Breakfast Table,'
+and another appeared in the 'Evening Pulpit,' telling the world that
+Mr Melmotte had bought Pickering Park, the magnificent Sussex property
+of Adolphus Longestaffe, Esq., of Caversham. And it was so. The father
+and son, who never had agreed before, and who now had come to no
+agreement in the presence of each other, had each considered that
+their affairs would be safe in the hands of so great a man as Mr
+Melmotte, and had been brought to terms. The purchase-money, which was
+large, was to be divided between them. The thing was done with the
+greatest ease,--there being no longer any delay as is the case when
+small people are at work. The magnificence of Mr Melmotte affected
+even the Longestaffe lawyers. Were I to buy a little property, some
+humble cottage with a garden,--or you, O reader, unless you be
+magnificent,--the money to the last farthing would be wanted, or
+security for the money more than sufficient, before we should be able
+to enter in upon our new home. But money was the very breath of
+Melmotte's nostrils, and therefore his breath was taken for money.
+Pickering was his, and before a week was over a London builder had
+collected masons and carpenters by the dozen down at Chichester, and
+was at work upon the house to make it fit to be a residence for Madame
+Melmotte. There were rumours that it was to be made ready for the
+Goodwood week, and that the Melmotte entertainment during that
+festival would rival the duke's.
+
+But there was still much to be done in London before the Goodwood week
+should come round, in all of which Mr Melmotte was concerned, and of
+much of which Mr Melmotte was the very centre. A member for
+Westminster had succeeded to a peerage, and thus a seat was vacated.
+It was considered to be indispensable to the country that Mr Melmotte
+should go into Parliament, and what constituency could such a man as
+Melmotte so fitly represent as one combining as Westminster does all
+the essences of the metropolis? There was the popular element, the
+fashionable element, the legislative element, the legal element, and
+the commercial element. Melmotte undoubtedly was the man for
+Westminster. His thorough popularity was evinced by testimony which
+perhaps was never before given in favour of any candidate for any
+county or borough. In Westminster there must of course be a contest. A
+seat for Westminster is a thing not to be abandoned by either
+political party without a struggle. But, at the beginning of the
+affair, when each party had to seek the most suitable candidate which
+the country could supply, each party put its hand upon Melmotte. And
+when the seat, and the battle for the seat, were suggested to
+Melmotte, then for the first time was that great man forced to descend
+from the altitudes on which his mind generally dwelt, and to decide
+whether he would enter Parliament as a Conservative or a Liberal. He
+was not long in convincing himself that the conservative element in
+British Society stood the most in need of that fiscal assistance which
+it would be in his province to give; and on the next day every
+hoarding in London declared to the world that Melmotte was the
+conservative candidate for Westminster. It is needless to say that his
+committee was made up of peers, bankers, and publicans, with all that
+absence of class prejudice for which the party has become famous since
+the ballot was introduced among us. Some unfortunate Liberal was to be
+made to run against him, for the sake of the party; but the odds were
+ten to one on Melmotte.
+
+This no doubt was a great matter,--this affair of the seat; but the
+dinner to be given to the Emperor of China was much greater. It was
+the middle of June, and the dinner was to be given on Monday, 8th
+July, now three weeks hence;--but all London was already talking of it.
+The great purport proposed was to show to the Emperor by this banquet
+what an English merchant-citizen of London could do. Of course there
+was a great amount of scolding and a loud clamour on the occasion.
+Some men said that Melmotte was not a citizen of London, others that
+he was not a merchant, others again that he was not an Englishman. But
+no man could deny that he was both able and willing to spend the
+necessary money; and as this combination of ability and will was the
+chief thing necessary, they who opposed the arrangement could only
+storm and scold. On the 20th of June the tradesmen were at work,
+throwing up a building behind, knocking down walls, and generally
+transmuting the house in Grosvenor Square in such a fashion that two
+hundred guests might be able to sit down to dinner in the dining-room
+of a British merchant.
+
+But who were to be the two hundred? It used to be the case that when
+a gentleman gave a dinner he asked his own guests;--but when affairs
+become great, society can hardly be carried on after that simple
+fashion. The Emperor of China could not be made to sit at table
+without English royalty, and English royalty must know whom it has to
+meet,--must select at any rate some of its comrades. The minister of the
+day also had his candidates for the dinner,--in which arrangement there
+was however no private patronage, as the list was confined to the
+cabinet and their wives. The Prime Minister took some credit to
+himself in that he would not ask for a single ticket for a private
+friend. But the Opposition as a body desired their share of seats.
+Melmotte had elected to stand for Westminster on the conservative
+interest, and was advised that he must insist on having as it were a
+conservative cabinet present, with its conservative wives. He was told
+that he owed it to his party, and that his party exacted payment of
+the debt. But the great difficulty lay with the city merchants. This
+was to be a city merchant's private feast, and it was essential that
+the Emperor should meet this great merchant's brother merchants at the
+merchant's board. No doubt the Emperor would see all the merchants at
+the Guildhall; but that would be a semi-public affair, paid for out of
+the funds of a corporation. This was to be a private dinner. Now the
+Lord Mayor had set his face against it, and what was to be done?
+Meetings were held; a committee was appointed; merchant guests were
+selected, to the number of fifteen with their fifteen wives;--and
+subsequently the Lord Mayor was made a baronet on the occasion of
+receiving the Emperor in the city. The Emperor with his suite was
+twenty. Royalty had twenty tickets, each ticket for guest and wife.
+The existing Cabinet was fourteen; but the coming was numbered at
+about eleven only;--each one for self and wife. Five ambassadors and
+five ambassadresses were to be asked. There were to be fifteen real
+merchants out of the city. Ten great peers,--with their peeresses,--
+were selected by the general committee of management. There were to be
+three wise men, two poets, three independent members of the House of
+Commons, two Royal Academicians, three editors of papers, an African
+traveller who had just come home, and a novelist;--but all these latter
+gentlemen were expected to come as bachelors. Three tickets were to be
+kept over for presentation to bores endowed with a power of making
+themselves absolutely unendurable if not admitted at the last moment,--
+and ten were left for the giver of the feast and his own family and
+friends. It is often difficult to make things go smooth,--but almost all
+roughnesses may be smoothed at last with patience and care, and money,
+and patronage.
+
+But the dinner was not to be all. Eight hundred additional tickets were
+to be issued for Madame Melmotte's evening entertainment, and the fight
+for these was more internecine than for seats at the dinner. The
+dinner-seats, indeed, were handled in so statesmanlike a fashion that
+there was not much visible fighting about them. Royalty manages its
+affairs quietly. The existing Cabinet was existing, and though there
+were two or three members of it who could not have got themselves
+elected at a single unpolitical club in London, they had a right to
+their seats at Melmotte's table. What disappointed ambition there might
+be among conservative candidates was never known to the public. Those
+gentlemen do not wash their dirty linen in public. The ambassadors of
+course were quiet, but we may be sure that the Minister from the United
+States was among the favoured five. The city bankers and bigwigs, as
+has been already said, were at first unwilling to be present, and
+therefore they who were not chosen could not afterwards express their
+displeasure. No grumbling was heard among the peers, and that which
+came from the peeresses floated down into the current of the great
+fight about the evening entertainment. The poet laureate was of course
+asked, and the second poet was as much a matter of course. Only two
+Academicians had in this year painted royalty, so that there was no
+ground for jealousy there. There were three, and only three, specially
+insolent and specially disagreeable independent members of Parliament
+at that time in the House, and there was no difficulty in selecting
+them. The wise men were chosen by their age. Among editors of
+newspapers there was some ill-blood. That Mr Alf and Mr Broune should
+be selected was almost a matter of course. They were hated accordingly,
+but still this was expected. But why was Mr Booker there? Was it
+because he had praised the Prime Minister's translation of Catullus?
+The African traveller chose himself by living through all his perils
+and coming home. A novelist was selected; but as royalty wanted another
+ticket at the last moment, the gentleman was only asked to come in
+after dinner. His proud heart, however, resented the treatment, and he
+joined amicably with his literary brethren in decrying the festival
+altogether.
+
+We should be advancing too rapidly into this portion of our story were
+we to concern ourselves deeply at the present moment with the feud as
+it raged before the evening came round, but it may be right to
+indicate that the desire for tickets at last became a burning passion,
+and a passion which in the great majority of cases could not be
+indulged. The value of the privilege was so great that Madame Melmotte
+thought that she was doing almost more than friendship called for when
+she informed her guest, Miss Longestaffe, that unfortunately there
+would be no seat for her at the dinner-table; but that, as payment
+for her loss, she should receive an evening ticket for herself and a
+joint ticket for a gentleman and his wife. Georgiana was at first
+indignant, but she accepted the compromise. What she did with her
+tickets shall be hereafter told.
+
+From all this I trust it will be understood that the Mr Melmotte of
+the present hour was a very different man from that Mr Melmotte who
+was introduced to the reader in the early chapters of this chronicle.
+Royalty was not to be smuggled in and out of his house now without his
+being allowed to see it. No manoeuvres now were necessary to catch a
+simple duchess. Duchesses were willing enough to come. Lord Alfred
+when he was called by his Christian name felt no aristocratic twinges.
+He was only too anxious to make himself more and more necessary to the
+great man. It is true that all this came as it were by jumps, so that
+very often a part of the world did not know on what ledge in the world
+the great man was perched at that moment. Miss Longestaffe who was
+staying in the house did not at all know how great a man her host was.
+Lady Monogram when she refused to go to Grosvenor Square, or even to
+allow any one to come out of the house in Grosvenor Square to her
+parties, was groping in outer darkness. Madame Melmotte did not know.
+Marie Melmotte did not know. The great man did not quite know himself
+where, from time to time, he was standing. But the world at large
+knew. The world knew that Mr Melmotte was to be Member for
+Westminster, that Mr Melmotte was to entertain the Emperor of China,
+that Mr Melmotte carried the South Central Pacific and Mexican Railway
+in his pocket;--and the world worshipped Mr Melmotte.
+
+In the meantime Mr Melmotte was much troubled about his private
+affairs. He had promised his daughter to Lord Nidderdale, and as he
+rose in the world had lowered the price which he offered for this
+marriage,--not so much in the absolute amount of fortune to be
+ultimately given, as in the manner of giving it. Fifteen thousand a
+year was to be settled on Marie and on her eldest son, and twenty
+thousand pounds were to be paid into Nidderdale's hands six months
+after the marriage. Melmotte gave his reasons for not paying this sum
+at once. Nidderdale would be more likely to be quiet, if he were kept
+waiting for that short time. Melmotte was to purchase and furnish for
+them a house in town. It was, too, almost understood that the young
+people were to have Pickering Park for themselves, except for a week
+or so at the end of July. It was absolutely given out in the papers
+that Pickering was to be theirs. It was said on all sides that
+Nidderdale was doing very well for himself. The absolute money was not
+perhaps so great as had been at first asked; but then, at that time,
+Melmotte was not the strong rock, the impregnable tower of commerce,
+the very navel of the commercial enterprise of the world,--as all men
+now regarded him. Nidderdale's father, and Nidderdale himself, were,
+in the present condition of things, content with a very much less
+stringent bargain than that which they had endeavoured at first to
+exact.
+
+But, in the midst of all this, Marie, who had at one time consented at
+her father's instance to accept the young lord, and who in some
+speechless fashion had accepted him, told both the young lord and her
+father, very roundly, that she had changed her mind. Her father
+scowled at her and told her that her mind in the matter was of no
+concern. He intended that she should marry Lord Nidderdale, and
+himself fixed some day in August for the wedding. 'It is no use,
+father, for I will never have him,' said Marie.
+
+'Is it about that other scamp?' he asked angrily.
+
+'If you mean Sir Felix Carbury, it is about him. He has been to you
+and told you, and therefore I don't know why I need hold my tongue.'
+
+'You'll both starve, my lady; that's all.' Marie however was not so
+wedded to the grandeur which she encountered in Grosvenor Square as to
+be afraid of the starvation which she thought she might have to suffer
+if married to Sir Felix Carbury. Melmotte had not time for any long
+discussion. As he left her he took hold of her and shook her. 'By--,'
+he said, 'if you run rusty after all I've done for you, I'll make you
+suffer. You little fool; that man's a beggar. He hasn't the price of a
+petticoat or a pair of stockings. He's looking only for what you
+haven't got, and shan't have if you marry him. He wants money, not
+you, you little fool!'
+
+But after that she was quite settled in her purpose when Nidderdale
+spoke to her. They had been engaged and then it had been off;--and now
+the young nobleman, having settled everything with the father,
+expected no great difficulty in resettling everything with the girl.
+He was not very skilful at making love,--but he was thoroughly
+good-humoured, from his nature anxious to please, and averse to give
+pain. There was hardly any injury which he could not forgive, and
+hardly any kindness which he would not do,--so that the labour upon
+himself was not too great. 'Well, Miss Melmotte,' he said, 'governors
+are stern beings: are they not?'
+
+'Is yours stern, my lord?'
+
+'What I mean is that sons and daughters have to obey them. I think you
+understand what I mean. I was awfully spoony on you that time before; I
+was indeed.'
+
+'I hope it didn't hurt you much, Lord Nidderdale.'
+
+'That's so like a woman; that is. You know well enough that you and I
+can't marry without leave from the governors.'
+
+'Nor with it,' said Marie, holding her head.
+
+'I don't know how that may be. There was some hitch somewhere,--I don't
+quite know where.' The hitch had been with himself, as he demanded
+ready money. 'But it's all right now. The old fellows are agreed.
+Can't we make a match of it, Miss Melmotte?'
+
+'No, Lord Nidderdale; I don't think we can.'
+
+'Do you mean that?'
+
+'I do mean it. When that was going on before I knew nothing about it.
+I have seen more of things since then.'
+
+'And you've seen somebody you like better than me?'
+
+'I say nothing about that, Lord Nidderdale. I don't think you ought to
+blame me, my lord.'
+
+'Oh dear no.'
+
+'There was something before, but it was you that was off first. Wasn't
+it now?'
+
+'The governors were off, I think.'
+
+'The governors have a right to be off, I suppose. But I don't think
+any governor has a right to make anybody marry any one.'
+
+'I agree with you there;--I do indeed,' said Lord Nidderdale.
+
+'And no governor shall make me marry. I've thought a great deal about
+it since that other time, and that's what I've come to determine.'
+
+'But I don't know why you shouldn't--just marry me--because you--like
+me.'
+
+'Only,--just because I don't. Well; I do like you, Lord Nidderdale.'
+
+'Thanks;--so much!'
+
+'I like you ever so,--only marrying a person is different.'
+
+'There's something in that, to be sure.'
+
+'And I don't mind telling you,' said Marie with an almost solemn
+expression on her countenance, 'because you are good-natured and won't
+get me into a scrape if you can help it, that I do like somebody
+else;--oh, so much.'
+
+'I supposed that was it.'
+
+'That is it.'
+
+'It's a deuced pity. The governors had settled everything, and we
+should have been awfully jolly. I'd have gone in for all the things
+you go in for; and though your governor was screwing us up a bit,
+there would have been plenty of tin to go on with. You couldn't think
+of it again?'
+
+'I tell you, my lord, I'm--in love.'
+
+'Oh, ah;--yes. So you were saying. It's an awful bore. That's all. I
+shall come to the party all the same if you send me a ticket.' And so
+Nidderdale took his dismissal, and went away,--not however without an
+idea that the marriage would still come off. There was always,--so he
+thought,--such a bother about things before they would get themselves
+fixed. This happened some days after Mr Broune's proposal to Lady
+Carbury, more than a week since Marie had seen Sir Felix. As soon as
+Lord Nidderdale was gone she wrote again to Sir Felix begging that she
+might hear from him,--and entrusted her letter to Didon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI - MR BROUNE'S PERILS
+
+
+Lady Carbury had allowed herself two days for answering Mr Broune's
+proposition. It was made on Tuesday night and she was bound by her
+promise to send a reply some time on Thursday. But early on the
+Wednesday morning she had made up her mind; and at noon on that day
+her letter was written. She had spoken to Hetta about the man, and she
+had seen that Hetta had disliked him. She was not disposed to be much
+guided by Hetta's opinion. In regard to her daughter she was always
+influenced by a vague idea that Hetta was an unnecessary trouble.
+There was an excellent match ready for her if she would only accept
+it. There was no reason why Hetta should continue to add herself to
+the family burden. She never said this even to herself,--but she felt
+it, and was not therefore inclined to consult Hetta's comfort on this
+occasion. But nevertheless, what her daughter said had its effect. She
+had encountered the troubles of one marriage, and they had been very
+bad. She did not look upon that marriage as a mistake,--having even up
+to this day a consciousness that it had been the business of her life,
+as a portionless girl, to obtain maintenance and position at the
+expense of suffering and servility. But that had been done. The
+maintenance was, indeed, again doubtful, because of her son's vices;
+but it might so probably be again secured,--by means of her son's
+beauty! Hetta had said that Mr Broune liked his own way. Had not she
+herself found that all men liked their own way? And she liked her own
+way. She liked the comfort of a home to herself. Personally she did
+not want the companionship of a husband. And what scenes would there
+be between Felix and the man! And added to all this there was
+something within her, almost amounting to conscience, which told her
+that it was not right that she should burden any one with the
+responsibility and inevitable troubles of such a son as her son Felix.
+What would she do were her husband to command her to separate herself
+from her son? In such circumstances she would certainly separate
+herself from her husband. Having considered these things deeply, she
+wrote as follows to Mr Broune:--
+
+
+   DEAREST FRIEND,
+
+   I need not tell you that I have thought much of your generous and
+   affectionate offer. How could I refuse such a prospect as you offer
+   me without much thought? I regard your career as the most noble
+   which a man's ambition can achieve. And in that career no one is
+   your superior. I cannot but be proud that such a one as you should
+   have asked me to be his wife. But, my friend, life is subject to
+   wounds which are incurable, and my life has been so wounded. I have
+   not strength left me to make my heart whole enough to be worthy of
+   your acceptance. I have been so cut and scotched and lopped by the
+   sufferings which I have endured that I am best alone. It cannot all
+   be described;--and yet with you I would have no reticence. I would
+   put the whole history before you to read, with all my troubles past
+   and still present, all my hopes, and all my fears,--with every
+   circumstance as it has passed by and every expectation that
+   remains, were it not that the poor tale would be too long for your
+   patience. The result of it would be to make you feel that I am no
+   longer fit to enter in upon a new home. I should bring showers
+   instead of sunshine, melancholy in lieu of mirth.
+
+   I will, however, be bold enough to assure you that could I bring
+   myself to be the wife of any man I would now become your wife. But
+   I shall never marry again.
+
+   Nevertheless, I am your most affectionate friend,
+
+   MATILDA CARBURY.
+
+
+About six o'clock in the afternoon she sent this letter to Mr Broune's
+rooms in Pall Mall East, and then sat for awhile alone,--full of
+regrets. She had thrown away from her a firm footing which would
+certainly have served her for her whole life. Even at this moment she
+was in debt,--and did not know how to pay her debts without mortgaging
+her life income. She longed for some staff on which she could lean.
+She was afraid of the future. When she would sit with her paper before
+her, preparing her future work for the press, copying a bit here and a
+bit there, inventing historical details, dovetailing her chronicle,
+her head would sometimes seem to be going round as she remembered the
+unpaid baker, and her son's horses, and his unmeaning dissipation, and
+all her doubts about the marriage. As regarded herself, Mr Broune
+would have made her secure,--but that now was all over. Poor woman! This
+at any rate may be said for her,--that had she accepted the man her
+regrets would have been as deep.
+
+Mr Broune's feelings were more decided in their tone than those of the
+lady. He had not made his offer without consideration, and yet from
+the very moment in which it had been made he repented it. That gently
+sarcastic appellation by which Lady Carbury had described him to
+herself when he had kissed her best explained that side of Mr Broune's
+character which showed itself in this matter. He was a susceptible old
+goose. Had she allowed him to kiss her without objection, the kissing
+might probably have gone on; and, whatever might have come of it,
+there would have been no offer of marriage. He had believed that her
+little manoeuvres had indicated love on her part, and he had felt
+himself constrained to reciprocate the passion. She was beautiful in
+his eyes. She was bright. She wore her clothes like a lady; and,--if it
+was written in the Book of the Fates that some lady was to sit at the
+top of his table,--Lady Carbury would look as well there as any other.
+She had repudiated the kiss, and therefore he had felt himself bound
+to obtain for himself the right to kiss her.
+
+The offer had no sooner been made than he met her son reeling in,
+drunk, at the front door. As he made his escape the lad had insulted
+him. This perhaps helped to open his eyes. When he woke the next
+morning, or rather late in the next day, after his night's work, he
+was no longer able to tell himself that the world was all right with
+him. Who does not know that sudden thoughtfulness at waking, that
+first matutinal retrospection, and prospection, into things as they
+have been and are to be; and the lowness of heart, the blankness of
+hope which follows the first remembrance of some folly lately done,
+some word ill-spoken, some money misspent,--or perhaps a cigar too much,
+or a glass of brandy and soda-water which he should have left
+untasted? And when things have gone well, how the waker comforts
+himself among the bedclothes as he claims for himself to be whole all
+over, teres atque rotundus,--so to have managed his little affairs that
+he has to fear no harm, and to blush inwardly at no error! Mr Broune,
+the way of whose life took him among many perils, who in the course of
+his work had to steer his bark among many rocks, was in the habit of
+thus auditing his daily account as he shook off sleep about noon,--for
+such was his lot, that he seldom was in bed before four or five in the
+morning. On this Wednesday he found that he could not balance his
+sheet comfortably. He had taken a very great step and he feared that
+he had not taken it with wisdom. As he drank the cup of tea with which
+his servant supplied him while he was yet in bed, he could not say of
+himself, teres atque rotundus, as he was wont to do when things were
+well with him. Everything was to be changed. As he lit a cigarette he
+bethought himself that Lady Carbury would not like him to smoke in her
+bedroom. Then he remembered other things. 'I'll be d----- if he shall
+live in my house,' he said to himself.
+
+And there was no way out of it. It did not occur to the man that his
+offer could be refused. During the whole of that day he went about
+among his friends in a melancholy fashion, saying little snappish
+uncivil things at the club, and at last dining by himself with about
+fifteen newspapers around him. After dinner he did not speak a word to
+any man, but went early to the office of the newspaper in Trafalgar
+Square at which he did his nightly work. Here he was lapped in
+comforts,--if the best of chairs, of sofas, of writing tables, and of
+reading lamps can make a man comfortable who has to read nightly
+thirty columns of a newspaper, or at any rate to make himself
+responsible for their contents.
+
+He seated himself to his work like a man, but immediately saw Lady
+Carbury's letter on the table before him. It was his custom when he
+did not dine at home to have such documents brought to him at his
+office as had reached his home during his absence;--and here was Lady
+Carbury's letter. He knew her writing well, and was aware that here
+was the confirmation of his fate. It had not been expected, as she had
+given herself another day for her answer,--but here it was, beneath his
+hand. Surely this was almost unfeminine haste. He chucked the letter,
+unopened, a little from him, and endeavoured to fix his attention on
+some printed slip that was ready for him. For some ten minutes his
+eyes went rapidly down the lines, but he found that his mind did not
+follow what he was reading. He struggled again, but still his thoughts
+were on the letter. He did not wish to open it, having some vague idea
+that, till the letter should have been read, there was a chance of
+escape. The letter would not become due to be read till the next day.
+It should not have been there now to tempt his thoughts on this night.
+But he could do nothing while it lay there. 'It shall be a part of the
+bargain that I shall never have to see him,' he said to himself, as he
+opened it. The second line told him that the danger was over.
+
+When he had read so far he stood up with his back to the fireplace,
+leaving the letter on the table. Then, after all, the woman wasn't in
+love with him! But that was a reading of the affair which he could
+hardly bring himself to look upon as correct. The woman had shown her
+love by a thousand signs. There was no doubt, however, that she now
+had her triumph. A woman always has a triumph when she rejects a man,--
+and more especially when she does so at a certain time of life. Would
+she publish her triumph? Mr Broune would not like to have it known
+about among brother editors, or by the world at large, that he had
+offered to marry Lady Carbury and that Lady Carbury had refused him.
+He had escaped; but the sweetness of his present safety was not in
+proportion to the bitterness of his late fears.
+
+He could not understand why Lady Carbury should have refused him! As
+he reflected upon it, all memory of her son for the moment passed away
+from him. Full ten minutes had passed, during which he had still stood
+upon the rug, before he read the entire letter. '"Cut and scotched and
+lopped!" I suppose she has been,' he said to himself. He had heard
+much of Sir Patrick, and knew well that the old general had been no
+lamb. 'I shouldn't have cut her, or scotched her, or lopped her.' When
+he had read the whole letter patiently there crept upon him gradually
+a feeling of admiration for her, greater than he had ever yet felt,--
+and, for awhile, he almost thought that he would renew his offer to
+her. '"Showers instead of sunshine; melancholy instead of mirth,"' he
+repeated to himself. 'I should have done the best for her, taking the
+showers and the melancholy if they were necessary.'
+
+He went to his work in a mixed frame of mind, but certainly without
+that dragging weight which had oppressed him when he entered the room.
+Gradually, through the night, he realized the conviction that he had
+escaped, and threw from him altogether the idea of repeating his
+offer. Before he left he wrote her a line:
+
+'Be it so. It need not break our friendship.
+
+'N. B.'
+
+This he sent by a special messenger, who returned with a note to his
+lodgings long before he was up on the following morning.
+
+'No;--no; certainly not. No word of this will ever pass my mouth.
+
+'M. C.'
+
+Mr Broune thought that he was very well out of the danger, and
+resolved that Lady Carbury should never want anything that his
+friendship could do for her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII - THE BOARD-ROOM
+
+
+On Friday, the 21st June, the Board of the South Central Pacific and
+Mexican Railway sat in its own room behind the Exchange, as was the
+Board's custom every Friday. On this occasion all the members were
+there, as it had been understood that the chairman was to make a
+special statement. There was the great chairman as a matter of course.
+In the midst of his numerous and immense concerns he never threw over
+the railway, or delegated to other less experienced hands those cares
+which the commercial world had intrusted to his own. Lord Alfred was
+there, with Mr Cohenlupe, the Hebrew gentleman, and Paul Montague, and
+Lord Nidderdale,--and even Sir Felix Carbury. Sir Felix had come, being
+very anxious to buy and sell, and not as yet having had an opportunity
+of realizing his golden hopes, although he had actually paid a
+thousand pounds in hard money into Mr Melmotte's hands. The secretary,
+Mr Miles Grendall, was also present as a matter of course. The Board
+always met at three, and had generally been dissolved at a quarter
+past three. Lord Alfred and Mr Cohenlupe sat at the chairman's right
+and left hand. Paul Montague generally sat immediately below, with
+Miles Grendall opposite to him;--but on this occasion the young lord and
+the young baronet took the next places. It was a nice little family
+party, the great chairman with his two aspiring sons-in-law, his two
+particular friends,--the social friend, Lord Alfred, and the commercial
+friend Mr Cohenlupe,--and Miles, who was Lord Alfred's son. It would
+have been complete in its friendliness, but for Paul Montague, who had
+lately made himself disagreeable to Mr Melmotte;--and most ungratefully
+so, for certainly no one had been allowed so free a use of the shares
+as the younger member of the house of Fisker, Montague, and Montague.
+
+It was understood that Mr Melmotte was to make a statement. Lord
+Nidderdale and Sir Felix had conceived that this was to be done as it
+were out of the great man's heart, of his own wish, so that something
+of the condition of the company might be made known to the directors
+of the company. But this was not perhaps exactly the truth. Paul
+Montague had insisted on giving vent to certain doubts at the last
+meeting but one, and, having made himself very disagreeable indeed,
+had forced this trouble on the great chairman. On the intermediate
+Friday the chairman had made himself very unpleasant to Paul, and this
+had seemed to be an effort on his part to frighten the inimical
+director out of his opposition, so that the promise of a statement
+need not be fulfilled. What nuisance can be so great to a man busied
+with immense affairs, as to have to explain,--or to attempt to
+explain,--small details to men incapable of understanding them? But
+Montague had stood to his guns. He had not intended, he said, to
+dispute the commercial success of the company. But he felt very
+strongly, and he thought that his brother directors should feel as
+strongly, that it was necessary that they should know more than they
+did know. Lord Alfred had declared that he did not in the least agree
+with his brother director. 'If anybody don't understand, it's his own
+fault,' said Mr Cohenlupe. But Paul would not give way, and it was
+understood that Mr Melmotte would make a statement.
+
+The 'Boards' were always commenced by the reading of a certain record
+of the last meeting out of a book. This was always done by Miles
+Grendall; and the record was supposed to have been written by him. But
+Montague had discovered that this statement in the book was always
+prepared and written by a satellite of Melmotte's from Abchurch Lane
+who was never present at the meeting. The adverse director had spoken
+to the secretary,--it will be remembered that they were both members of
+the Beargarden,--and Miles had given a somewhat evasive reply. 'A cussed
+deal of trouble and all that, you know! He's used to it, and it's what
+he's meant for. I'm not going to flurry myself about stuff of that
+kind.' Montague after this had spoken on the subject both to
+Nidderdale and Felix Carbury. 'He couldn't do it, if it was ever so,'
+Nidderdale had said. 'I don't think I'd bully him if I were you. He
+gets £500 a-year, and if you knew all he owes, and all he hasn't got,
+you wouldn't try to rob him of it.' With Felix Carbury, Montague had
+as little success. Sir Felix hated the secretary, had detected him
+cheating at cards, had resolved to expose him,--and had then been afraid
+to do so. He had told Dolly Longestaffe, and the reader will perhaps
+remember with what effect. He had not mentioned the affair again, and
+had gradually fallen back into the habit of playing at the club. Loo,
+however, had given way to whist, and Sir Felix had satisfied himself
+with the change. He still meditated some dreadful punishment for Miles
+Grendall, but, in the meantime, felt himself unable to oppose him at
+the Board. Since the day at which the aces had been manipulated at the
+club he had not spoken to Miles Grendall except in reference to the
+affairs of the whist table. The 'Board' was now commenced as usual.
+Miles read the short record out of the book,--stumbling over every other
+word, and going through the performance so badly that had there been
+anything to understand no one could have understood it. 'Gentlemen,'
+said Mr Melmotte, in his usual hurried way, 'is it your pleasure that
+I shall sign the record?' Paul Montague rose to say that it was not
+his pleasure that the record should be signed. But Melmotte had made
+his scrawl, and was deep in conversation with Mr Cohenlupe before Paul
+could get upon his legs.
+
+Melmotte, however, had watched the little struggle. Melmotte, whatever
+might be his faults, had eyes to see and ears to hear. He perceived
+that Montague had made a little struggle and had been cowed; and he
+knew how hard it is for one man to persevere against five or six, and
+for a young man to persevere against his elders. Nidderdale was
+filliping bits of paper across the table at Carbury. Miles Grendall
+was poring over the book which was in his charge. Lord Alfred sat back
+in his chair, the picture of a model director, with his right hand
+within his waistcoat. He looked aristocratic, respectable, and almost
+commercial. In that room he never by any chance opened his mouth,
+except when called on to say that Mr Melmotte was right, and was
+considered by the chairman really to earn his money. Melmotte for a
+minute or two went on conversing with Cohenlupe, having perceived that
+Montague for the moment was cowed. Then Paul put both his hands upon
+the table, intending to rise and ask some perplexing question.
+Melmotte saw this also and was upon his legs before Montague had risen
+from his chair. 'Gentlemen,' said Mr Melmotte, 'it may perhaps be as
+well if I take this occasion of saying a few words to you about the
+affairs of the company.' Then, instead of going on with his statement,
+he sat down again, and began to turn over sundry voluminous papers
+very slowly, whispering a word or two every now and then to Mr
+Cohenlupe. Lord Alfred never changed his posture and never took his
+hand from his breast. Nidderdale and Carbury filliped their paper
+pellets backwards and forwards. Montague sat profoundly listening,--or
+ready to listen when anything should be said. As the chairman had
+risen from his chair to commence his statement, Paul felt that he was
+bound to be silent. When a speaker is in possession of the floor, he
+is in possession even though he be somewhat dilatory in looking to his
+references, and whispering to his neighbour. And, when that speaker is
+a chairman, of course some additional latitude must be allowed to him.
+Montague understood this, and sat silent. It seemed that Melmotte had
+much to say to Cohenlupe, and Cohenlupe much to say to Melmotte. Since
+Cohenlupe had sat at the Board he had never before developed such
+powers of conversation.
+
+Nidderdale didn't quite understand it. He had been there twenty
+minutes, was tired of his present amusement, having been unable to hit
+Carbury on the nose, and suddenly remembered that the Beargarden would
+now be open. He was no respecter of persons, and had got over any
+little feeling of awe with which the big table and the solemnity of
+the room may have first inspired him. 'I suppose that's about all,' he
+said, looking up at Melmotte.
+
+'Well;--perhaps as your lordship is in a hurry, and as my lord here is
+engaged elsewhere,--' turning round to Lord Alfred, who had not uttered
+a syllable or made a sign since he had been in his seat, '--we had better
+adjourn this meeting for another week.'
+
+'I cannot allow that,' said Paul Montague.
+
+'I suppose then we must take the sense of the Board,' said the
+Chairman.
+
+'I have been discussing certain circumstances with our friend and
+Chairman,' said Cohenlupe, 'and I must say that it is not expedient
+just at present to go into matters too freely.'
+
+'My Lords and Gentlemen,' said Melmotte. 'I hope that you trust me.'
+
+Lord Alfred bowed down to the table and muttered something which was
+intended to convey most absolute confidence. 'Hear, hear,' said Mr
+Cohenlupe. 'All right,' said Lord Nidderdale; 'go on;' and he fired
+another pellet with improved success.
+
+'I trust,' said the Chairman, 'that my young friend, Sir Felix, doubts
+neither my discretion nor my ability.'
+
+'Oh dear, no;--not at all,' said the baronet, much tattered at being
+addressed in this kindly tone. He had come there with objects of his
+own, and was quite prepared to support the Chairman on any matter
+whatever.
+
+'My Lords and Gentlemen,' continued Melmotte, 'I am delighted to
+receive this expression of your confidence. If I know anything in the
+world I know something of commercial matters. I am able to tell you
+that we are prospering. I do not know that greater prosperity has ever
+been achieved in a shorter time by a commercial company. I think our
+friend here, Mr Montague, should be as feelingly aware of that as any
+gentleman.'
+
+'What do you mean by that, Mr Melmotte?' asked Paul.
+
+'What do I mean?--Certainly nothing adverse to your character, sir.
+Your firm in San Francisco, sir, know very well how the affairs of the
+Company are being transacted on this side of the water. No doubt you
+are in correspondence with Mr Fisker. Ask him. The telegraph wires are
+open to you, sir. But, my Lords and Gentlemen, I am able to inform you
+that in affairs of this nature great discretion is necessary. On
+behalf of the shareholders at large whose interests are in our hands,
+I think it expedient that any general statement should be postponed
+for a short time, and I flatter myself that in that opinion I shall
+carry the majority of this Board with me.' Mr Melmotte did not make
+his speech very fluently; but, being accustomed to the place which he
+occupied, he did manage to get the words spoken in such a way as to
+make them intelligible to the company. 'I now move that this meeting
+be adjourned to this day week,' he added.
+
+'I second that motion,' said Lord Alfred, without moving his hand from
+his breast.
+
+'I understood that we were to have a statement,' said Montague.
+
+'You've had a statement,' said Mr Cohenlupe.
+
+'I will put my motion to the vote,' said the Chairman. 'I shall move
+an amendment,' said Paul, determined that he would not be altogether
+silenced.
+
+'There is nobody to second it,' said Mr Cohenlupe.
+
+'How do you know till I've made it?' asked the rebel. 'I shall ask
+Lord Nidderdale to second it, and when he has heard it I think that
+he will not refuse.'
+
+'Oh, gracious me! why me? No;--don't ask me. I've got to go away. I have
+indeed.'
+
+'At any rate I claim the right of saying a few words. I do not say
+whether every affair of this Company should or should not be published
+to the world.'
+
+'You'd break up everything if you did,' said Cohenlupe.
+
+'Perhaps everything ought to be broken up. But I say nothing about
+that. What I do say is this. That as we sit here as directors and will
+be held to be responsible as such by the public, we ought to know what
+is being done. We ought to know where the shares really are. I for one
+do not even know what scrip has been issued.'
+
+'You've bought and sold enough to know something about it,' said
+Melmotte.
+
+Paul Montague became very red in the face. 'I, at any rate, began,' he
+said, 'by putting what was to me a large sum of money into the
+affair.'
+
+'That's more than I know,' said Melmotte. 'Whatever shares you have,
+were issued at San Francisco, and not here.'
+
+'I have taken nothing that I haven't paid for,' said Montague. 'Nor
+have I yet had allotted to me anything like the number of shares which
+my capital would represent. But I did not intend to speak of my own
+concerns.'
+
+'It looks very like it,' said Cohenlupe.
+
+'So far from it that I am prepared to risk the not improbable loss of
+everything I have in the world. I am determined to know what is being
+done with the shares, or to make it public to the world at large that
+I, one of the directors of the Company, do not in truth know anything
+about it. I cannot, I suppose, absolve myself from further
+responsibility; but I can at any rate do what is right from this time
+forward,--and that course I intend to take.'
+
+'The gentleman had better resign his seat at this Board,' said
+Melmotte. 'There will be no difficulty about that.'
+
+'Bound up as I am with Fisker and Montague in California I fear that
+there will be difficulty.'
+
+'Not in the least,' continued the Chairman. 'You need only gazette
+your resignation and the thing is done. I had intended, gentlemen, to
+propose an addition to our number. When I name to you a gentleman,
+personally known to many of you, and generally esteemed throughout
+England as a man of business, as a man of probity, and as a man of
+fortune, a man standing deservedly high in all British circles, I mean
+Mr Longestaffe of Caversham--'
+
+'Young Dolly, or old,' asked Lord Nidderdale.
+
+'I mean Mr Adolphus Longestaffe, senior, of Caversham. I am sure that
+you will all be glad to welcome him among you. I had thought to
+strengthen our number by this addition. But if Mr Montague is
+determined to leave us,--and no one will regret the loss of his services
+so much as I shall,--it will be my pleasing duty to move that Adolphus
+Longestaffe, senior, Esquire, of Caversham, be requested to take his
+place. If on consideration Mr Montague shall determine to remain with
+us,--and I for one most sincerely hope that such reconsideration may
+lead to such determination,--then I shall move that an additional
+director be added to our number, and that Mr Longestaffe be requested
+to take the chair of that additional director.' The latter speech Mr
+Melmotte got through very glibly, and then immediately left the chair,
+so as to show that the business of the Board was closed for that day
+without any possibility of re-opening it.
+
+Paul went up to him and took him by the sleeve, signifying that he
+wished to speak to him before they parted. 'Certainly,' said the great
+man bowing. 'Carbury,' he said, looking round on the young baronet
+with his blandest smile, 'if you are not in a hurry, wait a moment for
+me. I have a word or two to say before you go. Now, Mr Montague, what
+can I do for you?' Paul began his story, expressing again the opinion
+which he had already very plainly expressed at the table. But Melmotte
+stopped him very shortly, and with much less courtesy than he had
+shown in the speech which he had made from the chair. 'The thing is
+about this way, I take it, Mr Montague;--you think you know more of this
+matter than I do.'
+
+'Not at all, Mr Melmotte.'
+
+'And I think that I know more of it than you do. Either of us may be
+right. But as I don't intend to give way to you, perhaps the less we
+speak together about it the better. You can't be in earnest in the
+threat you made, because you would be making public things communicated
+to you under the seal of privacy,--and no gentleman would do that. But
+as long as you are hostile to me, I can't help you,--and so good
+afternoon.' Then, without giving Montague the possibility of a
+reply, he escaped into an inner room which had the word 'Private'
+painted on the door, and which was supposed to belong to the chairman
+individually. He shut the door behind him, and then, after a few
+moments, put out his head and beckoned to Sir Felix Carbury.
+Nidderdale was gone. Lord Alfred with his son were already on the
+stairs. Cohenlupe was engaged with Melmotte's clerk on the
+record-book. Paul Montague, finding himself without support and alone,
+slowly made his way out into the court.
+
+Sir Felix had come into the city intending to suggest to the Chairman
+that having paid his thousand pounds he should like to have a few
+shares to go on with. He was, indeed, at the present moment very
+nearly penniless, and had negotiated, or lost at cards, all the
+I.O.U.'s which were in any degree serviceable. He still had a
+pocketbook full of those issued by Miles Grendall; but it was now an
+understood thing at the Beargarden that no one was to be called upon
+to take them except Miles Grendall himself;--an arrangement which robbed
+the card-table of much of its delight. Beyond this, also, he had
+lately been forced to issue a little paper himself,--in doing which he
+had talked largely of his shares in the railway. His case certainly
+was hard. He had actually paid a thousand pounds down in hard cash, a
+commercial transaction which, as performed by himself, he regarded as
+stupendous. It was almost incredible to himself that he should have
+paid any one a thousand pounds, but he had done it with much
+difficulty,--having carried Dolly junior with him all the way into the
+city,--in the belief that he would thus put himself in the way of making
+a continual and unfailing income. He understood that as a director he
+would be always entitled to buy shares at par, and, as a matter of
+course, always able to sell them at the market price. This he
+understood to range from ten to fifteen and twenty per cent, profit.
+He would have nothing to do but to buy and sell daily. He was told
+that Lord Alfred was allowed to do it to a small extent; and that
+Melmotte was doing it to an enormous extent. But before he could do it
+he must get something,--he hardly knew what,--out of Melmotte's hands.
+Melmotte certainly did not seem to shun him, and therefore there could
+be no difficulty about the shares. As to danger,--who could think of
+danger in reference to money intrusted to the hands of Augustus
+Melmotte?
+
+'I am delighted to see you here,' said Melmotte, shaking him cordially
+by the hand. 'You come regularly, and you'll find that it will be
+worth your while. There's nothing like attending to business. You
+should be here every Friday.'
+
+'I will,' said the baronet.
+
+'And let me see you sometimes up at my place in Abchurch Lane. I can
+put you more in the way of understanding things there than I can here.
+This is all a mere formal sort of thing. You can see that.'
+
+'Oh yes, I see that.'
+
+'We are obliged to have this kind of thing for men like that fellow
+Montague. By-the-bye, is he a friend of yours?'
+
+'Not particularly. He is a friend of a cousin of mine; and the women
+know him at home. He isn't a pal of mine if you mean that.'
+
+'If he makes himself disagreeable, he'll have to go to the wall;--that's
+all. But never mind him at present. Was your mother speaking to you of
+what I said to her?'
+
+'No, Mr Melmotte,' said Sir Felix, staring with all his eyes.
+
+'I was talking to her about you, and I thought that perhaps she might
+have told you. This is all nonsense, you know, about you and Marie.'
+Sir Felix looked into the man's face. It was not savage, as he had
+seen it. But there had suddenly come upon his brow that heavy look of
+a determined purpose which all who knew the man were wont to mark. Sir
+Felix had observed it a few minutes since in the Board-room, when the
+chairman was putting down the rebellious director. 'You understand
+that; don't you?' Sir Felix still looked at him, but made no reply.
+'It's all d---- nonsense. You haven't got a brass farthing, you know.
+You've no income at all; you're just living on your mother, and I'm
+afraid she's not very well off. How can you suppose that I shall give
+my girl to you?' Felix still looked at him but did not dare to
+contradict a single statement made. Yet when the man told him that he
+had not a brass farthing he thought of his own thousand pounds which
+were now in the man's pocket. 'You're a baronet, and that's about all,
+you know,' continued Melmotte. 'The Carbury property, which is a very
+small thing, belongs to a distant cousin who may leave it to me if he
+pleases;--and who isn't very much older than you are yourself.'
+
+'Oh, come, Mr Melmotte; he's a great deal older than me.'
+
+'It wouldn't matter if he were as old as Adam. The thing is out of the
+question, and you must drop it.' Then the look on his brow became a
+little heavier. 'You hear what I say. She is going to marry Lord
+Nidderdale. She was engaged to him before you ever saw her. What do
+you expect to get by it?'
+
+Sir Felix had not the courage to say that he expected to get the girl
+he loved. But as the man waited for an answer he was obliged to say
+something. 'I suppose it's the old story,' he said.
+
+'Just so;--the old story. You want my money, and she wants you, just
+because she has been told to take somebody else. You want something to
+live on;--that's what you want. Come;--out with it. Is not that it? When
+we understand each other I'll put you in the way of making money.'
+
+'Of course I'm not very well off,' said Felix.
+
+'About as badly as any young man that I can hear of. You give me your
+written promise that you'll drop this affair with Marie, and you
+shan't want for money.'
+
+'A written promise!'
+
+'Yes;--a written promise. I give nothing for nothing. I'll put you in
+the way of doing so well with these shares that you shall be able to
+marry any other girl you please;--or to live without marrying, which
+you'll find to be better.'
+
+There was something worthy of consideration in Mr Melmotte's
+proposition. Marriage of itself, simply as a domestic institution, had
+not specially recommended itself to Sir Felix Carbury. A few horses at
+Leighton, Ruby Ruggles or any other beauty, and life at the Beargarden
+were much more to his taste. And then he was quite alive to the fact
+that it was possible that he might find himself possessed of the wife
+without the money. Marie, indeed, had a grand plan of her own, with
+reference to that settled income; but then Marie might be mistaken,--or
+she might be lying. If he were sure of making money in the way
+Melmotte now suggested, the loss of Marie would not break his heart.
+But then also Melmotte might be--lying. 'By-the-bye, Mr Melmotte,' said
+he, 'could you let me have those shares?'
+
+'What shares?' And the heavy brow became still heavier.
+
+'Don't you know?--I gave you a thousand pounds, and I was to have ten
+shares.'
+
+'You must come about that on the proper day, to the proper place.'
+
+'When is the proper day?'
+
+'It is the twentieth of each month, I think.' Sir Felix looked very
+blank at hearing this, knowing that this present was the twenty-first
+of the month. 'But what does that signify? Do you want a little
+money?'
+
+'Well, I do,' said Sir Felix. 'A lot of fellows owe me money, but it's
+so hard to get it.'
+
+'That tells a story of gambling,' said Mr Melmotte. 'You think I'd
+give my girl to a gambler?'
+
+'Nidderdale's in it quite as thick as I am.'
+
+'Nidderdale has a settled property which neither he nor his father can
+destroy. But don't you be such a fool as to argue with me. You won't
+get anything by it. If you'll write that letter here now--'
+
+'What;--to Marie?'
+
+'No;--not to Marie at all; but to me. It need never be known to her. If
+you'll do that I'll stick to you and make a man of you. And if you
+want a couple of hundred pounds I'll give you a cheque for it before
+you leave the room. Mind, I can tell you this. On my word of honour as
+a gentleman, if my daughter were to marry you, she'd never have a
+single shilling. I should immediately make a will and leave all my
+property to St. George's Hospital. I have quite made up my mind about
+that.'
+
+'And couldn't you manage that I should have the shares before the
+twentieth of next month?'
+
+'I'll see about it. Perhaps I could let you have a few of my own. At
+any rate I won't see you short of money.'
+
+The terms were enticing and the letter was of course written. Melmotte
+himself dictated the words, which were not romantic in their nature.
+The reader shall see the letter.
+
+
+   DEAR SIR,
+
+   In consideration of the offers made by you to me, and on a clear
+   understanding that such a marriage would be disagreeable to you
+   and to the lady's mother, and would bring down a father's curse
+   upon your daughter, I hereby declare and promise that I will not
+   renew my suit to the young lady, which I hereby altogether
+   renounce.
+
+   I am, Dear Sir,
+
+   Your obedient servant,
+
+   FELIX CARBURY.
+
+   AUGUSTUS MELMOTTE, Esq.,
+   Grosvenor Square.
+
+
+The letter was dated 21st July, and bore the printed address of the
+offices of the South Central Pacific and Mexican Railway.
+
+'You'll give me that cheque for £200, Mr Melmotte?' The financier
+hesitated for a moment, but did give the baronet the cheque as
+promised. 'And you'll see about letting me have those shares?'
+
+'You can come to me in Abchurch Lane, you know.' Sir Felix said that
+he would call in Abchurch Lane.
+
+As he went westward towards the Beargarden, the baronet was not happy
+in his mind. Ignorant as he was as to the duties of a gentleman,
+indifferent as he was to the feelings of others, still he felt ashamed
+of himself. He was treating the girl very badly. Even he knew that he
+was behaving badly. He was so conscious of it that he tried to console
+himself by reflecting that his writing such a letter as that would not
+prevent his running away with the girl, should he, on consideration,
+find it to be worth his while to do so.
+
+That night he was again playing at the Beargarden, and he lost a great
+part of Mr Melmotte's money. He did in fact lose much more than the
+£200; but when he found his ready money going from him he issued
+paper.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII - PAUL MONTAGUE'S TROUBLES
+
+
+Paul Montague had other troubles on his mind beyond this trouble of
+the Mexican Railway. It was now more than a fortnight since he had
+taken Mrs Hurtle to the play, and she was still living in lodgings at
+Islington. He had seen her twice, once on the following day, when he
+was allowed to come and go without any special reference to their
+engagement, and again, three or four days afterwards, when the meeting
+was by no means so pleasant. She had wept, and after weeping had
+stormed. She had stood upon what she called her rights, and had dared
+him to be false to her. Did he mean to deny that he had promised to
+marry her? Was not his conduct to her, ever since she had now been in
+London, a repetition of that promise? And then again she became soft,
+and pleaded with him. But for the storm he might have given way. At
+the moment he had felt that any fate in life would be better than a
+marriage on compulsion. Her tears and her pleadings, nevertheless,
+touched him very nearly. He had promised her most distinctly. He had
+loved her and had won her love. And she was lovely. The very violence
+of the storm made the sunshine more sweet. She would sit down on a
+stool at his feet, and it was impossible to drive her away from him.
+She would look up in his face and he could not but embrace her. Then
+there had come a passionate flood of tears and she was in his arms.
+How he had escaped he hardly knew, but he did know that he had
+promised to be with her again before two days should have passed.
+
+On the day named he wrote to her a letter excusing himself, which was
+at any rate true in words. He had been summoned, he said, to Liverpool
+on business, and must postpone seeing her till his return. And he
+explained that the business on which he was called was connected with
+the great American railway, and, being important, demanded his
+attention. In words this was true. He had been corresponding with a
+gentleman at Liverpool with whom he had become acquainted on his
+return home after having involuntarily become a partner in the house
+of Fisker, Montague, and Montague. This man he trusted and had
+consulted, and the gentleman, Mr Ramsbottom by name, had suggested
+that he should come to him at Liverpool. He had gone, and his conduct
+at the Board had been the result of the advice which he had received;
+but it may be doubted whether some dread of the coming interview with
+Mrs Hurtle had not added strength to Mr Ramsbottom's invitation.
+
+In Liverpool he had heard tidings of Mrs Hurtle, though it can hardly
+be said that he obtained any trustworthy information. The lady after
+landing from an American steamer had been at Mr Ramsbottom's office,
+inquiring for him, Paul; and Mr Ramsbottom had thought that the
+inquiries were made in a manner indicating danger. He therefore had
+spoken to a fellow-traveller with Mrs Hurtle, and the fellow-traveller
+had opined that Mrs Hurtle was 'a queer card.' 'On board ship we all
+gave it up to her that she was about the handsomest woman we had ever
+seen, but we all said that there was a bit of the wild cat in her
+breeding.' Then Mr Ramsbottom had asked whether the lady was a widow.
+'There was a man on board from Kansas,' said the fellow-traveller,
+'who knew a man named Hurtle at Leavenworth, who was separated from
+his wife and is still alive. There was, according to him, a queer
+story about the man and his wife having fought a duel with pistols,
+and then having separated.' This Mr Ramsbottom, who in an earlier
+stage of the affair had heard something of Paul and Mrs Hurtle
+together, managed to communicate to the young man. His advice about
+the railway company was very clear and general, and such as an honest
+man would certainly give; but it might have been conveyed by letter.
+The information, such as it was, respecting Mrs Hurtle, could only be
+given vivâ voce, and perhaps the invitation to Liverpool had
+originated in Mr Ramsbottom's appreciation of this fact. 'As she was
+asking after you here, perhaps it is well that you should know,' his
+friend said to him. Paul had only thanked him, not daring on the spur
+of the moment to speak of his own difficulties.
+
+In all this there had been increased dismay, but there had also been
+some comfort. It had only been at moments in which he had been subject
+to her softer influences that Paul had doubted as to his adherence to
+the letter which he had written to her, breaking off his engagement.
+When she told him of her wrongs and of her love; of his promise and
+his former devotion to her; when she assured him that she had given up
+everything in life for him, and threw her arms round him, looking into
+his eyes;--then he would almost yield. But when, what the traveller
+called the breeding of the wild cat, showed itself;--and when, having
+escaped from her, he thought of Hetta Carbury and of her breeding,--he
+was fully determined that, let his fate be what it might, it should
+not be that of being the husband of Mrs Hurtle. That he was in a mass
+of troubles from which it would be very difficult for him to extricate
+himself he was well aware;--but if it were true that Mr Hurtle was
+alive, that fact might help him. She certainly had declared him to be,--
+not separated, or even divorced,--but dead. And if it were true also
+that she had fought a duel with one husband, that also ought to be a
+reason why a gentleman should object to become her second husband.
+These facts would at any rate justify himself to himself, and would
+enable himself to break from his engagement without thinking himself
+to be a false traitor.
+
+But he must make up his mind as to some line of conduct. She must be
+made to know the truth. If he meant to reject the lady finally on the
+score of her being a wild cat, he must tell her so. He felt very
+strongly that he must not flinch from the wild cat's claws. That he
+would have to undergo some severe handling, an amount of clawing which
+might perhaps go near his life, he could perceive. Having done what he
+had done he would have no right to shrink from such usage. He must
+tell her to her face that he was not satisfied with her past life, and
+that therefore he would not marry her. Of course he might write to
+her;--but when summoned to her presence he would be unable to excuse
+himself, even to himself, for not going. It was his misfortune,--and
+also his fault,--that he had submitted to be loved by a wild cat.
+
+But it might be well that before he saw her he should get hold of
+information that might have the appearance of real evidence. He
+returned from Liverpool to London on the morning of the Friday on
+which the Board was held, and thought even more of all this than he
+did of the attack which he was prepared to make on Mr Melmotte. If he
+could come across that traveller he might learn something. The
+husband's name had been Caradoc Carson Hurtle. If Caradoc Carson
+Hurtle had been seen in the State of Kansas within the last two years,
+that certainly would be sufficient evidence. As to the duel he felt
+that it might be very hard to prove that, and that if proved, it might
+be hard to found upon the fact any absolute right on his part to
+withdraw from the engagement. But there was a rumour also, though not
+corroborated during his last visit to Liverpool, that she had shot a
+gentleman in Oregon. Could he get at the truth of that story? If they
+were all true, surely he could justify himself to himself.
+
+But this detective's work was very distasteful to him. After having
+had the woman in his arms how could he undertake such inquiries as
+these? And it would be almost necessary that he should take her in his
+arms again while he was making them,--unless indeed he made them with
+her knowledge. Was it not his duty, as a man, to tell everything to
+herself? To speak to her thus:--'I am told that your life with your last
+husband was, to say the least of it, eccentric; that you even fought a
+duel with him. I could not marry a woman who had fought a duel,--
+certainly not a woman who had fought with her own husband. I am told
+also that you shot another gentleman in Oregon. It may well be that
+the gentleman deserved to be shot; but there is something in the deed
+so repulsive to me,--no doubt irrationally,--that, on that score also, I
+must decline to marry you. I am told also that Mr Hurtle has been seen
+alive quite lately. I had understood from you that he is dead. No
+doubt you may have been deceived. But as I should not have engaged
+myself to you had I known the truth, so now I consider myself
+justified in absolving myself from an engagement which was based on a
+misconception.' It would no doubt be difficult to get through all
+these details; but it might be accomplished gradually,--unless in the
+process of doing so he should incur the fate of the gentleman in
+Oregon. At any rate he would declare to her as well as he could the
+ground on which he claimed a right to consider himself free, and would
+bear the consequences. Such was the resolve which he made on his
+journey up from Liverpool, and that trouble was also on his mind when
+he rose up to attack Mr Melmotte single-handed at the Board.
+
+When the Board was over, he also went down to the Beargarden. Perhaps,
+with reference to the Board, the feeling which hurt him most was the
+conviction that he was spending money which he would never have had to
+spend had there been no Board. He had been twitted with this at the
+Board-meeting, and had justified himself by referring to the money
+which had been invested in the company of Fisker, Montague, and
+Montague, which money was now supposed to have been made over to the
+railway. But the money which he was spending had come to him after a
+loose fashion, and he knew that if called upon for an account, he
+could hardly make out one which would be square and intelligible to
+all parties. Nevertheless he spent much of his time at the
+Beargarden, dining there when no engagement carried him elsewhere. On
+this evening he joined his table with Nidderdale's, at the young
+lord's instigation. 'What made you so savage at old Melmotte to-day?'
+said the young lord.
+
+'I didn't mean to be savage, but I think that as we call ourselves
+Directors we ought to know something about it.'
+
+'I suppose we ought. I don't know, you know. I'll tell you what I've
+been thinking. I can't make out why the mischief they made me a
+Director.'
+
+'Because you're a lord,' said Paul bluntly.
+
+'I suppose there's something in that. But what good can I do them?
+Nobody thinks that I know anything about business. Of course I'm in
+Parliament, but I don't often go there unless they want me to vote.
+Everybody knows that I'm hard up. I can't understand it. The Governor
+said that I was to do it, and so I've done it.'
+
+'They say, you know,--there's something between you and Melmotte's
+daughter.'
+
+'But if there is, what has that to do with a railway in the city? And
+why should Carbury be there? And, heaven and earth, why should old
+Grendall be a Director? I'm impecunious; but if you were to pink out
+the two most hopeless men in London in regard to money, they would be
+old Grendall and young Carbury. I've been thinking a good deal about
+it, and I can't make it out.'
+
+'I have been thinking about it too,' said Paul.
+
+'I suppose old Melmotte is all right?' asked Nidderdale. This was a
+question which Montague found it difficult to answer. How could he be
+justified in whispering suspicions to the man who was known to be at
+any rate one of the competitors for Marie Melmotte's hand? 'You can
+speak out to me, you know,' said Nidderdale, nodding his head.
+
+'I've got nothing to speak. People say that he is about the richest
+man alive.'
+
+'He lives as though he were.'
+
+'I don't see why it shouldn't be all true. Nobody, I take it, knows
+very much about him.'
+
+When his companion had left him, Nidderdale sat down, thinking of it
+all. It occurred to him that he would 'be coming a cropper rather,'
+were he to marry Melmotte's daughter for her money, and then find that
+she had got none.
+
+A little later in the evening he invited Montague to go up to the
+card-room. 'Carbury, and Grasslough, and Dolly Longestaffe are there
+waiting,' he said. But Paul declined. He was too full of his troubles
+for play. 'Poor Miles isn't there, if you're afraid of that,' said
+Nidderdale.
+
+'Miles Grendall wouldn't hinder me,' said Montague.
+
+'Nor me either. Of course it's a confounded shame. I know that as well
+as anybody. But, God bless me, I owe a fellow down in Leicestershire
+heaven knows how much for keeping horses, and that's a shame.'
+
+'You'll pay him some day.'
+
+'I suppose I shall,--if I don't die first. But I should have gone on
+with the horses just the same if there had never been anything to
+come;--only they wouldn't have given me tick, you know. As far as I'm
+concerned it's just the same. I like to live whether I've got money or
+not. And I fear I don't have many scruples about paying. But then I
+like to let live too. There's Carbury always saying nasty things about
+poor Miles. He's playing himself without a rap to back him. If he were
+to lose, Vossner wouldn't stand him a £10 note. But because he has
+won, he goes on as though he were old Melmotte himself. You'd better
+come up.'
+
+But Montague wouldn't go up. Without any fixed purpose he left the
+club, and slowly sauntered northwards through the streets till he
+found himself in Welbeck Street. He hardly knew why he went there, and
+certainly had not determined to call on Lady Carbury when he left the
+Beargarden. His mind was full of Mrs Hurtle. As long as she was
+present in London,--as long at any rate as he was unable to tell himself
+that he had finally broken away from her,--he knew himself to be an
+unfit companion for Henrietta Carbury. And, indeed, he was still under
+some promise made to Roger Carbury, not that he would avoid Hetta's
+company, but that for a certain period, as yet unexpired, he would not
+ask her to be his wife. It had been a foolish promise, made and then
+repented without much attention to words;--but still it was existing,
+and Paul knew well that Roger trusted that it would be kept.
+Nevertheless Paul made his way up to Welbeck Street and almost
+unconsciously knocked at the door. No;--Lady Carbury was not at home.
+She was out somewhere with Mr Roger Carbury. Up to that moment Paul
+had not heard that Roger was in town; but the reader may remember that
+he had come up in search of Ruby Ruggles. Miss Carbury was at home,
+the page went on to say. Would Mr Montague go up and see Miss Carbury?
+Without much consideration Mr Montague said that he would go up and
+see Miss Carbury. 'Mamma is out with Roger,' said Hetta, endeavouring
+to save herself from confusion. 'There is a soirée of learned people
+somewhere, and she made poor Roger take her. The ticket was only for
+her and her friend, and therefore I could not go.'
+
+'I am so glad to see you. What an age it is since we met.'
+
+'Hardly since the Melmottes' ball,' said Hetta.
+
+'Hardly indeed. I have been here once since that. What has brought
+Roger up to town?'
+
+'I don't know what it is. Some mystery, I think. Whenever there is a
+mystery I am always afraid that there is something wrong about Felix.
+I do get so unhappy about Felix, Mr Montague.'
+
+'I saw him to-day in the city, at the Railway Board.'
+
+'But Roger says the Railway Board is all a sham,'--Paul could not keep
+himself from blushing as he heard this,--'and that Felix should not be
+there. And then there is something going on about that horrid man's
+daughter.'
+
+'She is to marry Lord Nidderdale, I think.'
+
+'Is she? They are talking of her marrying Felix, and of course it is
+for her money. And I believe that man is determined to quarrel with
+them.'
+
+'What man, Miss Carbury?'
+
+'Mr Melmotte himself. It's all horrid from beginning to end.'
+
+'But I saw them in the city to-day and they seemed to b the greatest
+friends. When I wanted to see Mr Melmotte he bolted himself into an
+inner room, but he took your brother with him. He would not have done
+that if they had not been friends. When I saw it I almost thought that
+he had consented to the marriage.'
+
+'Roger has the greatest dislike to Mr Melmotte.'
+
+'I know he has,' said Paul.
+
+'And Roger is always right. It is always safe to trust him. Don't you
+think so, Mr Montague?' Paul did think so, and was by no means
+disposed to deny to his rival the praise which rightly belonged to
+him; but still he found the subject difficult. 'Of course I will never
+go against mamma,' continued Hetta, 'but I always feel that my cousin
+Roger is a rock of strength, so that if one did whatever he said one
+would never get wrong. I never found any one else that I thought that
+of, but I do think it of him.'
+
+'No one has more reason to praise him than I have.'
+
+'I think everybody has reason to praise him that has to do with him.
+And I'll tell you why I think it is. Whenever he thinks anything he
+says it;--or, at least, he never says anything that he doesn't think. If
+he spent a thousand pounds, everybody would know that he'd got it to
+spend; but other people are not like that.'
+
+'You're thinking of Melmotte.'
+
+'I'm thinking of everybody, Mr Montague;--of everybody except Roger.'
+
+'Is he the only man you can trust? But it is abominable to me to seem
+even to contradict you. Roger Carbury has been to me the best friend
+that any man ever had. I think as much of him as you do.'
+
+'I didn't say he was the only person;--or I didn't mean to say so. But
+all my friends--'
+
+'Am I among the number, Miss Carbury?'
+
+'Yes;--I suppose so. Of course you are. Why not? Of course you are a
+friend,--because you are his friend.'
+
+'Look here, Hetta,' he said. 'It is no good going on like this. I love
+Roger Carbury,--as well as one man can love another. He is all that you
+say,--and more. You hardly know how he denies himself, and how he thinks
+of everybody near him. He is a gentleman all round and every inch. He
+never lies. He never takes what is not his own. I believe he does love
+his neighbour as himself.'
+
+'Oh, Mr Montague! I am so glad to hear you speak of him like that.'
+
+'I love him better than any man,--as well as a man can love a man. If
+you will say that you love him as well as a woman can love a man,--I
+will leave England at once, and never return to it.'
+
+'There's mamma,' said Henrietta;--for at that moment there was a double
+knock at the door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX - 'I DO LOVE HIM'
+
+
+So it was. Lady Carbury had returned home from the soirée of learned
+people, and had brought Roger Carbury with her. They both came up to
+the drawing-room and found Paul and Henrietta together. It need hardly
+be said that they were both surprised. Roger supposed that Montague
+was still at Liverpool, and, knowing that he was not a frequent
+visitor in Welbeck Street, could hardly avoid a feeling that a meeting
+between the two had now been planned in the mother's absence. The
+reader knows that it was not so. Roger certainly was a man not liable
+to suspicion, but the circumstances in this case were suspicious.
+There would have been nothing to suspect,--no reason why Paul should not
+have been there,--but from the promise which had been given. There was,
+indeed, no breach of that promise proved by Paul's presence in Welbeck
+Street; but Roger felt rather than thought that the two could hardly
+have spent the evening together without such breach. Whether Paul had
+broken the promise by what he had already said the reader must be left
+to decide.
+
+Lady Carbury was the first to speak. 'This is quite an unexpected
+pleasure, Mr Montague.' Whether Roger suspected anything or not, she
+did. The moment she saw Paul the idea occurred to her that the meeting
+between Hetta and him had been preconcerted.
+
+'Yes,' he said making a lame excuse, where no excuse should have been
+made,--'I had nothing to do, and was lonely, and thought that I would
+come up and see you.' Lady Carbury disbelieved him altogether, but
+Roger felt assured that his coming in Lady Carbury's absence had been
+an accident. The man had said so, and that was enough.
+
+'I thought you were at Liverpool,' said Roger.
+
+'I came back to-day,--to be present at that Board in the city. I have had
+a good deal to trouble me. I will tell you all about it just now. What
+has brought you to London?'
+
+'A little business,' said Roger.
+
+Then there was an awkward silence. Lady Carbury was angry, and hardly
+knew whether she ought not to show her anger. For Henrietta it was
+very awkward. She, too, could not but feel that she had been caught,
+though no innocence could be whiter than hers. She knew well her
+mother's mind, and the way in which her mother's thoughts would run.
+Silence was frightful to her, and she found herself forced to speak.
+'Have you had a pleasant evening, mamma?'
+
+'Have you had a pleasant evening, my dear?' said Lady Carbury,
+forgetting herself in her desire to punish her daughter.
+
+'Indeed, no,' said Hetta, attempting to laugh, 'I have been trying to
+work hard at Dante, but one never does any good when one has to try to
+work. I was just going to bed when Mr Montague came in. What did you
+think of the wise men and the wise women, Roger?'
+
+'I was out of my element, of course; but I think your mother liked
+it.'
+
+'I was very glad indeed to meet Dr Palmoil. It seems that if we can
+only open the interior of Africa a little further, we can get
+everything that is wanted to complete the chemical combination
+necessary for feeding the human race. Isn't that a grand idea, Roger?'
+
+'A little more elbow grease is the combination that I look to.'
+
+'Surely, Roger, if the Bible is to go for anything, we are to believe
+that labour is a curse and not a blessing. Adam was not born to
+labour.'
+
+'But he fell; and I doubt whether Dr Palmoil will be able to put his
+descendants back into Eden.'
+
+'Roger, for a religious man, you do say the strangest things! I have
+quite made up my mind to this;--if ever I can see things so settled here
+as to enable me to move, I will visit the interior of Africa. It is
+the garden of the world.'
+
+This scrap of enthusiasm so carried them through their immediate
+difficulties that the two men were able to take their leave and to get
+out of the room with fair comfort. As soon as the door was closed
+behind them Lady Carbury attacked her daughter. 'What brought him
+here?'
+
+'He brought himself, mamma.'
+
+'Don't answer me in that way, Hetta. Of course he brought himself.
+That is insolent.'
+
+'Insolent, mamma! How can you say such hard words? I meant that he
+came of his own accord.'
+
+'How long was he here?'
+
+'Two minutes before you came in. Why do you cross-question me like
+this? I could not help his coming. I did not desire that he might be
+shown up.'
+
+'You did not know that he was to come?'
+
+'Mamma, if I am to be suspected, all is over between us.'
+
+'What do you mean by that?'
+
+'If you can think that I would deceive you, you will think so always.
+If you will not trust me, how am I to live with you as though you did?
+I knew nothing of his coming.'
+
+'Tell me this, Hetta; are you engaged to marry him?'
+
+'No;--I am not.'
+
+'Has he asked you to marry him?'
+
+Hetta paused a moment, considering, before she answered this question.
+'I do not think he ever has.'
+
+'You do not think?'
+
+'I was going on to explain. He never has asked me. But he has said
+that which makes me know that he wishes me to be his wife.'
+
+'What has he said? When did he say it?'
+
+Again she paused. But again she answered with straightforward
+simplicity. 'Just before you came in, he said--; I don't know what he
+said; but it meant that.'
+
+'You told me he had been here but a minute.'
+
+'It was but very little more. If you take me at my word in that way,
+of course you can make me out to be wrong, mamma. It was almost no
+time, and yet he said it.'
+
+'He had come prepared to say it.'
+
+'How could he,--expecting to find you?'
+
+'Psha! He expected nothing of the kind.'
+
+'I think you do him wrong, mamma. I am sure you are doing me wrong. I
+think his coming was an accident, and that what he said was--an
+accident.'
+
+'An accident!'
+
+'It was not intended,--not then, mamma. I have known it ever so long;--
+and so have you. It was natural that he should say so when we were alone
+together.'
+
+'And you;--what did you say?'
+
+'Nothing. You came.'
+
+'I am sorry that my coming should have been so inopportune. But I must
+ask one other question, Hetta. What do you intend to say?' Hetta was
+again silent, and now for a longer space. She put her hand up to her
+brow and pushed back her hair as she thought whether her mother had a
+right to continue this cross-examination. She had told her mother
+everything as it had happened. She had kept back no deed done, no word
+spoken, either now or at any time. But she was not sure that her
+mother had a right to know her thoughts, feeling as she did that she
+had so little sympathy from her mother. 'How do you intend to answer
+him?' demanded Lady Carbury.
+
+'I do not know that he will ask again.'
+
+'That is prevaricating.'
+
+'No, mamma;--I do not prevaricate. It is unfair to say that to me. I do
+love him. There. I think it ought to have been enough for you to know
+that I should never give him encouragement without telling you about
+it. I do love him, and I shall never love any one else.'
+
+'He is a ruined man. Your cousin says that all this Company in which
+he is involved will go to pieces.'
+
+Hetta was too clever to allow this argument to pass. She did not doubt
+that Roger had so spoken of the Railway to her mother, but she did
+doubt that her mother had believed the story. 'If so,' said she, 'Mr
+Melmotte will be a ruined man too, and yet you want Felix to marry
+Marie Melmotte.'
+
+'It makes me ill to hear you talk,--as if you understood these things.
+And you think you will marry this man because he is to make a fortune
+out of the Railway!' Lady Carbury was able to speak with an extremity
+of scorn in reference to the assumed pursuit by one of her children of
+an advantageous position which she was doing all in her power to
+recommend to the other child.
+
+'I have not thought of his fortune. I have not thought of marrying
+him, mamma. I think you are very cruel to me. You say things so hard,
+that I cannot bear them.'
+
+'Why will you not marry your cousin?'
+
+'I am not good enough for him.'
+
+'Nonsense!'
+
+'Very well; you say so. But that is what I think. He is so much above
+me, that, though I do love him, I cannot think of him in that way. And
+I have told you that I do love some one else. I have no secret from
+you now. Good night, mamma,' she said, coming up to her mother and
+kissing her. 'Do be kind to me; and pray,--pray,--do believe me.' Lady
+Carbury then allowed herself to be kissed, and allowed her daughter to
+leave the room.
+
+There was a great deal said that night between Roger Carbury and Paul
+Montague before they parted. As they walked together to Roger's hotel
+he said not a word as to Paul's presence in Welbeck Street. Paul had
+declared his visit in Lady Carbury's absence to have been accidental,--
+and therefore there was nothing more to be said. Montague then asked
+as to the cause of Carbury's journey to London. 'I do not wish it to
+be talked of,' said Roger after a pause,--'and of course I could not
+speak of it before Hetta. A girl has gone away from our neighbourhood.
+You remember old Ruggles?'
+
+'You do not mean that Ruby has levanted? She was to have married John
+Crumb.'
+
+'Just so,--but she has gone off, leaving John Crumb in an unhappy frame
+of mind. John Crumb is an honest man and almost too good for her.'
+
+'Ruby is very pretty. Has she gone with any one?'
+
+'No;--she went alone. But the horror of it is this. They think down
+there that Felix has,--well, made love to her, and that she has been
+taken to London by him.'
+
+'That would be very bad.'
+
+'He certainly has known her. Though he lied, as he always lies, when I
+first spoke to him, I brought him to admit that he and she had been
+friends down in Suffolk. Of course we know what such friendship means.
+But I do not think that she came to London at his instance. Of course
+he would lie about that. He would lie about anything. If his horse
+cost him a hundred pounds, he would tell one man that he gave fifty,
+and another two hundred. But he has not lived long enough yet to be
+able to lie and tell the truth with the same eye. When he is as old as
+I am he'll be perfect.'
+
+'He knows nothing about her coming to town?'
+
+'He did not when I first asked him. I am not sure, but I fancy that I
+was too quick after her. She started last Saturday morning. I followed
+on the Sunday, and made him out at his club. I think that he knew
+nothing then of her being in town. He is very clever if he did. Since
+that he has avoided me. I caught him once but only for half a minute,
+and then he swore that he had not seen her.'
+
+'You still believed him?'
+
+'No;--he did it very well, but I knew that he was prepared for me. I
+cannot say how it may have been. To make matters worse old Ruggles has
+now quarrelled with Crumb, and is no longer anxious to get back his
+granddaughter. He was frightened at first; but that has gone off, and
+he is now reconciled to the loss of the girl and the saving of his
+money.'
+
+After that Paul told all his own story,--the double story, both in
+regard to Melmotte and to Mrs Hurtle. As regarded the Railway, Roger
+could only tell him to follow explicitly the advice of his Liverpool
+friend. 'I never believed in the thing, you know.'
+
+'Nor did I. But what could I do?'
+
+'I'm not going to blame you. Indeed, knowing you as I do, feeling sure
+that you intend to be honest, I would not for a moment insist on my
+own opinion, if it did not seem that Mr Ramsbottom thinks as I do. In
+such a matter, when a man does not see his own way clearly, it behoves
+him to be able to show that he has followed the advice of some man
+whom the world esteems and recognizes. You have to bind your character
+to another man's character; and that other man's character, if it be
+good, will carry you through. From what I hear Mr Ramsbottom's
+character is sufficiently good;--but then you must do exactly what he
+tells you.'
+
+But the Railway business, though it comprised all that Montague had in
+the world, was not the heaviest of his troubles. What was he to do
+about Mrs Hurtle? He had now, for the first time, to tell his friend
+that Mrs Hurtle had come to London and that he had been with her three
+or four times. There was this great difficulty in the matter, too,--that
+it was very hard to speak of his engagement with Mrs Hurtle without in
+some sort alluding to his love for Henrietta Carbury. Roger knew of
+both loves;--had been very urgent with his friend to abandon the widow,
+and at any rate equally urgent with him to give up the other passion.
+Were he to marry the widow, all danger on the other side would be at
+an end. And yet, in discussing the question of Mrs Hurtle, he was to
+do so as though there were no such person existing as Henrietta
+Carbury. The discussion did take place exactly as though there were no
+such person as Henrietta Carbury. Paul told it all,--the rumoured duel,
+the rumoured murder, and the rumour of the existing husband.
+
+'It may be necessary that you should go out to Kansas and to Oregon,'
+said Roger.
+
+'But even if the rumours be untrue I will not marry her,' said Paul.
+Roger shrugged his shoulders. He was doubtless thinking of Hetta
+Carbury, but he said nothing. 'And what would she do, remaining here?'
+continued Paul. Roger admitted that it would be awkward. 'I am
+determined that under no circumstances will I marry her. I know I have
+been a fool. I know I have been wrong. But of course, if there be a
+fair cause for my broken word, I will use it if I can.'
+
+'You will get out of it, honestly if you can; but you will get out of
+it honestly or--any other way.'
+
+'Did you not advise me to get out of it, Roger;--before we knew as much
+as we do now?'
+
+'I did,--and I do. If you make a bargain with the Devil, it may be
+dishonest to cheat him,--and yet I would have you cheat him if you
+could. As to this woman, I do believe she has deceived you. If I were
+you, nothing should induce me to marry her;--not though her claws were
+strong enough to tear me utterly in pieces. I'll tell you what I'll
+do. I'll go and see her if you like it.'
+
+But Paul would not submit to this. He felt he was bound himself to
+incur the risk of those claws, and that no substitute could take his
+place. They sat long into the night, and it was at last resolved
+between them that on the next morning Paul should go to Islington,
+should tell Mrs Hurtle all the stories which he had heard, and should
+end by declaring his resolution that under no circumstances would he
+marry her. They both felt how improbable it was that he should ever be
+allowed to get to the end of such a story,--how almost certain it was
+that the breeding of the wild cat would show itself before that time
+should come. But, still, that was the course to be pursued as far as
+circumstances would admit; and Paul was at any rate to declare, claws
+or no claws, husband or no husband,--whether the duel or the murder was
+admitted or denied,--that he would never make Mrs Hurtle his wife. 'I
+wish it were over, old fellow,' said Roger.
+
+'So do I,' said Paul, as he took his leave.
+
+He went to bed like a man condemned to die on the next morning, and he
+awoke in the same condition. He had slept well, but as he shook from
+him his happy dream, the wretched reality at once overwhelmed him. But
+the man who is to be hung has no choice. He cannot, when he wakes,
+declare that he has changed his mind, and postpone the hour. It was
+quite open to Paul Montague to give himself such instant relief. He
+put his hand up to his brow, and almost made himself believe that his
+head was aching. This was Saturday. Would it not be as well that he
+should think of it further, and put off his execution till Monday?
+Monday was so far distant that he felt that he could go to Islington
+quite comfortably on Monday. Was there not some hitherto forgotten
+point which it would be well that he should discuss with his friend
+Roger before he saw the lady? Should he not rush down to Liverpool,
+and ask a few more questions of Mr Ramsbottom? Why should he go forth
+to execution, seeing that the matter was in his own hands?
+
+At last he jumped out of bed and into his tub, and dressed himself as
+quickly as he could. He worked himself up into a fit of fortitude, and
+resolved that the thing should be done before the fit was over. He ate
+his breakfast about nine, and then asked himself whether he might not
+be too early were he to go at once to Islington. But he remembered
+that she was always early. In every respect she was an energetic
+woman, using her time for some purpose, either good or bad, not
+sleeping it away in bed. If one has to be hung on a given day, would
+it not be well to be hung as soon after waking as possible? I can
+fancy that the hangman would hardly come early enough. And if one had
+to be hung in a given week, would not one wish to be hung on the first
+day of the week, even at the risk of breaking one's last Sabbath day
+in this world? Whatever be the misery to be endured, get it over. The
+horror of every agony is in its anticipation. Paul had realized
+something of this when he threw himself into a Hansom cab, and ordered
+the man to drive to Islington.
+
+How quick that cab went! Nothing ever goes so quick as a Hansom cab
+when a man starts for a dinner-party a little too early;--nothing so
+slow when he starts too late. Of all cabs this, surely, was the
+quickest. Paul was lodging in Suffolk Street, close to Pall Mall--
+whence the way to Islington, across Oxford Street, across Tottenham
+Court Road, across numerous squares north-east of the Museum, seems to
+be long. The end of Goswell Road is the outside of the world in that
+direction, and Islington is beyond the end of Goswell Road. And yet
+that Hansom cab was there before Paul Montague had been able to
+arrange the words with which he would begin the interview. He had
+given the Street and the number of the street. It was not till after
+he had started that it occurred to him that it might be well that he
+should get out at the end of the street, and walk to the house,--so that
+he might, as it were, fetch breath before the interview was commenced.
+But the cabman dashed up to the door in a manner purposely devised to
+make every inmate of the house aware that a cab had just arrived
+before it. There was a little garden before the house. We all know the
+garden;--twenty-four feet long, by twelve broad;--and an iron-grated
+door, with the landlady's name on a brass plate. Paul, when he had
+paid the cabman,--giving the man half-a-crown, and asking for no change
+in his agony,--pushed in the iron gate and walked very quickly up to the
+door, rang rather furiously, and before the door was well opened asked
+for Mrs Hurtle.
+
+'Mrs Hurtle is out for the day,' said the girl who opened the door.
+'Leastways, she went out yesterday and won't be back till to-night.'
+Providence had sent him a reprieve! But he almost forgot the reprieve,
+as he looked at the girl and saw that she was Ruby Ruggles. 'Oh laws,
+Mr Montague, is that you?' Ruby Ruggles had often seen Paul down in
+Suffolk, and recognized him as quickly as he did her. It occurred to
+her at once that he had come in search of herself. She knew that Roger
+Carbury was up in town looking for her. So much she had of course
+learned from Sir Felix,--for at this time she had seen the baronet more
+than once since her arrival. Montague, she knew, was Roger Carbury's
+intimate friend, and now she felt that she was caught. In her terror
+she did not at first remember that the visitor had asked for Mrs
+Hurtle.
+
+'Yes, it is I. I was sorry to hear, Miss Ruggles, that you had left
+your home.'
+
+'I'm all right, Mr Montague;--I am. Mrs Pipkin is my aunt, or,
+leastways, my mother's brother's widow, though grandfather never would
+speak to her. She's quite respectable, and has five children, and lets
+lodgings. There's a lady here now, and has gone away with her just for
+one night down to Southend. They'll be back this evening, and I've the
+children to mind, with the servant girl. I'm quite respectable here,
+Mr Montague, and nobody need be a bit afraid about me.'
+
+'Mrs Hurtle has gone down to Southend?'
+
+'Yes, Mr Montague; she wasn't quite well, and wanted a breath of air,
+she said. And aunt didn't like she should go alone, as Mrs Hurtle is
+such a stranger. And Mrs Hurtle said as she didn't mind paying for
+two, and so they've gone, and the baby with them. Mrs Pipkin said as
+the baby shouldn't be no trouble. And Mrs Hurtle,--she's most as fond of
+the baby as aunt. Do you know Mrs Hurtle, sir?'
+
+'Yes; she's a friend of mine.'
+
+'Oh; I didn't know. I did know as there was some friend as was
+expected and as didn't come. Be I to say, sir, as you was here?'
+
+Paul thought it might be as well to shift the subject and to ask Ruby
+a few questions about herself while he made up his mind what message
+he would leave for Mrs Hurtle. 'I'm afraid they are very unhappy about
+you down at Bungay, Miss Ruggles.'
+
+'Then they've got to be unhappy; that's all about it, Mr Montague.
+Grandfather is that provoking as a young woman can't live with him,
+nor yet I won't try never again. He lugged me all about the room by my
+hair, Mr Montague. How is a young woman to put up with that? And I did
+everything for him,--that careful that no one won't do it again;--did
+his linen, and his victuals, and even cleaned his boots of a Sunday,
+'cause he was that mean he wouldn't have anybody about the place only
+me and the girl who had to milk the cows. There wasn't nobody to do
+anything, only me. And then he went to drag me about by the hairs of
+my head. You won't see me again at Sheep's Acre, Mr Montague;--nor yet
+won't the Squire.'
+
+'But I thought there was somebody else was to give you a home.'
+
+'John Crumb! Oh yes, there's John Crumb. There's plenty of people to
+give me a home, Mr Montague.'
+
+'You were to have been married to John Crumb, I thought.'
+
+'Ladies is to change their minds if they like it, Mr Montague. I'm
+sure you've heard that before. Grandfather made me say I'd have him,--
+but I never cared that for him.'
+
+'I'm afraid, Miss Ruggles, you won't find a better man up here in
+London.'
+
+'I didn't come here to look for a man, Mr Montague; I can tell you
+that. They has to look at me, if they want me. But I am looked after;
+and that by one as John Crumb ain't fit to touch.' That told the whole
+story. Paul when he heard the little boast was quite sure that Roger's
+fear about Felix was well founded. And as for John Crumb's fitness to
+touch Sir Felix, Paul felt that the Bungay mealman might have an
+opinion of his own on that matter. 'But there's Betsy a-crying
+upstairs, and I promised not to leave them children for one minute.'
+
+'I will tell the Squire that I saw you, Miss Ruggles.'
+
+'What does the Squire want o' me? I ain't nothing to the Squire,--
+except that I respects him. You can tell if you please, Mr Montague,
+of course. I'm a coming, my darling.'
+
+Paul made his way into Mrs Hurtle's sitting-room and wrote a note for
+her in pencil. He had come, he said, immediately on his return from
+Liverpool, and was sorry to find that she was away for the day. When
+should he call again? If she would make an appointment he would attend
+to it. He felt as he wrote this that he might very safely have himself
+made an appointment for the morrow; but he cheated himself into half
+believing that the suggestion he now made was the more gracious and
+civil. At any rate it would certainly give him another day. Mrs Hurtle
+would not return till late in the evening, and as the following day
+was Sunday there would be no delivery by post. When the note was
+finished he left it on the table, and called to Ruby to tell her that
+he was going. 'Mr Montague,' she said in a confidential whisper, as
+she tripped clown the stairs, 'I don't see why you need be saying
+anything about me, you know.'
+
+'Mr Carbury is up in town looking after you.'
+
+'What am I to Mr Carbury?'
+
+'Your grandfather is very anxious about you.'
+
+'Not a bit of it, Mr Montague. Grandfather knows very well where I am.
+There! Grandfather doesn't want me back, and I ain't a going. Why
+should the Squire bother himself about me? I don't bother myself about
+him.'
+
+'He's afraid, Miss Ruggles, that you are trusting yourself to a young
+man who is not trustworthy.'
+
+'I can mind myself very well, Mr Montague.'
+
+'Tell me this. Have you seen Sir Felix Carbury since you've been in
+town?' Ruby, whose blushes came very easily, now flushed up to her
+forehead. 'You may be sure that he means no good to you. What can come
+of an intimacy between you and such a one as he?'
+
+'I don't see why I shouldn't have my friend, Mr Montague, as well as
+you. Howsomever, if you'll not tell, I'll be ever so much obliged.'
+
+'But I must tell Mr Carbury.'
+
+'Then I ain't obliged to you one bit,' said Ruby, shutting the door.
+
+Paul as he walked away could not help thinking of the justice of
+Ruby's reproach to him. What business had he to take upon himself to
+be a Mentor to any one in regard to an affair of love;--he, who had
+engaged himself to marry Mrs Hurtle, and who the evening before had
+for the first time declared his love to Hetta Carbury?
+
+In regard to Mrs Hurtle he had got a reprieve, as he thought, for two
+days;--but it did not make him happy or even comfortable. As he walked
+back to his lodgings he knew it would have been better for him to have
+had the interview over. But, at any rate, he could now think of Hetta
+Carbury, and the words he had spoken to her. Had he heard that
+declaration which she had made to her mother, he would have been able
+for the hour to have forgotten Mrs Hurtle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL - 'UNANIMITY IS THE VERY SOUL OF THESE THINGS'
+
+
+That evening Montague was surprised to receive at the Beargarden a
+note from Mr Melmotte, which had been brought thither by a messenger
+from the city,--who had expected to have an immediate answer, as though
+Montague lived at the club.
+
+'DEAR SIR,' said the letter,
+
+   If not inconvenient would you call on me in Grosvenor Square
+   to-morrow, Sunday, at half past eleven. If you are going to
+   church, perhaps you will make an appointment in the afternoon;
+   if not, the morning will suit best. I want to have a few words
+   with you in private about the Company. My messenger will wait
+   for answer if you are at the club.
+
+   Yours truly,
+
+   AUGUSTUS MELMOTTE.
+
+   PAUL MONTAGUE, Esq.,
+   The Beargarden.
+
+
+Paul immediately wrote to say that he would call at Grosvenor Square
+at the hour appointed,--abandoning any intentions which he might have
+had in reference to Sunday morning service. But this was not the only
+letter he received that evening. On his return to his lodgings, he
+found a note, containing only one line, which Mrs Hurtle had found the
+means of sending to him after her return from Southend. 'I am sorry to
+have been away. I will expect you all to-morrow. W. H.' The period of
+the reprieve was thus curtailed to less than a day.
+
+On the Sunday morning he breakfasted late and then walked up to
+Grosvenor Square, much pondering what the great man could have to say
+to him. The great man had declared himself very plainly in the
+Board-room,--especially plainly after the Board had risen. Paul had
+understood that war was declared, and had understood also that he was
+to fight the battle single-handed, knowing nothing of such strategy as
+would be required, while his antagonist was a great master of
+financial tactics. He was prepared to go to the wall in reference to
+his money, only hoping that in doing so he might save his character
+and keep the reputation of an honest man. He was quite resolved to be
+guided altogether by Mr Ramsbottom, and intended to ask Mr Ramsbottom
+to draw up for him such a statement as would be fitting for him to
+publish. But it was manifest now that Mr Melmotte would make some
+proposition, and it was impossible that he should have Mr Ramsbottom
+at his elbow to help him.
+
+He had been in Melmotte's house on the night of the ball, but had
+contented himself after that with leaving a card. He had heard much of
+the splendour of the place, but remembered simply the crush and the
+crowd, and that he had danced there more than once or twice with Hetta
+Carbury. When he was shown into the hail he was astonished to find
+that it was not only stripped, but was full of planks, and ladders,
+and trussels, and mortar. The preparations for the great dinner had
+been already commenced. Through all this he made his way to the
+stairs, and was taken up to a small room on the second floor, where
+the servant told him that Mr Melmotte would come to him. Here he
+waited a quarter of an hour looking out into the yard at the back.
+There was not a book in the room, or even a picture with which he
+could amuse himself. He was beginning to think whether his own
+personal dignity would not be best consulted by taking his departure,
+when Melmotte himself, with slippers on his feet and enveloped in a
+magnificent dressing-gown, bustled into the room. 'My dear sir, I am
+so sorry. You are a punctual man, I see. So am I. A man of business
+should be punctual. But they ain't always. Brehgert,--from the house
+of Todd, Brehgert, and Goldsheiner, you know,--has just been with me. We
+had to settle something about the Moldavian loan. He came a quarter
+late, and of course he went a quarter late. And how is a man to catch
+a quarter of an hour? I never could do it.' Montague assured the great
+man that the delay was of no consequence. 'And I am so sorry to ask
+you into such a place as this. I had Brehgert in my room downstairs,
+and then the house is so knocked about! We get into a furnished house
+a little way off in Bruton Street to-morrow. Longestaffe lets me his
+house for a month till this affair of the dinner is over. By-the by,
+Montague, if you'd like to come to the dinner, I've got a ticket I can
+let you have. You know how they're run after.' Montague had heard of
+the dinner, but had perhaps heard as little of it as any man
+frequenting a club at the west end of London. He did not in the least
+want to be at the dinner, and certainly did not wish to receive any
+extraordinary civility from Mr Melmotte's hands.
+
+But he was very anxious to know why Mr Melmotte should offer it. He
+excused himself saying that he was not particularly fond of big
+dinners, and that he did not like standing in the way of other people.
+'Ah, indeed,' said Melmotte. 'There are ever so many people of title
+would give anything for a ticket. You'd be astonished at the persons
+who have asked. We've had to squeeze in a chair on one side for the
+Master of the Buckhounds, and on the other for the Bishop of--; I
+forget what bishop it is, but we had the two archbishops before. They
+say he must come because he has something to do with getting up the
+missionaries for Tibet. But I've got the ticket, if you'll have it.'
+This was the ticket which was to have taken in Georgiana Longestaffe
+as one of the Melmotte family, had not Melmotte perceived that it
+might be useful to him as a bribe. But Paul would not take the bribe.
+'You're the only man in London, then,' said Melmotte, somewhat
+offended. 'But at any rate you'll come in the evening, and I'll have
+one of Madame Melmotte's tickets sent to you.' Paul not knowing how to
+escape, said that he would come in the evening. 'I am particularly
+anxious,' continued he, 'to be civil to those who are connected with
+our great Railway, and of course, in this country, your name stands
+first,--next to my own.'
+
+Then the great man paused, and Paul began to wonder whether it could
+be possible that he had been sent for to Grosvenor Square on a Sunday
+morning in order that he might be asked to dine in the same house a
+fortnight later. But that was impossible. 'Have you anything special
+to say about the Railway?' he asked.
+
+'Well, yes. It is so hard to get things said at the Board. Of course
+there are some there who do not understand matters.'
+
+'I doubt if there be any one there who does understand this matter,'
+said Paul.
+
+Melmotte affected to laugh. 'Well, well; I am not prepared to go quite
+so far as that. My friend Cohenlupe has had great experience in these
+affairs, and of course you are aware that he is in Parliament. And
+Lord Alfred sees farther into them than perhaps you give him credit
+for.'
+
+'He may easily do that.'
+
+'Well, well. Perhaps you don't know quite as well as I do.' The scowl
+began to appear on Mr Melmotte's brow. Hitherto it had been banished
+as well as he knew how to banish it. 'What I wanted to say to you was
+this. We didn't quite agree at the last meeting.'
+
+'No; we did not.'
+
+'I was very sorry for it. Unanimity is everything in the direction of
+such an undertaking as this. With unanimity we can do--everything.' Mr
+Melmotte in the ecstasy of his enthusiasm lifted up both his hands
+over his head. 'Without unanimity we can do--nothing.' And the two
+hands fell. 'Unanimity should be printed everywhere about a
+Board-room. It should, indeed, Mr Montague.'
+
+'But suppose the directors are not unanimous.'
+
+'They should be unanimous. They should make themselves unanimous. God
+bless my soul! You don't want to see the thing fall to pieces!'
+
+'Not if it can be carried on honestly.'
+
+'Honestly! Who says that anything is dishonest?' Again the brow
+became very heavy. 'Look here, Mr Montague. If you and I quarrel in
+the Board-room, there is no knowing the amount of evil we may do to
+every individual shareholder in the Company. I find the responsibility
+on my shoulders so great that I say the thing must be stopped. Damme,
+Mr Montague, it must be stopped. We mustn't ruin widows and children,
+Mr Montague. We mustn't let those shares run down 20 below par for a
+mere chimera. I've known a fine property blasted, Mr Montague, sent
+straight to the dogs,--annihilated, sir;--so that it all vanished into
+thin air, and widows and children past counting were sent out to
+starve about the streets,--just because one director sat in another
+director's chair. I did, by G--! What do you think of that, Mr
+Montague? Gentlemen who don't know the nature of credit, how strong it
+is,--as the air,--to buoy you up; how slight it is,--as a mere vapour,--
+when roughly touched, can do an amount of mischief of which they
+themselves don't in the least understand the extent! What is it you
+want, Mr Montague?'
+
+'What do I want?' Melmotte's description of the peculiar
+susceptibility of great mercantile speculations had not been given
+without some effect on Montague, but this direct appeal to himself
+almost drove that effect out of his mind. 'I only want justice.'
+
+'But you should know what justice is before you demand it at the
+expense of other people. Look here, Mr Montague. I suppose you are
+like the rest of us, in this matter. You want to make money out of
+it.'
+
+'For myself, I want interest for my capital; that is all. But I am not
+thinking of myself.'
+
+'You are getting very good interest. If I understand the matter,' and
+here Melmotte pulled out a little book, showing thereby how careful he
+was in mastering details,--'you had about £6,000 embarked in the
+business when Fisker joined your firm. You imagine yourself to have
+that still.'
+
+'I don't know what I've got.'
+
+'I can tell you then. You have that, and you've drawn nearly a
+thousand pounds since Fisker came over, in one shape or another.
+That's not bad interest on your money.'
+
+'There was back interest due to me.'
+
+'If so, it's due still. I've nothing to do with that. Look here, Mr
+Montague. I am most anxious that you should remain with us. I was
+about to propose, only for that little rumpus the other day, that, as
+you're an unmarried man, and have time on your hands, you should go
+out to California and probably across to Mexico, in order to get
+necessary information for the Company. Were I of your age, unmarried,
+and without impediment, it is just the thing I should like. Of course
+you'd go at the Company's expense. I would see to your own personal
+interests while you were away;--or you could appoint any one by power of
+attorney. Your seat at the Board would be kept for you; but, should
+anything occur amiss,--which it won't, for the thing is as sound as
+anything I know,--of course you, as absent, would not share the
+responsibility. That's what I was thinking. It would be a delightful
+trip;--but if you don't like it, you can of course remain at the Board,
+and be of the greatest use to me. Indeed, after a bit I could devolve
+nearly the whole management on you;--and I must do something of the
+kind, as I really haven't the time for it. But,--if it is to be that
+way,--do be unanimous. Unanimity is the very soul of these things;--the
+very soul, Mr Montague.'
+
+'But if I can't be unanimous?'
+
+'Well;--if you can't, and if you won't take my advice about going out;--
+which, pray, think about, for you would be most useful. It might be
+the very making of the railway;--then I can only suggest that you
+should take your £6,000 and leave us. I, myself, should be greatly
+distressed; but if you are determined that way I will see that you
+have your money. I will make myself personally responsible for the
+payment of it,--some time before the end of the year.'
+
+Paul Montague told the great man that he would consider the whole
+matter, and see him in Abchurch Lane before the next Board day. 'And
+now, good-bye,' said Mr Melmotte, as he bade his young friend adieu in
+a hurry. 'I'm afraid that I'm keeping Sir Gregory Gribe, the Bank
+Director, waiting downstairs.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI - ALL PREPARED
+
+
+During all these days Miss Melmotte was by no means contented with her
+lover's prowess, though she would not allow herself to doubt his
+sincerity. She had not only assured him of her undying affection in
+the presence of her father and mother, had not only offered to be
+chopped in pieces on his behalf, but had also written to him, telling
+how she had a large sum of her father's money within her power, and
+how willing she was to make it her own, to throw over her father and
+mother, and give herself and her fortune to her lover. She felt that
+she had been very gracious to her lover, and that her lover was a
+little slow in acknowledging the favours conferred upon him. But,
+nevertheless, she was true to her lover, and believed that he was true
+to her. Didon had been hitherto faithful. Marie had written various
+letters to Sir Felix and had received two or three very short notes in
+reply, containing hardly more than a word or two each. But now she was
+told that a day was absolutely fixed for her marriage with Lord
+Nidderdale, and that her things were to be got ready. She was to be
+married in the middle of August, and here they were, approaching the
+end of June. 'You may buy what you like, mamma,' she said; 'and if
+papa agrees about Felix, why then I suppose they'll do. But they'll
+never be of any use about Lord Nidderdale. If you were to sew me up in
+the things by main force, I wouldn't have him.' Madame Melmotte
+groaned, and scolded in English, French, and German, and wished that
+she were dead; she told Marie that she was a pig, and ass, and a toad,
+and a dog. And, ended, as she always did end, by swearing that
+Melmotte must manage the matter himself. 'Nobody shall manage this
+matter for me,' said Marie. 'I know what I'm about now, and I won't
+marry anybody just because it will suit papa.' 'Que nous étions encore
+à Frankfort, ou New-York,' said the elder lady, remembering the
+humbler but less troubled times of her earlier life. Marie did not
+care for Frankfort or New York; for Paris or for London;--but she did
+care for Sir Felix Carbury.
+
+While her father on Sunday morning was transacting business in his own
+house with Paul Montague and the great commercial magnates of the
+city,--though it may be doubted whether that very respectable gentleman
+Sir Gregory Gribe was really in Grosvenor Square when his name was
+mentioned,--Marie was walking inside the gardens; Didon was also there
+at some distance from her; and Sir Felix Carbury was there also close
+alongside of her. Marie had the key of the gardens for her own use;
+and had already learned that her neighbours in the square did not much
+frequent the place during church time on Sunday morning. Her lover's
+letter to her father had of course been shown to her, and she had
+taxed him with it immediately. Sir Felix, who had thought much of the
+letter as he came from Welbeck Street to keep his appointment,--having
+been assured by Didon that the gate should be left unlocked, and that
+she would be there to close it after he had come in,--was of course
+ready with a lie. 'It was the only thing to do, Marie;--it was indeed.'
+
+'But you said you had accepted some offer.'
+
+'You don't suppose I wrote the letter?'
+
+'It was your handwriting, Felix.'
+
+'Of course it was. I copied just what he put down. He'd have sent you
+clean away where I couldn't have got near you if I hadn't written it.'
+
+'And you have accepted nothing?'
+
+'Not at all. As it is, he owes me money. Is not that odd? I gave him a
+thousand pounds to buy shares, and I haven't got anything from him
+yet.' Sir Felix, no doubt, forgot the cheque for £200.
+
+'Nobody ever does who gives papa money,' said the observant daughter.
+
+'Don't they? Dear me! But I just wrote it because I thought anything
+better than a downright quarrel.'
+
+'I wouldn't have written it, if it had been ever so.'
+
+'It's no good scolding, Marie. I did it for the best. What do you
+think we'd best do now?' Marie looked at him, almost with scorn.
+Surely it was for him to propose and for her to yield. 'I wonder
+whether you're right about that money which you say is settled.'
+
+'I'm quite sure. Mamma told me in Paris,--just when we were coming
+away,--that it was done so that there might be something if things went
+wrong. And papa told me that he should want me to sign something from
+time to time; and of course I said I would. But of course I won't,--if
+I should have a husband of my own.' Felix walked along, pondering the
+matter, with his hands in his trousers pockets. He entertained those
+very fears which had latterly fallen upon Lord Nidderdale. There would
+be no 'cropper' which a man could 'come' so bad as would be his
+cropper were he to marry Marie Melmotte, and then find that he was not
+to have a shilling! And, were he now to run off with Marie, after
+having written that letter, the father would certainly not forgive
+him. This assurance of Marie's as to the settled money was too
+doubtful! The game to be played was too full of danger! And in that
+case he would certainly get neither his £800, nor the shares. And if
+he were true to Melmotte, Melmotte would probably supply him with
+ready money. But then there was the girl at his elbow, and he no more
+dared to tell her to her face that he meant to give her up, than he
+dared to tell Melmotte that he intended to stick to his engagement.
+Some half promise would be the only escape for the present. 'What are
+you thinking of, Felix?' she asked.
+
+'It's d---- difficult to know what to do.'
+
+'But you do love me?'
+
+'Of course I do. If I didn't love you why should I be here walking
+round this stupid place? They talk of your being married to Nidderdale
+about the end of August.'
+
+'Some day in August. But that's all nonsense, you know. They can't
+take me up and marry me, as they used to do the girls ever so long
+ago. I won't marry him. He don't care a bit for me, and never did. I
+don't think you care much, Felix.'
+
+'Yes, I do. A fellow can't go on saying so over and over again in a
+beastly place like this. If we were anywhere jolly together, then I
+could say it often enough.'
+
+'I wish we were, Felix. I wonder whether we ever shall be.'
+
+'Upon my word I hardly see my way as yet.'
+
+'You're not going to give it up!'
+
+'Oh no;--not give it up; certainly not. But the bother is a fellow
+doesn't know what to do.'
+
+'You've heard of young Mr Goldsheiner, haven't you?' suggested Marie.
+
+'He's one of those city chaps.'
+
+'And Lady Julia Start?'
+
+'She's old Lady Catchboy's daughter. Yes; I've heard of them. They got
+spliced last winter.'
+
+'Yes;--somewhere in Switzerland, I think. At any rate they went to
+Switzerland, and now they've got a house close to Albert Gate.'
+
+'How jolly for them! He is awfully rich, isn't he?'
+
+'I don't suppose he's half so rich as papa. They did all they could to
+prevent her going, but she met him down at Folkestone just as the
+tidal boat was starting. Didon says that nothing was easier.'
+
+'Oh;--ah. Didon knows all about it.'
+
+'That she does.'
+
+'But she'd lose her place.'
+
+'There are plenty of places. She could come and live with us, and be
+my maid. If you would give her £50 for herself, she'd arrange it all.'
+
+'And would you come to Folkstone?'
+
+'I think that would be stupid, because Lady Julia did that. We should
+make it a little different. If you liked I wouldn't mind going to--New
+York. And then, perhaps, we might--get--married, you know, on board.
+That's what Didon thinks.'
+
+'And would Didon go too?'
+
+'That's what she proposes. She could go as my aunt, and I'd call
+myself by her name,--any French name you know. I should go as a French
+girl. And you could call yourself Smith, and be an American. We
+wouldn't go together, but we'd get on board just at the last moment.
+If they wouldn't--marry us on board, they would at New York,
+instantly.'
+
+'That's Didon's plan?'
+
+'That's what she thinks best,--and she'll do it, if you'll give her £50
+for herself, you know. The "Adriatic,"--that's a White Star boat, goes
+on Thursday week at noon. There's an early train that would take us
+down that morning. You had better go and sleep at Liverpool, and take
+no notice of us at all till we meet on board. We could be back in a
+month,--and then papa would be obliged to make the best of it.'
+
+Sir Felix at once felt that it would be quite unnecessary for him to
+go to Herr Vossner or to any other male counsellor for advice as to
+the best means of carrying off his love. The young lady had it all at
+her fingers' ends,--even to the amount of the fee required by the female
+counsellor. But Thursday week was very near, and the whole thing was
+taking uncomfortably defined proportions. Where was he to get funds if
+he were to resolve that he would do this thing? He had been fool
+enough to intrust his ready money to Melmotte, and now he was told
+that when Melmotte got hold of ready money he was not apt to release
+it. And he had nothing to show;--no security that he could offer to
+Vossner. And then,--this idea of starting to New York with Melmotte's
+daughter immediately after he had written to Melmotte renouncing the
+girl, frightened him.
+
+    'There is a tide in the affairs of men,
+     Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune.'
+
+Sir Felix did not know these lines, but the lesson taught by them came
+home to him at this moment. Now was the tide in his affairs at which
+he might make himself, or utterly mar himself. 'It's deuced
+important,' he said at last with a groan.
+
+'It's not more important for you than me,' said Marie.
+
+'If you're wrong about the money, and he shouldn't come round, where
+should we be then?'
+
+'Nothing venture, nothing have,' said the heiress.
+
+'That's all very well; but one might venture everything and get
+nothing after all.'
+
+'You'd get me,' said Marie with a pout.
+
+'Yes;--and I'm awfully fond of you. Of course I should get you! But--'
+
+'Very well then;--if that's your love, said Marie turning back from him.
+
+Sir Felix gave a great sigh, and then announced his resolution. 'I'll
+venture it.'
+
+'Oh, Felix, how grand it will be!'
+
+'There's a great deal to do, you know. I don't know whether it can be
+Thursday week.' He was putting in the coward's plea for a reprieve.
+
+'I shall be afraid of Didon if it's delayed long.'
+
+'There's the money to get, and all that.'
+
+'I can get some money. Mamma has money in the house.'
+
+'How much?' asked the baronet eagerly.
+
+'A hundred pounds, perhaps;--perhaps two hundred.
+
+'That would help certainly. I must go to your father for money. Won't
+that be a sell? To get it from him, to take you away!'
+
+It was decided that they were to go to New York on a Thursday,--on
+Thursday week if possible, but as to that he was to let her know in a
+day or two. Didon was to pack up the clothes and get them sent out of
+the house. Didon was to have £50 before she went on board; and as one
+of the men must know about it, and must assist in having the trunks
+smuggled out of the house, he was to have £10. All had been settled
+beforehand, so that Sir Felix really had no need to think about
+anything. 'And now,' said Marie, 'there's Didon. Nobody's looking and
+she can open that gate for you. When we're gone, do you creep out. The
+gate can be left, you know. Then we'll get out on the other side.'
+Marie Melmotte was certainly a clever girl.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII - 'CAN YOU BE READY IN TEN MINUTES?'
+
+
+After leaving Melmotte's house, on Sunday morning Paul Montague, went
+to Roger Carbury's hotel and found his friend just returning from
+church. He was bound to go to Islington on that day, but had made up
+his mind that he would defer his visit till the evening. He would dine
+early and be with Mrs Hurtle about seven o'clock. But it was necessary
+that Roger should hear the news about Ruby Ruggles. 'It's not so bad
+as you thought,' said he, 'as she is living with her aunt.'
+
+'I never heard of such an aunt.'
+
+'She says her grandfather knows where she is, and that he doesn't want
+her back again.'
+
+'Does she see Felix Carbury?'
+
+'I think she does,' said Paul.
+
+'Then it doesn't matter whether the woman's her aunt or not. I'll go
+and see her and try to get her back to Bungay.'
+
+'Why not send for John Crumb?'
+
+Roger hesitated for a moment, and then answered, 'He'd give Felix such
+a thrashing as no man ever had before. My cousin deserves it as well
+as any man ever deserved a thrashing; but there are reasons why I
+should not like it. And he could not force her back with him. I don't
+suppose the girl is all bad,--if she could see the truth.'
+
+'I don't think she's bad at all.'
+
+'At any rate I'll go and see her,' said Roger. 'Perhaps I shall see
+your widow at the same time.' Paul sighed, but said nothing more about
+his widow at that moment. 'I'll walk up to Welbeck Street now,' said
+Roger, taking his hat. 'Perhaps I shall see you to-morrow.' Paul felt
+that he could not go to Welbeck Street with his friend.
+
+He dined in solitude at the Beargarden, and then again made that
+journey to Islington in a cab. As he went he thought of the proposal
+that had been made to him by Melmotte. If he could do it with a clear
+conscience, if he could really make himself believe in the railway,
+such an expedition would not be displeasing to him. He had said
+already more than he had intended to say to Hetta Carbury; and though
+he was by no means disposed to flatter himself, yet he almost thought
+that what he had said had been well received. At the moment they had
+been disturbed, but she, as she heard the sound of her mother coming,
+had at any rate expressed no anger. He had almost been betrayed into
+breaking a promise. Were he to start now on this journey, the period
+of the promise would have passed by before his return. Of course he
+would take care that she should know that he had gone in the
+performance of a duty. And then he would escape from Mrs Hurtle, and
+would be able to make those inquiries which had been suggested to him.
+It was possible that Mrs Hurtle should offer to go with him,--an
+arrangement which would not at all suit him.
+
+That at any rate must be avoided. But then how could he do this
+without a belief in the railway generally? And how was it possible
+that he should have such belief? Mr Ramsbottom did not believe in it,
+nor did Roger Carbury. He himself did not in the least believe in
+Fisker, and Fisker had originated the railway. Then, would it not be
+best that he should take the Chairman's offer as to his own money? If
+he could get his £6,000 back and have done with the railway, he would
+certainly think himself a lucky man. But he did not know how far he
+could with honesty lay aside his responsibility; and then he doubted
+whether he could put implicit trust in Melmotte's personal guarantee
+for the amount. This at any rate was clear to him,--that Melmotte was
+very anxious to secure his absence from the meetings of the Board.
+
+Now he was again at Mrs Pipkin's door, and again it was opened by Ruby
+Ruggles. His heart was in his mouth as he thought of the things he had
+to say. 'The ladies have come back from Southend, Miss Ruggles?'
+
+'Oh yes, sir, and Mrs Hurtle is expecting you all the day.' Then she
+put in a whisper on her own account. 'You didn't tell him as you'd
+seen me, Mr Montague?'
+
+'Indeed I did, Miss Ruggles.'
+
+'Then you might as well have left it alone, and not have been
+ill-natured,--that's all,' said Ruby as she opened the door of Mrs
+Hurtle's room.
+
+Mrs Hurtle got up to receive him with her sweetest smile,--and her smile
+could be very sweet. She was a witch of a woman, and, as like most
+witches she could be terrible, so like most witches she could charm.
+'Only fancy,' she said, 'that you should have come the only day I have
+been two hundred yards from the house, except that evening when you
+took me to the play. I was so sorry.'
+
+'Why should you be sorry? It is easy to come again.'
+
+'Because I don't like to miss you, even for a day. But I wasn't well,
+and I fancied that the house was stuffy, and Mrs Pipkin took a bright
+idea and proposed to carry me off to Southend. She was dying to go
+herself. She declared that Southend was Paradise.'
+
+'A cockney Paradise.'
+
+'Oh, what a place it is! Do your people really go to Southend and
+fancy that that is the sea?'
+
+'I believe they do. I never went to Southend myself,--so that you know
+more about it than I do.'
+
+'How very English it is,--a little yellow river,--and you call it the
+sea! Ah;--you never were at Newport!'
+
+'But I've been at San Francisco.'
+
+'Yes; you've been at San Francisco, and heard the seals howling. Well;
+that's better than Southend.'
+
+'I suppose we do have the sea here in England. It's generally supposed
+we're an island.'
+
+'Of course;--but things are so small. If you choose to go to the west of
+Ireland, I suppose you'd find the Atlantic. But nobody ever does go
+there for fear of being murdered.' Paul thought of the gentleman in
+Oregon, but said nothing;--thought, perhaps, of his own condition, and
+remembered that a man might be murdered without going either to Oregon
+or the west of Ireland. 'But we went to Southend, I, and Mrs Pipkin
+and the baby, and upon my word I enjoyed it. She was so afraid that
+the baby would annoy me, and I thought the baby was so much the best
+of it. And then we ate shrimps, and she was so humble. You must
+acknowledge that with us nobody would be so humble. Of course I paid.
+She has got all her children, and nothing but what she can make out of
+these lodgings. People are just as poor with us;--and other people who
+happen to be a little better off, pay for them. But nobody is humble
+to another, as you are here. Of course we like to have money as well
+as you do, but it doesn't make so much difference.'
+
+'He who wants to receive, all the world over, will make himself as
+agreeable as he can to him who can give.'
+
+'But Mrs Pipkin was so humble. However, we got back all right
+yesterday evening, and then I found that you had been here,--at last.'
+
+'You knew that I had to go to Liverpool.'
+
+'I'm not going to scold. Did you get your business done at Liverpool?'
+
+'Yes;--one generally gets something done, but never anything very
+satisfactorily. Of course it's about this railway.'
+
+'I should have thought that that was satisfactory. Everybody talks of
+it as being the greatest thing ever invented. I wish I was a man that
+I might be concerned with a really great thing like that. I hate
+little peddling things. I should like to manage the greatest bank in
+the world, or to be Captain of the biggest fleet, or to make the
+largest railway. It would be better even than being President of a
+Republic, because one would have more of one's own way. What is it
+that you do in it, Paul?'
+
+'They want me now to go out to Mexico about it,' said he slowly.
+
+'Shall you go?' said she, throwing herself forward and asking the
+question with manifest anxiety.
+
+'I think not.'
+
+'Why not? Do go. Oh, Paul, I would go with you. Why should you not go?
+It is just the thing for such a one as you to do. The railway will
+make Mexico a new country, and then you would be the man who had done
+it. Why should you throw away such a chance as that? It will never
+come again. Emperors and kings have tried their hands at Mexico and
+have been able to do nothing. Emperors and kings never can do
+anything. Think what it would be to be the regenerator of Mexico!'
+
+'Think what it would be to find one's self there without the means of
+doing anything, and to feel that one had been sent there merely that
+one might be out of the way'
+
+'I would make the means of doing something.'
+
+'Means are money. How can I make that?'
+
+'There is money going. There must be money where there is all this
+buying and selling of shares. Where does your uncle get the money with
+which he is living like a prince at San Francisco? Where does Fisker
+get the money with which he is speculating in New York? Where does
+Melmotte get the money which makes him the richest man in the world?
+Why should not you get it as well as the others?'
+
+'If I were anxious to rob on my own account perhaps I might do it.'
+
+'Why should it be robbery? I do not want you to live in a palace and
+spend millions of dollars on yourself. But I want you to have
+ambition. Go to Mexico, and chance it. Take San Francisco in your way,
+and get across the country. I will go every yard with you. Make people
+there believe that you are in earnest, and there will be no difficulty
+about the money.'
+
+He felt that he was taking no steps to approach the subject which he
+should have to discuss before he left her,--or rather the statement
+which he had resolved that he would make. Indeed every word which he
+allowed her to say respecting this Mexican project carried him farther
+away from it. He was giving reasons why the journey should not be
+made; but was tacitly admitting that if it were to be made she might
+be one of the travellers. The very offer on her part implied an
+understanding that his former abnegation of the engagement had been
+withdrawn, and yet he shrunk from the cruelty of telling her, in a
+sideway fashion, that he would not submit to her companionship either
+for the purpose of such a journey or for any other purpose. The thing
+must be said in a solemn manner, and must be introduced on its own
+basis. But such preliminary conversation as this made the introduction
+of it infinitely more difficult.
+
+'You are not in a hurry?' she said.
+
+'Oh no.'
+
+'You're going to spend the evening with me like a good man? Then I'll
+ask them to let us have tea.' She rang the bell and Ruby came in, and
+the tea was ordered. 'That young lady tells me that you are an old
+friend of hers.'
+
+'I've known about her down in the country, and was astonished to find
+her here yesterday.'
+
+'There's some lover, isn't there;--some would-be husband whom she does
+not like?'
+
+'And some won't-be husband, I fear, whom she does like.'
+
+'That's quite of course, if the other is true. Miss Ruby isn't the
+girl to have come to her time of life without a preference. The
+natural liking of a young woman for a man in a station above her,
+because he is softer and cleaner and has better parts of speech,--just
+as we keep a pretty dog if we keep a dog at all,--is one of the evils of
+the inequality of mankind. The girl is content with the love without
+having the love justified, because the object is more desirable. She
+can only have her love justified with an object less desirable. If all
+men wore coats of the same fabric, and had to share the soil of the
+work of the world equally between them, that evil would come to an
+end. A woman here and there might go wrong from fantasy and diseased
+passions, but the ever-existing temptation to go wrong would be at an
+end.'
+
+'If men were equal to-morrow and all wore the same coats, they would
+wear different coats the next day.'
+
+'Slightly different. But there would be no more purple and fine linen,
+and no more blue woad. It isn't to be done in a day of course, nor yet
+in a century,--nor in a decade of centuries; but every human being who
+looks into it honestly will see that his efforts should be made in
+that direction. I remember; you never take sugar; give me that.'
+
+Neither had he come here to discuss the deeply interesting questions
+of women's difficulties and immediate or progressive equality. But
+having got on to these rocks,--having, as the reader may perceive, been
+taken on to them wilfully by the skill of the woman,--he did not know
+how to get his bark out again into clear waters. But having his own
+subject before him, with all its dangers, the wild-cat's claws, and
+the possible fate of the gentleman in Oregon, he could not talk freely
+on the subjects which she introduced, as had been his wont in former
+years. 'Thanks,' he said, changing his cup. 'How well you remember!'
+
+'Do you think I shall ever forget your preferences and dislikings? Do
+you recollect telling me about that blue scarf of mine, that I should
+never wear blue?'
+
+She stretched herself out towards him, waiting for an answer, so that
+he was obliged to speak. 'Of course I do. Black is your colour;--black
+and grey; or white,--and perhaps yellow when you choose to be gorgeous;
+crimson possibly. But not blue or green.'
+
+'I never thought much of it before, but I have taken your word for
+gospel. It is very good to have an eye for such things,--as you have,
+Paul. But I fancy that taste comes with, or at any rate forebodes, an
+effete civilization.'
+
+'I am sorry that mine should be effete,' he said smiling.
+
+'You know what I mean, Paul. I speak of nations, not individuals.
+Civilization was becoming effete, or at any rate men were, in the time
+of the great painters; but Savonarola and Galileo were individuals.
+You should throw your lot in with a new people. This railway to Mexico
+gives you the chance.'
+
+'Are the Mexicans a new people?'
+
+'They who will rule the Mexicans are. All American women I dare say
+have bad taste in gowns,--and so the vain ones and rich ones send to
+Paris for their finery; but I think our taste in men is generally
+good. We like our philosophers; we like our poets; we like our genuine
+workmen;--but we love our heroes. I would have you a hero, Paul.' He got
+up from his chair and walked about the room in an agony of despair. To
+be told that he was expected to be a hero at the very moment in his
+life in which he felt more devoid of heroism, more thoroughly given up
+to cowardice than he had ever been before, was not to be endured! And
+yet, with what utmost stretch of courage,--even though he were willing
+to devote himself certainly and instantly to the worst fate that he
+had pictured to himself,--could he immediately rush away from these
+abstract speculations, encumbered as they were with personal flattery,
+into his own most unpleasant, most tragic matter! It was the unfitness
+that deterred him and not the possible tragedy. Nevertheless, through
+it all, he was sure,--nearly sure,--that she was playing her game, and
+playing it in direct antagonism to the game which she knew that he
+wanted to play. Would it not be better that he should go away and
+write another letter? In a letter he could at any rate say what he had
+to say;--and having said it he would then strengthen himself to adhere
+to it.
+
+'What makes you so uneasy?' she asked; still speaking in her most
+winning way, caressing him with the tones of her voice. 'Do you not
+like me to say that I would have you be a hero?'
+
+'Winifred,' he said, 'I came here with a purpose, and I had better
+carry it out.'
+
+'What purpose?' She still leaned forward, but now supported her face
+on her two hands, with her elbows resting on her knees, looking at him
+intently. But one would have said that there was only love in her
+eyes;--love which might be disappointed, but still love. The wild cat,
+if there, was all within, still hidden from sight. Paul stood with his
+hands on the back of a chair, propping himself up and trying to find
+fitting words for the occasion. 'Stop, my dear,' she said. 'Must the
+purpose be told to-night?'
+
+'Why not to-night?'
+
+'Paul, I am not well;--I am weak now. I am a coward. You do not know the
+delight to me of having a few words of pleasant talk to an old friend
+after the desolation of the last weeks. Mrs Pipkin is not very
+charming. Even her baby cannot supply all the social wants of my life.
+I had intended that everything should be sweet to-night. Oh, Paul, if
+it was your purpose to tell me of your love, to assure me that you are
+still my dear, dear friend, to speak with hope of future days, or with
+pleasure of those that are past,--then carry out your purpose. But if it
+be cruel, or harsh, or painful; if you had come to speak daggers;--then
+drop your purpose for to-night. Try and think what my solitude must
+have been to me, and let me have one hour of comfort.'
+
+Of course he was conquered for that night, and could only have that
+solace which a most injurious reprieve could give him. 'I will not
+harass you, if you are ill,' he said.
+
+'I am ill. It was because I was afraid that I should be really ill
+that I went to Southend. The weather is hot, though of course the sun
+here is not as we have it. But the air is heavy,--what Mrs Pipkin calls
+muggy. I was thinking if I were to go somewhere for a week, it would
+do me good. Where had I better go?' Paul suggested Brighton. 'That is
+full of people; is it not?--a fashionable place?'
+
+'Not at this time of the year.'
+
+'But it is a big place. I want some little place that would be pretty.
+You could take me down; could you not? Not very far, you know;--not that
+any place can be very far from here.' Paul, in his John Bull
+displeasure, suggested Penzance, telling her, untruly, that it would
+take twenty-four hours. 'Not Penzance then, which I know is your very
+Ultima Thule;--not Penzance, nor yet Orkney. Is there no other place
+except Southend?'
+
+'There is Cromer in Norfolk,--perhaps ten hours.'
+
+'Is Cromer by the sea?'
+
+'Yes;--what we call the sea.'
+
+'I mean really the sea, Paul?'
+
+'If you start from Cromer right away, a hundred miles would perhaps
+take you across to Holland. A ditch of that kind wouldn't do perhaps.'
+
+'Ah,--now I see you are laughing at me. Is Cromer pretty?'
+
+'Well, yes;--I think it is. I was there once, but I don't remember
+much. There's Ramsgate.'
+
+'Mrs Pipkin told me of Ramsgate. I don't think I should like
+Ramsgate.'
+
+'There's the Isle of Wight. The Isle of Wight is very pretty.'
+
+'That's the Queen's place. There would not be room for her and me
+too.'
+
+'Or Lowestoft. Lowestoft is not so far as Cromer, and there is a
+railway all the distance.'
+
+'And sea?'
+
+'Sea enough for anything. If you can't see across it, and if there are
+waves, and wind enough to knock you down, and shipwrecks every other
+day, I don't see why a hundred miles isn't as good as a thousand.'
+
+'A hundred miles is just as good as a thousand. But, Paul, at Southend
+it isn't a hundred miles across to the other side of the river. You
+must admit that. But you will be a better guide than Mrs Pipkin. You
+would not have taken me to Southend when I expressed a wish for the
+ocean;--would you? Let it be Lowestoft. Is there an hotel?'
+
+'A small little place.'
+
+'Very small? uncomfortably small? But almost any place would do for
+me.'
+
+'They make up, I believe, about a hundred beds; but in the States it
+would be very small.'
+
+'Paul,' said she, delighted to have brought him back to this humour,
+'if I were to throw the tea things at you, it would serve you right.
+This is all because I did not lose myself in awe at the sight of the
+Southend ocean. It shall be Lowestoft.' Then she rose up and came to
+him, and took his arm. 'You will take me down, will you not? It is
+desolate for a woman to go into such a place all alone. I will not ask
+you to stay. And I can return by myself.' She had put both hands on
+one arm, and turned herself round, and looked into his face. 'You will
+do that for old acquaintance sake?' For a moment or two he made no
+answer, and his face was troubled, and his brow was black. He was
+endeavouring to think;--but he was only aware of his danger, and could
+see no way through it. 'I don't think you will let me ask in vain for
+such a favour as that,' she said.
+
+'No;' he replied. 'I will take you down. When will you go?' He had
+cockered himself up with some vain idea that the railway carriage
+would be a good place for the declaration of his purpose, or perhaps
+the sands at Lowestoft.
+
+'When will I go? when will you take me? You have Boards to attend, and
+shares to look to, and Mexico to regenerate. I am a poor woman with
+nothing on hand but Mrs Pipkin's baby. Can you be ready in ten
+minutes?--because I could.' Paul shook his head and laughed. 'I've
+named a time and that doesn't suit. Now, sir, you name another, and
+I'll promise it shall suit.' Paul suggested Saturday, the 29th. He
+must attend the next Board, and had promised to see Melmotte before
+the Board day. Saturday of course would do for Mrs Hurtle. Should she
+meet him at the railway station? Of course he undertook to come and
+fetch her.
+
+Then, as he took his leave, she stood close against him, and put her
+cheek up for him to kiss. There are moments in which a man finds it
+utterly impossible that he should be prudent,--as to which, when he
+thought of them afterwards, he could never forgive himself for
+prudence, let the danger have been what it may. Of course he took her
+in his arms, and kissed her lips as well as her cheeks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII - THE CITY ROAD
+
+
+The statement made by Ruby as to her connection with Mrs Pipkin was
+quite true. Ruby's father had married a Pipkin whose brother had died
+leaving a widow behind him at Islington. The old man at Sheep's Acre
+farm had greatly resented this marriage, had never spoken to his
+daughter-in-law,--or to his son after the marriage, and had steeled
+himself against the whole Pipkin race. When he undertook the charge of
+Ruby he had made it matter of agreement that she should have no
+intercourse with the Pipkins. This agreement Ruby had broken,
+corresponding on the sly with her uncle's widow at Islington. When
+therefore she ran away from Suffolk she did the best she could with
+herself in going to her aunt's house. Mrs Pipkin was a poor woman, and
+could not offer a permanent home to Ruby; but she was good-natured,
+and came to terms. Ruby was to be allowed to stay at any rate for a
+month, and was to work in the house for her bread. But she made it a
+part of her bargain that she should be allowed to go out occasionally.
+Mrs Pipkin immediately asked after a lover. 'I'm all right,' said
+Ruby. If the lover was what he ought to be, had he not better come and
+see her? This was Mrs Pipkin's suggestion. Mrs Pipkin thought that
+scandal might in this way be avoided 'That's as it may be, by-and-by,'
+said Ruby.
+
+Then she told all the story of John Crumb;--how she hated John Crumb,
+how resolved she was that nothing should make her marry John Crumb.
+And she gave her own account of that night on which John Crumb and Mr
+Mixet ate their supper at the farm, and of the manner in which her
+grandfather had treated her because she would not have John Crumb. Mrs
+Pipkin was a respectable woman in her way, always preferring
+respectable lodgers if she could get them;--but bound to live. She gave
+Ruby very good advice. Of course if she was 'dead-set' against John
+Crumb, that was one thing! But then there was nothing a young woman
+should look to so much as a decent house over her head,--and victuals.
+'What's all the love in the world, Ruby, if a man can't do for you?'
+Ruby declared that she knew somebody who could do for her, and could
+do very well for her. She knew what she was about, and wasn't going to
+be put off it. Mrs Pipkin's morals were good wearing morals, but she
+was not strait-laced. If Ruby chose to manage in her own way about her
+lover she must. Mrs Pipkin had an idea that young women in these days
+did have, and would have, and must have more liberty than was allowed
+when she was young. The world was being changed very fast. Mrs Pipkin
+knew that as well as others. And therefore when Ruby went to the
+theatre once and again,--by herself as far as Mrs Pipkin knew, but
+probably in company with her lover,--and did not get home till past
+midnight, Mrs Pipkin said very little about it, attributing such novel
+circumstances to the altered condition of her country. She had not
+been allowed to go to the theatre with a young man when she had been a
+girl,--but that had been in the earlier days of Queen Victoria, fifteen
+years ago, before the new dispensation had come. Ruby had never yet
+told the name of her lover to Mrs Pipkin, having answered all
+inquiries by saying that she was right. Sir Felix's name had never
+even been mentioned in Islington till Paul Montague had mentioned it.
+She had been managing her own affairs after her own fashion,--not
+altogether with satisfaction, but still without interruption; but now
+she knew that interference would come. Mr Montague had found her out,
+and had told her grandfather's landlord. The Squire would be after
+her, and then John Crumb would come, accompanied of course by Mr
+Mixet,--and after that, as she said to herself on retiring to the
+couch which she shared with two little Pipkins, 'the fat would be in
+the fire.'
+
+'Who do you think was at our place yesterday?' said Ruby one evening
+to her lover. They were sitting together at a music-hall,--half
+music-hall, half theatre, which pleasantly combined the allurements of
+the gin-palace, the theatre, and the ball-room, trenching hard on
+those of other places. Sir Felix was smoking, dressed, as he himself
+called it, 'incognito,' with a Tom-and-Jerry hat, and a blue silk
+cravat, and a green coat. Ruby thought it was charming. Felix
+entertained an idea that were his West End friends to see him in this
+attire they would not know him. He was smoking, and had before him a
+glass of hot brandy and water, which was common to himself and Ruby.
+He was enjoying life. Poor Ruby! She was half-ashamed of herself,
+half-frightened, and yet supported by a feeling that it was a grand
+thing to have got rid of restraints, and be able to be with her young
+man. Why not? The Miss Longestaffes were allowed to sit and dance and
+walk about with their young men,--when they had any. Why was she to be
+given up to a great mass of stupid dust like John Crumb, without
+seeing anything of the world? But yet, as she sat sipping her lover's
+brandy and water between eleven and twelve at the music-hall in the
+City Road, she was not altogether comfortable. She saw things which
+she did not like to see. And she heard things which she did not like
+to hear. And her lover, though he was beautiful,--oh, so beautiful!--
+was not all that a lover should be. She was still a little afraid of
+him, and did not dare as yet to ask him for the promise which she
+expected him to make to her. Her mind was set upon--marriage, but the
+word had hardly passed between them. To have his arm round her waist
+was heaven to her. Could it be possible that he and John Crumb were of
+the same order of human beings? But how was this to go on? Even Mrs
+Pipkin made disagreeable allusions, and she could not live always with
+Mrs Pipkin, coming out at nights to drink brandy and water and hear
+music with Sir Felix Carbury. She was glad therefore to take the first
+opportunity of telling her lover that something was going to happen.
+'Who do you suppose was at our place yesterday?'
+
+Sir Felix changed colour, thinking of Marie Melmotte, thinking that
+perhaps some emissary from Marie Melmotte had been there; perhaps
+Didon herself. He was amusing himself during these last evenings of
+his in London; but the business of his life was about to take him to
+New York. That project was still being elaborated. He had had an
+interview with Didon, and nothing was wanting but the money. Didon had
+heard of the funds which had been intrusted by him to Melmotte, and
+had been very urgent with him to recover them. Therefore, though his
+body was not unfrequently present, late in the night, at the City Road
+Music-Hall, his mind was ever in Grosvenor Square. 'Who was it, Ruby?'
+
+'A friend of the Squire's, a Mr Montague. I used to see him about in
+Bungay and Beccles.'
+
+'Paul Montague!'
+
+'Do you know him, Felix?'
+
+'Well;--rather. He's a member of our club, and I see him constantly in
+the city--and I know him at home.'
+
+'Is he nice?'
+
+'Well;--that depends on what you call nice. He's a prig of a fellow.'
+
+'He's got a lady friend where I live.'
+
+'The devil he has!' Sir Felix of course had heard of Roger Carbury's
+suit to his sister, and of the opposition to this suit on the part of
+Hetta, which was supposed to have been occasioned by her preference
+for Paul Montague. 'Who is she, Ruby?'
+
+'Well;--she's a Mrs Hurtle. Such a stunning woman! Aunt says she's an
+American. She's got lots of money.'
+
+'Is Montague going to marry her?'
+
+'Oh dear yes. It's all arranged. Mr Montague comes quite regular to
+see her;--not so regular as be ought, though. When gentlemen are fixed
+as they're to be married, they never are regular afterwards. I wonder
+whether it'll be the same with you?'
+
+'Wasn't John Crumb regular, Ruby?'
+
+'Bother John Crumb! That wasn't none of my doings. Oh, he'd been
+regular enough, if I'd let him; he'd been like clockwork,--only the
+slowest clock out. But Mr Montague has been and told the Squire as he
+saw me. He told me so himself. The Squire's coming about John Crumb. I
+know that. What am I to tell him, Felix?'
+
+'Tell him to mind his own business. He can't do anything to you.'
+
+'No;--he can't do nothing. I ain't done nothing wrong, and he can't
+send for the police to have me took back to Sheep's Acre. But he can
+talk,--and he can look. I ain't one of those, Felix, as don't mind about
+their characters,--so don't you think it. Shall I tell him as I'm with
+you?'
+
+'Gracious goodness, no! What would you say that for?'
+
+'I didn't know. I must say something.'
+
+'Tell him you're nothing to him.'
+
+'But aunt will be letting on about my being out late o'nights; I know
+she will. And who am I with? He'll be asking that.'
+
+'Your aunt does not know?'
+
+'No;--I've told nobody yet. But it won't do to go on like that, you
+know,--will it? You don't want it to go on always like that;--do you?'
+
+'It's very jolly, I think.'
+
+'It ain't jolly for me. Of course, Felix, I like to be with you.
+That's jolly. But I have to mind them brats all the day, and to be
+doing the bedrooms. And that's not the worst of it.'
+
+'What is the worst of it?'
+
+'I'm pretty nigh ashamed of myself. Yes, I am.' And now Ruby burst out
+into tears. 'Because I wouldn't have John Crumb, I didn't mean to be a
+bad girl. Nor yet I won't. But what'll I do, if everybody turns
+against me? Aunt won't go on for ever in this way. She said last
+night that--'
+
+'Bother what she says!' Felix was not at all anxious to hear what aunt
+Pipkin might have to say upon such an occasion.
+
+'She's right too. Of course she knows there's somebody. She ain't such
+a fool as to think that I'm out at these hours to sing psalms with a
+lot of young women. She says that whoever it is ought to speak out his
+mind. There;--that's what she says. And she's right. A girl has to mind
+herself, though she's ever so fond of a young man.'
+
+Sir Felix sucked his cigar and then took a long drink of brandy and
+water. Having emptied the beaker before him, he rapped, for the waiter
+and called for another. He intended to avoid the necessity of making
+any direct reply to Ruby's importunities. He was going to New York
+very shortly, and looked on his journey thither as an horizon in his
+future beyond which it was unnecessary to speculate as to any farther
+distance. He had not troubled himself to think how it might be with
+Ruby when he was gone. He had not even considered whether he would or
+would not tell her that he was going, before he started. It was not
+his fault that she had come up to London. She was an 'awfully jolly
+girl,' and he liked the feeling of the intrigue better, perhaps, than
+the girl herself. But he assured himself that he wasn't going to give
+himself any 'd---d trouble.' The idea of John Crumb coming up to London
+in his wrath had never occurred to him,--or he would probably have
+hurried on his journey to New York instead of delaying it, as he was
+doing now. 'Let's go in, and have a dance,' he said.
+
+Ruby was very fond of dancing,--perhaps liked it better than anything in
+the world. It was heaven to her to be spinning round the big room
+with her lover's arm tight round her waist, with one hand in his and
+her other hanging over his back. She loved the music, and loved the
+motion. Her ear was good, and her strength was great, and she never
+lacked breath. She could spin along and dance a whole room down, and
+feel at the time that the world could have nothing to give better
+worth having than that;--and such moments were too precious to be lost.
+She went and danced, resolving as she did so that she would have some
+answer to her question before she left her lover on that night.
+
+'And now I must go,' she said at last. 'You'll see me as far as the
+Angel, won't you?' Of course he was ready to see her as far as the
+Angel. 'What am I to say to the Squire?'
+
+'Say nothing.'
+
+'And what am I to say to aunt?'
+
+'Say to her? Just say what you have said all along.'
+
+'I've said nothing all along,--just to oblige you, Felix. I must say
+something. A girl has got herself to mind. What have you got to say to
+me, Felix?'
+
+He was silent for about a minute, meditating his answer. 'If you
+bother me I shall cut it, you know.'
+
+'Cut it!'
+
+'Yes;--cut it. Can't you wait till I am ready to say something?'
+
+'Waiting will be the ruin o' me, if I wait much longer. Where am I to
+go, if Mrs Pipkin won't have me no more?'
+
+'I'll find a place for you.'
+
+'You find a place! No; that won't do. I've told you all that before.
+I'd sooner go into service, or--'
+
+'Go back to John Crumb.'
+
+'John Crumb has more respect for me nor you. He'd make me his wife
+to-morrow, and only be too happy.'
+
+'I didn't tell you to come away from him,' said Sir Felix.
+
+'Yes, you did. You told me as I was to come up to London when I saw
+you at Sheepstone Beeches;--didn't you? And you told me you loved me;--
+didn't you? And that if I wanted anything you'd get it done for me;--
+didn't you?'
+
+'So I will. What do you want? I can give you a couple of sovereigns,
+if that's what it is.'
+
+'No it isn't;--and I won't have your money. I'd sooner work my fingers
+off. I want you to say whether you mean to marry me. There!'
+
+As to the additional lie which Sir Felix might now have told, that
+would have been nothing to him. He was going to New York, and would be
+out of the way of any trouble; and he thought that lies of that kind
+to young women never went for anything. Young women, he thought,
+didn't believe them, but liked to be able to believe afterwards that
+they had been deceived. It wasn't the lie that stuck in his throat,
+but the fact that he was a baronet. It was in his estimation
+'confounded impudence' on the part of Ruby Ruggles to ask to be his
+wife. He did not care for the lie, but he did not like to seem to
+lower himself by telling such a lie as that at her dictation. 'Marry,
+Ruby! No, I don't ever mean to marry. It's the greatest bore out. I
+know a trick worth two of that.'
+
+She stopped in the street and looked at him. This was a state of
+things of which she had never dreamed. She could imagine that a man
+should wish to put it off, but that he should have the face to declare
+to his young woman that he never meant to marry at all, was a thing
+that she could not understand. What business had such a man to go
+after any young woman? 'And what do you mean that I'm to do, Sir
+Felix?' she said.
+
+'Just go easy, and not make yourself a bother.'
+
+'Not make myself a bother! Oh, but I will; I will. I'm to be carrying
+on with you, and nothing to come of it; but for you to tell me that
+you don't mean to marry, never at all! Never?'
+
+'Don't you see lots of old bachelors about, Ruby?'
+
+'Of course I does. There's the Squire. But he don't come asking girls
+to keep him company.'
+
+'That's more than you know, Ruby.'
+
+'If he did he'd marry her out of hand,--because he's a gentleman. That's
+what he is, every inch of him. He never said a word to a girl,--not to
+do her any harm, I'm sure,' and Ruby began to, cry. 'You mustn't come
+no further now, and I'll never see you again--never! I think you're the
+falsest young man, and the basest, and the lowest-minded that I ever
+heard tell of. I know there are them as don't keep their words. Things
+turn up, and they can't. Or they gets to like others better; or there
+ain't nothing to live on. But for a young man to come after a young
+woman, and then say, right out, as he never means to marry at all, is
+the lowest-spirited fellow that ever was. I never read of such a one
+in none of the books. No, I won't. You go your way, and I'll go mine.'
+In her passion she was as good as her word, and escaped from him,
+running all the way to her aunt's door. There was in her mind a
+feeling of anger against the man, which she did not herself
+understand, in that he would incur no risk on her behalf. He would not
+even make a lover's easy promise, in order that the present hour might
+be made pleasant. Ruby let herself into her aunt's house, and cried
+herself to sleep with a child on each side of her.
+
+On the next day Roger called. She had begged Mrs Pipkin to attend the
+door, and had asked her to declare, should any gentleman ask for Ruby
+Ruggles, that Ruby Ruggles was out. Mrs Pipkin had not refused to do
+so; but, having heard sufficient of Roger Carbury to imagine the cause
+which might possibly bring him to the house, and having made up her
+mind that Ruby's present condition of independence was equally
+unfavourable to the lodging-house and to Ruby herself, she determined
+that the Squire, if he did come, should see the young lady. When
+therefore Ruby was called into the little back parlour and found Roger
+Carbury there, she thought that she had been caught in a trap. She had
+been very cross all the morning. Though in her rage she had been able
+on the previous evening to dismiss her titled lover, and to imply that
+she never meant to see him again, now, when the remembrance of the
+loss came upon her amidst her daily work,--when she could no longer
+console herself in her drudgery by thinking of the beautiful things
+that were in store for her, and by flattering herself that though at
+this moment she was little better than a maid of all work in a
+lodging-house, the time was soon coming in which she would bloom forth
+as a baronet's bride,--now in her solitude she almost regretted the
+precipitancy of her own conduct. Could it be that she would never see
+him again;--that she would dance no more in that gilded bright saloon?
+And might it not be possible that she had pressed him too hard? A
+baronet of course would not like to be brought to book, as she could
+bring to book such a one as John Crumb. But yet,--that he should have
+said never;--that he would never marry! Looking at it in any light, she
+was very unhappy, and this coming of the Squire did not serve to cure
+her misery.
+
+Roger was very kind to her, taking her by the hand, and bidding her
+sit down, and telling her how glad he was to find that she was
+comfortably settled with her aunt. 'We were all alarmed, of course,
+when you went away without telling anybody where you were going.'
+
+'Grandfather'd been that cruel to me that I couldn't tell him.'
+
+'He wanted you to keep your word to an old friend of yours.'
+
+'To pull me all about by the hairs of my head wasn't the way to make a
+girl keep her word;--was it, Mr Carbury? That's what he did, then;--and
+Sally Hockett, who is there, heard it. I've been good to grandfather,
+whatever I may have been to John Crumb; and he shouldn't have treated
+me like that. No girl'd like to be pulled about the room by the hairs
+of her head, and she with her things all off, just getting into bed.'
+
+The Squire had no answer to make to this. That old Ruggles should be a
+violent brute under the influence of gin and water did not surprise
+him. And the girl, when driven away from her home by such usage, had
+not done amiss in coming to her aunt. But Roger had already heard a
+few words from Mrs Pipkin as to Ruby's late hours, had heard also that
+there was a lover, and knew very well who that lover was. He also was
+quite familiar with John Crumb's state of mind. John Crumb was a
+gallant, loving fellow who might be induced to forgive everything, if
+Ruby would only go back to him; but would certainly persevere, after
+some slow fashion of his own, and 'see the matter out,' as he would say
+himself, if she did not go back. 'As you found yourself obliged to run
+away,' said Roger, 'I'm glad that you should be here; but you don't
+mean to stay here always?'
+
+'I don't know,' said Ruby.
+
+'You must think of your future life. You don't want to be always your
+aunt's maid.'
+
+'Oh dear, no.'
+
+'It would be very odd if you did, when you may be the wife of such a
+man as Mr Crumb.'
+
+'Oh, Mr Crumb! Everybody is going on about Mr Crumb. I don't like Mr
+Crumb, and I never will like him.'
+
+'Now look here, Ruby; I have come to speak to you very seriously, and
+I expect you to hear me. Nobody can make you marry Mr Crumb, unless
+you please.'
+
+'Nobody can't, of course, sir.'
+
+'But I fear you have given him up for somebody else, who certainly
+won't marry you, and who can only mean to ruin you.'
+
+'Nobody won't ruin me,' said Ruby. 'A girl has to look to herself, and
+I mean to look to myself.'
+
+'I'm glad to hear you say so, but being out at night with such a one
+as Sir Felix Carbury is not looking to yourself. That means going to
+the devil head foremost.'
+
+'I ain't a going to the devil,' said Ruby, sobbing and blushing.
+
+'But you will, if you put yourself into the hands of that young man.
+He's as bad as bad can be. He's my own cousin, and yet I'm obliged to
+tell you so. He has no more idea of marrying you than I have; but were
+he to marry you, he could not support you. He is ruined himself, and
+would ruin any young woman who trusted him. I'm almost old enough to
+be your father, and in all my experience I never came across so vile a
+young man as he is. He would ruin you and cast you from him without a
+pang of remorse. He has no heart in his bosom;--none.' Ruby had now
+given way altogether, and was sobbing with her apron to her eyes in
+one corner of the room. 'That's what Sir Felix Carbury is,' said the
+Squire, standing up so that he might speak with the more energy, and
+talk her down more thoroughly. 'And if I understand it rightly,' he
+continued, 'it is for a vile thing such as he, that you have left a
+man who is as much above him in character, as the sun is above the
+earth. You think little of John Crumb because he does not wear a fine
+coat.'
+
+'I don't care about any man's coat,' said Ruby; 'but John hasn't ever
+a word to say, was it ever so.'
+
+'Words to say! what do words matter? He loves you. He loves you after
+that fashion that he wants to make you happy and respectable, not to
+make you a bye-word and a disgrace.' Ruby struggled hard to make some
+opposition to the suggestion, but found herself to be incapable of
+speech at the moment. 'He thinks more of you than of himself, and
+would give you all that he has. What would that other man give you? If
+you were once married to John Crumb, would any one then pull you by
+the hairs of your head? Would there be any want then, or any
+disgrace?'
+
+'There ain't no disgrace, Mr Carbury.'
+
+'No disgrace in going about at midnight with such a one as Felix
+Carbury? You are not a fool, and you know that it is disgraceful. If
+you are not unfit to be an honest man's wife, go back and beg that
+man's pardon.'
+
+'John Crumb's pardon! No!'
+
+'Oh, Ruby, if you knew how highly I respect that man, and how lowly I
+think of the other; how I look on the one as a noble fellow, and
+regard the other as dust beneath my feet, you would perhaps change
+your mind a little.'
+
+Her mind was being changed. His words did have their effect, though
+the poor girl struggled against the conviction that was borne in upon
+her. She had never expected to hear any one call John Crumb noble. But
+she had never respected any one more highly than Squire Carbury, and
+he said that John Crumb was noble. Amidst all her misery and trouble
+she still told herself that it was but a dusty, mealy,--and also a
+dumb nobility.
+
+'I'll tell you what will take place,' continued Roger. 'Mr Crumb won't
+put up with this you know.'
+
+'He can't do nothing to me, sir.'
+
+'That's true enough. Unless it be to take you in his arms and press
+you to his heart, he wants to do nothing to you. Do you think he'd
+injure you if he could? You don't know what a man's love really means,
+Ruby. But he could do something to somebody else. How do you think it
+would be with Felix Carbury, if they two were in a room together and
+nobody else by?'
+
+'John's mortial strong, Mr Carbury.'
+
+'If two men have equal pluck, strength isn't much needed. One is a
+brave man, and the other--a coward. Which do you think is which?'
+
+'He's your own cousin, and I don't know why you should say everything
+again him.'
+
+'You know I'm telling you the truth. You know it as well as I do
+myself;--and you're throwing yourself away, and throwing the man who
+loves you over,--for such a fellow as that! Go back to him, Ruby, and
+beg his pardon.'
+
+'I never will;--never.'
+
+'I've spoken to Mrs Pipkin, and while you're here she will see that
+you don't keep such hours any longer. You tell me that you're not
+disgraced, and yet you are out at midnight with a young blackguard
+like that! I've said what I've got to say, and I'm going away. But
+I'll let your grandfather know.'
+
+'Grandfather don't want me no more.'
+
+'And I'll come again. If you want money to go home, I will let you
+have it. Take my advice at least in this;--do not see Sir Felix Carbury
+any more.' Then he took his leave. If he had failed to impress her
+with admiration for John Crumb, he had certainly been efficacious in
+lessening that which she had entertained for Sir Felix.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV - THE COMING ELECTION
+
+
+The very greatness of Mr Melmotte's popularity, the extent of the
+admiration which was accorded by the public at large to his commercial
+enterprise and financial sagacity, created a peculiar bitterness in
+the opposition that was organized against him at Westminster. As the
+high mountains are intersected by deep valleys, as puritanism in one
+age begets infidelity in the next, as in many countries the thickness
+of the winter's ice will be in proportion to the number of the summer
+musquitoes, so was the keenness of the hostility displayed on this
+occasion in proportion to the warmth of the support which was
+manifested. As the great man was praised, so also was he abused. As he
+was a demi-god to some, so was he a fiend to others. And indeed there
+was hardly any other way in which it was possible to carry on the
+contest against him. From the moment in which Mr Melmotte had declared
+his purpose of standing for Westminster in the Conservative interest,
+an attempt was made to drive him down the throats of the electors by
+clamorous assertions of his unprecedented commercial greatness. It
+seemed that there was but one virtue in the world, commercial
+enterprise,--and that Melmotte was its prophet. It seemed, too, that the
+orators and writers of the day intended all Westminster to believe
+that Melmotte treated his great affairs in a spirit very different
+from that which animates the bosoms of merchants in general. He had
+risen above feeling of personal profit. His wealth was so immense that
+there was no longer place for anxiety on that score. He already
+possessed,--so it was said,--enough to found a dozen families, and he had
+but one daughter! But by carrying on the enormous affairs which he
+held in his hands, he would be able to open up new worlds, to afford
+relief to the oppressed nationalities of the over-populated old
+countries. He had seen how small was the good done by the Peabodys and
+the Bairds, and, resolving to lend no ear to charities and religions,
+was intent on projects for enabling young nations to earn plentiful
+bread by the moderate sweat of their brows. He was the head and front
+of the railway which was to regenerate Mexico. It was presumed that
+the contemplated line from ocean to ocean across British America would
+become a fact in his hands. It was he who was to enter into terms with
+the Emperor of China for farming the tea-fields of that vast country.
+He was already in treaty with Russia for a railway from Moscow to
+Khiva. He had a fleet,--or soon would have a fleet of emigrant ships,--
+ready to carry every discontented Irishman out of Ireland to whatever
+quarter of the globe the Milesian might choose for the exercise of his
+political principles. It was known that he had already floated a
+company for laying down a submarine wire from Penzance to Point de
+Galle, round the Cape of Good Hope,--so that, in the event of general
+wars, England need be dependent on no other country for its
+communications with India. And then there was the philanthropic scheme
+for buying the liberty of the Arabian fellahs from the Khedive of
+Egypt for thirty millions sterling,--the compensation to consist of the
+concession of a territory about four times as big as Great Britain in
+the lately annexed country on the great African lakes. It may have
+been the case that some of these things were as yet only matters of
+conversation,--speculations as to which Mr Melmotte's mind and
+imagination had been at work, rather than his pocket or even his
+credit; but they were all sufficiently matured to find their way into
+the public press, and to be used as strong arguments why Melmotte
+should become member of Parliament for Westminster.
+
+All this praise was of course gall to those who found themselves
+called upon by the demands of their political position to oppose Mr
+Melmotte. You can run down a demi-god only by making him out to be a
+demi-devil. These very persons, the leading Liberals of the leading
+borough in England as they called themselves, would perhaps have cared
+little about Melmotte's antecedents had it not become their duty to
+fight him as a Conservative. Had the great man found at the last
+moment that his own British politics had been liberal in their nature,
+these very enemies would have been on his committee. It was their
+business to secure the seat. And as Melmotte's supporters began the
+battle with an attempt at what the Liberals called 'bounce,'--to carry
+the borough with a rush by an overwhelming assertion of their
+candidate's virtues,--the other party was driven to make some enquiries
+as to that candidate's antecedents. They quickly warmed to the work,
+and were not less loud in exposing the Satan of speculation, than had
+been the Conservatives in declaring the commercial Jove. Emissaries
+were sent to Paris and Frankfort, and the wires were used to Vienna
+and New York. It was not difficult to collect stories,--true or false;
+and some quiet men, who merely looked on at the game, expressed an
+opinion that Melmotte might have wisely abstained from the glories of
+Parliament.
+
+Nevertheless there was at first some difficulty in finding a proper
+Liberal candidate to run against him. The nobleman who had been
+elevated out of his seat by the death of his father had been a great
+Whig magnate, whose family was possessed of immense wealth and of
+popularity equal to its possessions. One of that family might have
+contested the borough at a much less expense than any other person,--
+and to them the expense would have mattered but little. But there was
+no such member of it forthcoming. Lord This and Lord That,--and the
+Honourable This and the Honourable That, sons of other cognate Lords,--
+already had seats which they were unwilling to vacate in the present
+state of affairs. There was but one other session for the existing
+Parliament; and the odds were held to be very greatly in Melmotte's
+favour. Many an outsider was tried, but the outsiders were either
+afraid of Melmotte's purse or his influence. Lord Buntingford was
+asked, and he and his family were good old Whigs. But he was nephew to
+Lord Alfred Grendall, first cousin to Miles Grendall, and abstained on
+behalf of his relatives. An overture was made to Sir Damask Monogram,
+who certainly could afford the contest. But Sir Damask did not see his
+way. Melmotte was a working bee, while he was a drone,--and he did not
+wish to have the difference pointed out by Mr Melmotte's supporters.
+Moreover, he preferred his yacht and his four-in-hand.
+
+At last a candidate was selected, whose nomination and whose consent
+to occupy the position created very great surprise in the London
+world. The press had of course taken up the matter very strongly. The
+'Morning Breakfast Table' supported Mr Melmotte with all its weight.
+There were people who said that this support was given by Mr Broune
+under the influence of Lady Carbury, and that Lady Carbury in this way
+endeavoured to reconcile the great man to a marriage between his
+daughter and Sir Felix. But it is more probable that Mr Broune saw,--or
+thought that he saw,--which way the wind sat, and that he supported the
+commercial hero because he felt that the hero would be supported by
+the country at large. In praising a book, or putting foremost the
+merits of some official or military claimant, or writing up a charity,--
+in some small matter of merely personal interest,--the Editor of the
+'Morning Breakfast Table' might perhaps allow himself to listen to a
+lady whom he loved. But he knew his work too well to jeopardize his
+paper by such influences in any matter which might probably become
+interesting to the world of his readers. There was a strong belief in
+Melmotte. The clubs thought that he would be returned for Westminster.
+The dukes and duchesses fêted him. The city,--even the city was showing
+a wavering disposition to come round. Bishops begged for his name on
+the list of promoters of their pet schemes. Royalty without stint was
+to dine at his table. Melmotte himself was to sit at the right hand of
+the brother of the Sun and of the uncle of the Moon, and British
+Royalty was to be arranged opposite, so that every one might seem to
+have the place of most honour. How could a conscientious Editor of a
+'Morning Breakfast Table,' seeing how things were going, do other than
+support Mr Melmotte? In fair justice it may be well doubted whether
+Lady Carbury had exercised any influence in the matter.
+
+But the 'Evening Pulpit' took the other side. Now this was the more
+remarkable, the more sure to attract attention, inasmuch as the
+'Evening Pulpit' had never supported the Liberal interest. As was said
+in the first chapter of this work, the motto of that newspaper implied
+that it was to be conducted on principles of absolute independence.
+Had the 'Evening Pulpit,' like some of its contemporaries, lived by
+declaring from day to day that all Liberal elements were godlike, and
+all their opposites satanic, as a matter of course the same line of
+argument would have prevailed as to the Westminster election. But as
+it had not been so, the vigour of the 'Evening Pulpit' on this
+occasion was the more alarming and the more noticeable,--so that the
+short articles which appeared almost daily in reference to Mr Melmotte
+were read by everybody. Now they who are concerned in the manufacture
+of newspapers are well aware that censure is infinitely more
+attractive than eulogy,--but they are quite as well aware that it is
+more dangerous. No proprietor or editor was ever brought before the
+courts at the cost of ever so many hundred pounds,--which if things go
+badly may rise to thousands,--because he had attributed all but divinity
+to some very poor specimen of mortality. No man was ever called upon
+for damages because he had attributed grand motives. It might be well
+for politics and Literature and art,--and for truth in general, if it
+was possible to do so, but a new law of libel must be enacted before
+such salutary proceedings can take place. Censure on the other hand is
+open to very grave perils. Let the Editor have been ever so
+conscientious, ever so beneficent,--even ever so true,--let it be ever
+so clear that what he has written has been written on behalf of virtue,
+and that he has misstated no fact, exaggerated no fault, never for a
+moment been allured from public to private matters,--and he may still be
+in danger of ruin. A very long purse, or else a very high courage is
+needed for the exposure of such conduct as the 'Evening Pulpit'
+attributed to Mr Melmotte. The paper took up this line suddenly. After
+the second article Mr Alf sent back to Mr Miles Grendall, who in the
+matter was acting as Mr Melmotte's secretary, the ticket of invitation
+for the dinner, with a note from Mr Alf stating that circumstances
+connected with the forthcoming election for Westminster could not
+permit him to have the great honour of dining at Mr Melmotte's table
+in the presence of the Emperor of China. Miles Grendall showed the
+note to the dinner committee, and, without consultation with Mr
+Melmotte, it was decided that the ticket should be sent to the Editor
+of a thorough-going Conservative journal. This conduct on the part of
+the 'Evening Pulpit' astonished the world considerably; but the world
+was more astonished when it was declared that Mr Ferdinand Alf himself
+was going to stand for Westminster on the Liberal interest.
+
+Various suggestions were made. Some said that as Mr Alf had a large
+share in the newspaper, and as its success was now an established
+fact, he himself intended to retire from the laborious position which
+he filled, and was therefore free to go into Parliament. Others were
+of opinion that this was the beginning of a new era in literature, of
+a new order of things, and that from this time forward editors would
+frequently be found in Parliament, if editors were employed of
+sufficient influence in the world to find constituencies. Mr Broune
+whispered confidentially to Lady Carbury that the man was a fool for
+his pains, and that he was carried away by pride. 'Very clever,--and
+dashing,' said Mr Broune, 'but he never had ballast.' Lady Carbury
+shook her head. She did not want to give up Mr Alf if she could help
+it. He had never said a civil word of her in his paper;--but still she
+had an idea that it was well to be on good terms with so great a
+power. She entertained a mysterious awe for Mr Alf,--much in excess of
+any similar feeling excited by Mr Broune, in regard to whom her awe
+had been much diminished since he had made her an offer of marriage.
+Her sympathies as to the election of course were with Mr Melmotte. She
+believed in him thoroughly. She still thought that his nod might be
+the means of making Felix,--or if not his nod, then his money without
+the nod.
+
+'I suppose he is very rich,' she said, speaking to Mr Broune
+respecting Mr Alf.
+
+'I dare say he has put by something. But this election will cost him
+£10,000;--and if he goes on as he is doing now, he had better allow
+another £10,000 for action for libel. They've already declared that
+they will indict the paper.'
+
+'Do you believe about the Austrian Insurance Company?' This was a
+matter as to which Mr Melmotte was supposed to have retired from Paris
+not with clean hands.
+
+'I don't believe the "Evening Pulpit" can prove it,--and I'm sure that
+they can't attempt to prove it without an expense of three or four
+thousand pounds. That's a game in which nobody wins but the lawyers. I
+wonder at Alf. I should have thought that he would have known how to
+get all said that he wanted to have said without running with his head
+into the lion's mouth. He has been so clever up to this! God knows he
+has been bitter enough, but he has always sailed within the wind.'
+
+Mr Alf had a powerful committee. By this time an animus in regard to
+the election had been created strong enough to bring out the men on
+both sides, and to produce heat, when otherwise there might only have
+been a warmth or, possibly, frigidity. The Whig Marquises and the Whig
+Barons came forward, and with them the liberal professional men, and
+the tradesmen who had found that party to answer best, and the
+democratical mechanics. If Melmotte's money did not, at last, utterly
+demoralise the lower class of voters, there would still be a good
+fight. And there was a strong hope that, under the ballot, Melmotte's
+money might be taken without a corresponding effect upon the voting.
+It was found upon trial that Mr Alf was a good speaker. And though he
+still conducted the 'Evening Pulpit', he made time for addressing
+meetings of the constituency almost daily. And in his speeches he
+never spared Melmotte. No one, he said, had a greater reverence for
+mercantile grandeur than himself. But let them take care that the
+grandeur was grand. How great would be the disgrace to such a borough
+as that of Westminster if it should find that it had been taken in by
+a false spirit of speculation and that it had surrendered itself to
+gambling when it had thought to do honour to honest commerce. This,
+connected, as of course it was, with the articles in the paper, was
+regarded as very open speaking. And it had its effect. Some men began
+to say that Melmotte had not been known long enough to deserve
+confidence in his riches, and the Lord Mayor was already beginning to
+think that it might be wise to escape the dinner by some excuse.
+
+Melmotte's committee was also very grand. If Alf was supported by
+Marquises and Barons, he was supported by Dukes and Earls. But his
+speaking in public did not of itself inspire much confidence. He had
+very little to say when he attempted to explain the political
+principles on which he intended to act. After a little he confined
+himself to remarks on the personal attacks made on him by the other
+side, and even in doing that was reiterative rather than diffusive.
+Let them prove it. He defied them to prove it. Englishmen were too
+great, too generous, too honest, too noble,--the men of Westminster
+especially were a great deal too highminded to pay any attention to
+such charges as these till they were proved. Then he began again. Let
+them prove it. Such accusations as these were mere lies till they were
+proved. He did not say much himself in public as to actions for
+libel,--but assurances were made on his behalf to the electors,
+especially by Lord Alfred Grendall and his son, that as soon as the
+election was over all speakers and writers would be indicted for libel,
+who should be declared by proper legal advice to have made themselves
+liable to such action. The 'Evening Pulpit' and Mr Alf would of course
+be the first victims.
+
+The dinner was fixed for Monday, July the 8th. The election for the
+borough was to be held on Tuesday the 9th. It was generally thought
+that the proximity of the two days had been arranged with the view of
+enhancing Melmotte's expected triumph. But such in truth, was not the
+case. It had been an accident, and an accident that was distressing to
+some of the Melmottites. There was much to be done about the dinner,--
+which could not be omitted; and much also as to the election,--which
+was imperative. The two Grendalls, father and son, found themselves to
+be so driven that the world seemed for them to be turned topsy-turvy.
+The elder had in old days been accustomed to electioneering in the
+interest of his own family, and had declared himself willing to make
+himself useful on behalf of Mr Melmotte. But he found Westminster to
+be almost too much for him. He was called here and sent there, till he
+was very near rebellion. 'If this goes on much longer I shall cut it,'
+he said to his son.
+
+'Think of me, governor,' said the son 'I have to be in the city four
+or five times a week.'
+
+'You've a regular salary.'
+
+'Come, governor; you've done pretty well for that. What's my salary to
+the shares you've had? The thing is;--will it last?'
+
+'How last?'
+
+'There are a good many who say that Melmotte will burst up.'
+
+'I don't believe it,' said Lord Alfred. 'They don't know what they're
+talking about. There are too many in the same boat to let him burst
+up. It would be the bursting up of half London. But I shall tell him
+after this that he must make it easier. He wants to know who's to have
+every ticket for the dinner, and there's nobody to tell him except me.
+And I've got to arrange all the places, and nobody to help me except
+that fellow from the Herald's office. I don't know about people's
+rank. Which ought to come first: a director of the bank or a fellow
+who writes books?' Miles suggested that the fellow from the Herald's
+office would know all about that, and that his father need not trouble
+himself with petty details.
+
+'And you shall come to us for three days,--after it's over,' said Lady
+Monogram to Miss Longestaffe; a proposition to which Miss Longestaffe
+acceded, willingly indeed, but not by any means as though a favour had
+been conferred upon her. Now the reason why Lady Monogram had changed
+her mind as to inviting her old friend, and thus threw open her
+hospitality for three whole days to the poor young lady who had
+disgraced herself by staying with the Melmottes, was as follows. Miss
+Longestaffe had the disposal of two evening tickets for Madame
+Melmotte's grand reception; and so greatly had the Melmottes risen in
+general appreciation that Lady Monogram had found that she was bound,
+on behalf of her own position in society, to be present on that
+occasion. It would not do that her name should not be in the printed
+list of the guests. Therefore she had made a serviceable bargain with
+her old friend Miss Longestaffe. She was to have her two tickets for
+the reception, and Miss Longestaffe was to be received for three days
+as a guest by Lady Monogram. It had also been conceded that at any
+rate on one of these nights Lady Monogram should take Miss Longestaffe
+out with her, and that she should herself receive company on another.
+There was perhaps something slightly painful at the commencement of
+the negotiation; but such feelings soon fade away, and Lady Monogram
+was quite a woman of the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV - Mr MELMOTTE IS PRESSED FOR TIME
+
+
+About this time, a fortnight or nearly so before the election, Mr
+Longestaffe came up to town and saw Mr Melmotte very frequently. He
+could not go into his own house, as he had let that for a month to the
+great financier, nor had he any establishment in town; but he slept at
+an hotel and lived at the Carlton. He was quite delighted to find that
+his new friend was an honest Conservative, and he himself proposed the
+honest Conservative at the club. There was some idea of electing Mr
+Melmotte out of hand, but it was decided that the club could not go
+beyond its rule, and could only admit Mr Melmotte out of his regular
+turn as soon as he should occupy a seat in the House of Commons. Mr
+Melmotte, who was becoming somewhat arrogant, was heard to declare
+that if the club did not take him when he was willing to be taken, it
+might do without him. If not elected at once, he should withdraw his
+name. So great was his prestige at this moment with his own party that
+there were some, Mr Longestaffe among the number, who pressed the
+thing on the committee. Mr Melmotte was not like other men. It was a
+great thing to have Mr Melmotte in the party. Mr Melmotte's financial
+capabilities would in themselves be a tower of strength. Rules were
+not made to control the club in a matter of such importance as this. A
+noble lord, one among seven who had been named as a fit leader of the
+Upper House on the Conservative side in the next session, was asked to
+take the matter up; and men thought that the thing might have been
+done had he complied. But he was old-fashioned, perhaps pig-headed;
+and the club for the time lost the honour of entertaining Mr Melmotte.
+
+It may be remembered that Mr Longestaffe had been anxious to become
+one of the directors of the Mexican Railway, and that he was rather
+snubbed than encouraged when he expressed his wish to Mr Melmotte.
+Like other great men, Mr Melmotte liked to choose his own time for
+bestowing favours. Since that request was made the proper time had
+come, and he had now intimated to Mr Longestaffe that in a somewhat
+altered condition of things there would be a place for him at the
+Board, and that he and his brother directors would be delighted to
+avail themselves of his assistance. The alliance between Mr Melmotte
+and Mr Longestaffe had become very close. The Melmottes had visited
+the Longestaffes at Caversham. Georgiana Longestaffe was staying with
+Madame Melmotte in London. The Melmottes were living in Mr
+Longestaffe's town house, having taken it for a month at a very high
+rent. Mr Longestaffe now had a seat at Mr Melmotte's board. And Mr
+Melmotte had bought Mr Longestaffe's estate at Pickering on terms very
+favourable to the Longestaffes. It had been suggested to Mr
+Longestaffe by Mr Melmotte that he had better qualify for his seat at
+the Board by taking shares in the Company to the amount of--perhaps two
+or three thousand pounds, and Mr Longestaffe had of course consented.
+There would be no need of any transaction in absolute cash. The shares
+could of course be paid for out of Mr Longestaffe's half of the
+purchase money for Pickering Park, and could remain for the present in
+Mr Melmotte's hands. To this also Mr Longestaffe had consented, not
+quite understanding why the scrip should not be made over to him at
+once.
+
+It was a part of the charm of all dealings with this great man that no
+ready money seemed ever to be necessary for anything. Great purchases
+were made and great transactions apparently completed without the
+signing even of a cheque. Mr Longestaffe found himself to be afraid
+even to give a hint to Mr Melmotte about ready money. In speaking of
+all such matters Melmotte seemed to imply that everything necessary
+had been done, when he had said that it was done. Pickering had been
+purchased and the title-deeds made over to Mr Melmotte; but the
+£80,000 had not been paid,--had not been absolutely paid, though of
+course Mr Melmotte's note assenting to the terms was security
+sufficient for any reasonable man. The property had been mortgaged,
+though not heavily, and Mr Melmotte had no doubt satisfied the
+mortgagee; but there was still a sum of £50,000 to come, of which
+Dolly was to have one half and the other was to be employed in paying
+off Mr Longestaffe's debts to tradesmen and debts to the bank. It
+would have been very pleasant to have had this at once,--but Mr
+Longestaffe felt the absurdity of pressing such a man as Mr Melmotte,
+and was partly conscious of the gradual consummation of a new era in
+money matters. 'If your banker is pressing you, refer him to me,' Mr
+Melmotte had said. As for many years past we have exchanged paper
+instead of actual money for our commodities, so now it seemed that,
+under the new Melmotte regime, an exchange of words was to suffice.
+
+But Dolly wanted his money. Dolly, idle as he was, foolish as he was,
+dissipated as he was and generally indifferent to his debts, liked to
+have what belonged to him. It had all been arranged. £5,000 would pay
+off all his tradesmen's debts and leave him comfortably possessed of
+money in hand, while the other £20,000 would make his own property
+free. There was a charm in this which awakened even Dolly, and for the
+time almost reconciled him to his father's society. But now a shade of
+impatience was coming over him. He had actually gone down to Caversham
+to arrange the terms with his father,--and had in fact made his own
+terms. His father had been unable to move him, and had consequently
+suffered much in spirit. Dolly had been almost triumphant,--thinking
+that the money would come on the next day, or at any rate during the
+next week. Now he came to his father early in the morning,--at about two
+o'clock,--to inquire what was being done. He had not as yet been made
+blessed with a single ten-pound note in his hand, as the result of the
+sale.
+
+'Are you going to see Melmotte, sir?' he asked somewhat abruptly.
+
+'Yes;--I'm to be with him to-morrow, and he is to introduce me to the
+Board.'
+
+'You're going in for that, are you, sir? Do they pay anything?'
+
+'I believe not.'
+
+'Nidderdale and young Carbury belong to it. It's a sort of Beargarden
+affair.'
+
+'A bear-garden affair, Adolphus. How so?'
+
+'I mean the club. We had them all there for dinner one day, and a
+jolly dinner we gave them. Miles Grendall and old Alfred belong to it.
+I don't think they'd go in for it, if there was no money going. I'd
+make them fork out something if I took the trouble of going all that
+way.'
+
+'I think that perhaps, Adolphus, you hardly understand these things.'
+
+'No, I don't. I don't understand much about business, I know. What I
+want to understand is, when Melmotte is going to pay up this money.'
+
+'I suppose he'll arrange it with the banks,' said the father.
+
+'I beg that he won't arrange my money with the banks, sir. You'd
+better tell him not. A cheque upon his bank which I can pay in to mine
+is about the best thing going. You'll be in the city to-morrow, and
+you'd better tell him. If you don't like, you know, I'll get Squercum
+to do it.' Mr Squercum was a lawyer whom Dolly had employed of late
+years much to the annoyance of his parent. Mr Squercum's name was
+odious to Mr Longestaffe.
+
+'I beg you'll do nothing of the kind. It will be very foolish if you
+do;--perhaps ruinous.'
+
+'Then he'd better pay up, like anybody else,' said Dolly as he left
+the room. The father knew the son, and was quite sure that Squercum
+would have his finger in the pie unless the money were paid quickly.
+When Dolly had taken an idea into his head, no power on earth,--no
+power at least of which the father could avail himself,--would turn
+him.
+
+On that same day Melmotte received two visits in the city from two of
+his fellow directors. At the time he was very busy. Though his
+electioneering speeches were neither long nor pithy, still he had to
+think of them beforehand. Members of his Committee were always trying
+to see him. Orders as to the dinner and the preparation of the house
+could not be given by Lord Alfred without some reference to him. And
+then those gigantic commercial affairs which were enumerated in the
+last chapter could not be adjusted without much labour on his part.
+His hands were not empty, but still he saw each of these young men,--
+for a few minutes. 'My dear young friend, what can I do for you?' he
+said to Sir Felix, not sitting down, so that Sir Felix also should
+remain standing.
+
+'About that money, Mr Melmotte?'
+
+'What money, my dear fellow? You see that a good many money matters
+pass through my hands.'
+
+'The thousand pounds I gave you for shares. If you don't mind, and as
+the shares seem to be a bother, I'll take the money back.'
+
+'It was only the other day you had £200,' said Melmotte, showing that
+he could apply his memory to small transactions when he pleased.
+
+'Exactly;--and you might as well let me have the £800.'
+
+'I've ordered the shares;--gave the order to my broker the other day.'
+
+'Then I'd better take the shares,' said Sir Felix, feeling that it
+might very probably be that day fortnight before he could start for
+New York. 'Could I get them, Mr Melmotte?'
+
+'My dear fellow, I really think you hardly calculate the value of my
+time when you come to me about such an affair as this.'
+
+'I'd like to have the money or the shares,' said Sir Felix, who was
+not specially averse to quarrelling with Mr Melmotte now that he had
+resolved upon taking that gentleman's daughter to New York in direct
+opposition to his written promise. Their quarrel would be so
+thoroughly internecine when the departure should be discovered, that
+any present anger could hardly increase its bitterness. What Felix
+thought of now was simply his money, and the best means of getting it
+out of Melmotte's hands.
+
+'You're a spendthrift,' said Melmotte, apparently relenting, 'and I'm
+afraid a gambler. I suppose I must give you £200 more on account.'
+
+Sir Felix could not resist the touch of ready money, and consented to
+take the sum offered. As he pocketed the cheque he asked for the name
+of the brokers who were employed to buy the shares. But here Melmotte
+demurred 'No, my friend,' said Melmotte; 'you are only entitled to
+shares for £600 pounds now. I will see that the thing is put right.'
+So Sir Felix departed with £200 only. Marie had said that she could
+get £200. Perhaps if he bestirred himself and wrote to some of Miles's
+big relations he could obtain payment of a part of that gentleman's
+debt to him.
+
+Sir Felix going down the stairs in Abchurch Lane met Paul Montague
+coming up. Carbury, on the spur of the moment, thought that he would
+'take a rise' as he called it out of Montague. 'What's this I hear
+about a lady at Islington?' he asked.
+
+'Who has told you anything about a lady at Islington?'
+
+'A little bird. There are always little birds about telling of ladies.
+I'm told that I'm to congratulate you on your coming marriage.'
+
+'Then you've been told an infernal falsehood,' said Montague passing
+on. He paused a moment and added, 'I don't know who can have told you,
+but if you hear it again, I'll trouble you to contradict it.' As he
+was waiting in Melmotte's outer room while the duke's nephew went in
+to see whether it was the great man's pleasure to see him, he
+remembered whence Carbury must have heard tidings of Mrs Hurtle. Of
+course the rumour had come through Ruby Ruggles.
+
+Miles Grendall brought out word that the great man would see Mr
+Montague; but he added a caution. 'He's awfully full of work just
+now,--you won't forget that;--will you?' Montague assured the duke's
+nephew that he would be concise, and was shown in.
+
+'I should not have troubled you,' said Paul, 'only that I understood
+that I was to see you before the Board met.'
+
+'Exactly;--of course. It was quite necessary,--only you see I am a
+little busy. If this d----d dinner were over I shouldn't mind. It's a
+deal easier to make a treaty with an Emperor, than to give him a dinner;
+I can tell you that. Well;--let me see. Oh;--I was proposing that you
+should go out to Pekin?'
+
+'To Mexico.'
+
+'Yes, yes;--to Mexico. I've so many things running in my head! Well;--
+if you'll say when you're ready to start, we'll draw up something of
+instructions. You'd know better, however, than we can tell you, what
+to do. You'll see Fisker, of course. You and Fisker will manage it.
+The chief thing will be a cheque for the expenses; eh? We must get
+that passed at the next Board.'
+
+Mr Melmotte had been so quick that Montague had been unable to
+interrupt him. 'There need be no trouble about that, Mr Melmotte, as I
+have made up my mind that it would not be fit that I should go.'
+
+'Oh, indeed!'
+
+There had been a shade of doubt on Montague's mind, till the tone in
+which Melmotte had spoken of the embassy grated on his ears. The
+reference to the expenses disgusted him altogether. 'No;--even did I see
+my way to do any good in America my duties here would not be
+compatible with the undertaking.'
+
+'I don't see that at all. What duties have you got here? What good are
+you doing the Company? If you do stay, I hope you'll be unanimous;
+that's all;--or perhaps you intend to go out. If that's it, I'll look to
+your money. I think I told you that before.'
+
+'That, Mr Melmotte, is what I should prefer.'
+
+'Very well,--very well. I'll arrange it. Sorry to lose you,--that's
+all. Miles, isn't Mr Goldsheiner waiting to see me?'
+
+'You're a little too quick, Mr Melmotte,' said Paul.
+
+'A man with my business on his hands is bound to be quick, sir.'
+
+'But I must be precise. I cannot tell you as a fact that I shall
+withdraw from the Board till I receive the advice of a friend with
+whom I am consulting. I hardly yet know what my duty may be.'
+
+'I'll tell you, sir, what can not be your duty. It cannot be your duty
+to make known out of that Board-room any of the affairs of the
+Company which you have learned in that Board-room. It cannot be your
+duty to divulge the circumstances of the Company or any differences
+which may exist between Directors of the Company, to any gentleman who
+is a stranger to the Company. It cannot be your duty.'
+
+'Thank you, Mr Melmotte. On matters such as that I think that I can
+see my own way. I have been in fault in coming in to the Board without
+understanding what duties I should have to perform--.'
+
+'Very much in fault, I should say,' replied Melmotte, whose arrogance
+in the midst of his inflated glory was overcoming him.
+
+'But in reference to what I may or may not say to any friend, or how
+far I should be restricted by the scruples of a gentleman, I do not
+want advice from you.'
+
+'Very well;--very well. I can't ask you to stay, because a partner from
+the house of Todd, Brehgert, and Goldsheiner is waiting to see me,
+about matters which are rather more important than this of yours.'
+Montague had said what he had to say, and departed.
+
+On the following day, three-quarters of an hour before the meeting of
+the Board of Directors, old Mr Longestaffe called in Abchurch Lane. He
+was received very civilly by Miles Grendall, and asked to sit down. Mr
+Melmotte quite expected him, and would walk with him over to the
+offices of the railway, and introduce him to the Board. Mr
+Longestaffe, with some shyness, intimated his desire to have a few
+moments conversation with the chairman before the Board met. Fearing
+his son, especially fearing Squercum, he had made up his mind to
+suggest that the little matter about Pickering Park should be settled.
+Miles assured him that the opportunity should be given him, but that
+at the present moment the chief secretary of the Russian Legation was
+with Mr Melmotte. Either the chief secretary was very tedious with his
+business, or else other big men must have come in, for Mr Longestaffe
+was not relieved till he was summoned to walk off to the Board five
+minutes after the hour at which the Board should have met. He thought
+that he could explain his views in the street; but on the stairs they
+were joined by Mr Cohenlupe, and in three minutes they were in the
+Board room. Mr Longestaffe was then presented, and took the chair
+opposite to Miles Grendall. Montague was not there, but had sent a
+letter to the secretary explaining that for reasons with which the
+chairman was acquainted he should absent himself from the present
+meeting. 'All right,' said Melmotte. 'I know all about it. Go on. I'm
+not sure but that Mr Montague's retirement from among us may be an
+advantage. He could not be made to understand that unanimity in such
+an enterprise as this is essential. I am confident that the new
+director whom I have had the pleasure of introducing to you to-day will
+not sin in the same direction.' Then Mr Melmotte bowed and smiled very
+sweetly on Mr Longestaffe.
+
+Mr Longestaffe was astonished to find how soon the business was done,
+and how very little he had been called on to do. Miles Grendall had
+read something out of a book which he had been unable to follow. Then
+the chairman had read some figures. Mr Cohenlupe had declared that
+their prosperity was unprecedented;--and the Board was over. When Mr
+Longestaffe explained to Miles Grendall that he still wished to speak
+to Mr Melmotte, Miles explained to him that the chairman had been
+obliged to run off to a meeting of gentlemen connected with the
+interior of Africa, which was now being held at the Cannon Street
+Hotel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI - ROGER CARBURY AND HIS TWO FRIENDS
+
+
+Roger Carbury, having found Ruby Ruggles, and having ascertained that
+she was at any rate living in a respectable house with her aunt,
+returned to Carbury. He had given the girl his advice, and had done
+so in a manner that was not altogether ineffectual. He had frightened
+her, and had also frightened Mrs Pipkin. He had taught Mrs Pipkin to
+believe that the new dispensation was not yet so completely
+established as to clear her from all responsibility as to her niece's
+conduct. Having done so much, and feeling that there was no more to
+be done, he returned home. It was out of the question that he should
+take Ruby with him. In the first place she would not have gone. And
+then,--had she gone,--he would not have known where to bestow her.
+For it was now understood throughout Bungay,--and the news had spread
+to Beccles,--that old Farmer Ruggles had sworn that his
+granddaughter should never again be received at Sheep's Acre Farm.
+The squire on his return home heard all the news from his own
+housekeeper. John Crumb had been at the farm and there had been a
+fierce quarrel between him and the old man. The old man had called
+Ruby by every name that is most distasteful to a woman, and John had
+stormed and had sworn that he would have punched the old man's head
+but for his age. He wouldn't believe any harm of Ruby,--or if he did
+he was ready to forgive that harm. But as for the Baro-nite;--the
+Baro-nite had better look to himself! Old Ruggles had declared that
+Ruby should never have a shilling of his money;-hereupon Crumb had
+anathematised old Ruggles and his money too, telling him that he was
+an old hunx, and that he had driven the girl away by his cruelty.
+Roger at once sent over to Bungay for the dealer in meal, who was
+with him early on the following morning.
+
+'Did ye find her, squoire?'
+
+'Oh, yes, Mr Crumb, I found her. She's living with her aunt, Mrs
+Pipkin, at Islington.'
+
+'Eh, now;--look at that.'
+
+'You knew she had an aunt of that name up in London.'
+
+'Ye-es; I knew'd it, squoire. I a' heard tell of Mrs Pipkin, but I
+never see'd her.'
+
+'I wonder it did not occur to you that Ruby would go there.' John
+Crumb scratched his head, as though acknowledging the shortcoming of
+his own intellect. 'Of course if she was to go to London it was the
+proper thing for her to do.'
+
+'I knew she'd do the thing as was right. I said that all along. Darned
+if I didn't. You ask Mixet, squoire,--him as is baker down Bardsey Lane.
+I allays guy' it her that she'd do the thing as was right. But how
+about she and the Baro-nite?'
+
+Roger did not wish to speak of the Baronet just at present. 'I suppose
+the old man down here did ill-use her?'
+
+'Oh, dreadful;--there ain't no manner of doubt o' that. Dragged her
+about awful;--as he ought to be took up, only for the rumpus like. D'ye
+think she's see'd the Baro-nite since she's been in Lon'on, Muster
+Carbury?'
+
+'I think she's a good girl, if you mean that.'
+
+'I'm sure she be. I don't want none to tell me that, squoire. Tho',
+squoire, it's better to me nor a ten pun' note to hear you say so. I
+allays had a leaning to you, squoire; but I'll more nor lean to you,
+now. I've said all through she was good, and if e'er a man in Bungay
+said she warn't--; well, I was there and ready.'
+
+'I hope nobody has said so.'
+
+'You can't stop them women, squoire. There ain't no dropping into
+them. But, Lord love 'ee, she shall come and be missus of my house
+to-morrow, and what'll it matter her then what they say? But, squoire
+did ye hear if the Baro-nite had been a' hanging about that place?'
+
+'About Islington, you mean.'
+
+'He goes a hanging about; he do. He don't come out straight forrard,
+and tell a girl as he loves her afore all the parish. There ain't one
+in Bungay, nor yet in Mettingham, nor yet in all the Ilketsals and all
+the Elmhams, as don't know as I'm set on Ruby Ruggles. Huggery-Muggery
+is pi'son to me, squoire.'
+
+'We all know that when you've made up your mind, you have made up your
+mind.'
+
+'I hove. It's made up ever so as to Ruby. What sort of a one is her
+aunt now, squoire?'
+
+'She keeps lodgings;--a very decent sort of a woman I should say.'
+
+'She won't let the Baro-nite come there?'
+
+'Certainly not,' said Roger, who felt that he was hardly dealing
+sincerely with this most sincere of meal-men. Hitherto he had shuffled
+off every question that had been asked him about Felix, though he knew
+that Ruby had spent many hours with her fashionable lover. 'Mrs Pipkin
+won't let him come there.'
+
+'If I was to give her a ge'own now,--or a blue cloak;--them
+lodging-house women is mostly hard put to it;--or a chest of drawers
+like, for her best bedroom, wouldn't that make her more o' my side,
+squoire?'
+
+'I think she'll try to do her duty without that.'
+
+'They do like things the like o' that; any ways I'll go up, squoire,
+arter Sax'nam market, and see how things is lying.'
+
+'I wouldn't go just yet, Mr Crumb, if I were you. She hasn't forgotten
+the scene at the farm yet.'
+
+'I said nothing as wasn't as kind as kind.'
+
+'But her own perversity runs in her own head. If you had been unkind
+she could have forgiven that; but as you were good-natured and she was
+cross, she can't forgive that.' John Crumb again scratched his head,
+and felt that the depths of a woman's character required more gauging
+than he had yet given to it. 'And to tell you the truth, my friend, I
+think that a little hardship up at Mrs Pipkin's will do her good.'
+
+'Don't she have a bellyful o' vittels?' asked John Crumb, with intense
+anxiety.
+
+'I don't quite mean that. I dare say she has enough to eat. But of
+course she has to work for it with her aunt. She has three or four
+children to look after.'
+
+'That moight come in handy by-and-by;--moightn't it, squoire?' said John
+Crumb grinning.
+
+'As you say, she'll be learning something that may be useful to her in
+another sphere. Of course there is a good deal to do, and I should not
+be surprised if she were to think after a bit that your house in
+Bungay was more comfortable than Mrs Pipkin's kitchen in London.'
+
+'My little back parlour;--eh, squoire! And I've got a four-poster, most
+as big as any in Bungay.'
+
+'I am sure you have everything comfortable for her, and she knows it
+herself. Let her think about all that,--and do you go and tell her again
+in a month's time. She'll be more willing to settle matters then than
+she is now.'
+
+'But the Baro-nite!'
+
+'Mrs Pipkin will allow nothing of that.'
+
+'Girls is so 'cute. Ruby is awful 'cute. It makes me feel as though I
+had two hun'erdweight o' meal on my stomach, lying awake o' nights and
+thinking as how he is, may be,--pulling of her about! If I thought that
+she'd let him--; oh! I'd swing for it, Muster Carbury. They'd have to
+make an eend o' me at Bury, if it was that way. They would then.'
+
+Roger assured him again and again that he believed Ruby to be a good
+girl, and promised that further steps should be taken to induce Mrs
+Pipkin to keep a close watch upon her niece. John Crumb made no
+promise that he would abstain from his journey to London after
+Saxmundham fair; but left the squire with a conviction that his
+purpose of doing so was shaken. He was still however resolved to send
+Mrs Pipkin the price of a new blue cloak, and declared his purpose of
+getting Mixet to write the letter and enclose the money order. John
+Crumb had no delicacy as to declaring his own deficiency in literary
+acquirements. He was able to make out a bill for meal or pollards, but
+did little beyond that in the way of writing letters.
+
+This happened on a Saturday morning, and on that afternoon Roger
+Carbury rode over to Lowestoft, to a meeting there on church matters
+at which his friend the bishop presided. After the meeting was over he
+dined at the inn with half a dozen clergymen and two or three
+neighbouring gentlemen, and then walked down by himself on to the long
+strand which has made Lowestoft what it is. It was now just the end
+of June, and the weather was delightful;--but people were not as yet
+flocking to the sea-shore. Every shopkeeper in every little town
+through the country now follows the fashion set by Parliament and
+abstains from his annual holiday till August or September. The place
+therefore was by no means full. Here and there a few of the
+townspeople, who at a bathing place are generally indifferent to the
+sea, were strolling about; and another few, indifferent to fashion,
+had come out from the lodging-houses and from the hotel, which had
+been described as being small and insignificant,--and making up only a
+hundred beds. Roger Carbury, whose house was not many miles distant
+from Lowestoft, was fond of the sea-shore, and always came to loiter
+there for a while when any cause brought him into the town. Now he was
+walking close down upon the marge of the tide,--so that the last little
+roll of the rising water should touch his feet,--with his hands joined
+behind his back, and his face turned down towards the shore, when he
+came upon a couple who were standing with their backs to the land,
+looking forth together upon the waves. He was close to them before he
+saw them, and before they had seen him. Then he perceived that the man
+was his friend Paul Montague. Leaning on Paul's arm a lady stood,
+dressed very simply in black, with a dark straw hat on her head;--
+very simple in her attire, but yet a woman whom it would be impossible
+to pass without notice. The lady of course was Mrs Hurtle.
+
+Paul Montague had been a fool to suggest Lowestoft, but his folly had
+been natural. It was not the first place he had named; but when fault
+had been found with others, he had fallen back upon the sea sands
+which were best known to himself. Lowestoft was just the spot which
+Mrs Hurtle required. When she had been shown her room, and taken down
+out of the hotel on to the strand, she had declared herself to be
+charmed. She acknowledged with many smiles that of course she had had
+no right to expect that Mrs Pipkin should understand what sort of
+place she needed. But Paul would understand,--and had understood. 'I
+think the hotel charming,' she said. 'I don't know what you mean by
+your fun about the American hotels, but I think this quite gorgeous,
+and the people so civil!' Hotel people always are civil before the
+crowds come. Of course it was impossible that Paul should return to
+London by the mail train which started about an hour after his
+arrival. He would have reached London at four or five in the morning,
+and have been very uncomfortable. The following day was Sunday, and of
+course he promised to stay till Monday. Of course he had said nothing
+in the train of those stern things which he had resolved to say. Of
+course he was not saying them when Roger Carbury came upon him; but
+was indulging in some poetical nonsense, some probably very trite
+raptures as to the expanse of the ocean, and the endless ripples which
+connected shore with shore. Mrs Hurtle, too, as she leaned with
+friendly weight upon his arm, indulged also in moonshine and romance.
+Though at the back of the heart of each of them there was a devouring
+care, still they enjoyed the hour. We know that the man who is to be
+hung likes to have his breakfast well cooked. And so did Paul like the
+companionship of Mrs Hurtle because her attire, though simple, was
+becoming; because the colour glowed in her dark face; because of the
+brightness of her eyes, and the happy sharpness of her words, and the
+dangerous smile which played upon her lips. He liked the warmth of her
+close vicinity, and the softness of her arm, and the perfume from her
+hair,--though he would have given all that he possessed that she had
+been removed from him by some impassable gulf. As he had to be hanged,--
+and this woman's continued presence would be as bad as death to him,--
+he liked to have his meal well dressed.
+
+He certainly had been foolish to bring her to Lowestoft, and the
+close neighbourhood of Carbury Manor;--and now he felt his folly. As
+soon as he saw Roger Carbury he blushed up to his forehead, and then
+leaving Mrs Hurtle's arm he came forward, and shook hands with his
+friend. 'It is Mrs Hurtle,' he said, 'I must introduce you,' and the
+introduction was made. Roger took off his hat and bowed, but he did so
+with the coldest ceremony. Mrs Hurtle, who was quick enough at
+gathering the minds of people from their looks, was just as cold in
+her acknowledgment of the courtesy. In former days she had heard much
+of Roger Carbury, and surmised that he was no friend to her. 'I did
+not know that you were thinking of coming to Lowestoft,' said Roger
+in a voice that was needlessly severe. But his mind at the present
+moment was severe, and he could not hide his mind.
+
+'I was not thinking of it. Mrs Hurtle wished to get to the sea, and as
+she knew no one else here in England, I brought her.'
+
+'Mr Montague and I have travelled so many miles together before now,'
+she said, 'that a few additional will not make much difference.'
+
+'Do you stay long?' asked Roger in the same voice.
+
+'I go back probably on Monday,' said Montague.
+
+'As I shall be here a whole week, and shall not speak a word to any
+one after he has left me, he has consented to bestow his company on me
+for two days. Will you join us at dinner, Mr Carbury, this evening?'
+
+'Thank you, madam;--I have dined.'
+
+'Then, Mr Montague, I will leave you with your friend. My toilet,
+though it will be very slight, will take longer than yours. We dine
+you know in twenty minutes. I wish you could get your friend to join
+us.' So saying, Mrs Hurtle tripped back across the sand towards the
+hotel.
+
+'Is this wise?' demanded Roger in a voice that was almost sepulchral,
+as soon as the lady was out of hearing.
+
+'You may well ask that, Carbury. Nobody knows the folly of it so
+thoroughly as I do.'
+
+'Then why do you do it? Do you mean to marry her?'
+
+'No; certainly not.'
+
+'Is it honest then, or like a gentleman, that you should be with her
+in this way? Does she think that you intend to marry her?'
+
+'I have told her that I would not. I have told her--.' Then he stopped.
+He was going on to declare that he had told her that he loved another
+woman, but he felt that he could hardly touch that matter in speaking
+to Roger Carbury.
+
+'What does she mean then? Has she no regard for her own character?'
+
+'I would explain it to you all, Carbury, if I could. But you would
+never have the patience to hear me.'
+
+'I am not naturally impatient.'
+
+'But this would drive you mad. I wrote to her assuring her that it
+must be all over. Then she came here and sent for me. Was I not bound
+to go to her?'
+
+'Yes;--to go to her and repeat what you had said in your letter.'
+
+'I did do so. I went with that very purpose, and did repeat it.'
+
+'Then you should have left her.'
+
+'Ah; but you do not understand. She begged that I would not desert her
+in her loneliness. We have been so much together that I could not
+desert her.'
+
+'I certainly do not understand that, Paul. You have allowed yourself
+to be entrapped into a promise of marriage; and then, for reasons
+which we will not go into now but which we both thought to be
+adequate, you resolved to break your promise, thinking that you would
+be justified in doing so. But nothing can justify you in living with
+the lady afterwards on such terms as to induce her to suppose that
+your old promise holds good.'
+
+'She does not think so. She cannot think so.'
+
+'Then what must she be, to be here with you? And what must you be, to
+be here, in public, with such a one as she is? I don't know why I
+should trouble you or myself about it. People live now in a way that I
+don't comprehend. If this be your way of living, I have no right to
+complain.'
+
+'For God's sake, Carbury, do not speak in that way. It sounds as
+though you meant to throw me over.'
+
+'I should have said that you had thrown me over. You come down here to
+this hotel, where we are both known, with this lady whom you are not
+going to marry;--and I meet you, just by chance. Had I known it, of
+course I could have turned the other way. But coming on you by
+accident, as I did, how am I not to speak to you? And if I speak, what
+am I to say? Of course I think that the lady will succeed in marrying
+you.'
+
+'Never.'
+
+'And that such a marriage will be your destruction. Doubtless she is
+good-looking.'
+
+'Yes, and clever. And you must remember that the manners of her
+country are not as the manners of this country.'
+
+'Then if I marry at all,' said Roger, with all his prejudice expressed
+strongly in his voice, 'I trust I may not marry a lady of her country.
+She does not think that she is to marry you, and yet she comes down
+here and stays with you. Paul, I don't believe it. I believe you, but
+I don't believe her. She is here with you in order that she may marry
+you. She is cunning and strong. You are foolish and weak. Believing as
+I do that marriage with her would be destruction, I should tell her my
+mind,--and leave her.' Paul at the moment thought of the gentleman in
+Oregon, and of certain difficulties in leaving. 'That's what I should
+do. You must go in now, I suppose, and eat your dinner.'
+
+'I may come to the hall as I go back home?'
+
+'Certainly you may come if you please,' said Roger. Then he bethought
+himself that his welcome had not been cordial. 'I mean that I shall be
+delighted to see you,' he added, marching away along the strand. Paul
+did go into the hotel, and did eat his dinner. In the meantime Roger
+Carbury marched far away along the strand. In all that he had said to
+Montague he had spoken the truth, or that which appeared to him to be
+the truth. He had not been influenced for a moment by any reference to
+his own affairs. And yet he feared, he almost knew, that this man,--
+who had promised to marry a strange American woman and who was at this
+very moment living in close intercourse with the woman after he had
+told her that he would not keep his promise,--was the chief barrier
+between himself and the girl that he loved. As he had listened to John
+Crumb while John spoke of Ruby Ruggles, he had told himself that he
+and John Crumb were alike. With an honest, true, heartfelt desire
+they both panted for the companionship of a fellow-creature whom each
+had chosen. And each was to be thwarted by the make-believe regard of
+unworthy youth and fatuous good looks! Crumb, by dogged perseverance
+and indifference to many things, would probably be successful at last.
+But what chance was there of success for him? Ruby, as soon as want or
+hardship told upon her, would return to the strong arm that could be
+trusted to provide her with plenty and comparative ease. But Hetta
+Carbury, if once her heart had passed from her own dominion into the
+possession of another, would never change her love. It was possible,
+no doubt,--nay, how probable,--that her heart was still vacillating. Roger
+thought that he knew that at any rate she had not as yet declared her
+love. If she were now to know,--if she could now learn,--of what nature
+was the love of this other man; if she could be instructed that he was
+living alone with a lady whom not long since he had promised to marry,--
+if she could be made to understand this whole story of Mrs Hurtle,
+would not that open her eyes? Would she not then see where she could
+trust her happiness, and where, by so trusting it, she would certainly
+be shipwrecked!
+
+'Never,' said Roger to himself, hitting at the stones on the beach
+with his stick. 'Never.' Then he got his horse and rode back to
+Carbury Manor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII - MRS HURTLE AT LOWESTOFT
+
+
+When Paul got down into the dining-room Mrs Hurtle was already there,
+and the waiter was standing by the side of the table ready to take the
+cover off the soup. She was radiant with smiles and made herself
+especially pleasant during dinner, but Paul felt sure that everything
+was not well with her. Though she smiled, and talked and laughed,
+there was something forced in her manner. He almost knew that she was
+only waiting till the man should have left the room to speak in a
+different strain. And so it was. As soon as the last lingering dish
+had been removed, and when the door was finally shut behind the
+retreating waiter, she asked the question which no doubt had been on
+her mind since she had walked across the strand to the hotel. 'Your
+friend was hardly civil; was he, Paul?'
+
+'Do you mean that he should have come in? I have no doubt it was true
+that he had dined.'
+
+'I am quite indifferent about his dinner,--but there are two ways of
+declining as there are of accepting. I suppose he is on very intimate
+terms with you?'
+
+'Oh, yes.'
+
+'Then his want of courtesy was the more evidently intended for me. In
+point of fact he disapproves of me. Is not that it?' To this question
+Montague did not feel himself called upon to make any immediate
+answer. 'I can well understand that it should be so. An intimate
+friend may like or dislike the friend of his friend, without offence.
+But unless there be strong reason he is bound to be civil to his
+friend's friend, when accident brings them together. You have told me
+that Mr Carbury was your beau ideal of an English gentleman.'
+
+'So he is.'
+
+'Then why didn't he behave as such?' and Mrs Hurtle again smiled. 'Did
+not you yourself feel that you were rebuked for coming here with me,
+when he expressed surprise at your journey? Has he authority over
+you?'
+
+'Of course he has not. What authority could he have?'
+
+'Nay, I do not know. He may be your guardian. In this safe-going
+country young men perhaps are not their own masters till they are past
+thirty. I should have said that he was your guardian, and that he
+intended to rebuke you for being in bad company. I dare say he did
+after I had gone.'
+
+This was so true that Montague did not know how to deny it. Nor was he
+sure that it would be well that he should deny it. The time must come,
+and why not now as well as at any future moment? He had to make her
+understand that he could not join his lot with her,--chiefly indeed
+because his heart was elsewhere, a reason on which he could hardly
+insist because she could allege that she had a prior right to his
+heart;--but also because her antecedents had been such as to cause all
+his friends to warn him against such a marriage. So he plucked up
+courage for the battle. 'It was nearly that,' he said.
+
+There are many--and probably the greater portion of my readers will be
+among the number,--who will declare to themselves that Paul Montague was
+a poor creature, in that he felt so great a repugnance to face this
+woman with the truth. His folly in falling at first under the battery
+of her charms will be forgiven him. His engagement, unwise as it was,
+and his subsequent determination to break his engagement, will be
+pardoned. Women, and perhaps some men also, will feel that it was
+natural that he should have been charmed, natural that he should have
+expressed his admiration in the form which unmarried ladies expect
+from unmarried men when any such expression is to be made at all;--
+natural also that he should endeavour to escape from the dilemma when
+he found the manifold dangers of the step which he had proposed to
+take. No woman, I think, will be hard upon him because of his breach
+of faith to Mrs Hurtle. But they will be very hard on him on the score
+of his cowardice,--as, I think, unjustly. In social life we hardly stop
+to consider how much of that daring spirit which gives mastery comes
+from hardness of heart rather than from high purpose, or true courage.
+The man who succumbs to his wife, the mother who succumbs to her
+daughter, the master who succumbs to his servant, is as often brought
+to servility by a continual aversion to the giving of pain, by a
+softness which causes the fretfulness of others to be an agony to
+himself,--as by any actual fear which the firmness of the imperious one
+may have produced. There is an inner softness, a thinness of the
+mind's skin, an incapability of seeing or even thinking of the
+troubles of others with equanimity, which produces a feeling akin to
+fear; but which is compatible not only with courage, but with absolute
+firmness of purpose, when the demand for firmness arises so strongly
+as to assert itself. With this man it was not really that. He feared
+the woman;--or at least such fears did not prevail upon him to be
+silent; but he shrank from subjecting her to the blank misery of utter
+desertion. After what had passed between them he could hardly bring
+himself to tell her that he wanted her no further and to bid her go.
+But that was what he had to do. And for that his answer to her last
+question prepared the way. 'It was nearly that,' he said.
+
+'Mr Carbury did take it upon himself to rebuke you for showing
+yourself on the sands at Lowestoft with such a one as I am?'
+
+'He knew of the letter which I wrote to you.'
+
+'You have canvassed me between you?'
+
+'Of course we have. Is that unnatural? Would you have had me be silent
+about you to the oldest and the best friend I have in the world?'
+
+'No, I would not have had you be silent to your oldest and best
+friend. I presume you would declare your purpose. But I should not
+have supposed you would have asked his leave. When I was travelling
+with you, I thought you were a man capable of managing your own
+actions. I had heard that in your country girls sometimes hold
+themselves at the disposal of their friends,--but I did not dream that
+such could be the case with a man who had gone out into the world to
+make his fortune.'
+
+Paul Montague did not like it. The punishment to be endured was being
+commenced. 'Of course you can say bitter things,' he replied.
+
+'Is it my nature to say bitter things? Have I usually said bitter
+things to you? When I have hung round your neck and have sworn that
+you should be my God upon earth, was that bitter? I am alone and I
+have to fight my own battles. A woman's weapon is her tongue. Say but
+one word to me, Paul, as you know how to say it, and there will be
+soon an end to that bitterness. What shall I care for Mr Carbury,
+except to make him the cause of some innocent joke, if you will speak
+but that one word? And think what it is I am asking. Do you remember
+how urgent were once your own prayers to me;--how you swore that your
+happiness could only be secured by one word of mine? Though I loved
+you, I doubted. There were considerations of money, which have now
+vanished. But I spoke it,--because I loved you, and because I believed
+you. Give me that which you swore you had given before I made my gift
+to you.'
+
+'I cannot say that word.'
+
+'Do you mean that, after all, I am to be thrown off like an old glove?
+I have had many dealings with men and have found them to be false,
+cruel, unworthy, and selfish. But I have met nothing like that. No man
+has ever dared to treat me like that. No man shall dare.'
+
+'I wrote to you.'
+
+'Wrote to me;--yes! And I was to take that as sufficient! No. I think
+but little of my life and have but little for which to live. But while
+I do live I will travel over the world's surface to face injustice and
+to expose it, before I will put up with it. You wrote to me! Heaven
+and earth;--I can hardly control myself when I hear such impudence!' She
+clenched her fist upon the knife that lay on the table as she looked
+at him, and raising it, dropped it again at a further distance. 'Wrote
+to me! Could any mere letter of your writing break the bond by which
+we were bound together? Had not the distance between us seemed to have
+made you safe would you have dared to write that letter? The letter
+must be unwritten. It has already been contradicted by your conduct to
+me since I have been in this country.'
+
+'I am sorry to hear you say that.'
+
+'Am I not justified in saying it?'
+
+'I hope not. When I first saw you I told you everything. If I have
+been wrong in attending to your wishes since, I regret it.'
+
+'This comes from your seeing your master for two minutes on the beach.
+You are acting now under his orders. No doubt he came with the
+purpose. Had you told him you were to be here?'
+
+'His coming was an accident.'
+
+'It was very opportune at any rate. Well;--what have you to say to me?
+Or am I to understand that you suppose yourself to have said all that
+is required of you? Perhaps you would prefer that I should argue the
+matter out with your--friend, Mr Carbury.'
+
+'What has to be said, I believe I can say myself.'
+
+'Say it then. Or are you so ashamed of it that the words stick in your
+throat?'
+
+'There is some truth in that. I am ashamed of it. I must say that
+which will be painful, and which would not have been to be said, had I
+been fairly careful.'
+
+Then he paused. 'Don't spare me,' she said. 'I know what it all is as
+well as though it were already told. I know the lies with which they
+have crammed you at San Francisco. You have heard that up in Oregon--
+I shot a man. That is no lie. I did. I brought him down dead at my
+feet.' Then she paused, and rose from her chair, and looked at him.
+'Do you wonder that that is a story that a woman should hesitate to
+tell? But not from shame. Do you suppose that the sight of that dying
+wretch does not haunt me? that I do not daily hear his drunken
+screech, and see him bound from the earth, and then fall in a heap
+just below my hand? But did they tell you also that it was thus alone
+that I could save myself,--and that had I spared him, I must afterwards
+have destroyed myself? If I were wrong, why did they not try me for
+his murder? Why did the women flock around me and kiss the very hems
+of my garments? In this soft civilization of yours you know nothing of
+such necessity. A woman here is protected,--unless it be from lies.'
+
+'It was not that only,' he whispered.
+
+'No; they told you other things,' she continued, still standing over
+him. 'They told you of quarrels with my husband. I know the lies, and
+who made them, and why. Did I conceal from you the character of my
+former husband? Did I not tell you that he was a drunkard and a
+scoundrel? How should I not quarrel with such a one? Ah, Paul; you can
+hardly know what my life has been.'
+
+'They told me that--you fought him.'
+
+'Psha;--fought him! Yes;--I was always fighting him. What are you
+to do but to fight cruelty, and fight falsehood, and fight fraud and
+treachery,--when they come upon you and would overwhelm you but for
+fighting? You have not been fool enough to believe that fable about a
+duel? I did stand once, armed, and guarded my bedroom door from him,
+and told him that he should only enter it over my body. He went away
+to the tavern and I did not see him for a week afterwards. That was
+the duel. And they have told you that he is not dead.'
+
+'Yes;--they have told me that.'
+
+'Who has seen him alive? I never said to you that I had seen him dead.
+How should I?'
+
+'There would be a certificate.'
+
+'Certificate;--in the back of Texas;--five hundred miles from Galveston!
+And what would it matter to you? I was divorced from him according to
+the law of the State of Kansas. Does not the law make a woman free
+here to marry again,--and why not with us? I sued for a divorce on the
+score of cruelty and drunkenness. He made no appearance, and the Court
+granted it me. Am I disgraced by that?'
+
+'I heard nothing of the divorce.'
+
+'I do not remember. When we were talking of these old days before, you
+did not care how short I was in telling my story. You wanted to hear
+little or nothing then of Caradoc Hurtle. Now you have become more
+particular. I told you that he was dead,--as I believed myself, and do
+believe. Whether the other story was told or not I do not know.'
+
+'It was not told.'
+
+'Then it was your own fault,--because you would not listen. And they
+have made you believe I suppose that I have failed in getting back my
+property?'
+
+'I have heard nothing about your property but what you yourself have
+said unasked. I have asked no question about your property.'
+
+'You are welcome. At last I have made it again my own. And now, sir,
+what else is there? I think I have been open with you. Is it because
+I protected myself from drunken violence that I am to be rejected? Am
+I to be cast aside because I saved my life while in the hands of a
+reprobate husband, and escaped from him by means provided by law;--or
+because by my own energy I have secured my own property? If I am not
+to be condemned for these things, then say why am I condemned.'
+
+She had at any rate saved him the trouble of telling the story, but in
+doing so had left him without a word to say. She had owned to shooting
+the man. Well; it certainly may be necessary that a woman should shoot
+a man--especially in Oregon. As to the duel with her husband,--she had
+half denied and half confessed it. He presumed that she had been armed
+with a pistol when she refused Mr Hurtle admittance into the nuptial
+chamber. As to the question of Hurtle's death,--she had confessed that
+perhaps he was not dead. But then,--as she had asked,--why should not a
+divorce for the purpose in hand be considered as good as a death? He
+could not say that she had not washed herself clean;--and yet, from the
+story as told by herself, what man would wish to marry her? She had
+seen so much of drunkenness, had become so handy with pistols, and had
+done so much of a man's work, that any ordinary man might well
+hesitate before he assumed to be her master. 'I do not condemn you,'
+he replied.
+
+'At any rate, Paul, do not lie,' she answered. 'If you tell me that
+you will not be my husband, you do condemn me. Is it not so?'
+
+'I will not lie if I can help it. I did ask you to be my wife--'
+
+'Well--rather. How often before I consented?'
+
+'It matters little; at any rate, till you did consent. I have since
+satisfied myself that such a marriage would be miserable for both of
+us.'
+
+'You have.'
+
+'I have. Of course, you can speak of me as you please and think of me
+as you please. I can hardly defend myself.'
+
+'Hardly, I think.'
+
+'But, with whatever result, I know that I shall now be acting for the
+best in declaring that I will not become--your husband.'
+
+'You will not?' She was still standing, and stretched out her right
+hand as though again to grasp something.
+
+He also now rose from his chair. 'If I speak with abruptness it is
+only to avoid a show of indecision. I will not.'
+
+'Oh, God! what have I done that it should be my lot to meet man after
+man false and cruel as this! You tell me to my face that I am to bear
+it! Who is the jade that has done it? Has she money?--or rank? Or is it
+that you are afraid to have by your side a woman who can speak for
+herself,--and even act for herself if some action be necessary? Perhaps
+you think that I am--old.' He was looking at her intently as she spoke,
+and it did seem to him that many years had been added to her face. It
+was full of lines round the mouth, and the light play of drollery was
+gone, and the colour was fixed and her eyes seemed to be deep in her
+head. 'Speak, man,--is it that you want a younger wife?'
+
+'You know it is not.'
+
+'Know! How should any one know anything from a liar? From what you
+tell me I know nothing. I have to gather what I can from your
+character. I see that you are a coward. It is that man that came to
+you, and who is your master, that has forced you to this. Between me
+and him you tremble, and are a thing to be pitied. As for knowing what
+you would be at, from anything that you would say,--that is impossible.
+Once again I have come across a mean wretch. Oh, fool!--that men should
+be so vile, and think themselves masters of the world! My last word to
+you is, that you are--a liar. Now for the present you can go. Ten
+minutes since, had I had a weapon in my hand I should have shot
+another man.'
+
+Paul Montague, as he looked round the room for his hat, could not but
+think that perhaps Mrs Hurtle might have had some excuse. It seemed at
+any rate to be her custom to have a pistol with her,--though luckily,
+for his comfort, she had left it in her bedroom on the present
+occasion. 'I will say good-bye to you,' he said, when he had found his
+hat.
+
+'Say no such thing. Tell me that you have triumphed and got rid of me.
+Pluck up your spirits, if you have any, and show me your joy. Tell me
+that an Englishman has dared to ill-treat an American woman. You
+would,--were you not afraid to indulge yourself.' He was now standing
+in the doorway, and before he escaped she gave him an imperative
+command. 'I shall not stay here now,' she said--'I shall return on
+Monday. I must think of what you have said, and must resolve what I
+myself will do. I shall not bear this without seeking a means of
+punishing you for your treachery. I shall expect you to come to me on
+Monday.'
+
+He closed the door as he answered her. 'I do not see that it will
+serve any purpose.'
+
+'It is for me, sir, to judge of that. I suppose you are not so much a
+coward that you are afraid to come to me. If so, I shall come to you;
+and you may be assured that I shall not be too timid to show myself
+and to tell my story.' He ended by saying that if she desired it he
+would wait upon her, but that he would not at present fix a day. On
+his return to town he would write to her.
+
+When he was gone she went to the door and listened awhile. Then she
+closed it, and turning the lock, stood with her back against the door
+and with her hands clasped. After a few moments she ran forward, and
+falling on her knees, buried her face in her hands upon the table.
+Then she gave way to a flood of tears, and at last lay rolling upon
+the floor.
+
+Was this to be the end of it? Should she never know rest;--never have
+one draught of cool water between her lips? Was there to be no end to
+the storms and turmoils and misery of her life? In almost all that she
+had said she had spoken the truth, though doubtless not all the truth,--
+as which among us would in giving the story of his life? She had
+endured violence, and had been violent. She had been schemed against,
+and had schemed. She had fitted herself to the life which had befallen
+her. But in regard to money, she had been honest and she had been
+loving of heart. With her heart of hearts she had loved this young
+Englishman;--and now, after all her scheming, all her daring, with all
+her charms, this was to be the end of it! Oh, what a journey would
+this be which she must now make back to her own country, all alone!
+
+But the strongest feeling which raged within her bosom was that of
+disappointed love. Full as had been the vials of wrath which she had
+poured forth over Montague's head, violent as had been the storm of
+abuse with which she had assailed him, there had been after all
+something counterfeited in her indignation. But her love was no
+counterfeit. At any moment if he would have returned to her and taken
+her in his arms, she would not only have forgiven him but have blessed
+him also for his kindness. She was in truth sick at heart of violence
+and rough living and unfeminine words. When driven by wrongs the old
+habit came back upon her. But if she could only escape the wrongs, if
+she could find some niche in the world which would be bearable to her,
+in which, free from harsh treatment, she could pour forth all the
+genuine kindness of her woman's nature,--then, she thought she could put
+away violence and be gentle as a young girl. When she first met this
+Englishman and found that he took delight in being near her, she had
+ventured to hope that a haven would at last be open to her. But the
+reek of the gunpowder from that first pistol shot still clung to her,
+and she now told herself again, as she had often told herself before,
+that it would have been better for her to have turned the muzzle
+against her own bosom.
+
+After receiving his letter she had run over on what she had told
+herself was a vain chance. Though angry enough when that letter first
+reached her, she had, with that force of character which marked her,
+declared to herself that such a resolution on his part was natural. In
+marrying her he must give up all his old allies, all his old haunts.
+The whole world must be changed to him. She knew enough of herself,
+and enough of Englishwomen, to be sure that when her past life should
+be known, as it would be known, she would be avoided in England. With
+all the little ridicule she was wont to exercise in speaking of the
+old country there was ever mixed, as is so often the case in the minds
+of American men and women, an almost envious admiration of English
+excellence. To have been allowed to forget the past and to live the
+life of an English lady would have been heaven to her. But she, who
+was sometimes scorned and sometimes feared in the eastern cities of
+her own country, whose name had become almost a proverb for violence
+out in the far West,--how could she dare to hope that her lot should be
+so changed for her?
+
+She had reminded Paul that she had required to be asked often before
+she had consented to be his wife; but she did not tell him that that
+hesitation had arisen from her own conviction of her own unfitness.
+But it had been so. Circumstances had made her what she was.
+Circumstances had been cruel to her. But she could not now alter them.
+Then gradually, as she came to believe in his love, as she lost
+herself in love for him, she told herself that she would be changed.
+She had, however, almost known that it could not be so. But this man
+had relatives, had business, had property in her own country. Though
+she could not be made happy in England, might not a prosperous life
+be opened for him in the far West? Then had risen the offer of that
+journey to Mexico with much probability that work of no ordinary
+kind might detain him there for years. With what joy would she have
+accompanied him as his wife! For that at any rate she would have been
+fit.
+
+She was conscious, perhaps too conscious, of her own beauty. That at
+any rate, she felt, had not deserted her. She was hardly aware that
+time was touching it. And she knew herself to be clever, capable of
+causing happiness, and mirth and comfort. She had the qualities of a
+good comrade--which are so much in a woman. She knew all this of
+herself. If he and she could be together in some country in which
+those stories of her past life would be matter of indifference, could
+she not make him happy? But what was she that a man should give up
+everything and go away and spend his days in some half-barbarous
+country for her alone? She knew it all and was hardly angry with him
+in that he had decided against her. But treated as she had been she
+must play her game with such weapons as she possessed. It was
+consonant with her old character, it was consonant with her present
+plans that she should at any rate seem to be angry.
+
+Sitting there alone late into the night she made many plans, but the
+plan that seemed best to suit the present frame of her mind was the
+writing of a letter to Paul bidding him adieu, sending him her fondest
+love, and telling him that he was right. She did write the letter, but
+wrote it with a conviction that she would not have the strength to
+send it to him. The reader may judge with what feeling she wrote the
+following words:--
+
+
+   DEAR PAUL
+
+   You are right and I am wrong. Our marriage would not have been
+   fitting. I do not blame you. I attracted you when we were
+   together; but you have learned and have learned truly that you
+   should not give up your life for such attractions. If I have
+   been violent with you, forgive me. You will acknowledge that I
+   have suffered.
+
+   Always know that there is one woman who will love you better
+   than any one else. I think too that you will love me even when
+   some other woman is by your side. God bless you, and make you
+   happy. Write me the shortest, shortest word of adieu. Not to do
+   so would make you think yourself heartless. But do not come to
+   me.
+
+   For ever
+
+   W. H.
+
+
+This she wrote on a small slip of paper, and then having read it
+twice, she put it into her pocket-book. She told herself that she
+ought to send it; but told herself as plainly that she could not bring
+herself to do so. It was early in the morning before she went to bed
+but she had admitted no one into the room after Montague had left her.
+
+Paul, when he escaped from her presence, roamed out on to the
+sea-shore, and then took himself to bed, having ordered a conveyance
+to take him to Carbury Manor early in the morning. At breakfast he
+presented himself to the squire. 'I have come earlier than you
+expected,' he said.
+
+'Yes, indeed;--much earlier. Are you going back to Lowestoft?'
+
+Then he told the whole story. Roger expressed his satisfaction,
+recalling however the pledge which he had given as to his return. 'Let
+her follow you, and bear it,' he said. 'Of course you must suffer the
+effects of your own imprudence.' On that evening Paul Montague
+returned to London by the mail train, being sure that he would thus
+avoid a meeting with Mrs Hurtle in the railway-carriage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII - RUBY A PRISONER
+
+
+Ruby had run away from her lover in great dudgeon after the dance at
+the Music Hall, and had declared that she never wanted to see him
+again. But when reflection came with the morning her misery was
+stronger than her wrath. What would life be to her now without her
+lover? When she escaped from her grandfather's house she certainly had
+not intended to become nurse and assistant maid-of-all-work at a
+London lodging-house. The daily toil she could endure, and the hard
+life, as long as she was supported by the prospect of some coming
+delight. A dance with Felix at the Music Hall, though it were three
+days distant from her, would so occupy her mind that she could wash
+and dress all the children without complaint. Mrs Pipkin was forced to
+own to herself that Ruby did earn her bread. But when she had parted
+with her lover almost on an understanding that they were never to meet
+again, things were very different with her. And perhaps she had been
+wrong. A gentleman like Sir Felix did not of course like to be told
+about marriage. If she gave him another chance, perhaps he would
+speak. At any rate she could not live without another dance. And so
+she wrote him a letter.
+
+Ruby was glib enough with her pen, though what she wrote will hardly
+bear repeating. She underscored all her loves to him. She underscored
+the expression of her regret if she had vexed him. She did not want to
+hurry a gentleman. But she did want to have another dance at the Music
+Hall. Would he be there next Saturday? Sir Felix sent her a very short
+reply to say that he would be at the Music Hall on the Tuesday. As at
+this time he proposed to leave London on the Wednesday on his way to
+New York, he was proposing to devote his very last night to the
+companionship of Ruby Ruggles.
+
+Mrs Pipkin had never interfered with her niece's letters. It is
+certainly a part of the new dispensation that young women shall send
+and receive letters without inspection. But since Roger Carbury's
+visit Mrs Pipkin had watched the postman, and had also watched her
+niece. For nearly a week Ruby said not a word of going out at night.
+She took the children for an airing in a broken perambulator, nearly
+as far as Holloway, with exemplary care, and washed up the cups and
+saucers as though her mind was intent upon them. But Mrs Pipkin's mind
+was intent on obeying Mr Carbury's behests. She had already hinted
+something as to which Ruby had made no answer. It was her purpose to
+tell her and to swear to her most,--solemnly should she find her
+preparing herself to leave the house after six in the evening,--that she
+should be kept out the whole night, having a purpose equally clear in
+her own mind that she would break her oath should she be unsuccessful
+in her effort to keep Ruby at home. But on the Tuesday, when Ruby went
+up to her room to deck herself, a bright idea as to a better
+precaution struck Mrs Pipkin's mind. Ruby had been careless,--had left
+her lover's scrap of a note in an old pocket when she went out with
+the children, and Mrs Pipkin knew all about it. It was nine o'clock
+when Ruby went upstairs,--and then Mrs Pipkin locked both the front door
+and the area gate. Mrs Hurtle had come home on the previous day. 'You
+won't be wanting to go out to-night;--will you, Mrs Hurtle?' said Mrs
+Pipkin, knocking at her lodger's door. Mrs Hurtle declared her purpose
+of remaining at home all the evening. 'If you should hear words
+between me and my niece, don't you mind, ma'am.'
+
+'I hope there's nothing wrong, Mrs Pipkin?'
+
+'She'll be wanting to go out, and I won't have it. It isn't right; is
+it, ma'am? She's a good girl; but they've got such a way nowadays of
+doing just as they pleases, that one doesn't know what's going to come
+next.' Mrs Pipkin must have feared downright rebellion when she thus
+took her lodger into her confidence.
+
+Ruby came down in her silk frock, as she had done before, and made her
+usual little speech. 'I'm just going to step out, aunt, for a little
+time to-night. I've got the key, and I'll let myself in quite quiet.'
+
+'Indeed, Ruby, you won't,' said Mrs Pipkin.
+
+'Won't what, aunt?'
+
+'Won't let yourself in, if you go out. If you go out to-night you'll
+stay out. That's all about it. If you go out to-night you won't come
+back here any more. I won't have it, and it isn't right that I should.
+You're going after that young man that they tell me is the greatest
+scamp in all England.'
+
+'They tell you lies then, Aunt Pipkin.'
+
+'Very well. No girl is going out any more at nights out of my house;
+so that's all about it. If you had told me you was going before, you
+needn't have gone up and bedizened yourself. For now it's all to take
+off again.'
+
+Ruby could hardly believe it. She had expected some opposition,--what
+she would have called a few words; but she had never imagined that her
+aunt would threaten to keep her in the streets all night. It seemed to
+her that she had bought the privilege of amusing herself by hard work.
+Nor did she believe now that her aunt would be as hard as her threat.
+'I've a right to go if I like,' she said.
+
+'That's as you think. You haven't a right to come back again, any
+way.'
+
+'Yes, I have. I've worked for you a deal harder than the girl
+downstairs, and I don't want no wages. I've a right to go out, and a
+right to come back;--and go I shall.'
+
+'You'll be no better than you should be, if you do.'
+
+'Am I to work my very nails off, and push that perambulator about all
+day till my legs won't carry me,--and then I ain't to go out, not once
+in a week?'
+
+'Not unless I know more about it, Ruby. I won't have you go and throw
+yourself into the gutter;--not while you're with me.'
+
+'Who's throwing themselves into the gutter? I've thrown myself into no
+gutter. I know what I'm about.'
+
+'There's two of us that way, Ruby;--for I know what I'm about.'
+
+'I shall just go then.' And Ruby walked off towards the door.
+
+'You won't get out that way, any way, for the door's locked;--and the
+area gate. You'd better be said, Ruby, and just take your things off.'
+
+Poor Ruby for the moment was struck dumb with mortification. Mrs
+Pipkin had given her credit for more outrageous perseverance than she
+possessed, and had feared that she would rattle at the front door, or
+attempt to climb over the area gate. She was a little afraid of Ruby,
+not feeling herself justified in holding absolute dominion over her as
+over a servant. And though she was now determined in her conduct,--being
+fully resolved to surrender neither of the keys which she held in her
+pocket,--still she feared that she might so far collapse as to fall away
+into tears, should Ruby be violent. But Ruby was crushed. Her lover
+would be there to meet her, and the appointment would be broken by
+her! 'Aunt Pipkin,' she said, 'let me go just this once.'
+
+'No, Ruby;--it ain't proper.'
+
+'You don't know what you're a doing of, aunt; you don't. You'll ruin
+me,--you will. Dear Aunt Pipkin, do, do! I'll never ask again, if you
+don't like.'
+
+Mrs Pipkin had not expected this, and was almost willing to yield. But
+Mr Carbury had spoken so very plainly! 'It ain't the thing, Ruby; and
+I won't do it.'
+
+'And I'm to be--a prisoner! What have I done to be--a prisoner? I
+don't believe as you've any right to lock me up.'
+
+'I've a right to lock my own doors.'
+
+'Then I shall go away to-morrow.'
+
+'I can't help that, my dear. The door will be open to-morrow, if you
+choose to go out.'
+
+'Then why not open it to-night? Where's the difference?' But Mrs Pipkin
+was stern, and Ruby, in a flood of tears, took herself up to her
+garret.
+
+Mrs Pipkin knocked at Mrs Hurtle's door again. 'She's gone to bed,' she
+said.
+
+'I'm glad to hear it. There wasn't any noise about it;--was there?'
+
+'Not as I expected, Mrs Hurtle, certainly. But she was put out a bit.
+Poor girl! I've been a girl too, and used to like a bit of outing as
+well as any one,--and a dance too; only it was always when mother knew.
+She ain't got a mother, poor dear! and as good as no father. And she's
+got it into her head that she's that pretty that a great gentleman
+will marry her.'
+
+'She is pretty!'
+
+'But what's beauty, Mrs Hurtle? It's no more nor skin deep, as the
+scriptures tell us. And what'd a grand gentleman see in Ruby to marry
+her? She says she'll leave to-morrow.'
+
+'And where will she go?'
+
+'Just nowhere. After this gentleman,--and you know what that means!
+You're going to be married yourself, Mrs Hurtle.'
+
+'We won't mind about that now, Mrs Pipkin.'
+
+'And this'll be your second, and you know how these things are
+managed. No gentleman'll marry her because she runs after him. Girls
+as knows what they're about should let the gentlemen run after them.
+That's my way of looking at it.'
+
+'Don't you think they should be equal in that respect?'
+
+'Anyways the girls shouldn't let on as they are running after the
+gentlemen. A gentlemen goes here and he goes there, and he speaks up
+free, of course. In my time, girls usen't to do that. But then, maybe,
+I'm old-fashioned,' added Mrs Pipkin, thinking of the new
+dispensation.
+
+'I suppose girls do speak for themselves more than they did formerly.'
+
+'A deal more, Mrs Hurtle; quite different. You hear them talk of
+spooning with this fellow, and spooning with that fellow,--and that
+before their very fathers and mothers! When I was young we used to do
+it, I suppose,--only not like that.'
+
+'You did it on the sly.'
+
+'I think we got married quicker than they do, anyway. When the
+gentlemen had to take more trouble they thought more about it. But if
+you wouldn't mind speaking to Ruby to-morrow, Mrs Hurtle, she'd listen
+to you when she wouldn't mind a word I said to her. I don't want her
+to go away from this, out into the Street, till she knows where she's
+to go to, decent. As for going to her young man,--that's just walking
+the streets.'
+
+Mrs Hurtle promised that she would speak to Ruby, though when making
+the promise she could not but think of her unfitness for the task. She
+knew nothing of the country. She had not a single friend in it, but
+Paul Montague;--and she had run after him with as little discretion as
+Ruby Ruggles was showing in running after her lover. Who was she that
+she should take upon herself to give advice to any female?
+
+She had not sent her letter to Paul, but she still kept it in her
+pocket-book. At some moments she thought that she would send it; and
+at others she told herself that she would never surrender this last
+hope till every stone had been turned. It might still be possible to
+shame him into a marriage. She had returned from Lowestoft on the
+Monday, and had made some trivial excuse to Mrs Pipkin in her mildest
+voice. The place had been windy, and too cold for her;--and she had not
+liked the hotel. Mrs Pipkin was very glad to see her back again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX - SIR FELIX MAKES HIMSELF READY
+
+
+Sir Felix, when he promised to meet Ruby at the Music Hall on the
+Tuesday, was under an engagement to start with Marie Melmotte for New
+York on the Thursday following, and to go down to Liverpool on the
+Wednesday. There was no reason, he thought, why he should not enjoy
+himself to the last, and he would say a parting word to poor little
+Ruby. The details of his journey were settled between him and Marie,
+with no inconsiderable assistance from Didon, in the garden of Grosvenor
+Square, on the previous Sunday,--where the lovers had again met during
+the hours of morning service. Sir Felix had been astonished at the
+completion of the preparations which had been made. 'Mind you go by
+the 5 p.m. train,' Marie said. 'That will take you into Liverpool at
+10:15. There's an hotel at the railway station. Didon has got our
+tickets under the names of Madame and Mademoiselle Racine. We are to
+have one cabin between us. You must get yours to-morrow. She has found
+out that there is plenty of room.'
+
+'I'll be all right.'
+
+'Pray don't miss the train that afternoon. Somebody would be sure to
+suspect something if we were seen together in the same train. We leave
+at 7 a.m. I shan't go to bed all night, so as to be sure to be in
+time. Robert,--he's the man,--will start a little earlier in the cab
+with my heavy box. What do you think is in it?'
+
+'Clothes,' suggested Felix.
+
+'Yes, but what clothes?--my wedding dresses. Think of that! What a job
+to get them and nobody to know anything about it except Didon and
+Madame Craik at the shop in Mount Street! They haven't come yet, but I
+shall be there whether they come or not. And I shall have all my
+jewels. I'm not going to leave them behind. They'll go off in our cab.
+We can get the things out behind the house into the mews. Then Didon
+and I follow in another cab. Nobody ever is up before near nine, and I
+don't think we shall be interrupted.'
+
+'If the servants were to hear.'
+
+'I don't think they'd tell. But if I was to be brought back again, I
+should only tell papa that it was no good. He can't prevent me
+marrying.'
+
+'Won't your mother find out?'
+
+'She never looks after anything. I don't think she'd tell if she
+knew. Papa leads her such a life! Felix! I hope you won't be like
+that.'--And she looked up into his face, and thought that it would be
+impossible that he should be.
+
+'I'm all right,' said Felix, feeling very uncomfortable at the time.
+This great effort of his life was drawing very near. There had been a
+pleasurable excitement in talking of running away with the great
+heiress of the day, but now that the deed had to be executed,--and
+executed after so novel and stupendous a fashion, he almost wished
+that he had not undertaken it. It must have been much nicer when men
+ran away with their heiresses only as far as Gretna Green. And even
+Goldsheiner with Lady Julia had nothing of a job in comparison with
+this which he was expected to perform. And then if they should be
+wrong about the girl's fortune! He almost repented. He did repent, but
+he had not the courage to recede. 'How about money though?' he said
+hoarsely.
+
+'You have got some?'
+
+'I have just the two hundred pounds which your father paid me, and not
+a shilling more. I don't see why he should keep my money, and not let
+me have it back.'
+
+'Look here,' said Marie, and she put her hand into her pocket. 'I told
+you I thought I could get some. There is a cheque for two hundred and
+fifty pounds. I had money of my own enough for the tickets.'
+
+'And whose is this?' said Felix, taking the bit of paper with much
+trepidation.
+
+'It is papa's cheque. Mamma gets ever so many of them to carry on the
+house and pay for things. But she gets so muddled about it that she
+doesn't know what she pays and what she doesn't.' Felix looked at the
+cheque and saw that it was payable to House or Bearer, and that it was
+signed by Augustus Melmotte. 'If you take it to the bank you'll get
+the money,' said Marie. 'Or shall I send Didon, and give you the money
+on board the ship?'
+
+Felix thought over the matter very anxiously. If he did go on the
+journey he would much prefer to have the money in his own pocket. He
+liked the feeling of having money in his pocket. Perhaps if Didon were
+entrusted with the cheque she also would like the feeling. But then
+might it not be possible that if he presented the cheque himself he
+might be arrested for stealing Melmotte's money? 'I think Didon had
+better get the money,' he said, 'and bring it to me to-morrow, at four
+o'clock in the afternoon, to the club.' If the money did not come he
+would not go down to Liverpool, nor would he be at the expense of his
+ticket for New York. 'You see,' he said, 'I'm so much in the City that
+they might know me at the bank.' To this arrangement Marie assented
+and took back the cheque. 'And then I'll come on board on Thursday
+morning,' he said, 'without looking for you.'
+
+'Oh dear, yes;--without looking for us. And don't know us even till we
+are out at sea. Won't it be fun when we shall be walking about on the
+deck and not speaking to one another! And, Felix;--what do you think?
+Didon has found out that there is to be an American clergyman on
+board. I wonder whether he'd marry us.'
+
+'Of course he will.'
+
+'Won't that be jolly? I wish it was all done. Then, directly it's
+done, and when we get to New York, we'll telegraph and write to papa,
+and we'll be ever so penitent and good; won't we? Of course he'll make
+the best of it.'
+
+'But he's so savage; isn't he?'
+
+'When there's anything to get;--or just at the moment. But I don't think
+he minds afterwards. He's always for making the best of everything;--
+misfortunes and all. Things go wrong so often that if he was to go on
+thinking of them always they'd be too many for anybody. It'll be all
+right in a month's time. I wonder how Lord Nidderdale will look when
+he hears that we've gone off. I should so like to see him. He never
+can say that I've behaved bad to him. We were engaged, but it was he
+broke it. Do you know, Felix, that though we were engaged to be
+married, and everybody knew it, he never once kissed me!' Felix at
+this moment almost wished that he had never done so. As to what the
+other man had done, he cared nothing at all.
+
+Then they parted with the understanding that they were not to see each
+other again till they met on board the boat. All arrangements were
+made. But Felix was determined that he would not stir in the matter
+unless Didon brought him the full sum of £250; and he almost thought,
+and indeed hoped, that she would not. Either she would be suspected at
+the bank and apprehended, or she would run off with the money on her
+own account when she got it;--or the cheque would have been missed and
+the payment stopped. Some accident would occur, and then he would be
+able to recede from his undertaking. He would do nothing till after
+Monday afternoon.
+
+Should he tell his mother that he was going? His mother had clearly
+recommended him to run away with the girl, and must therefore approve
+of the measure. His mother would understand how great would be the
+expense of such a trip, and might perhaps add something to his stock
+of money. He determined that he could tell his mother;--that is, if
+Didon should bring him full change for the cheque.
+
+He walked into the Beargarden exactly at four o'clock on the Monday,
+and there he found Didon standing in the hall. His heart sank within
+him as he saw her. Now must he certainly go to New York. She made him
+a little curtsey, and without a word handed him an envelope, soft and
+fat with rich enclosures. He bade her wait a moment, and going into a
+little waiting-room counted the notes. The money was all there;--the
+full sum of £250. He must certainly go to New York. 'C'est tout èn
+regle?' said Didon in a whisper as he returned to the hall. Sir Felix
+nodded his head, and Didon took her departure.
+
+Yes; he must go now. He had Melmotte's money in his pocket, and was
+therefore bound to run away with Melmotte's daughter. It was a great
+trouble to him as he reflected that Melmotte had more of his money
+than he had of Melmotte's. And now how should he dispose of his time
+before he went? Gambling was too dangerous. Even he felt that. Where
+would he be were he to lose his ready money? He would dine that night
+at the club, and in the evening go up to his mother. On the Tuesday he
+would take his place for New York in the City, and would spend the
+evening with Ruby at the Music Hall. On the Wednesday, he would start
+for Liverpool,--according to his instructions. He felt annoyed that
+he had been so fully instructed. But should the affair turn out well
+nobody would know that. All the fellows would give him credit for the
+audacity with which he had carried off the heiress to America.
+
+At ten o'clock he found his mother and Hetta in Welbeck Street--
+'What; Felix?' exclaimed Lady Carbury.
+
+'You're surprised; are you not?' Then he threw himself into a chair.
+'Mother,' he said, 'would you mind coming into the other room?' Lady
+Carbury of course went with him. 'I've got something to tell you,' he
+said.
+
+'Good news?' she asked, clasping her hands together. From his manner
+she thought that it was good news. Money had in some way come into his
+hands,--or at any rate a prospect of money.
+
+'That's as may be,' he said, and then he paused.
+
+'Don't keep me in suspense, Felix.'
+
+'The long and the short of it is that I'm going to take Marie off.'
+
+'Oh, Felix.'
+
+'You said you thought it was the right thing to do;--and therefore I'm
+going to do it. The worst of it is that one wants such a lot of money
+for this kind of thing.'
+
+'But when?'
+
+'Immediately. I wouldn't tell you till I had arranged everything. I've
+had it in my mind for the last fortnight.'
+
+'And how is it to be? Oh, Felix, I hope it may succeed.'
+
+'It was your own idea, you know. We're going to;--where do you think?'
+
+'How can I think?--Boulogne.'
+
+'You say that just because Goldsheiner went there. That wouldn't have
+done at all for us. We're going to--New York.'
+
+'To New York! But when will you be married?'
+
+'There will be a clergyman on board. It's all fixed. I wouldn't go
+without telling you.'
+
+'Oh; I wish you hadn't told me.'
+
+'Come now;--that's kind. You don't mean to say it wasn't you that put me
+up to it. I've got to get my things ready.'
+
+'Of course, if you tell me that you are going on a journey, I will
+have your clothes got ready for you. When do you start?'
+
+'Wednesday afternoon.'
+
+'For New York! We must get some things ready-made. Oh, Felix, how will
+it be if he does not forgive her?' He attempted to laugh. 'When I
+spoke of such a thing as possible he had not sworn then that he would
+never give her a shilling.'
+
+'They always say that.'
+
+'You are going to risk it?'
+
+'I am going to take your advice.' This was dreadful to the poor
+mother. 'There is money settled on her.'
+
+'Settled on whom?'
+
+'On Marie;--money which he can't get back again.'
+
+'How much?'
+
+'She doesn't know,--but a great deal; enough for them all to live upon
+if things went amiss with them.'
+
+'But that's only a form, Felix. That money can't be her own, to give
+to her husband.'
+
+'Melmotte will find that it is, unless he comes to terms. That's the
+pull we've got over him. Marie knows what she's about. She's a great
+deal sharper than any one would take her to be. What can you do for
+me about money, mother?'
+
+'I have none, Felix.'
+
+'I thought you'd be sure to help me, as you wanted me so much to do
+it.'
+
+'That's not true, Felix. I didn't want you to do it. Oh, I am so sorry
+that that word ever passed my mouth! I have no money. There isn't £20
+at the bank altogether.'
+
+'They would let you overdraw for £50 or £60.'
+
+'I will not do it. I will not starve myself and Hetta. You had ever so
+much money only lately. I will get some things for you, and pay for
+them as I can if you cannot pay for them after your marriage;--but I
+have not money to give you.'
+
+'That's a blue look-out,' said he, turning himself in his chair 'just
+when £60 or £70 might make a fellow for life! You could borrow it from
+your friend Broune.'
+
+'I will do no such thing, Felix. £50 or £60 would make very little
+difference in the expense of such a trip as this. I suppose you have
+some money?'
+
+'Some;--yes, some. But I'm so short that any little thing would help
+me.' Before the evening was over she absolutely did give him a cheque
+for £30 although she had spoken the truth in saying that she had not
+so much at her banker's.
+
+After this he went back to his club, although he himself understood
+the danger. He could not bear the idea of going to bed, quietly at
+home at half-past ten. He got into a cab, and was very soon up in the
+card-room. He found nobody there, and went to the smoking-room, where
+Dolly Longestaffe and Miles Grendall were sitting silently together,
+with pipes in their mouths. 'Here's Carbury,' said Dolly, waking
+suddenly into life. 'Now we can have a game at three-handed loo.'
+
+'Thank ye; not for me,' said Sir Felix. 'I hate three-handed loo.'
+
+'Dummy,' suggested Dolly.
+
+'I don't think I'll play to-night, old fellow. I hate three fellows
+sticking down together.' Miles sat silent, smoking his pipe, conscious
+of the baronet's dislike to play with him. 'By-the-by, Grendall look
+here.' And Sir Felix in his most friendly tone whispered into his
+enemy's ear a petition that some of the I.O.U.'s might be converted into
+cash.
+
+''Pon my word, I must ask you to wait till next week,' said Miles.
+
+'It's always waiting till next week with you,' said Sir Felix, getting
+up and standing with his back to the fireplace. There were other men
+in the room, and this was said so that every one should hear it. 'I
+wonder whether any fellow would buy these for five shillings in the
+pound?' And he held up the scraps of paper in his hand. He had been
+drinking freely before he went up to Welbeck Street, and had taken a
+glass of brandy on re-entering the club.
+
+'Don't let's have any of that kind of thing down here,' said Dolly.
+'If there is to be a row about cards, let it be in the card-room.'
+
+'Of course,' said Miles. 'I won't say a word about the matter down
+here. It isn't the proper thing.'
+
+'Come up into the card-room, then,' said Sir Felix, getting up from
+his chair. 'It seems to me that it makes no difference to you, what
+room you're in. Come up, now; and Dolly Longestaffe shall come and
+hear what you say.' But Miles Grendall objected to this arrangement.
+He was not going up into the card-room that night, as no one was going
+to play. He would be there to-morrow, and then if Sir Felix Carbury had
+anything to say, he could say it.
+
+'How I do hate a row!' said Dolly. 'One has to have rows with one's
+own people, but there ought not to be rows at a club.'
+
+'He likes a row,--Carbury does,' said Miles.
+
+'I should like my money, if I could get it,' said Sir Felix, walking
+out of the room.
+
+On the next day he went into the City, and changed his mother's
+cheque. This was done after a little hesitation: The money was given
+to him, but a gentleman from behind the desks begged him to remind
+Lady Carbury that she was overdrawing her account. 'Dear, dear;' said
+Sir Felix, as he pocketed the notes, 'I'm sure she was unaware of it.'
+Then he paid for his passage from Liverpool to New York under the name
+of Walter Jones, and felt as he did so that the intrigue was becoming
+very deep. This was on Tuesday. He dined again at the club, alone, and
+in the evening went to the Music Hall. There he remained, from ten
+till nearly twelve, very angry at the non-appearance of Ruby Ruggles.
+As he smoked and drank in solitude, he almost made up his mind that
+he had intended to tell her of his departure for New York. Of course
+he would have done no such thing. But now, should she ever complain on
+that head he would have his answer ready. He had devoted his last
+night in England to the purpose of telling her, and she had broken her
+appointment. Everything would now be her fault. Whatever might happen
+to her she could not blame him.
+
+Having waited till he was sick of the Music Hall,--for a music hall
+without ladies' society must be somewhat dull,--he went back to his
+club. He was very cross, as brave as brandy could make him, and well
+inclined to expose Miles Grendall if he could find an opportunity. Up
+in the card-room he found all the accustomed men,--with the exception of
+Miles Grendall. Nidderdale, Grasslough, Dolly, Paul Montague, and one
+or two others were there. There was, at any rate, comfort in the idea
+of playing without having to encounter the dead weight of Miles
+Grendall. Ready money was on the table,--and there was none of the
+peculiar Beargarden paper flying about. Indeed the men at the
+Beargarden had become sick of paper, and there had been formed a
+half-expressed resolution that the play should be somewhat lower, but
+the payments punctual. The I.O.U.'s had been nearly all converted into
+money,--with the assistance of Herr Vossner,--excepting those of Miles
+Grendall. The resolution mentioned did not refer back to Grendall's
+former indebtedness, but was intended to include a clause that he must
+in future pay ready money. Nidderdale had communicated to him the
+determination of the committee. 'Bygones are bygones, old fellow; but
+you really must stump up, you know, after this.' Miles had declared
+that he would 'stump up.' But on this occasion Miles was absent.
+
+At three o'clock in the morning, Sir Felix had lost over a hundred
+pounds in ready money. On the following night about one he had lost a
+further sum of two hundred pounds. The reader will remember that he
+should at that time have been in the hotel at Liverpool.
+
+But Sir Felix, as he played on in the almost desperate hope of
+recovering the money which he so greatly needed, remembered how Fisker
+had played all night, and how he had gone off from the club to catch
+the early train for Liverpool, and how he had gone on to New York
+without delay.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L - THE JOURNEY TO LIVERPOOL
+
+
+Marie Melmotte, as she had promised, sat up all night, as did also the
+faithful Didon. I think that to Marie the night was full of pleasure,--
+or at any rate of pleasurable excitement. With her door locked, she
+packed and unpacked and repacked her treasures,--having more than once
+laid out on the bed the dress in which she purposed to be married. She
+asked Didon her opinion whether that American clergyman of whom they
+had heard would marry them on board, and whether in that event the
+dress would be fit for the occasion. Didon thought that the man, if
+sufficiently paid, would marry them, and that the dress would not much
+signify. She scolded her young mistress very often during the night
+for what she called nonsense; but was true to her, and worked hard for
+her. They determined to go without food in the morning, so that no
+suspicion should be raised by the use of cups and plates. They could
+get refreshment at the railway-station.
+
+At six they started. Robert went first with the big boxes, having his
+ten pounds already in his pocket,--and Marie and Didon with smaller
+luggage followed in a second cab. No one interfered with them and
+nothing went wrong. The very civil man at Euston Square gave them
+their tickets, and even attempted to speak to them in French. They had
+quite determined that not a word of English was to be spoken by Marie
+till the ship was out at sea. At the station they got some very bad
+tea and almost uneatable food,--but Marie's restrained excitement was so
+great that food was almost unnecessary to her. They took their seats
+without any impediment,--and then they were off.
+
+During a great part of the journey they were alone, and then Marie
+gabbled to Didon about her hopes and her future career, and all the
+things she would do;--how she had hated Lord Nidderdale,--especially when,
+after she had been awed into accepting him, he had given her no token
+of love,--'pas un baiser!' Didon suggested that such was the way with
+English lords. She herself had preferred Lord Nidderdale, but had been
+willing to join in the present plan,--as she said, from devoted
+affection to Marie. Marie went on to say that Nidderdale was ugly, and
+that Sir Felix was as beautiful as the morning. 'Bah!' exclaimed
+Didon, who was really disgusted that such considerations should
+prevail. Didon had learned in some indistinct way that Lord Nidderdale
+would be a marquis and would have a castle, whereas Sir Felix would
+never be more than Sir Felix, and, of his own, would never have
+anything at all. She had striven with her mistress, but her mistress
+liked to have a will of her own. Didon no doubt had thought that New
+York, with £50 and other perquisites in hand, might offer her a new
+career. She had therefore yielded, but even now could hardly forbear
+from expressing disgust at the folly of her mistress. Marie bore it
+with imperturbable good humour. She was running away,--and was running
+to a distant continent,--and her lover would be with her! She gave Didon
+to understand that she cared nothing for marquises.
+
+As they drew near to Liverpool Didon explained that they must still be
+very careful. It would not do for them to declare at once their
+destination on the platform,--so that every one about the station should
+know that they were going on board the packet for New York. They had
+time enough. They must leisurely look for the big boxes and other
+things, and need say nothing about the steam packet till they were in
+a cab. Marie's big box was directed simply 'Madame Racine, Passenger
+to Liverpool;'--so also was directed a second box, nearly as big, which
+was Didon's property. Didon declared that her anxiety would not be
+over till she found the ship moving under her. Marie was sure that all
+their dangers were over,--if only Sir Felix was safe on board. Poor
+Marie! Sir Felix was at this moment in Welbeck Street, striving to
+find temporary oblivion for his distressing situation and loss of
+money, and some alleviation for his racking temples, beneath the
+bedclothes.
+
+When the train ran into the station at Liverpool the two women sat for
+a few moments quite quiet. They would not seek remark by any hurry or
+noise. The door was opened, and a well-mannered porter offered to take
+their luggage. Didon handed out the various packages, keeping however
+the jewel-case in her own hands. She left the carriage first, and then
+Marie. But Marie had hardly put her foot on the platform, before a
+gentleman addressed her, touching his hat, 'You, I think, are Miss
+Melmotte.' Marie was struck dumb, but said nothing. Didon immediately
+became voluble in French. No; the young lady was not Miss Melmotte;
+the young lady was Mademoiselle Racine, her niece. She was Madame
+Racine. Melmotte! What was Melmotte? They knew nothing about
+Melmottes. Would the gentleman kindly allow them to pass on to their
+cab?
+
+But the gentleman would by no means kindly allow them to pass on to
+their cab. With the gentleman was another gentleman,--who did not seem
+to be quite so much of a gentleman;--and again, not far in the distance
+Didon quickly espied a policeman, who did not at present connect
+himself with the affair, but who seemed to have his time very much at
+command, and to be quite ready if he were wanted. Didon at once gave
+up the game,--as regarded her mistress.
+
+'I am afraid I must persist in asserting that you are Miss Melmotte,'
+said the gentleman, 'and that this other--person is your servant, Elise
+Didon. You speak English, Miss Melmotte.' Marie declared that she
+spoke French. 'And English too,' said the gentleman. 'I think you had
+better make up your minds to go back to London. I will accompany you.'
+
+'Ah, Didon, nous sommes perdues!' exclaimed Marie. Didon, plucking up
+her courage for the moment, asserted the legality of her own position
+and of that of her mistress. They had both a right to come to
+Liverpool. They had both a right to get into the cab with their
+luggage. Nobody had a right to stop them. They had done nothing
+against the laws. Why were they to be stopped in this way? What was it
+to anybody whether they called themselves Melmotte or Racine?
+
+The gentleman understood the French oratory, but did not commit
+himself to reply in the same language. 'You had better trust yourself
+to me; you had indeed,' said the gentleman.
+
+'But why?' demanded Marie.
+
+Then the gentleman spoke in a very low voice. 'A cheque has been
+changed which you took from your father's house. No doubt your father
+will pardon that when you are once with him. But in order that we may
+bring you back safely we can arrest you on the score of the cheque,--
+if you force us to do so. We certainly shall not let you go on board.
+If you will travel back to London with me, you shall be subjected to
+no inconvenience which can be avoided.'
+
+There was certainly no help to be found anywhere. It may be well
+doubted whether upon the whole the telegraph has not added more to the
+annoyances than to the comforts of life, and whether the gentlemen who
+spent all the public money without authority ought not to have been
+punished with special severity in that they had injured humanity,
+rather than pardoned because of the good they had produced. Who is
+benefited by telegrams? The newspapers are robbed of all their old
+interest, and the very soul of intrigue is destroyed. Poor Marie, when
+she heard her fate, would certainly have gladly hanged Mr Scudamore.
+
+When the gentleman had made his speech, she offered no further
+opposition. Looking into Didon's face and bursting into tears, she sat
+down on one of the boxes. But Didon became very clamorous on her own
+behalf,--and her clamour was successful. 'Who was going to stop her?
+What had she done? Why should not she go where she pleased. Did anybody
+mean to take her up for stealing anybody's money? If anybody did, that
+person had better look to himself. She knew the law. She would go
+where she pleased.' So saying she began to tug the rope of her box as
+though she intended to drag it by her own force out of the station.
+The gentleman looked at his telegram,--looked at another document which
+he now held in his hand, ready prepared, should it be wanted. Elise
+Didon had been accused of nothing that brought her within the law. The
+gentleman in imperfect French suggested that Didon had better return
+with her mistress. But Didon clamoured only the more. No; she would go
+to New York. She would go wherever she pleased;--all the world over.
+Nobody should stop her. Then she addressed herself in what little
+English she could command to half-a-dozen cab-men who were standing
+round and enjoying the scene. They were to take her trunk at once. She
+had money and she could pay. She started off to the nearest cab, and
+no one stopped her. 'But the box in her hand is mine,' said Marie, not
+forgetting her trinkets in her misery. Didon surrendered the
+jewel-case, and ensconced herself in the cab without a word of
+farewell; and her trunk was hoisted on to the roof. Then she was
+driven away out of the station,--and out of our story. She had a
+first-class cabin all to herself as far as New York, but what may have
+been her fate after that it matters not to us to enquire.
+
+Poor Marie! We who know how recreant a knight Sir Felix had proved
+himself, who are aware that had Miss Melmotte succeeded in getting on
+board the ship she would have passed an hour of miserable suspense,
+looking everywhere for her lover, and would then at last have been
+carried to New York without him, may congratulate her on her escape.
+And, indeed, we who know his character better than she did, may still
+hope in her behalf that she may be ultimately saved from so wretched a
+marriage. But to her her present position was truly miserable. She
+would have to encounter an enraged father; and when,--when should she
+see her lover again? Poor, poor Felix! What would be his feelings when
+he should find himself on his way to New York without his love! But in
+one matter she made up her mind steadfastly. She would be true to him!
+They might chop her in pieces! Yes;--she had said it before, and she
+would say it again. There was, however, doubt in her mind from time to
+time, whether one course might not be better even than constancy. If
+she could contrive to throw herself out of the carriage and to be
+killed,--would not that be the best termination to her present
+disappointment? Would not that be the best punishment for her father?
+But how then would it be with poor Felix? 'After all I don't know that
+he cares for me,' she said to herself, thinking over it all.
+
+The gentleman was very kind to her, not treating her at all as though
+she were disgraced. As they got near town he ventured to give her a
+little advice. 'Put a good face on it,' he said, 'and don't be cast
+down.'
+
+'Oh, I won't,' she answered. 'I don't mean.'
+
+'Your mother will be delighted to have you back again.'
+
+'I don't think that mamma cares. It's papa. I'd do it again to-morrow
+if I had the chance.' The gentleman looked at her, not having expected
+so much determination. 'I would. Why is a girl to be made to marry to
+please any one but herself? I won't. And it's very mean saying that I
+stole the money. I always take what I want, and papa never says
+anything about it.'
+
+'Two hundred and fifty pounds is a large sum, Miss Melmotte.'
+
+'It is nothing in our house. It isn't about the money. It's because
+papa wants me to marry another man;--and I won't. It was downright mean
+to send and have me taken up before all the people.'
+
+'You wouldn't have come back if he hadn't done that.'
+
+'Of course I wouldn't,' said Marie.
+
+The gentleman had telegraphed up to Grosvenor Square while on the
+journey, and at Euston Square they were met by one of the Melmotte
+carriages. Marie was to be taken home in the carriage, and the box was
+to follow in a cab;--to follow at some interval so that Grosvenor Square
+might not be aware of what had taken place. Grosvenor Square, of
+course, very soon knew all about it. 'And are you to come?' Marie
+asked, speaking to the gentleman. The gentleman replied that be had
+been requested to see Miss Melmotte home. 'All the people will wonder
+who you are,' said Marie laughing. Then the gentleman thought that
+Miss Melmotte would be able to get through her troubles without much
+suffering.
+
+When she got home she was hurried up at once to her mother's room,--and
+there she found her father, alone. 'This is your game, is it?' said
+he, looking down at her.
+
+'Well, papa;--yes. You made me do it.'
+
+'You fool you! You were going to New York,--were you?' To this she
+vouchsafed no reply. 'As if I hadn't found out all about it. Who was
+going with you?'
+
+'If you have found out all about it, you know, papa.'
+
+'Of course I know;--but you don't know all about it, you little idiot.'
+
+'No doubt I'm a fool and an idiot. You always say so.'
+
+'Where do you suppose Sir Felix Carbury is now?' Then she opened her
+eyes and looked at him. 'An hour ago he was in bed at his mother's
+house in Welbeck Street.'
+
+'I don't believe it, papa.'
+
+'You don't, don't you? You'll find it true. If you had gone to New
+York, you'd have gone alone. If I'd known at first that he had stayed
+behind, I think I'd have let you go.'
+
+'I'm sure he didn't stay behind.'
+
+'If you contradict me, I'll box your ears, you jade. He is in London
+at this moment. What has become of the woman that went with you?'
+
+'She's gone on board the ship.'
+
+'And where is the money you took from your mother?' Marie was silent.
+'Who got the cheque changed?'
+
+'Didon did.'
+
+'And has she got the money?'
+
+'No, papa.'
+
+'Have you got it?'
+
+'No, papa.'
+
+'Did you give it to Sir Felix Carbury?'
+
+'Yes, papa.'
+
+'Then I'll be hanged if I don't prosecute him for stealing it.'
+
+'Oh, papa, don't do that;--pray don't do that. He didn't steal it. I
+only gave it him to take care of for us. He'll give it you back
+again.'
+
+'I shouldn't wonder if he lost it at cards, and therefore didn't go to
+Liverpool. Will you give me your word that you'll never attempt to
+marry him again if I don't prosecute him?' Marie considered. 'Unless
+you do that I shall go to a magistrate at once.'
+
+'I don't believe you can do anything to him. He didn't steal it. I
+gave it to him.'
+
+'Will you promise me?'
+
+'No, papa, I won't. What's the good of promising when I should only
+break it. Why can't you let me have the man I love? What's the good of
+all the money if people don't have what they like?'
+
+'All the money!--What do you know about the money? Look here,' and he
+took her by the arm. 'I've been very good to you. You've had your
+share of everything that has been going;--carriages and horses,
+bracelets and brooches, silks and gloves, and every thing else.' He
+held her very hard and shook her as he spoke.
+
+'Let me go, papa; you hurt me. I never asked for such things. I don't
+care a straw about bracelets and brooches.'
+
+'What do you care for?'
+
+'Only for somebody to love me,' said Marie, looking down.
+
+'You'll soon have nobody to love you if you go on this fashion. You've
+had everything done for you, and if you don't do something for me in
+return, by G----, you shall have a hard time of it. If you weren't such
+a fool you'd believe me when I say that I know more than you do.'
+
+'You can't know better than me what'll make me happy.'
+
+'Do you think only of yourself? If you'll marry Lord Nidderdale you'll
+have a position in the world which nothing can take from you.'
+
+'Then I won't,' said Marie firmly. Upon this he shook her till she
+cried, and calling for Madame Melmotte desired his wife not to let the
+girl for one minute out of her presence.
+
+The condition of Sir Felix was I think worse than that of the lady
+with whom he was to have run away. He had played at the Beargarden
+till four in the morning and had then left the club, on the
+breaking-up of the card-table, intoxicated and almost penniless.
+During the last half hour he had made himself very unpleasant at the
+club, saying all manner of harsh things of Miles Grendall;--of whom,
+indeed, it was almost impossible to say things too hard, had they been
+said in a proper form and at a proper time. He declared that Grendall
+would not pay his debts, that he had cheated when playing loo,--as to
+which Sir Felix appealed to Dolly Longestaffe; and he ended by
+asserting that Grendall ought to be turned out of the club. They had a
+desperate row. Dolly of course had said that he knew nothing about it,
+and Lord Grasslough had expressed an opinion that perhaps more than
+one person ought to be turned out. At four o'clock the party was
+broken up and Sir Felix wandered forth into the streets, with nothing
+more than the change of a ten pound note in his pocket. All his
+luggage was lying in the hall of the club, and there he left it.
+
+There could hardly have been a more miserable wretch than Sir Felix
+wandering about the streets of London that night. Though he was nearly
+drunk, he was not drunk enough to forget the condition of his affairs.
+There is an intoxication that makes merry in the midst of affliction,--
+and there is an intoxication that banishes affliction by producing
+oblivion. But again there is an intoxication which is conscious of
+itself though it makes the feet unsteady, and the voice thick, and the
+brain foolish; and which brings neither mirth nor oblivion. Sir Felix
+trying to make his way to Welbeck Street and losing it at every turn,
+feeling himself to be an object of ridicule to every wanderer, and of
+dangerous suspicion to every policeman, got no good at all out of his
+intoxication. What had he better do with himself? He fumbled in his
+pocket, and managed to get hold of his ticket for New York. Should he
+still make the journey? Then he thought of his luggage, and could not
+remember where it was. At last, as he steadied himself against a
+letter-post, he was able to call to mind that his portmanteaus were at
+the club. By this time he had wandered into Marylebone Lane, but did
+not in the least know where he was. But he made an attempt to get back
+to his club, and stumbled half down Bond Street. Then a policeman
+enquired into his purposes, and when he said that he lived in Welbeck
+Street, walked back with him as far as Oxford Street. Having once
+mentioned the place where he lived, he had not strength of will left
+to go back to his purpose of getting his luggage and starting for
+Liverpool.
+
+Between six and seven he was knocking at the door in Welbeck Street.
+He had tried his latch-key, but had found it inefficient. As he was
+supposed to be at Liverpool, the door had in fact been locked. At last
+it was opened by Lady Carbury herself. He had fallen more than once,
+and was soiled with the gutter. Most of my readers will not probably
+know how a man looks when he comes home drunk at six in the morning;
+but they who have seen the thing will acknowledge that a sorrier sight
+cannot meet a mother's eye than that of a son in such a condition.
+'Oh, Felix!' she exclaimed.
+
+'It'sh all up,' he said, stumbling in.
+
+'What has happened, Felix?'
+
+'Discovered, and be d----- to it! The old shap'sh stopped ush.' Drunk as
+he was, he was able to lie. At that moment the 'old shap' was fast
+asleep in Grosvenor Square, altogether ignorant of the plot; and
+Marie, joyful with excitement, was getting into the cab in the mews.
+'Bettersh go to bed.' And so he stumbled upstairs by daylight, the
+wretched mother helping him. She took off his clothes for him and his
+boots, and having left him already asleep, she went down to her own
+room, a miserable woman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI - WHICH SHALL IT BE?
+
+
+Paul Montague reached London on his return from Suffolk early on the
+Monday morning, and on the following day he wrote to Mrs Hurtle. As he
+sat in his lodgings, thinking of his condition, he almost wished that
+he had taken Melmotte's offer and gone to Mexico. He might at any rate
+have endeavoured to promote the railway earnestly, and then have
+abandoned it if he found the whole thing false. In such case of course
+he would never have seen Hetta Carbury again; but, as things were, of
+what use to him was his love,--of what use to him or to her? The kind of
+life of which he dreamed, such a life in England as was that of Roger
+Carbury, or, as such life would be, if Roger had a wife whom he loved,
+seemed to be far beyond his reach. Nobody was like Roger Carbury!
+Would it not be well that he should go away, and, as he went, write to
+Hetta and bid her marry the best man that ever lived in the world?
+
+But the journey to Mexico was no longer open to him. He had repudiated
+the proposition and had quarrelled with Melmotte. It was necessary
+that he should immediately take some further step in regard to Mrs
+Hurtle. Twice lately he had gone to Islington determined that he would
+see that lady for the last time. Then he had taken her to Lowestoft,
+and had been equally firm in his resolution that he would there put an
+end to his present bonds. Now he had promised to go again to
+Islington;--and was aware that if he failed to keep his promise, she
+would come to him. In this way there would never be an end to it.
+
+He would certainly go again, as he had promised,--if she should still
+require it; but he would first try what a letter would do,--a plain
+unvarnished tale. Might it still be possible that a plain tale sent by
+post should have sufficient efficacy? This was his plain tale as he
+now told it.
+
+
+   Tuesday, 2nd July, 1873.
+
+   MY DEAR MRS HURTLE,--
+
+   I promised that I would go to you again in Islington, and so I
+   will, if you still require it. But I think that such a meeting
+   can be of no service to either of us. What is to be gained? I do
+   not for a moment mean to justify my own conduct. It is not to be
+   justified. When I met you on our journey hither from San
+   Francisco, I was charmed with your genius, your beauty, and your
+   character. They are now what I found them to be then. But
+   circumstances have made our lives and temperaments so far
+   different, that I am certain that, were we married, we should
+   not make each other happy. Of course the fault was mine; but it
+   is better to own that fault, and to take all the blame,--and
+   the evil consequences, let them be what they may [to be shot,
+   for instance, like the gentleman in Oregon] than to be married
+   with the consciousness that even at the very moment of the
+   ceremony, such marriage will be a matter of sorrow and
+   repentance. As soon as my mind was made up on this I wrote to
+   you. I can not,--I dare not,--blame you for the step you have
+   since taken. But I can only adhere to the resolution I then
+   expressed.
+
+   The first day I saw you here in London you asked me whether I
+   was attached to another woman. I could answer you only by the
+   truth. But I should not of my own accord have spoken to you of
+   altered affections. It was after I had resolved to break my
+   engagement with you that I first knew this girl. It was not
+   because I had come to love her that I broke it. I have no
+   grounds whatever for hoping that my love will lead to any
+   results.
+
+   I have now told you as exactly as I can the condition of my
+   mind. If it were possible for me in any way to compensate the
+   injury I have done you,--or even to undergo retribution for
+   it,--I would do so. But what compensation can be given, or what
+   retribution can you exact? I think that our further meeting can
+   avail nothing. But if, after this, you wish me to come again, I
+   will come for the last time,--because I have promised.
+
+   Your most sincere friend,
+
+   PAUL MONTAGUE.
+
+
+Mrs Hurtle, as she read this, was torn in two ways. All that Paul had
+written was in accordance with the words written by herself on a scrap
+of paper which she still kept in her own pocket. Those words, fairly
+transcribed on a sheet of note-paper, would be the most generous and
+the fittest answer she could give. And she longed to be generous. She
+had all a woman's natural desire to sacrifice herself. But the
+sacrifice which would have been most to her taste would have been of
+another kind. Had she found him ruined and penniless she would have
+delighted to share with him all that she possessed. Had she found him
+a cripple, or blind, or miserably struck with some disease, she would
+have stayed by him and have nursed him and given him comfort. Even had
+he been disgraced she would have fled with him to some far country and
+have pardoned all his faults. No sacrifice would have been too much
+for her that would have been accompanied by a feeling that he
+appreciated all that she was doing for him, and that she was loved in
+return. But to sacrifice herself by going away and never more being
+heard of, was too much for her! What woman can endure such sacrifice
+as that? To give up not only her love, but her wrath also;--that was too
+much for her! The idea of being tame was terrible to her. Her life had
+not been very prosperous, but she was what she was because she had
+dared to protect herself by her own spirit. Now, at last, should she
+succumb and be trodden on like a worm? Should she be weaker even than
+an English girl? Should she allow him to have amused himself with her
+love, to have had 'a good time,' and then to roam away like a bee,
+while she was so dreadfully scorched, so mutilated and punished! Had
+not her whole life been opposed to the theory of such passive
+endurance? She took out the scrap of paper and read it; and, in spite
+of all, she felt that there was a feminine softness in it that
+gratified her.
+
+But no;--she could not send it. She could not even copy the words. And
+so she gave play to all her strongest feelings on the other side,--
+being in truth torn in two directions. Then she sat herself down to her
+desk, and with rapid words, and flashing thoughts, wrote as follows:--
+
+
+   PAUL MONTAGUE,--
+
+   I have suffered many injuries, but of all injuries this is the
+   worst and most unpardonable,--and the most unmanly. Surely there
+   never was such a coward, never so false a liar. The poor wretch
+   that I destroyed was mad with liquor and was only acting after
+   his kind. Even Caradoc Hurtle never premeditated such wrong as
+   this. What you are to bind yourself to me by the most solemn
+   obligation that can join a man and a woman together, and then
+   tell me,--when they have affected my whole life,--that they are
+   to go for nothing, because they do not suit your view of things?
+   On thinking over it, you find that an American wife would not
+   make you so comfortable as some English girl;--and therefore it
+   is all to go for nothing! I have no brother, no man near;--me or
+   you would not dare to do this. You can not but be a coward.
+
+   You talk of compensation! Do you mean money? You do not dare to
+   say so, but you must mean it. It is an insult the more. But as
+   to retribution; yes. You shall suffer retribution. I desire you
+   to come to me,--according to your promise,--and you will find me
+   with a horsewhip in my hand. I will whip you till I have not a
+   breath in my body. And then I will see what you will dare to
+   do;--whether you will drag me into a court of law for the
+   assault.
+
+   Yes; come. You shall come. And now you know the welcome you
+   shall find. I will buy the whip while this is reaching you, and
+   you shall find that I know how to choose such a weapon. I call
+   upon you so come. But should you be afraid and break your
+   promise, I will come to you. I will make London too hot to hold
+   you;--and if I do not find you I will go with my story to every
+   friend you have.
+
+   I have now told you as exactly as I can the condition of my
+   mind.
+
+   WINIFRED HURTLE.
+
+
+Having written this she again read the short note, and again gave way
+to violent tears. But on that day she sent no letter. On the following
+morning she wrote a third, and sent that. This was the third letter:--
+
+'Yes. Come.
+       W. H.'
+
+This letter duly reached Paul Montague at his lodgings. He started
+immediately for Islington. He had now no desire to delay the meeting.
+He had at any rate taught her that his gentleness towards her, his
+going to the play with her, and drinking tea with her at Mrs Pipkin's,
+and his journey with her to the sea, were not to be taken as evidence
+that he was gradually being conquered. He had declared his purpose
+plainly enough at Lowestoft,--and plainly enough in his last letter.
+She had told him, down at the hotel, that had she by chance have been
+armed at the moment, she would have shot him. She could arm herself
+now if she pleased;--but his real fear had not lain in that direction.
+The pang consisted in having to assure her that he was resolved to do
+her wrong. The worst of that was now over.
+
+The door was opened for him by Ruby, who by no means greeted him with
+a happy countenance. It was the second morning after the night of her
+imprisonment; and nothing had occurred to alleviate her woe. At this
+very moment her lover should have been in Liverpool, but he was, in
+fact, abed in Welbeck Street. 'Yes, sir; she's at home,' said Ruby,
+with a baby in her arms and a little child hanging on to her dress.
+'Don't pull so, Sally. Please, sir, is Sir Felix still in London?'
+Ruby had written to Sir Felix the very night of her imprisonment, but
+had not as yet received any reply. Paul, whose mind was altogether
+intent on his own troubles, declared that at present he knew nothing
+about Sir Felix, and was then shown into Mrs Hurtle's room.
+
+'So you have come,' she said, without rising from her chair.
+
+'Of course I came, when you desired it.'
+
+'I don't know why you should. My wishes do not seem to affect you
+much. Will you sit down there?' she said, pointing to a seat at some
+distance from herself. 'So you think it would be best that you and I
+should never see each other again?' She was very calm; but it seemed
+to him that the quietness was assumed, and that at any moment it might
+be converted into violence. He thought that there was that in her eye
+which seemed to foretell the spring of the wild-cat.
+
+'I did think so certainly. What more can I say?'
+
+'Oh, nothing; clearly nothing.' Her voice was very low. 'Why should a
+gentleman trouble himself to say any more than that he has changed his
+mind? Why make a fuss about such little things as a woman's life, or a
+woman's heart?' Then she paused. 'And having come, in consequence of
+my unreasonable request, of course you are wise to hold your peace.'
+
+'I came because I promised.'
+
+'But you did not promise to speak;--did you?'
+
+'What would you have me say?'
+
+'Ah what! Am I to be so weak as to tell you now what I would have you
+say? Suppose you were to say, "I am a gentleman, and a man of my word,
+and I repent me of my intended perfidy," do you not think you might
+get your release that way? Might it not be possible that I should
+reply that as your heart was gone from me, your hand might go after
+it;--that I scorned to be the wife of a man who did not want me?' As
+she asked this she gradually raised her voice, and half lifted herself
+in her seat, stretching herself towards him.
+
+'You might indeed,' he replied, not well knowing what to say.
+
+'But I should not. I at least will be true. I should take you, Paul,--
+still take you; with a confidence that I should yet win you to me by
+my devotion. I have still some kindness of feeling towards you,--none to
+that woman who is I suppose younger than I, and gentler, and a maid.'
+She still looked as though she expected a reply, but there was nothing
+to be said in answer to this. 'Now that you are going to leave me,
+Paul, is there any advice you can give me, as to what I shall do next?
+I have given up every friend in the world for you. I have no home. Mrs
+Pipkin's room here is more my home than any other spot on the earth. I
+have all the world to choose from, but no reason whatever for a
+choice. I have my property. What shall I do with it, Paul? If I could
+die and be no more heard of, you should be welcome to it.' There was
+no answer possible to all this. The questions were asked because there
+was no answer possible. 'You might at any rate advise me. Paul, you
+are in some degree responsible,--are you not,--for my loneliness?'
+
+'I am. But you know that I cannot answer your questions.'
+
+'You cannot wonder that I should be somewhat in doubt as to my future
+life. As far as I can see, I had better remain here. I do good at any
+rate to Mrs Pipkin. She went into hysterics yesterday when I spoke of
+leaving her. That woman, Paul, would starve in our country, and I
+shall be desolate in this.' Then she paused, and there was absolute
+silence for a minute. 'You thought my letter very short; did you not?'
+
+'It said, I suppose, all you had to say.'
+
+'No, indeed. I did have much more to say. That was the third letter I
+wrote. Now you shall see the other two. I wrote three, and had to
+choose which I would send you. I fancy that yours to me was easier
+written than either one of mine. You had no doubts, you know. I had
+many doubts. I could not send them all by post, together. But you may
+see them all now. There is one. You may read that first. While I was
+writing it, I was determined that that should go.' Then she handed him
+the sheet of paper which contained the threat of the horsewhip.
+
+'I am glad you did not send that,' he said.
+
+'I meant it.'
+
+'But you have changed your mind?'
+
+'Is there anything in it that seems to you to be unreasonable? Speak
+out and tell me.'
+
+'I am thinking of you, not of myself.'
+
+'Think of me, then. Is there anything said there which the usage to
+which I have been subjected does not justify?'
+
+'You ask me questions which I cannot answer. I do not think that under
+any provocation a woman should use a horsewhip.'
+
+'It is certainly more comfortable for gentlemen,--who amuse
+themselves,--that women should have that opinion. But, upon my word, I
+don't know what to say about that. As long as there are men to fight
+for women, it may be well to leave the fighting to the men. But when a
+woman has no one to help her, is she to bear everything without turning
+upon those who ill-use her? Shall a woman be flayed alive because it is
+unfeminine in her to fight for her own skin? What is the good of being
+--feminine, as you call it? Have you asked yourself that? That men may
+be attracted, I should say. But if a woman finds that men only take
+advantage of her assumed weakness, shall she not throw it off? If she
+be treated as prey, shall she not fight as a beast of prey? Oh, no;--it
+is so unfeminine! I also, Paul, had thought of that. The charm of
+womanly weakness presented itself to my mind in a soft moment,--and
+then I wrote this other letter. You may as well see them all.' And so
+she handed him the scrap which had been written at Lowestoft, and he
+read that also.
+
+He could hardly finish it, because of the tears which filled his eyes.
+But, having mastered its contents, he came across the room and threw
+himself on his knees at her feet, sobbing. 'I have not sent it, you
+know,' she said. 'I only show it you that you may see how my mind has
+been at work'
+
+'It hurts me more than the other,' he replied.
+
+'Nay, I would not hurt you,--not at this moment. Sometimes I feel that
+I could tear you limb from limb, so great is my disappointment, so
+ungovernable my rage! Why,--why should I be such a victim? Why should
+life be an utter blank to me, while you have everything before you?
+There, you have seen them all. Which will you have?'
+
+'I cannot now take that other as the expression of your mind.'
+
+'But it will be when you have left me;--and was when you were with me at
+the sea-side. And it was so I felt when I got your first letter in San
+Francisco. Why should you kneel there? You do not love me. A man
+should kneel to a woman for love, not for pardon.' But though she
+spoke thus, she put her hand upon his forehead, and pushed back his
+hair, and looked into his face. 'I wonder whether that other woman
+loves you. I do not want an answer, Paul. I suppose you had better
+go.' She took his hand and pressed it to her breast. 'Tell me one
+thing. When you spoke of--compensation, did you mean--money?'
+
+'No; indeed no.'
+
+'I hope not,--I hope not that. Well, there;--go. You shall be troubled
+no more with Winifred Hurtle.' She took the sheet of paper which
+contained the threat of the horsewhip and tore it into scraps.
+
+'And am I to keep the other?' he asked.
+
+'No. For what purpose would you have it? To prove my weakness? That
+also shall be destroyed.' But she took it and restored it to her
+pocket-book.
+
+'Good-bye, my friend,' he said.
+
+'Nay! This parting will not bear a farewell. Go, and let there be no
+other word spoken.' And so he went.
+
+As soon as the front door was closed behind him she rang the bell and
+begged Ruby to ask Mrs Pipkin to come to her. 'Mrs Pipkin,' she said,
+as soon as the woman had entered the room; 'everything is over between
+me and Mr Montague.' She was standing upright in the middle of the
+room, and as she spoke there was a smile on her face.
+
+'Lord 'a mercy,' said Mrs Pipkin, holding up both her hands.
+
+'As I have told you that I was to be married to him, I think it right
+now to tell you that I'm not going to be married to him.'
+
+'And why not?--and he such a nice young man,--and quiet too.'
+
+'As to the why not, I don't know that I am prepared to speak about
+that. But it is so. I was engaged to him.'
+
+'I'm well sure of that, Mrs Hurtle.'
+
+'And now I'm no longer engaged to him. That's all.'
+
+'Dearie me! and you going down to Lowestoft with him, and all.' Mrs
+Pipkin could not bear to think that she should hear no more of such an
+interesting story.
+
+'We did go down to Lowestoft together, and we both came back not
+together. And there's an end of it.'
+
+'I'm sure it's not your fault, Mrs Hurtle. When a marriage is to be,
+and doesn't come off, it never is the lady's fault.'
+
+'There's an end of it, Mrs Pipkin. If you please, we won't say
+anything more about it.'
+
+'And are you going to leave, ma'am?' said Mrs Pipkin, prepared to have
+her apron up to her eyes at a moment's notice. Where should she get
+such another lodger as Mrs Hurtle,--a lady who not only did not inquire
+about victuals, but who was always suggesting that the children should
+eat this pudding or finish that pie, and who had never questioned an
+item in a bill since she had been in the house!
+
+'We'll say nothing about that yet, Mrs Pipkin.' Then Mrs Pipkin gave
+utterance to so many assurances of sympathy and help that it almost
+seemed that she was prepared to guarantee to her lodger another lover
+in lieu of the one who was now dismissed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII - THE RESULTS OF LOVE AND WINE
+
+
+Two, three, four, and even five o'clock still found Sir Felix Carbury
+in bed on that fatal Thursday. More than once or twice his mother
+crept up to his room, but on each occasion he feigned to be fast
+asleep and made no reply to her gentle words. But his condition was
+one which only admits of short snatches of uneasy slumber. From head
+to foot, he was sick and ill and sore, and could find no comfort
+anywhere. To lie where he was, trying by absolute quiescence to soothe
+the agony of his brows and to remember that as long as he lay there he
+would be safe from attack by the outer world, was all the solace
+within his reach. Lady Carbury sent the page up to him, and to the
+page he was awake. The boy brought him tea. He asked for soda and
+brandy; but there was none to be had, and in his present condition he
+did not dare to hector about it till it was procured for him.
+
+The world surely was now all over to him. He had made arrangements for
+running away with the great heiress of the day, and had absolutely
+allowed the young lady to run away without him. The details of their
+arrangement had been such that she absolutely would start upon her
+long journey across the ocean before she could find out that he had
+failed to keep his appointment. Melmotte's hostility would be incurred
+by the attempt, and hers by the failure. Then he had lost all his
+money,--and hers. He had induced his poor mother to assist in raising a
+fund for him,--and even that was gone. He was so cowed that he was
+afraid even of his mother. And he could remember something, but no
+details, of some row at the club,--but still with a conviction on his
+mind that he had made the row. Ah,--when would he summon courage to
+enter the club again? When could he show himself again anywhere? All
+the world would know that Marie Melmotte had attempted to run off with
+him, and that at the last moment he had failed her. What lie could he
+invent to cover his disgrace? And his clothes! All his things were at
+the club;--or he thought that they were, not being quite certain whether
+he had not made some attempt to carry them off to the Railway Station.
+He had heard of suicide. If ever it could be well that a man should
+cut his own throat, surely the time had come for him now. But as this
+idea presented itself to him he simply gathered the clothes around him
+and tried to sleep. The death of Cato would hardly have for him
+persuasive charms.
+
+Between five and six his mother again came up to him, and when he
+appeared to sleep, stood with her hand upon his shoulder. There must
+be some end to this. He must at any rate be fed. She, wretched woman,
+had been sitting all day,--thinking of it. As regarded her son himself;
+his condition told his story with sufficient accuracy. What might be
+the fate of the girl she could not stop to inquire. She had not heard
+all the details of the proposed scheme; but she had known that Felix
+had proposed to be at Liverpool on the Wednesday night, and to start
+on Thursday for New York with the young lady; and with the view of
+aiding him in his object she had helped him with money. She had bought
+clothes for him, and had been busy with Hetta for two days preparing
+for his long journey,--having told some lie to her own daughter as to
+the cause of her brother's intended journey. He had not gone, but had
+come, drunk and degraded, back to the house. She had searched his
+pockets with less scruple than she had ever before felt, and had found
+his ticket for the vessel and the few sovereigns which were left to
+him. About him she could read the riddle plainly. He had stayed at his
+club till he was drunk, and had gambled away all his money. When she
+had first seen him she had asked herself what further lie she should
+now tell to her daughter. At breakfast there was instant need for some
+story. 'Mary says that Felix came back this morning, and that he has
+not gone at all,' Hetta exclaimed. The poor woman could not bring
+herself to expose the vices of the son to her daughter. She could not
+say that he had stumbled into the house drunk at six o'clock. Hetta no
+doubt had her own suspicions. 'Yes; he has come back,' said Lady
+Carbury, broken-hearted by her troubles. 'It was some plan about the
+Mexican railway I believe, and has broken through. He is very unhappy
+and not well. I will see to him.' After that Hetta had said nothing
+during the whole day. And now, about an hour before dinner, Lady
+Carbury was standing by her son's bedside, determined that he should
+speak to her.
+
+'Felix,' she said,--'speak to me, Felix.--I know that you are awake.' He
+groaned, and turned himself away from her, burying himself further
+under the bedclothes. 'You must get up for your dinner. It is near six
+o'clock.'
+
+'All right,' he said at last.
+
+'What is the meaning of this, Felix? You must tell me. It must be told
+sooner or later. I know you are unhappy. You had better trust your
+mother.'
+
+'I am so sick, mother.'
+
+'You will be better up. What were you doing last night? What has come
+of it all? Where are your things?'
+
+'At the club.--You had better leave me now, and let Sam come up to me.'
+Sam was the page.
+
+'I will leave you presently; but, Felix, you must tell me about this.
+What has been done?'
+
+'It hasn't come off.'
+
+'But how has it not come off?'
+
+'I didn't get away. What's the good of asking?'
+
+'You said this morning when you came in, that Mr Melmotte had
+discovered it.'
+
+'Did I? Then I suppose he has. Oh, mother, I wish I could die. I don't
+see what's the use of anything. I won't get up to dinner. I'd rather
+stay here.'
+
+'You must have something to eat, Felix.'
+
+'Sam can bring it me. Do let him get me some brandy and water. I'm so
+faint and sick with all this that I can hardly bear myself. I can't
+talk now. If he'll get me a bottle of soda water and some brandy, I'll
+tell you all about it then.'
+
+'Where is the money, Felix?'
+
+'I paid it for the ticket,' said he, with both his hands up to his
+head.
+
+Then his mother again left him with the understanding that he was to
+be allowed to remain in bed till the next morning; but that he was to
+give her some further explanation when he had been refreshed and
+invigorated after his own prescription. The boy went out and got him
+soda water and brandy, and meat was carried up to him, and then he did
+succeed for a while in finding oblivion from his misery in sleep.
+
+'Is he ill, mamma?' Hetta asked.
+
+'Yes, my dear.'
+
+'Had you not better send for a doctor?'
+
+'No, my dear. He will be better to-morrow.'
+
+'Mamma, I think you would be happier if you would tell me everything.'
+
+'I can't,' said Lady Carbury, bursting out into tears. 'Don't ask.
+What's the good of asking? It is all misery and wretchedness. There is
+nothing to tell,--except that I am ruined.'
+
+'Has he done anything, mamma?'
+
+'No. What should he have done? How am I to know what he does? He tells
+me nothing. Don't talk about it any more. Oh, God,--how much better it
+would be to be childless!'
+
+'Oh, mamma, do you mean me?' said Hetta, rushing across the room, and
+throwing herself close to her mother's side on the sofa. 'Mamma, say
+that you do not mean me.'
+
+'It concerns you as well as me and him. I wish I were childless.'
+
+'Oh, mamma, do not be cruel to me! Am I not good to you? Do I not try
+to be a comfort to you?'
+
+'Then marry your cousin, Roger Carbury, who is a good man, and who can
+protect you. You can, at any rate, find a home for yourself, and a
+friend for us. You are not like Felix. You do not get drunk and
+gamble,--because you are a woman. But you are stiff-necked, and will
+not help me in my trouble.'
+
+'Shall I marry him, mamma, without loving him?'
+
+'Love! Have I been able to love? Do you see much of what you call love
+around you? Why should you not love him? He is a gentleman, and a good
+man,--soft-hearted, of a sweet nature, whose life would be one effort to
+make yours happy. You think that Felix is very bad.'
+
+'I have never said so.'
+
+'But ask yourself whether you do not give as much pain, seeing what
+you could do for us if you would. But it never occurs to you to
+sacrifice even a fantasy for the advantage of others.'
+
+Hetta retired from her seat on the sofa, and when her mother again
+went upstairs she turned it all over in her mind. Could it be right
+that she should marry one man when she loved another? Could it be
+right that she should marry at all, for the sake of doing good to her
+family? This man, whom she might marry if she would,--who did in truth
+worship the ground on which she trod,--was, she well knew, all that her
+mother had said. And he was more than that. Her mother had spoken of
+his soft heart, and his sweet nature. But Hetta knew also that he was
+a man of high honour and a noble courage. In such a condition as was
+hers now he was the very friend whose advice she could have asked,--
+had he not been the very lover who was desirous of making her his wife.
+Hetta felt that she could sacrifice much for her mother. Money, if she
+had it, she could have given, though she left herself penniless. Her
+time, her inclinations, her very heart's treasure, and, as she
+thought, her life, she could give. She could doom herself to poverty,
+and loneliness, and heart-rending regrets for her mother's sake. But
+she did not know how she could give herself into the arms of a man she
+did not love.
+
+'I don't know what there is to explain,' said Felix to his mother. She
+had asked him why he had not gone to Liverpool, whether he had been
+interrupted by Melmotte himself, whether news had reached him from
+Marie that she had been stopped, or whether,--as might have been
+possible,--Marie had changed her own mind. But he could not bring
+himself to tell the truth, or any story bordering on the truth. 'It
+didn't come off,' he said, 'and of course that knocked me off my legs.
+Well; yes. I did take some champagne when I found how it was. A fellow
+does get cut up by that kind of thing. Oh, I heard it at the club,--that
+the whole thing was off. I can't explain anything more. And then I was
+so mad, I can't tell what I was after. I did get the ticket. There it
+is. That shows I was in earnest. I spent the £30 in getting it. I
+suppose the change is there. Don't take it, for I haven't another
+shilling in the world.' Of course he said nothing of Marie's money, or
+of that which he had himself received from Melmotte. And as his mother
+had heard nothing of these sums she could not contradict what he said.
+She got from him no further statement, but she was sure that there was
+a story to be told which would reach her ears sooner or later.
+
+That evening, about nine o'clock, Mr Broune called in Welbeck Street.
+He very often did call now, coming up in a cab, staying for a cup of
+tea, and going back in the same cab to the office of his newspaper.
+Since Lady Carbury had, so devotedly, abstained from accepting his
+offer, Mr Broune had become almost sincerely attached to her. There
+was certainly between them now more of the intimacy of real friendship
+than had ever existed in earlier days. He spoke to her more freely
+about his own affairs, and even she would speak to him with some
+attempt at truth. There was never between them now even a shade of
+love-making. She did not look into his eyes, nor did he hold her hand.
+As for kissing her,--he thought no more of it than of kissing the
+maid-servant. But he spoke to her of the things that worried him,--the
+unreasonable exactions of proprietors, and the perilous inaccuracy of
+contributors. He told her of the exceeding weight upon his shoulders,
+under which an Atlas would have succumbed. And he told her something
+too of his triumphs;--how he had had this fellow bowled over in
+punishment for some contradiction, and that man snuffed out for daring
+to be an enemy. And he expatiated on his own virtues, his justice and
+clemency. Ah,--if men and women only knew his good nature and his
+patriotism;--how he had spared the rod here, how he had made the fortune
+of a man there, how he had saved the country millions by the
+steadiness of his adherence to some grand truth! Lady Carbury
+delighted in all this and repaid him by flattery, and little
+confidences of her own. Under his teaching she had almost made up her
+mind to give up Mr Alf. Of nothing was Mr Broune more certain than
+that Mr Alf was making a fool of himself in regard to the Westminster
+election and those attacks on Melmotte. 'The world of London generally
+knows what it is about,' said Mr Broune, 'and the London world
+believes Mr Melmotte to be sound. I don't pretend to say that he has
+never done anything that he ought not to do. I am not going into his
+antecedents. But he is a man of wealth, power, and genius, and Alf will
+get the worst of it.' Under such teaching as this, Lady Carbury was
+almost obliged to give up Mr Alf.
+
+Sometimes they would sit in the front room with Hetta, to whom also Mr
+Broune had become attached; but sometimes Lady Carbury would be in her
+own sanctum. On this evening she received him there, and at once
+poured forth all her troubles about Felix. On this occasion she told
+him everything, and almost told him everything truly. He had already
+heard the story. 'The young lady went down to Liverpool, and Sir Felix
+was not there.'
+
+'He could not have been there. He has been in bed in this house all
+day. Did she go?'
+
+'So I am told;--and was met at the station by the senior officer of the
+police at Liverpool, who brought her back to London without letting
+her go down to the ship at all. She must have thought that her lover
+was on board;--probably thinks so now. I pity her.'
+
+'How much worse it would have been, had she been allowed to start,'
+said Lady Carbury.
+
+'Yes; that would have been bad. She would have had a sad journey to
+New York, and a sadder journey back. Has your son told you anything
+about money?'
+
+'What money?'
+
+'They say that the girl entrusted him with a large sum which she had
+taken from her father. If that be so he certainly ought to lose no
+time in restoring it. It might be done through some friend. I would do
+it, for that matter. If it be so,--to avoid unpleasantness,--it should
+be sent back at once. It will be for his credit.' This Mr Broune said
+with a clear intimation of the importance of his advice.
+
+It was dreadful to Lady Carbury. She had no money to give back, nor,
+as she was well aware, had her son. She had heard nothing of any
+money. What did Mr Broune mean by a large sum? 'That would be
+dreadful,' she said.
+
+'Had you not better ask him about it?'
+
+Lady Carbury was again in tears. She knew that she could not hope to
+get a word of truth from her son. 'What do you mean by a large sum?'
+
+'Two or three hundred pounds, perhaps.'
+
+'I have not a shilling in the world, Mr Broune.' Then it all came
+out,--the whole story of her poverty, as it had been brought about by
+her son's misconduct. She told him every detail of her money affairs
+from the death of her husband, and his will, up to the present moment.
+
+'He is eating you up, Lady Carbury.' Lady Carbury thought that she was
+nearly eaten up already, but she said nothing. 'You must put a stop to
+this.'
+
+'But how?'
+
+'You must rid yourself of him. It is dreadful to say so, but it must
+be done. You must not see your daughter ruined. Find out what money he
+got from Miss Melmotte and I will see that it is repaid. That must be
+done;--and we will then try to get him to go abroad. No;--do not
+contradict me. We can talk of the money another time. I must be off
+now, as I have stayed too long. Do as I bid you. Make him tell you,
+and send me word down to the office. If you could do it early
+to-morrow, that would be best. God bless you.' And so he hurried off.
+
+Early on the following morning a letter from Lady Carbury was put into
+Mr Broune's hands, giving the story of the money as far as she had
+been able to extract it from Sir Felix. Sir Felix declared that Mr
+Melmotte had owed him £600, and that he had received £250 out of this
+from Miss Melmotte,--so that there was still a large balance due to him.
+Lady Carbury went on to say that her son had at last confessed that he
+had lost this money at play. The story was fairly true; but Lady
+Carbury in her letter acknowledged that she was not justified in
+believing it because it was told to her by her son.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIII - A DAY IN THE CITY
+
+
+Melmotte had got back his daughter, and was half inclined to let the
+matter rest there. He would probably have done so had he not known
+that all his own household were aware that she had gone off to meet
+Sir Felix Carbury, and had he not also received the condolence of
+certain friends in the city. It seemed that about two o'clock in the
+day the matter was known to everybody. Of course Lord Nidderdale would
+hear of it, and if so all the trouble that he had taken in that
+direction would have been taken in vain. Stupid fool of a girl to
+throw away her chance,--nay, to throw away the certainty of a brilliant
+career, in that way! But his anger against Sir Felix was infinitely
+more bitter than his anger against his daughter. The man had pledged
+himself to abstain from any step of this kind,--had given a written
+pledge,--had renounced under his own signature his intention of marrying
+Marie! Melmotte had of course learned all the details of the cheque
+for £250,--how the money had been paid at the bank to Didon, and how
+Didon had given it to Sir Felix. Marie herself acknowledged that Sir
+Felix had received the money. If possible he would prosecute the
+baronet for stealing his money.
+
+Had Melmotte been altogether a prudent man he would probably have been
+satisfied with getting back his daughter and would have allowed the
+money to go without further trouble. At this especial point in his
+career ready money was very valuable to him, but his concerns were of
+such magnitude that £250 could make but little difference. But there
+had grown upon the man during the last few months an arrogance, a
+self-confidence inspired in him by the worship of other men, which
+clouded his intellect, and robbed him of much of that power of
+calculation which undoubtedly he naturally possessed. He remembered
+perfectly his various little transactions with Sir Felix. Indeed it
+was one of his gifts to remember with accuracy all money transactions,
+whether great or small, and to keep an account book in his head, which
+was always totted up and balanced with accuracy. He knew exactly how
+he stood, even with the crossing-sweeper to whom he had given a penny
+last Tuesday, as with the Longestaffes, father and son, to whom he had
+not as yet made any payment on behalf of the purchase of Pickering.
+But Sir Felix's money had been consigned into his hands for the
+purchase of shares,--and that consignment did not justify Six Felix in
+taking another sum of money from his daughter. In such a matter he
+thought that an English magistrate, and an English jury, would all be
+on his side,--especially as he was Augustus Melmotte, the man about to
+be chosen for Westminster, the man about to entertain the Emperor of
+China!
+
+The next day was Friday,--the day of the Railway Board. Early in the
+morning he sent a note to Lord Nidderdale.
+
+
+   MY DEAR NIDDERDALE,--
+
+   Pray come to the Board to-day;--or at any rate come to me in the
+   city. I specially want to speak to you.
+
+   Yours,
+
+   A. M.
+
+
+This he wrote, having made up his mind that it would be wise to make a
+clear breast of it with his hoped-for son-in-law. If there was still
+a chance of keeping the young lord to his guns that chance would be
+best supported by perfect openness on his part. The young lord would
+of course know what Marie had done. But the young lord had for some
+weeks past been aware that there had been a difficulty in regard to
+Sir Felix Carbury, and had not on that account relaxed his suit. It
+might be possible to persuade the young lord that as the young lady
+had now tried to elope and tried in vain, his own chance might on the
+whole be rather improved than injured.
+
+Mr Melmotte on that morning had many visitors, among whom one of the
+earliest and most unfortunate was Mr Longestaffe. At that time there
+had been arranged at the offices in Abchurch Lane a mode of double
+ingress and egress,--a front stairs and a back stairs approach and
+exit, as is always necessary with very great men,--in reference to
+which arrangement the honour and dignity attached to each is exactly
+contrary to that which generally prevails in the world; the front
+stairs being intended for everybody, and being both slow and
+uncertain, whereas the back stairs are quick and sure, and are used
+only for those who are favoured. Miles Grendall had the command of the
+stairs, and found that he had plenty to do in keeping people in their
+right courses. Mr Longestaffe reached Abchurch Lane before one,--having
+altogether failed in getting a moment's private conversation with the
+big man on that other Friday, when he had come later. He fell at once
+into Miles's hands, and was ushered through the front stairs passage
+and into the front stairs waiting-room, with much external courtesy.
+Miles Grendall was very voluble. Did Mr Longestaffe want to see Mr
+Melmotte? Oh;--Mr Longestaffe wanted to see Mr Melmotte as soon as
+possible! Of course Mr Longestaffe should see Mr Melmotte. He, Miles,
+knew that Mr Melmotte was particularly desirous of seeing Mr
+Longestaffe. Mr Melmotte had mentioned Mr Longestaffe's name twice
+during the last three days. Would Mr Longestaffe sit down for a few
+minutes? Had Mr Longestaffe seen the 'Morning Breakfast Table'? Mr
+Melmotte undoubtedly was very much engaged. At this moment a
+deputation from the Canadian Government was with him;--and Sir Gregory
+Gribe was in the office waiting for a few words. But Miles thought
+that the Canadian Government would not be long,--and as for Sir Gregory,
+perhaps his business might be postponed. Miles would do his very best
+to get an interview for Mr Longestaffe,--more especially as Mr Melmotte
+was so very desirous himself of seeing his friend. It was astonishing
+that such a one as Miles Grendall should have learned his business so
+well and should have made himself so handy! We will leave Mr
+Longestaffe with the 'Morning Breakfast Table' in his hands, in the
+front waiting-room, merely notifying the fact that there he remained
+for something over two hours.
+
+In the meantime both Mr Broune and Lord Nidderdale came to the office,
+and both were received without delay. Mr Broune was the first. Miles
+knew who he was, and made no attempt to seat him in the same room with
+Mr Longestaffe. 'I'll just send him a note,' said Mr Broune, and he
+scrawled a few words at the office counter. 'I'm commissioned to pay
+you some money on behalf of Miss Melmotte.' Those were the words, and
+they at once procured him admission to the sanctum. The Canadian
+Deputation must have taken its leave, and Sir Gregory could hardly
+have as yet arrived. Lord Nidderdale, who had presented himself almost
+at the same moment with the Editor, was shown into a little private
+room which was, indeed, Miles Grendall's own retreat. 'What's up with
+the Governor?' asked the young lord.
+
+'Anything particular do you mean?' said Miles. 'There are always so
+many things up here.'
+
+'He has sent for me.'
+
+'Yes,--you'll go in directly. There's that fellow who does the
+"Breakfast Table" in with him. I don't know what he's come about. You
+know what he has sent for you for?'
+
+Lord Nidderdale answered this question by another. 'I suppose all this
+about Miss Melmotte is true?'
+
+'She did go off yesterday morning,' said Miles, in a whisper.
+
+'But Carbury wasn't with her.'
+
+'Well, no;--I suppose not. He seems to have mulled it. He's such a
+d---- brute, he'd be sure to go wrong whatever he had in hand.'
+
+'You don't like him, of course, Miles. For that matter I've no reason
+to love him. He couldn't have gone. He staggered out of the club
+yesterday morning at four o'clock as drunk as Cloe. He'd lost a pot of
+money, and had been kicking up a row about you for the last hour.'
+
+'Brute!' exclaimed Miles, with honest indignation.
+
+'I dare say. But though he was able to make a row, I'm sure he
+couldn't get himself down to Liverpool. And I saw all his things lying
+about the club hall late last night;--no end of portmanteaux and bags;
+just what a fellow would take to New York. By George! Fancy taking a
+girl to New York! It was plucky.'
+
+'It was all her doing,' said Miles, who was of course intimate with Mr
+Melmotte's whole establishment, and had had means therefore of hearing
+the true story.
+
+'What a fiasco!' said the young lord. 'I wonder what the old boy means
+to say to me about it.' Then there was heard the clear tingle of a
+little silver bell, and Miles told Lord Nidderdale that his time had
+come.
+
+Mr Broune had of late been very serviceable to Mr Melmotte, and
+Melmotte was correspondingly gracious. On seeing the Editor he
+immediately began to make a speech of thanks in respect of the support
+given by the 'Breakfast Table' to his candidature. But Mr Broune cut
+him short. 'I never talk about the "Breakfast Table,"' said he. 'We
+endeavour to get along as right as we can, and the less said the
+soonest mended.' Melmotte bowed. 'I have come now about quite another
+matter, and perhaps, the less said the sooner mended about that also.
+Sir Felix Carbury on a late occasion received a sum of money in trust
+from your daughter. Circumstances have prevented its use in the
+intended manner, and, therefore, as Sir Felix's friend, I have called
+to return the money to you.' Mr Broune did not like calling himself
+the friend of Sir Felix, but he did even that for the lady who had
+been good enough to him not to marry him.
+
+'Oh, indeed,' said Mr Melmotte, with a scowl on his face, which he
+would have repressed if he could.
+
+'No doubt you understand all about it.'
+
+'Yes;--I understand. D---- scoundrel!'
+
+'We won't discuss that, Mr Melmotte. I've drawn a cheque myself
+payable to your order,--to make the matter all straight. The sum was
+£250, I think.' And Mr Broune put a cheque for that amount down upon
+the table.
+
+'I dare say it's all right,' said Mr Melmotte. 'But, remember, I don't
+think that this absolves him. He has been a scoundrel.'
+
+'At any rate he has paid back the money, which chance put into his
+hands, to the only person entitled to receive it on the young lady's
+behalf. Good morning.' Mr Melmotte did put out his hand in token of
+amity. Then Mr Broune departed and Melmotte tinkled his bell. As
+Nidderdale was shown in he crumpled up the cheque, and put it into his
+pocket. He was at once clever enough to perceive that any idea which
+he might have had of prosecuting Sir Felix must be abandoned. 'Well,
+my Lord, and how are you?' said he with his pleasantest smile.
+Nidderdale declared himself to be as fresh as paint. 'You don't look
+down in the mouth, my Lord.'
+
+Then Lord Nidderdale,--who no doubt felt that it behoved him to show a
+good face before his late intended father-in-law,--sang the refrain of
+an old song, which it is trusted my readers may remember.
+
+    'Cheer up, Sam;
+     Don't let your spirits go down.
+     There's many a girl that I know well,
+     Is waiting for you in the town.'
+
+'Ha, ha, ha,' laughed Melmotte, 'very good. I've no doubt there is,--
+many a one. But you won't let this stupid nonsense stand in your way
+with Marie.'
+
+'Upon my word, sir, I don't know about that. Miss Melmotte has given
+the most convincing proof of her partiality for another gentleman, and
+of her indifference to me.'
+
+'A foolish baggage! A silly little romantic baggage! She's been
+reading novels till she has learned to think she couldn't settle down
+quietly till she had run off with somebody.'
+
+'She doesn't seem to have succeeded on this occasion, Mr Melmotte.'
+
+'No;--of course we had her back again from Liverpool.'
+
+'But they say that she got further than the gentleman.'
+
+'He is a dishonest, drunken scoundrel. My girl knows very well what he
+is now. She'll never try that game again. Of course, my Lord, I'm very
+sorry. You know that I've been on the square with you always. She's my
+only child, and sooner or later she must have all that I possess. What
+she will have at once will make any man wealthy,--that is, if she
+marries with my sanction; and in a year or two I expect that I shall
+be able to double what I give her now, without touching my capital. Of
+course you understand that I desire to see her occupying high rank. I
+think that, in this country, that is a noble object of ambition. Had
+she married that sweep I should have broken my heart. Now, my Lord, I
+want you to say that this shall make no difference to you. I am very
+honest with you. I do not try to hide anything. The thing of course
+has been a misfortune. Girls will be romantic. But you may be sure
+that this little accident will assist rather than impede your views.
+After this she will not be very fond of Sir Felix Carbury.'
+
+'I dare say not. Though, by Jove, girls will forgive anything.'
+
+'She won't forgive him. By George, she shan't. She shall hear the
+whole story. You'll come and see her just the same as ever!'
+
+'I don't know about that, Mr Melmotte.'
+
+'Why not? You're not so weak as to surrender all your settled projects
+for such a piece of folly as that! He didn't even see her all the
+time.'
+
+'That wasn't her fault.'
+
+'The money will all be there, Lord Nidderdale.'
+
+'The money's all right, I've no doubt. And there isn't a man in all
+London would be better pleased to settle down with a good income than
+I would. But, by Jove, it's a rather strong order when a girl has just
+run away with another man. Everybody knows it.'
+
+'In three months' time everybody will have forgotten it.'
+
+'To tell you the truth, sir, I think Miss Melmotte has got a will of
+her own stronger than you give her credit for. She has never given me
+the slightest encouragement. Ever so long ago, about Christmas, she
+did once say that she would do as you bade her. But she is very much
+changed since then. The thing was off.'
+
+'She had nothing to do with that.'
+
+'No;--but she has taken advantage of it, and I have no right to
+complain.'
+
+'You just come to the house, and ask her again to-morrow. Or come on
+Sunday morning. Don't let us be done out of all our settled
+arrangements by the folly of an idle girl. Will you come on Sunday
+morning about noon?' Lord Nidderdale thought of his position for a few
+moments and then said that perhaps he would come on Sunday morning.
+After that Melmotte proposed that they two should go and 'get a bit of
+lunch' at a certain Conservative club in the City. There would be time
+before the meeting of the Railway Board. Nidderdale had no objection
+to the lunch, but expressed a strong opinion that the Board was 'rot'.
+'That's all very well for you, young man,' said the chairman, 'but I
+must go there in order that you may be able to enjoy a splendid
+fortune.' Then he touched the young man on the shoulder and drew him
+back as he was passing out by the front stairs. 'Come this way,
+Nidderdale;--come this way. I must get out without being seen. There
+are people waiting for me there who think that a man can attend to
+business from morning to night without ever having a bit in his
+mouth.' And so they escaped by the back stairs.
+
+At the club, the City Conservative world,--which always lunches
+well,--welcomed Mr Melmotte very warmly. The election was coming on,
+and there was much to be said. He played the part of the big City man
+to perfection, standing about the room with his hat on, and talking
+loudly to a dozen men at once. And he was glad to show the club that
+Lord Nidderdale had come there with him. The club of course knew that
+Lord Nidderdale was the accepted suitor of the rich man's daughter,--
+accepted, that is, by the rich man himself,--and the club knew also
+that the rich man's daughter had tried but had failed to run away with
+Sir Felix Carbury. There is nothing like wiping out a misfortune and
+having done with it. The presence of Lord Nidderdale was almost an
+assurance to the club that the misfortune had been wiped out, and, as
+it were, abolished. A little before three Mr Melmotte returned to
+Abchurch Lane, intending to regain his room by the back way; while
+Lord Nidderdale went westward, considering within his own mind whether
+it was expedient that he should continue to show himself as a suitor
+for Miss Melmotte's hand. He had an idea that a few years ago a man
+could not have done such a thing--that he would be held to show a poor
+spirit should he attempt it; but that now it did not much matter what
+a man did,--if only he were successful. 'After all, it's only an
+affair of money,' he said to himself.
+
+Mr Longestaffe in the meantime had progressed from weariness to
+impatience, from impatience to ill-humour, and from ill-humour to
+indignation. More than once he saw Miles Grendall, but Miles Grendall
+was always ready with an answer. That Canadian Deputation was
+determined to settle the whole business this morning, and would not
+take itself away. And Sir Gregory Gribe had been obstinate, beyond the
+ordinary obstinacy of a bank director. The rate of discount at the
+bank could not be settled for to-morrow without communication with Mr
+Melmotte, and that was a matter on which the details were always most
+oppressive. At first Mr Longestaffe was somewhat stunned by the
+Deputation and Sir Gregory Gribe; but as he waxed wroth the potency of
+those institutions dwindled away, and as, at last, he waxed hungry,
+they became as nothing to him. Was he not Mr Longestaffe of Caversham,
+a Deputy-Lieutenant of his County, and accustomed to lunch punctually
+at two o'clock? When he had been in that waiting-room for two hours,
+it occurred to him that he only wanted his own, and that he would not
+remain there to be starved for any Mr Melmotte in Europe. It occurred
+to him also that that thorn in his side, Squercum, would certainly get
+a finger into the pie to his infinite annoyance. Then he walked forth,
+and attempted to see Grendall for the fourth time. But Miles Grendall
+also liked his lunch, and was therefore declared by one of the junior
+clerks to be engaged at that moment on most important business with Mr
+Melmotte. 'Then say that I can't wait any longer,' said Mr
+Longestaffe, stamping out of the room with angry feet.
+
+At the very door he met Mr Melmotte. 'Ah, Mr Longestaffe,' said the
+great financier, seizing him by the hand, 'you are the very man I am
+desirous of seeing.'
+
+'I have been waiting two hours up in your place,' said the Squire of
+Caversham.
+
+'Tut, tut, tut;--and they never told me!'
+
+'I spoke to Mr Grendall half a dozen times.'
+
+'Yes,--yes. And he did put a slip with your name on it on my desk. I do
+remember. My dear sir, I have so many things on my brain, that I
+hardly know how to get along with them. You are coming to the Board?
+It's just the time now.'
+
+'No;'--said Mr Longestaffe. 'I can stay no longer in the City.' It was
+cruel that a man so hungry should be asked to go to a Board by a
+chairman who had just lunched at his club.
+
+'I was carried away to the Bank of England and could not help myself,'
+said Melmotte. 'And when they get me there I can never get away
+again.'
+
+'My son is very anxious to have the payments made about Pickering,'
+said Mr Longestaffe, absolutely holding Melmotte by the collar of his
+coat.
+
+'Payments for Pickering!' said Melmotte, assuming an air of
+unimportant doubt,--of doubt as though the thing were of no real
+moment. 'Haven't they been made?'
+
+'Certainly not,' said Mr Longestaffe, 'unless made this morning.'
+
+'There was something about it, but I cannot just remember what. My
+second cashier, Mr Smith, manages all my private affairs, and they go
+clean out of my head. I'm afraid he's in Grosvenor Square at this
+moment. Let me see;--Pickering! Wasn't there some question of a
+mortgage? I'm sure there was something about a mortgage.'
+
+'There was a mortgage, of course,--but that only made three payments
+necessary instead of two.'
+
+'But there was some unavoidable delay about the papers;--something
+occasioned by the mortgagee. I know there was. But you shan't be
+inconvenienced, Mr Longestaffe.'
+
+'It's my son, Mr Melmotte. He's got a lawyer of his own.'
+
+'I never knew a young man that wasn't in a hurry for his money,'
+said Melmotte laughing. 'Oh, yes;--there were three payments to be
+made; one to you, one to your son, and one to the mortgagee. I will
+speak to Mr Smith myself to-morrow--and you may tell your son that he
+really need not trouble his lawyer. He will only be losing his
+money, for lawyers are expensive. What! you won't come to the Board?
+I am sorry for that.' Mr Longestaffe, having after a fashion said
+what he had to say, declined to go to the Board. A painful rumour
+had reached him the day before, which had been communicated to him
+in a very quiet way by a very old friend,--by a member of a private
+firm of bankers whom he was accustomed to regard as the wisest and
+most eminent man of his acquaintance,--that Pickering had been already
+mortgaged to its full value by its new owner. 'Mind, I know
+nothing,' said the banker. 'The report has reached me, and if it be
+true, it shows that Mr Melmotte must be much pressed for money. It
+does not concern you at all if you have got your price. But it seems
+to be rather a quick transaction. I suppose you have, or he wouldn't
+have the title-deeds.' Mr Longestaffe thanked his friend, and
+acknowledged that there had been something remiss on his part.
+Therefore, as he went westward, he was low in spirits. But
+nevertheless he had been reassured by Melmotte's manner.
+
+Sir Felix Carbury of course did not attend the Board; nor did Paul
+Montague, for reasons with which the reader has been made acquainted.
+Lord Nidderdale had declined, having had enough of the City for that
+day, and Mr Longestaffe had been banished by hunger. The chairman was
+therefore supported only by Lord Alfred and Mr Cohenlupe. But they
+were such excellent colleagues that the work was got through as well
+as though those absentees had all attended. When the Board was over Mr
+Melmotte and Mr Cohenlupe retired together.
+
+'I must get that money for Longestaffe,' said Melmotte to his friend.
+
+'What, eighty thousand pounds! You can't do it this week,--nor yet
+before this day week.'
+
+'It isn't eighty thousand pounds. I've renewed the mortgage, and that
+makes it only fifty. If I can manage the half of that which goes to
+the son, I can put the father off.'
+
+'You must raise what you can on the whole property.'
+
+'I've done that already,' said Melmotte hoarsely.
+
+'And where's the money gone?'
+
+'Brehgert has had £40,000. I was obliged to keep it up with them. You
+can manage £25,000 for me by Monday?' Mr Cohenlupe said that he would
+try, but intimated his opinion that there would be considerable
+difficulty in the operation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIV - THE INDIA OFFICE
+
+
+The Conservative party at this particular period was putting its
+shoulder to the wheel,--not to push the coach up any hill, but to
+prevent its being hurried along at a pace which was not only
+dangerous, but manifestly destructive. The Conservative party now and
+then does put its shoulder to the wheel, ostensibly with the great
+national object above named; but also actuated by a natural desire to
+keep its own head well above water and be generally doing something,
+so that other parties may not suppose that it is moribund. There are,
+no doubt, members of it who really think that when some object has
+been achieved,--when, for instance, a good old Tory has been squeezed
+into Parliament for the borough of Porcorum, which for the last three
+parliaments has been represented by a Liberal,--the coach has been
+really stopped. To them, in their delightful faith, there comes at
+these triumphant moments a conviction that after all the people as a
+people have not been really in earnest in their efforts to take
+something from the greatness of the great, and to add something to the
+lowliness of the lowly. The handle of the windlass has been broken,
+the wheel is turning fast the reverse way, and the rope of Radical
+progress is running back. Who knows what may not be regained if the
+Conservative party will only put its shoulder to the wheel and take
+care that the handle of the windlass be not mended! Sticinthemud,
+which has ever been a doubtful little borough, has just been carried
+by a majority of fifteen! A long pull, a strong pull, and a pull
+altogether,--and the old day will come back again. Venerable patriarchs
+think of Lord Liverpool and other heroes, and dream dreams of
+Conservative bishops, Conservative lord-lieutenants, and of a
+Conservative ministry that shall remain in for a generation.
+
+Such a time was now present. Porcorum and Sticinthemud had done their
+duty valiantly,--with much management. But Westminster! If this special
+seat for Westminster could be carried, the country then could hardly
+any longer have a doubt on the matter. If only Mr Melmotte could be
+got in for Westminster, it would be manifest that the people were
+sound at heart, and that all the great changes which had been effected
+during the last forty years,--from the first reform in Parliament down
+to the Ballot,--had been managed by the cunning and treachery of a few
+ambitious men. Not, however, that the Ballot was just now regarded by
+the party as an unmitigated evil, though it was the last triumph of
+Radical wickedness. The Ballot was on the whole popular with the
+party. A short time since, no doubt it was regarded by the party as
+being one and the same as national ruin and national disgrace. But it
+had answered well at Porcorum, and with due manipulation had been
+found to be favourable at Sticinthemud. The Ballot might perhaps help
+the long pull and the strong pull,--and, in spite of the ruin and
+disgrace, was thought by some just now to be a highly Conservative
+measure. It was considered that the Ballot might assist Melmotte at
+Westminster very materially.
+
+Any one reading the Conservative papers of the time, and hearing the
+Conservative speeches in the borough,--any one at least who lived so
+remote as not to have learned what these things really mean,--would
+have thought that England's welfare depended on Melmotte's return. In
+the enthusiasm of the moment, the attacks made on his character were
+answered by eulogy as loud as the censure was bitter. The chief crime
+laid to his charge was connected with the ruin of some great
+continental assurance company, as to which it was said that he had so
+managed it as to leave it utterly stranded, with an enormous fortune
+of his own. It was declared that every shilling which he had brought
+to England with him had consisted of plunder stolen from the
+shareholders in the company. Now the 'Evening Pulpit,' in its
+endeavour to make the facts of this transaction known, had placed what
+it called the domicile of this company in Paris, whereas it was
+ascertained that its official head-quarters had in truth been placed
+at Vienna. Was not such a blunder as this sufficient to show that no
+merchant of higher honour than Mr Melmotte had ever adorned the
+Exchanges of modern capitals? And then two different newspapers of the
+time, both of them antagonistic to Melmotte, failed to be in accord on
+a material point. One declared that Mr Melmotte was not in truth
+possessed of any wealth. The other said that he had derived his wealth
+from those unfortunate shareholders. Could anything betray so bad a
+cause as contradictions such as these? Could anything be so false, so
+weak, so malignant, so useless, so wicked, so self-condemned,--in fact,
+so 'Liberal' as a course of action such as this? The belief naturally
+to be deduced from such statements, nay, the unavoidable conviction on
+the minds--of, at any rate, the Conservative newspapers--was that Mr
+Melmotte had accumulated an immense fortune, and that he had never
+robbed any shareholder of a shilling.
+
+The friends of Melmotte had moreover a basis of hope, and were enabled
+to sound premonitory notes of triumph, arising from causes quite
+external to their party. The 'Breakfast Table' supported Melmotte, but
+the 'Breakfast Table' was not a Conservative organ. This support was
+given, not to the great man's political opinions, as to which a
+well-known writer in that paper suggested that the great man had
+probably not as yet given very much attention to the party questions
+which divided the country,--but to his commercial position. It was
+generally acknowledged that few men living,--perhaps no man alive,--
+had so acute an insight into the great commercial questions of the age
+as Mr Augustus Melmotte. In whatever part of the world he might have
+acquired his commercial experience,--for it had been said repeatedly
+that Melmotte was not an Englishman,--he now made London his home and
+Great Britain his country, and it would be for the welfare of the
+country that such a man should sit in the British Parliament. Such
+were the arguments used by the 'Breakfast Table' in supporting Mr
+Melmotte. This was, of course, an assistance;--and not the less so
+because it was asserted in other papers that the country would be
+absolutely disgraced by his presence in Parliament. The hotter the
+opposition the keener will be the support. Honest good men, men who
+really loved their country, fine gentlemen, who had received unsullied
+names from great ancestors, shed their money right and left, and grew
+hot in personally energetic struggles to have this man returned to
+Parliament as the head of the great Conservative mercantile interests
+of Great Britain!
+
+There was one man who thoroughly believed that the thing at the
+present moment most essentially necessary to England's glory was the
+return of Mr Melmotte for Westminster. This man was undoubtedly a very
+ignorant man. He knew nothing of any one political question which had
+vexed England for the last half century,--nothing whatever of the
+political history which had made England what it was at the beginning
+of that half century. Of such names as Hampden, Somers, and Pitt he
+had hardly ever heard. He had probably never read a book in his life.
+He knew nothing of the working of parliament, nothing of nationality,--
+had no preference whatever for one form of government over another,
+never having given his mind a moment's trouble on the subject. He had
+not even reflected how a despotic monarch or a federal republic might
+affect himself, and possibly did not comprehend the meaning of those
+terms. But yet he was fully confident that England did demand and
+ought to demand that Mr Melmotte should be returned for Westminster.
+This man was Mr Melmotte himself.
+
+In this conjunction of his affairs Mr Melmotte certainly lost his
+head. He had audacity almost sufficient for the very dangerous game
+which he was playing; but, as crisis heaped itself upon crisis, he
+became deficient in prudence. He did not hesitate to speak of himself
+as the man who ought to represent Westminster, and of those who
+opposed him as little malignant beings who had mean interests of their
+own to serve. He went about in his open carriage, with Lord Alfred at
+his left hand, with a look on his face which seemed to imply that
+Westminster was not good enough for him. He even hinted to certain
+political friends that at the next general election he should try the
+City. Six months since he had been a humble man to a Lord,--but now
+he scolded Earls and snubbed Dukes, and yet did it in a manner which
+showed how proud he was of connecting himself with their social
+pre-eminence, and how ignorant of the manner in which such
+pre-eminence affects English gentlemen generally. The more arrogant he
+became the more vulgar he was, till even Lord Alfred would almost be
+tempted to rush away to impecuniosity and freedom. Perhaps there were
+some with whom this conduct had a salutary effect. No doubt arrogance
+will produce submission; and there are men who take other men at the
+price those other men put upon themselves. Such persons could not
+refrain from thinking Melmotte to be mighty because he swaggered; and
+gave their hinder parts to be kicked merely because he put up his toe.
+We all know men of this calibre,--and how they seem to grow in number.
+But the net result of his personal demeanour was injurious; and it was
+debated among some of the warmest of his supporters whether a hint
+should not be given him. 'Couldn't Lord Alfred say a word to him?'
+said the Honourable Beauchamp Beauclerk, who, himself in Parliament, a
+leading man in his party, thoroughly well acquainted with the borough,
+wealthy and connected by blood with half the great Conservative
+families in the kingdom, had been moving heaven and earth on behalf of
+the great financial king, and working like a slave for his success.
+
+'Alfred's more than half afraid of him,' said Lionel Lupton, a young
+aristocrat, also in Parliament, who had been inoculated with the idea
+that the interests of the party demanded Melmotte in Parliament, but
+who would have given up his Scotch shooting rather than have undergone
+Melmotte's company for a day.
+
+'Something really must be done, Mr Beauclerk,' said Mr Jones, who was
+the leading member of a very wealthy firm of builders in the borough,
+who had become a Conservative politician, who had thoughts of the
+House for himself, but who never forgot his own position. 'He is
+making a great many personal enemies.'
+
+'He's the finest old turkey cock out,' said Lionel Lupton.
+
+Then it was decided that Mr Beauclerk should speak a word to Lord
+Alfred. The rich man and the poor man were cousins, and had always
+been intimate. 'Alfred,' said the chosen mentor at the club one
+afternoon, 'I wonder whether you couldn't say something to Melmotte
+about his manner.' Lord Alfred turned sharp round and looked into his
+companion's face. 'They tell me he is giving offence. Of course he
+doesn't mean it. Couldn't he draw it a little milder?'
+
+Lord Alfred made his reply almost in a whisper. 'If you ask me, I don't
+think he could. If you got him down and trampled on him, you might
+make him mild. I don't think there's any other way.'
+
+'You couldn't speak to him, then?'
+
+'Not unless I did it with a horsewhip.'
+
+This, coming from Lord Alfred, who was absolutely dependent on the
+man, was very strong. Lord Alfred had been much afflicted that
+morning. He had spent some hours with his friend, either going about
+the borough in the open carriage, or standing just behind him at
+meetings, or sitting close to him in committee-rooms,--and had been
+nauseated with Melmotte. When spoken to about his friend he could not
+restrain himself. Lord Alfred had been born and bred a gentleman, and
+found the position in which he was now earning his bread to be almost
+insupportable. It had gone against the grain with him at first, when
+he was called Alfred; but now that he was told 'just to open the
+door,' and 'just to give that message,' he almost meditated revenge.
+Lord Nidderdale, who was quick at observation, had seen something of
+this in Grosvenor Square, and declared that Lord Alfred had invested
+part of his recent savings in a cutting whip. Mr Beauclerk, when he
+had got his answer, whistled and withdrew. But he was true to his
+party. Melmotte was not the first vulgar man whom the Conservatives
+had taken by the hand, and patted on the back, and told that he was a
+god.
+
+The Emperor of China was now in England, and was to be entertained one
+night at the India Office. The Secretary of State for the second great
+Asiatic Empire was to entertain the ruler of the first. This was on
+Saturday the 6th of July, and Melmotte's dinner was to take place on
+the following Monday. Very great interest was made by the London world
+generally to obtain admission to the India Office,--the making of such
+interest consisting in the most abject begging for tickets of
+admission, addressed to the Secretary of State, to all the under
+secretaries, to assistant secretaries, secretaries of departments,
+chief clerks, and to head-messengers and their wives. If a petitioner
+could not be admitted as a guest into the splendour of the reception
+rooms, might not he,--or she,--be allowed to stand in some passage
+whence the Emperor's back might perhaps be seen,--so that, if possible,
+the petitioner's name might be printed in the list of guests which
+would be published on the next morning? Now Mr Melmotte with his family
+was, of course, supplied with tickets. He, who was to spend a fortune
+in giving the Emperor a dinner, was of course entitled to be present
+at other places to which the Emperor would be brought to be shown.
+Melmotte had already seen the Emperor at a breakfast in Windsor Park,
+and at a ball in royal halls. But hitherto he had not been presented
+to the Emperor. Presentations have to be restricted,--if only on the
+score of time; and it had been thought that as Mr Melmotte would of
+course have some communication with the hardworked Emperor at his own
+house, that would suffice. But he had felt himself to be ill-used and
+was offended. He spoke with bitterness to some of his supporters of
+the Royal Family generally, because he had not been brought to the
+front rank either at the breakfast or at the ball,--and now, at the
+India Office, was determined to have his due. But he was not on the
+list of those whom the Secretary of State intended on this occasion to
+present to the Brother of the Sun.
+
+He had dined freely. At this period of his career he had taken to
+dining freely,--which was in itself imprudent, as he had need at all
+hours of his best intelligence. Let it not be understood that he was
+tipsy. He was a man whom wine did not often affect after that fashion.
+But it made him, who was arrogant before, tower in his arrogance till
+he was almost sure to totter. It was probably at some moment after
+dinner that Lord Alfred decided upon buying the cutting whip of which
+he had spoken. Melmotte went with his wife and daughter to the India
+Office, and soon left them far in the background with a request,--we
+may say an order,--to Lord Alfred to take care of them. It may be
+observed here that Marie Melmotte was almost as great a curiosity as
+the Emperor himself, and was much noticed as the girl who had attempted
+to run away to New York, but had gone without her lover. Melmotte
+entertained some foolish idea that as the India Office was in
+Westminster, he had a peculiar right to demand an introduction on this
+occasion because of his candidature. He did succeed in getting hold of
+an unfortunate under secretary of state, a studious and invaluable
+young peer, known as Earl De Griffin. He was a shy man, of enormous
+wealth, of mediocre intellect, and no great physical ability, who
+never amused himself; but worked hard night and day, and read
+everything that anybody could write, and more than any other person
+could read, about India. Had Mr Melmotte wanted to know the exact
+dietary of the peasants in Orissa, or the revenue of the Punjaub, or
+the amount of crime in Bombay, Lord De Griffin would have informed him
+without a pause. But in this matter of managing the Emperor, the under
+secretary had nothing to do, and would have been the last man to be
+engaged in such a service. He was, however, second in command at the
+India Office, and of his official rank Melmotte was unfortunately made
+aware. 'My Lord,' said he, by no means hiding his demand in a whisper,
+'I am desirous of being presented to his Imperial Majesty.' Lord De
+Griffin looked at him in despair, not knowing the great man,--being
+one of the few men in that room who did not know him.
+
+'This is Mr Melmotte,' said Lord Alfred, who had deserted the ladies
+and still stuck to his master. 'Lord De Griffin, let me introduce you
+to Mr Melmotte.'
+
+'Oh--oh--oh,' said Lord De Griffin, just putting out his hand. 'I am
+delighted;--ah, yes,' and pretending to see somebody, he made a weak
+and quite ineffectual attempt to escape.
+
+Melmotte stood directly in his way, and with unabashed audacity
+repeated his demand. 'I am desirous of being presented to his Imperial
+Majesty. Will you do me the honour of making my request known to Mr
+Wilson?' Mr Wilson was the Secretary of State, who was as busy as a
+Secretary of State is sure to be on such an occasion.
+
+'I hardly know,' said Lord De Griffin. 'I'm afraid it's all arranged.
+I don't know anything about it myself.'
+
+'You can introduce me to Mr Wilson.'
+
+'He's up there, Mr Melmotte; and I couldn't get at him. Really you
+must excuse me. I'm very sorry. If I see him I'll tell him.' And the
+poor under secretary again endeavoured to escape.
+
+Mr Melmotte put up his hand and stopped him. 'I'm not going to stand
+this kind of thing,' he said. The old Marquis of Auld Reekie was close
+at hand, the father of Lord Nidderdale, and therefore the proposed
+father-in-law of Melmotte's daughter, and he poked his thumb heavily
+into Lord Alfred's ribs. 'It is generally understood, I believe,'
+continued Melmotte, 'that the Emperor is to do me the honour of dining
+at my poor house on Monday. He don't dine there unless I'm made
+acquainted with him before he comes. I mean what I say. I ain't going
+to entertain even an Emperor unless I'm good enough to be presented to
+him. Perhaps you'd better let Mr Wilson know, as a good many people
+intend to come.'
+
+'Here's a row,' said the old Marquis. 'I wish he'd be as good as his
+word.'
+
+'He has taken a little wine,' whispered Lord Alfred. 'Melmotte,' he
+said, still whispering; 'upon my word it isn't the thing. They're only
+Indian chaps and Eastern swells who are presented here,--not a fellow
+among 'em all who hasn't been in India or China, or isn't a Secretary
+of State, or something of that kind.'
+
+'Then they should have done it at Windsor, or at the ball,' said
+Melmotte, pulling down his waistcoat. 'By George, Alfred! I'm in
+earnest, and somebody had better look to it. If I'm not presented to
+his Imperial Majesty to-night, by G----, there shall be no dinner in
+Grosvenor Square on Monday. I'm master enough of my own house, I
+suppose, to be able to manage that.'
+
+Here was a row, as the Marquis had said! Lord De Griffin was
+frightened, and Lord Alfred felt that something ought to be done.
+'There's no knowing how far the pig-headed brute may go in his
+obstinacy,' Lord Alfred said to Mr Lupton, who was there. It no doubt
+might have been wise to have allowed the merchant prince to return
+home with the resolution that his dinner should be abandoned. He would
+have repented probably before the next morning; and had he continued
+obdurate it would not have been difficult to explain to Celestial
+Majesty that something preferable had been found for that particular
+evening even to a banquet at the house of British commerce. The
+Government would probably have gained the seat for Westminster, as
+Melmotte would at once have become very unpopular with the great body
+of his supporters. But Lord De Griffin was not the man to see this. He
+did make his way up to Mr Wilson, and explained to the Amphytrion of
+the night the demand which was made on his hospitality. A thoroughly
+well-established and experienced political Minister of State always
+feels that if he can make a friend or appease an enemy without paying
+a heavy price he will be doing a good stroke of business. 'Bring him
+up,' said Mr Wilson. 'He's going to do something out in the East,
+isn't he?' 'Nothing in India,' said Lord De Griffin. 'The submarine
+telegraph is quite impossible.' Mr Wilson, instructing some satellite
+to find out in what way he might properly connect Mr Melmotte with
+China, sent Lord De Griffin away with his commission.
+
+'My dear Alfred, just allow me to manage these things myself;' Mr
+Melmotte was saying when the under secretary returned. 'I know my own
+position and how to keep it. There shall be no dinner. I'll be d---- if
+any of the lot shall dine in Grosvenor Square on Monday.' Lord Alfred
+was so astounded that he was thinking of making his way to the Prime
+Minister, a man whom he abhorred and didn't know, and of acquainting
+him with the terrible calamity which was threatened. But the arrival
+of the under secretary saved him the trouble.
+
+'If you will come with me,' whispered Lord De Griffin, 'it shall be
+managed. It isn't just the thing, but as you wish it, it shall be
+done.'
+
+'I do wish it,' said Melmotte aloud. He was one of those men whom
+success never mollified, whose enjoyment of a point gained always
+demanded some hoarse note of triumph from his own trumpet.
+
+'If you will be so kind as to follow me,' said Lord De Griffin. And so
+the thing was done. Melmotte, as he was taken up to the imperial
+footstool, was resolved upon making a little speech, forgetful at the
+moment of interpreters,--of the double interpreters whom the Majesty
+of China required; but the awful, quiescent solemnity of the celestial
+one quelled even him, and he shuffled by without saying a word even of
+his own banquet.
+
+But he had gained his point, and, as he was taken home to poor Mr
+Longestaffe's house in Bruton Street, was intolerable. Lord Alfred
+tried to escape after putting Madame Melmotte and her daughter into
+the carriage, but Melmotte insisted on his presence. 'You might as
+well come, Alfred;--there are two or three things I must settle
+before I go to bed.'
+
+'I'm about knocked up,' said the unfortunate man.
+
+'Knocked up, nonsense! Think what I've been through. I've been all day
+at the hardest work a man can do.' Had he as usual got in first,
+leaving his man-of-all-work to follow, the man-of-all-work would have
+escaped. Melmotte, fearing such defection, put his hand on Lord
+Alfred's shoulder, and the poor fellow was beaten. As they were taken
+home a continual sound of cock-crowing was audible, but as the words
+were not distinguished they required no painful attention; but when
+the soda water and brandy and cigars made their appearance in Mr
+Longestaffe's own back room, then the trumpet was sounded with a full
+blast. 'I mean to let the fellows know what's what,' said Melmotte,
+walking about the room. Lord Alfred had thrown himself into an
+arm-chair, and was consoling himself as best he might with tobacco.
+'Give and take is a very good motto. If I scratch their back, I mean
+them to scratch mine. They won't find many people to spend ten
+thousand pounds in entertaining a guest of the country's as a private
+enterprise. I don't know of any other man of business who could do it,
+or would do it. It's not much any of them can do for me. Thank God, I
+don't want 'em. But if consideration is to be shown to anybody, I
+intend to be considered. The Prince treated me very scurvily, Alfred,
+and I shall take an opportunity of telling him so on Monday. I suppose
+a man may be allowed to speak to his own guests.'
+
+'You might turn the election against you if you said anything the
+Prince didn't like.'
+
+'D---- the election, sir. I stand before the electors of Westminster as a
+man of business, not as a courtier,--as a man who understands commercial
+enterprise, not as one of the Prince's toadies. Some of you fellows in
+England don't realize the matter yet; but I can tell you that I think
+myself quite as great a man as any Prince.' Lord Alfred looked at him,
+with strong reminiscences of the old ducal home, and shuddered. 'I'll
+teach them a lesson before long. Didn't I teach 'em a lesson to-night,--
+eh? They tell me that Lord De Griffin has sixty thousand a-year to
+spend. What's sixty thousand a year? Didn't I make him go on my
+business? And didn't I make 'em do as I chose? You want to tell me
+this and that, but I can tell you that I know more of men and women
+than some of you fellows do, who think you know a great deal.'
+
+This went on through the whole of a long cigar; and afterwards, as
+Lord Alfred slowly paced his way back to his lodgings in Mount Street,
+he thought deeply whether there might not be means of escaping from
+his present servitude. 'Beast! Brute! Pig!' he said to himself over
+and over again as he slowly went to Mount Street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LV - CLERICAL CHARITIES
+
+
+Melmotte's success, and Melmotte's wealth, and Melmotte's antecedents
+were much discussed down in Suffolk at this time. He had been seen
+there in the flesh, and there is no believing like that which comes
+from sight. He had been staying at Caversham, and many in those parts
+knew that Miss Longestaffe was now living in his house in London. The
+purchase of the Pickering estate had also been noticed in all the
+Suffolk and Norfolk newspapers. Rumours, therefore, of his past
+frauds, rumour also as to the instability of his presumed fortune,
+were as current as those which declared him to be by far the richest
+man in England. Miss Melmotte's little attempt had also been
+communicated in the papers; and Sir Felix, though he was not
+recognized as being 'real Suffolk' himself, was so far connected with
+Suffolk by name as to add something to this feeling of reality
+respecting the Melmottes generally. Suffolk is very old-fashioned.
+Suffolk, taken as a whole, did not like the Melmotte fashion. Suffolk,
+which is, I fear, persistently and irrecoverably Conservative, did not
+believe in Melmotte as a Conservative Member of Parliament. Suffolk on
+this occasion was rather ashamed of the Longestaffes, and took
+occasion to remember that it was barely the other day, as Suffolk
+counts days, since the original Longestaffe was in trade. This selling
+of Pickering, and especially the selling of it to Melmotte, was a mean
+thing. Suffolk, as a whole, thoroughly believed that Melmotte had
+picked the very bones of every shareholder in that Franco-Austrian
+Assurance Company.
+
+Mr Hepworth was over with Roger one morning, and they were talking
+about him,--or talking rather of the attempted elopement. 'I know
+nothing about it,' said Roger, 'and I do not intend to ask. Of course
+I did know when they were down here that he hoped to marry her, and I
+did believe that she was willing to marry him. But whether the father
+had consented or not I never inquired.'
+
+'It seems he did not consent.'
+
+'Nothing could have been more unfortunate for either of them than such
+a marriage. Melmotte will probably be in the "Gazette" before long,
+and my cousin not only has not a shilling, but could not keep one if
+he had it.'
+
+'You think Melmotte will turn out a failure.'
+
+'A failure! Of course he's a failure, whether rich or poor;--a
+miserable imposition, a hollow vulgar fraud from beginning to end,--
+too insignificant for you and me to talk of, were it not that his
+position is a sign of the degeneracy of the age. What are we coming
+to when such as he is an honoured guest at our tables?'
+
+'At just a table here and there,' suggested his friend.
+
+'No;--it is not that. You can keep your house free from him, and so can
+I mine. But we set no example to the nation at large. They who do set
+the example go to his feasts, and of course he is seen at theirs in
+return. And yet these leaders of the fashion know,--at any rate they
+believe,--that he is what he is because he has been a swindler greater
+than other swindlers. What follows as a natural consequence? Men
+reconcile themselves to swindling. Though they themselves mean to be
+honest, dishonesty of itself is no longer odious to them. Then there
+comes the jealousy that others should be growing rich with the
+approval of all the world,--and the natural aptitude to do what all the
+world approves. It seems to me that the existence of a Melmotte is not
+compatible with a wholesome state of things in general.'
+
+Roger dined with the Bishop of Elmham that evening, and the same hero
+was discussed under a different heading. 'He has given £200,' said the
+Bishop, 'to the Curates' Aid Society. I don't know that a man could
+spend his money much better than that.'
+
+'Clap-trap!' said Roger, who in his present mood was very bitter.
+
+'The money is not clap-trap, my friend. I presume that the money is
+really paid.'
+
+'I don't feel at all sure of that.'
+
+'Our collectors for clerical charities are usually stern men,--very
+ready to make known defalcations on the part of promising subscribers.
+I think they would take care to get the money during the election.'
+
+'And you think that money got in that way redounds to his credit?'
+
+'Such a gift shows him to be a useful member of society,--and I am
+always for encouraging useful men.'
+
+'Even though their own objects may be vile and pernicious?'
+
+'There you beg ever so many questions, Mr Carbury. Mr Melmotte wishes
+to get into Parliament, and if there would vote on the side which you
+at any rate approve. I do not know that his object in that respect is
+pernicious. And as a seat in Parliament has been a matter of ambition
+to the best of our countrymen for centuries, I do not know why we
+should say that it is vile in this man.' Roger frowned and shook his
+head. 'Of course Mr Melmotte is not the sort of gentleman whom you
+have been accustomed to regard as a fitting member for a Conservative
+constituency. But the country is changing.'
+
+'It's going to the dogs, I think;--about as fast as it can go.'
+
+'We build churches much faster than we used to do.'
+
+'Do we say our prayers in them when we have built them?' asked the
+Squire.
+
+'It is very hard to see into the minds of men,' said the Bishop; 'but
+we can see the results of their minds' work. I think that men on the
+whole do live better lives than they did a hundred years ago. There is
+a wider spirit of justice abroad, more of mercy from one to another, a
+more lively charity, and if less of religious enthusiasm, less also of
+superstition. Men will hardly go to heaven, Mr Carbury, by following
+forms only because their fathers followed the same forms before them.'
+
+'I suppose men will go to heaven, my Lord, by doing as they would be
+done by.'
+
+'There can be no safer lesson. But we must hope that some may be saved
+even if they have not practised at all times that grand self-denial.
+Who comes up to that teaching? Do you not wish for, nay, almost
+demand, instant pardon for any trespass that you may commit,--of temper,
+or manner, for instance? and are you always ready to forgive in that
+way yourself? Do you not writhe with indignation at being wrongly
+judged by others who condemn you without knowing your actions or the
+causes of them; and do you never judge others after that fashion?'
+
+'I do not put myself forward as an example.'
+
+'I apologise for the personal form of my appeal. A clergyman is apt to
+forget that he is not in the pulpit. Of course I speak of men in
+general. Taking society as a whole, the big and the little, the rich
+and the poor, I think that it grows better from year to year, and not
+worse. I think, too, that they who grumble at the times, as Horace
+did, and declare that each age is worse than its forerunner, look only
+at the small things beneath their eyes, and ignore the course of the
+world at large.'
+
+'But Roman freedom and Roman manners were going to the dogs when
+Horace wrote.'
+
+'But Christ was about to be born, and men were already being made fit
+by wider intelligence for Christ's teaching. And as for freedom, has
+not freedom grown, almost every year, from that to this?'
+
+'In Rome they were worshipping just such men as this Melmotte. Do you
+remember the man who sat upon the seats of the knights and scoured the
+Via Sacra with his toga, though he had been scourged from pillar to
+post for his villainies? I always think of that man when I hear
+Melmotte's name mentioned. Hoc, hoc tribuno militum! Is this the man
+to be Conservative member for Westminster?'
+
+'Do you know of the scourges, as a fact?'
+
+'I think I know that they are deserved.'
+
+'That is hardly doing to others as you would be done by. If the man is
+what you say, he will surely be found out at last, and the day of his
+punishment will come. Your friend in the ode probably had a bad time
+of it, in spite of his farms and his horses. The world perhaps is
+managed more justly than you think, Mr Carbury.'
+
+'My Lord, I believe you're a Radical at heart,' said Roger, as he took
+his leave.
+
+'Very likely,--very likely. Only don't say so to the Prime Minister,
+or I shall never get any of the better things which may be going.'
+
+The Bishop was not hopelessly in love with a young lady, and was
+therefore less inclined to take a melancholy view of things in general
+than Roger Carbury. To Roger everything seemed to be out of joint. He
+had that morning received a letter from Lady Carbury, reminding him of
+the promise of a loan, should a time come to her of great need. It had
+come very quickly. Roger Carbury did not in the least begrudge the
+hundred pounds which he had already sent to his cousin; but he did
+begrudge any furtherance afforded to the iniquitous schemes of Sir
+Felix. He felt all but sure that the foolish mother had given her son
+money for his abortive attempt, and that therefore this appeal had
+been made to him. He alluded to no such fear in his letter. He simply
+enclosed the cheque, and expressed a hope that the amount might
+suffice for the present emergency. But he was disheartened and
+disgusted by all the circumstances of the Carbury family. There was
+Paul Montague, bringing a woman such as Mrs Hurtle down to Lowestoft,
+declaring his purpose of continuing his visits to her, and, as
+Roger thought, utterly unable to free himself from his toils,--and
+yet, on this man's account, Hetta was cold and hard to him. He was
+conscious of the honesty of his own love, sure that he could make
+her happy,--confident, not in himself, but in the fashion and ways
+of his own life. What would be Hetta's lot if her heart was really
+given to Paul Montague?
+
+When he got home, he found Father Barham sitting in his library. An
+accident had lately happened at Father Barham's own establishment. The
+wind had blown the roof off his cottage; and Roger Carbury, though his
+affection for the priest was waning, had offered him shelter while the
+damage was being repaired. Shelter at Carbury Manor was very much more
+comfortable than the priest's own establishment, even with the roof
+on, and Father Barham was in clover. Father Barham was reading his own
+favourite newspaper, 'The Surplice,' when Roger entered the room.
+'Have you seen this, Mr Carbury?' he said.
+
+'What's this? I am not likely to have seen anything that belongs
+peculiarly to "The Surplice."'
+
+'That's the prejudice of what you are pleased to call the Anglican
+Church. Mr Melmotte is a convert to our faith. He is a great man, and
+will perhaps be one of the greatest known on the face of the globe.'
+
+'Melmotte a convert to Romanism! I'll make you a present of him, and
+thank you to take him; but I don't believe that we've any such good
+riddance.'
+
+Then Father Barham read a paragraph out of 'The Surplice.' 'Mr
+Augustus Melmotte, the great financier and capitalist, has presented a
+hundred guineas towards the erection of an altar for the new church of
+St Fabricius, in Tothill Fields. The donation was accompanied by a
+letter from Mr Melmotte's secretary, which leaves but little doubt
+that the new member for Westminster will be a member, and no
+inconsiderable member, of the Catholic party in the House, during the
+next session.'
+
+'That's another dodge, is it?' said Carbury.
+
+'What do you mean by a dodge, Mr Carbury? Because money is given for a
+pious object of which you do not happen to approve, must it be a
+dodge?'
+
+'But, my dear Father Barham, the day before the same great man gave
+£200 to the Protestant Curates' Aid Society. I have just left the
+Bishop exulting in this great act of charity.'
+
+'I don't believe a word of it;--or it may be a parting gift to the
+Church to which he belonged in his darkness.'
+
+'And you would be really proud of Mr Melmotte as a convert?'
+
+'I would be proud of the lowest human being that has a soul,' said the
+priest; 'but of course we are glad to welcome the wealthy and the
+great.'
+
+'The great! Oh dear!'
+
+'A man is great who has made for himself such a position as that of Mr
+Melmotte. And when such a one leaves your Church and joins our own, it
+is a great sign to us that the Truth is prevailing.' Roger Carbury,
+without another word, took his candle and went to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVI - FATHER BARHAM VISITS LONDON
+
+
+It was considered to be a great thing to catch the Roman Catholic vote
+in Westminster. For many years it has been considered a great thing
+both in the House and out of the House to 'catch' Roman Catholic
+votes. There are two modes of catching these votes. This or that
+individual Roman Catholic may be promoted to place, so that he
+personally may be made secure; or the right hand of fellowship may be
+extended to the people of the Pope generally, so that the people of
+the Pope may be taught to think that a general step is being made
+towards the reconversion of the nation. The first measure is the
+easier, but the effect is but slight and soon passes away. The
+promoted one, though as far as his prayers go he may remain as good a
+Catholic as ever, soon ceases to be one of the party to be
+conciliated, and is apt after a while to be regarded by them as an
+enemy. But the other mode, if a step be well taken, may be very
+efficacious. It has now and then occurred that every Roman Catholic in
+Ireland and England has been brought to believe that the nation is
+coming round to them;--and in this or that borough the same conviction
+has been made to grow. To catch the Protestant,--that is the peculiarly
+Protestant,--vote and the Roman Catholic vote at the same instant is a
+feat difficult of accomplishment; but it has been attempted before,
+and was attempted now by Mr Melmotte and his friends. It was perhaps
+thought by his friends that the Protestants would not notice the £100
+given for the altar to St Fabricius; but Mr Alf was wide awake, and
+took care that Mr Melmotte's religious opinions should be a matter of
+interest to the world at large. During all that period of newspaper
+excitement there was perhaps no article that created so much general
+interest as that which appeared in the 'Evening Pulpit,' with a
+special question asked at the head of it, 'For Priest or Parson?' In
+this article, which was more than usually delightful as being pungent
+from the beginning to the end and as being unalloyed with any dry
+didactic wisdom, Mr Alf's man, who did that business, declared that it
+was really important that the nation at large and especially the
+electors of Westminster should know what was the nature of Mr
+Melmotte's faith. That he was a man of a highly religious temperament
+was most certain by his munificent charities on behalf of religion.
+Two noble donations, which by chance had been made just at this
+crisis, were doubtless no more than the regular continuation of his
+ordinary flow of Christian benevolence. The 'Evening Pulpit' by no
+means insinuated that the gifts were intended to have any reference to
+the approaching election. Far be it from the 'Evening Pulpit' to
+imagine that so great a man as Mr Melmotte looked for any return in
+this world from his charitable generosity. But still, as Protestants
+naturally desired to be represented in Parliament by a Protestant
+member, and as Roman Catholics as naturally desired to be represented
+by a Roman Catholic, perhaps Mr Melmotte would not object to declare
+his creed.
+
+This was biting, and of course did mischief; but Mr Melmotte and his
+manager were not foolish enough to allow it to actuate them in any
+way. He had thrown his bread upon the waters, assisting St Fabricius
+with one hand and the Protestant curates with the other, and must
+leave the results to take care of themselves. If the Protestants chose
+to believe that he was hyper-protestant, and the Catholics that he was
+tending towards papacy, so much the better for him. Any enthusiastic
+religionists wishing to enjoy such convictions would not allow
+themselves to be enlightened by the manifestly interested malignity of
+Mr Alf's newspaper.
+
+It may be doubted whether the donation to the Curates' Aid Society did
+have much effect. It may perhaps have induced a resolution in some few
+to go to the poll whose minds were active in regard to religion and
+torpid as to politics. But the donation to St Fabricius certainly had
+results. It was taken up and made much of by the Roman Catholic party
+generally, till a report got itself spread abroad and almost believed
+that Mr Melmotte was going to join the Church of Rome. These
+manoeuvres require most delicate handling, or evil may follow instead
+of good. On the second afternoon after the question had been asked in
+the 'Evening Pulpit,' an answer to it appeared, 'For Priest and not
+for Parson.' Therein various assertions made by Roman Catholic organs
+and repeated in Roman Catholic speeches were brought together, so as
+to show that Mr Melmotte really had at last made up his mind on this
+important question. All the world knew now, said Mr Alf's writer, that
+with that keen sense of honesty which was the Great Financier's
+peculiar characteristic,--the Great Financier was the name which Mr Alf
+had specially invented for Mr Melmotte,--he had doubted, till the truth
+was absolutely borne in upon him, whether he could serve the nation
+best as a Liberal or as a Conservative. He had solved that doubt with
+wisdom. And now this other doubt had passed through the crucible, and
+by the aid of fire a golden certainty had been produced. The world of
+Westminster at last knew that Mr Melmotte was a Roman Catholic. Now
+nothing was clearer than this,--that though catching the Catholic vote
+would greatly help a candidate, no real Roman Catholic could hope to
+be returned. This last article vexed Mr Melmotte, and he proposed to
+his friends to send a letter to the 'Breakfast Table' asserting that
+he adhered to the Protestant faith of his ancestors. But, as it was
+suspected by many, and was now being whispered to the world at large,
+that Melmotte had been born a Jew, this assurance would perhaps have
+been too strong. 'Do nothing of the kind,' said Mr Beauchamp
+Beauclerk. 'If any one asks you a question at any meeting, say that
+you are a Protestant. But it isn't likely, as we have none but our own
+people. Don't go writing letters.'
+
+But unfortunately the gift of an altar to St Fabricius was such a
+godsend that sundry priests about the country were determined to cling
+to the good man who had bestowed his money so well. I think that many
+of them did believe that this was a great sign of a beauteous stirring
+of people's minds in favour of Rome. The fervent Romanists have always
+this point in their favour, that they are ready to believe. And they
+have a desire for the conversion of men which is honest in an exactly
+inverse ratio to the dishonesty of the means which they employ to
+produce it. Father Barham was ready to sacrifice anything personal to
+himself in the good cause,--his time, his health, his money when he had
+any, and his life. Much as he liked the comfort of Carbury Hall, he
+would never for a moment condescend to ensure its continued enjoyment
+by reticence as to his religion. Roger Carbury was hard of heart. He
+could see that. But the dropping of water might hollow the stone. If
+the dropping should be put an end to by outward circumstances before
+the stone had been impressed that would not be his fault. He at any
+rate would do his duty. In that fixed resolution Father Barham was
+admirable. But he had no scruple whatsoever as to the nature of the
+arguments he would use,--or as to the facts which he would proclaim.
+With the mingled ignorance of his life and the positiveness of his
+faith he had at once made up his mind that Melmotte was a great man,
+and that he might be made a great instrument on behalf of the Pope. He
+believed in the enormous proportions of the man's wealth,--believed
+that he was powerful in all quarters of the globe,--and believed,
+because he was so told by 'The Surplice,' that the man was at heart a
+Catholic. That a man should be at heart a Catholic, and live in the
+world professing the Protestant religion, was not to Father Barham
+either improbable or distressing. Kings who had done so were to him
+objects of veneration. By such subterfuges and falsehood of life had
+they been best able to keep alive the spark of heavenly fire. There was
+a mystery and religious intrigue in this which recommended itself to the
+young priest's mind. But it was clear to him that this was a peculiar
+time,--in which it behoved an earnest man to be doing something. He had
+for some weeks been preparing himself for a trip to London in order
+that he might spend a week in retreat with kindred souls who from time
+to time betook themselves to the cells of St Fabricius. And so, just
+at this season of the Westminster election, Father Barham made a
+journey to London.
+
+He had conceived the great idea of having a word or two with Mr
+Melmotte himself. He thought that he might be convinced by a word or
+two as to the man's faith. And he thought, also, that it might be a
+happiness to him hereafter to have had intercourse with a man who was
+perhaps destined to be the means of restoring the true faith to his
+country. On Saturday night,--that Saturday night on which Mr Melmotte
+had so successfully exercised his greatness at the India Office,--he
+took up his quarters in the cloisters of St Fabricius; he spent a
+goodly festive Sunday among the various Romanist church services of
+the metropolis; and on the Monday morning he sallied forth in quest of
+Mr Melmotte. Having obtained that address from some circular, he went
+first to Abchurch Lane. But on this day, and on the next, which would
+be the day of the election, Mr Melmotte was not expected in the City,
+and the priest was referred to his present private residence in Bruton
+Street. There he was told that the great man might probably be found
+in Grosvenor Square, and at the house in the square Father Barham was
+at last successful. Mr Melmotte was there superintending the
+arrangements for the entertainment of the Emperor.
+
+The servants, or more probably the workmen, must have been at fault in
+giving the priest admittance. But in truth the house was in great
+confusion. The wreaths of flowers and green boughs were being
+suspended, last daubs of heavy gilding were being given to the wooden
+capitals of mock pilasters, incense was being burned to kill the smell
+of the paint, tables were being fixed and chairs were being moved; and
+an enormous set of open presses were being nailed together for the
+accommodation of hats and cloaks. The hall was chaos, and poor Father
+Barham, who had heard a good deal of the Westminster election, but not
+a word of the intended entertainment of the Emperor, was at a loss to
+conceive for what purpose these operations were carried on. But
+through the chaos he made his way, and did soon find himself in the
+presence of Mr Melmotte in the banqueting hall.
+
+Mr Melmotte was attended both by Lord Alfred and his son. He was
+standing in front of the chair which had been arranged for the
+Emperor, with his hat on one side of his head, and he was very angry
+indeed. He had been given to understand when the dinner was first
+planned, that he was to sit opposite to his august guest;--by which he
+had conceived that he was to have a seat immediately in face of the
+Emperor of Emperors, of the Brother of the Sun, of the Celestial One
+himself. It was now explained to him that this could not be done. In
+face of the Emperor there must be a wide space, so that his Majesty
+might be able to look down the hall; and the royal princesses who sat
+next to the Emperor, and the royal princes who sat next to the
+princesses, must also be so indulged. And in this way Mr Melmotte's
+own seat became really quite obscure. Lord Alfred was having a very
+bad time of it. 'It's that fellow from "The Herald" office did it, not
+me,' he said, almost in a passion. 'I don't know how people ought to
+sit. But that's the reason.'
+
+'I'm d----- if I'm going to be treated in this way in my own house,'
+were the first words which the priest heard. And as Father Barham
+walked up the room and came close to the scene of action, unperceived
+by either of the Grendalls, Mr Melmotte was trying, but trying in
+vain, to move his own seat nearer to Imperial Majesty. A bar had been
+put up of such a nature that Melmotte, sitting in the seat prepared
+for him, would absolutely be barred out from the centre of his own
+hall. 'Who the d---- are you?' he asked, when the priest appeared
+close before his eyes on the inner or more imperial side of the bar.
+It was not the habit of Father Barham's life to appear in sleek
+apparel. He was ever clothed in the very rustiest brown black that age
+can produce. In Beccles where he was known it signified little, but in
+the halls of the great one in Grosvenor Square, perhaps the stranger's
+welcome was cut to the measure of his outer man. A comely priest in
+glossy black might have been received with better grace.
+
+Father Barham stood humbly with his hat off. He was a man of infinite
+pluck; but outward humility--at any rate at the commencement of an
+enterprise,--was the rule of his life. 'I am the Rev. Mr Barham,' said
+the visitor. 'I am the priest of Beccles in Suffolk. I believe I am
+speaking to Mr Melmotte.'
+
+'That's my name, sir. And what may you want? I don't know whether you
+are aware that you have found your way into my private dining-room
+without any introduction. Where the mischief are the fellows, Alfred,
+who ought to have seen about this? I wish you'd look to it, Miles. Can
+anybody who pleases walk into my hall?'
+
+'I came on a mission which I hope may be pleaded as my excuse,' said
+the priest. Although he was bold, he found it difficult to explain his
+mission. Had not Lord Alfred been there he could have done it better,
+in spite of the very repulsive manner of the great man himself.
+
+'Is it business?' asked Lord Alfred.
+
+'Certainly it is business,' said Father Barham with a smile.
+
+'Then you had better call at the office in Abchurch Lane,--in the
+City,' said his lordship.
+
+'My business is not of that nature. I am a poor servant of the Cross,
+who is anxious to know from the lips of Mr Melmotte himself that his
+heart is inclined to the true Faith.'
+
+'Some lunatic,' said Melmotte. 'See that there ain't any knives about,
+Alfred.'
+
+'No otherwise mad, sir, than they have ever been accounted mad who are
+enthusiastic in their desire for the souls of others.'
+
+'Just get a policeman, Alfred. Or send somebody; you'd better not go
+away.'
+
+'You will hardly need a policeman, Mr Melmotte,' continued the priest.
+'If I might speak to you alone for a few minutes--'
+
+'Certainly not;--certainly not. I am very busy, and if you will not go
+away you'll have to be taken away. I wonder whether anybody knows
+him.'
+
+'Mr Carbury, of Carbury Hall, is my friend.'
+
+'Carbury! D--- the Carburys! Did any of the Carburys send you here? A
+set of beggars! Why don't you do something, Alfred, to get rid of
+him?'
+
+'You'd better go,' said Lord Alfred. 'Don't make a rumpus, there's a
+good fellow;--but just go.'
+
+'There shall be no rumpus,' said the priest, waxing wrathful. 'I asked
+for you at the door, and was told to come in by your own servants.
+Have I been uncivil that you should treat me in this fashion?'
+
+'You're in the way,' said Lord Alfred.
+
+'It's a piece of gross impertinence,' said Melmotte. 'Go away.'
+
+'Will you not tell me before I go whether I shall pray for you as one
+whose steps in the right path should be made sure and firm; or as one
+still in error and in darkness?'
+
+'What the mischief does he mean?' asked Melmotte.
+
+'He wants to know whether you're a papist,' said Lord Alfred.
+
+'What the deuce is it to him?' almost screamed Melmotte;--whereupon
+Father Barham bowed and took his leave.
+
+'That's a remarkable thing,' said Melmotte,--'very remarkable.' Even
+this poor priest's mad visit added to his inflation. 'I suppose he was
+in earnest.'
+
+'Mad as a hatter,' said Lord Alfred.
+
+'But why did he come to me in his madness--to me especially? That's
+what I want to know. I'll tell you what it is. There isn't a man in
+all England at this moment thought of so much as--your humble servant.
+I wonder whether the "Morning Pulpit" people sent him here now to find
+out really what is my religion.'
+
+'Mad as a hatter,' said Lord Alfred again;--'just that and no more.'
+
+'My dear fellow, I don't think you've the gift of seeing very far. The
+truth is they don't know what to make of me;--and I don't intend that
+they shall. I'm playing my game, and there isn't one of 'em
+understands it except myself. It's no good my sitting here, you know.
+I shan't be able to move. How am I to get at you if I want anything?'
+
+'What can you want? There'll be lots of servants about.'
+
+'I'll have this bar down, at any rate.' And he did succeed in having
+removed the bar which had been specially put up to prevent his
+intrusion on his own guests in his own house. 'I look upon that
+fellow's coming here as a very singular sign of the times,' he went on
+to say. 'They'll want before long to know where I have my clothes
+made, and who measures me for my boots!' Perhaps the most remarkable
+circumstance in the career of this remarkable man was the fact that he
+came almost to believe in himself.
+
+Father Barham went away certainly disgusted; and yet not altogether
+disheartened. The man had not declared that he was not a Roman
+Catholic. He had shown himself to be a brute. He had blasphemed and
+cursed. He had been outrageously uncivil to a man whom he must have
+known to be a minister of God. He had manifested himself to this
+priest, who had been born an English gentleman, as being no gentleman.
+But, not the less might he be a good Catholic,--or good enough at any
+rate to be influential on the right side. To his eyes Melmotte, with
+all his insolent vulgarity, was infinitely a more hopeful man than
+Roger Carbury. 'He insulted me,' said Father Barham to a brother
+religionist that evening within the cloisters of St Fabricius.
+
+'Did he intend to insult you?'
+
+'Certainly he did. But what of that? It is not by the hands of
+polished men, nor even of the courteous, that this work has to be
+done. He was preparing for some great festival, and his mind was
+intent upon that.'
+
+'He entertains the Emperor of China this very day,' said the brother
+priest, who, as a resident in London, heard from time to time what was
+being done.
+
+'The Emperor of China! Ah, that accounts for it. I do think that he is
+on our side, even though he gave me but little encouragement for
+saying so. Will they vote for him, here at Westminster?'
+
+'Our people will. They think that he is rich and can help them.'
+
+'There is no doubt of his wealth, I suppose,' said Father Barham.
+
+'Some people do doubt;--but others say he is the richest man in the
+world.'
+
+'He looked like it,--and spoke like it,' said Father Barham. 'Think what
+such a man might do, if he be really the wealthiest man in the world!
+And if he had been against us would he not have said so? Though he was
+uncivil, I am glad that I saw him.' Father Barham, with a simplicity
+that was singularly mingled with his religious cunning, made himself
+believe before he returned to Beccles that Mr Melmotte was certainly a
+Roman Catholic.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVII - LORD NIDDERDALE TRIES HIS HAND AGAIN
+
+
+Lord Nidderdale had half consented to renew his suit to Marie
+Melmotte. He had at any rate half promised to call at Melmotte's house
+on the Sunday with the object of so doing. As far as that promise had
+been given it was broken, for on the Sunday he was not seen in Bruton
+Street. Though not much given to severe thinking, he did feel that on
+this occasion there was need for thought. His father's property was
+not very large. His father and his grandfather had both been
+extravagant men, and he himself had done something towards adding to
+the family embarrassments. It had been an understood thing, since he
+had commenced life, that he was to marry an heiress. In such families
+as his, when such results have been achieved, it is generally
+understood that matters shall be put right by an heiress. It has
+become an institution, like primogeniture, and is almost as
+serviceable for maintaining the proper order of things. Rank squanders
+money; trade makes it;--and then trade purchases rank by re-gilding its
+splendour. The arrangement, as it affects the aristocracy generally,
+is well understood, and was quite approved of by the old marquis--so
+that he had felt himself to be justified in eating up the property,
+which his son's future marriage would renew as a matter of course.
+Nidderdale himself had never dissented, had entertained no fanciful
+theory opposed to this view, had never alarmed his father by any
+liaison tending towards matrimony with any undowered beauty;--but had
+claimed his right to 'have his fling' before he devoted himself to the
+reintegration of the family property. His father had felt that it
+would be wrong and might probably be foolish to oppose so natural a
+desire. He had regarded all the circumstances of 'the fling' with
+indulgent eyes. But there arose some little difference as to the
+duration of the fling, and the father had at last found himself
+compelled to inform his son that if the fling were carried on much
+longer it must be done with internecine war between himself and his
+heir. Nidderdale, whose sense and temper were alike good, saw the
+thing quite in the proper light. He assured his father that he had no
+intention of 'cutting up rough,' declared that he was ready for the
+heiress as soon as the heiress should be put in his way, and set
+himself honestly about the task imposed on him. This had all been
+arranged at Auld Reekie Castle during the last winter, and the reader
+knows the result.
+
+But the affair had assumed abnormal difficulties. Perhaps the Marquis
+had been wrong in flying at wealth which was reputed to be almost
+unlimited, but which was not absolutely fixed. A couple of hundred
+thousand pounds down might have been secured with greater ease. But
+here there had been a prospect of endless money,--of an inheritance
+which might not improbably make the Auld Reekie family conspicuous for
+its wealth even among the most wealthy of the nobility. The old man
+had fallen into the temptation, and abnormal difficulties had been the
+result. Some of these the reader knows. Latterly two difficulties had
+culminated above the others. The young lady preferred another
+gentleman, and disagreeable stories were afloat, not only as to the
+way in which the money had been made, but even as to its very
+existence.
+
+The Marquis, however, was a man who hated to be beaten. As far as he
+could learn from inquiry, the money would be there or, at least, so
+much money as had been promised. A considerable sum, sufficient to
+secure the bridegroom from absolute shipwreck,--though by no means
+enough to make a brilliant marriage,--had in truth been already settled
+on Marie, and was, indeed, in her possession. As to that, her father
+had armed himself with a power of attorney for drawing the income,--but
+had made over the property to his daughter, so that in the event of
+unforeseen accidents on 'Change, he might retire to obscure comfort,
+and have the means perhaps of beginning again with whitewashed
+cleanliness. When doing this, he had doubtless not anticipated the
+grandeur to which he would soon rise, or the fact that he was about to
+embark on seas so dangerous that this little harbour of refuge would
+hardly offer security to his vessel. Marie had been quite correct in
+her story to her favoured lover. And the Marquis's lawyer had
+ascertained that if Marie ever married before she herself had restored
+this money to her father, her husband would be so far safe,--with this
+as a certainty and the immense remainder in prospect. The Marquis had
+determined to persevere. Pickering was to be added. Mr Melmotte had
+been asked to depone the title-deeds, and had promised to do so as
+soon as the day of the wedding should have been fixed with the consent
+of all the parties. The Marquis's lawyer had ventured to express a
+doubt; but the Marquis had determined to persevere. The reader will, I
+trust, remember that those dreadful misgivings, which are I trust
+agitating his own mind, have been borne in upon him by information
+which had not as yet reached the Marquis in all its details.
+
+But Nidderdale had his doubts. That absurd elopement, which Melmotte
+declared really to mean nothing,--the romance of a girl who wanted to
+have one little fling of her own before she settled down for life,--
+was perhaps his strongest objection. Sir Felix, no doubt, had not gone
+with her; but then one doesn't wish to have one's intended wife even
+attempt to run off with any one but oneself. 'She'll be sick of him by
+this time, I should say,' his father said to him. 'What does it
+matter, if the money's there?' The Marquis seemed to think that the
+escapade had simply been the girl's revenge against his son for having
+made his arrangements so exclusively with Melmotte, instead of
+devoting himself to her. Nidderdale acknowledged to himself that he
+had been remiss. He told himself that she was possessed of more spirit
+than he had thought. By the Sunday evening he had determined that he
+would try again. He had expected that the plum would fall into his
+mouth. He would now stretch out his hand to pick it.
+
+On the Monday he went to the house in Bruton Street, at lunch time.
+Melmotte and the two Grendalls had just come over from their work in
+the square, and the financier was full of the priest's visit to him.
+Madame Melmotte was there, and Miss Longestaffe, who was to be sent
+for by her friend Lady Monogram that afternoon,--and, after they had
+sat down, Marie came in. Nidderdale got up and shook hands with her,--
+of course as though nothing had happened. Marie, putting a brave face
+upon it, struggling hard in the midst of very real difficulties,
+succeeded in saying an ordinary word or two. Her position was
+uncomfortable. A girl who has run away with her lover and has been
+brought back again by her friends, must for a time find it difficult
+to appear in society with ease. But when a girl has run away without
+her lover,--has run away expecting her lover to go with her, and has
+then been brought back, her lover not having stirred, her state of
+mind must be peculiarly harassing. But Marie's courage was good, and
+she ate her lunch even though she sat next to Lord Nidderdale.
+
+Melmotte was very gracious to the young lord. 'Did you ever hear
+anything like that, Nidderdale?' he said, speaking of the priest's
+visit.
+
+'Mad as a hatter,' said Lord Alfred.
+
+'I don't know much about his madness. I shouldn't wonder if he had
+been sent by the Archbishop of Westminster. Why don't we have an
+Archbishop of Westminster when they've got one? I shall have to see to
+that when I'm in the House. I suppose there is a bishop, isn't there,
+Alfred?' Alfred shook his head. 'There's a Dean, I know, for I called
+on him. He told me flat he wouldn't vote for me. I thought all those
+parsons were Conservatives. It didn't occur to me that the fellow had
+come from the Archbishop, or I would have been more civil to him.'
+
+'Mad as a hatter;--nothing else,' said Lord Alfred.
+
+'You should have seen him, Nidderdale. It would have been as good as a
+play to you.'
+
+'I suppose you didn't ask him to the dinner, sir.'
+
+'D---- the dinner, I'm sick of it,' said Melmotte, frowning. 'We must go
+back again, Alfred. Those fellows will never get along if they are not
+looked after. Come, Miles. Ladies, I shall expect you to be ready at
+exactly a quarter before eight. His Imperial Majesty is to arrive at
+eight precisely, and I must be there to receive him. You, Madame, will
+have to receive your guests in the drawing-room.' The ladies went
+upstairs, and Lord Nidderdale followed them. Miss Longestaffe took her
+departure, alleging that she couldn't keep her dear friend Lady
+Monogram waiting for her. Then there fell upon Madame Melmotte the
+duty of leaving the young people together, a duty which she found a
+great difficulty in performing. After all that had happened, she did
+not know how to get up and go out of the room. As regarded herself,
+the troubles of these troublous times were becoming almost too much
+for her. She had no pleasure from her grandeur,--and probably no belief
+in her husband's achievements. It was her present duty to assist in
+getting Marie married to this young man, and that duty she could only
+do by going away. But she did not know how to get out of her chair.
+She expressed in fluent French her abhorrence of the Emperor, and her
+wish that she might be allowed to remain in bed during the whole
+evening. She liked Nidderdale better than any one else who came there,
+and wondered at Marie's preference for Sir Felix. Lord Nidderdale
+assured her that nothing was so easy as kings and emperors, because no
+one was expected to say anything. She sighed and shook her head, and
+wished again that she might be allowed to go to bed. Marie, who was by
+degrees plucking up her courage, declared that though kings and
+emperors were horrors as a rule, she thought an Emperor of China would
+be good fun. Then Madame Melmotte also plucked up her courage, rose
+from her chair, and made straight for the door. 'Mamma, where are you
+going?' said Marie, also rising. Madame Melmotte, putting her
+handkerchief up to her face, declared that she was being absolutely
+destroyed by a toothache. 'I must see if I can't do something for
+her,' said Marie, hurrying to the door. But Lord Nidderdale was too
+quick for her, and stood with his back to it. 'That's a shame,' said
+Marie.
+
+'Your mother has gone on purpose that I may speak to you,' said his
+lordship. 'Why should you grudge me the opportunity?'
+
+Marie returned to her chair and again seated herself. She also had
+thought much of her own position since her return from Liverpool. Why
+had Sir Felix not been there? Why had he not come since her return,
+and, at any rate, endeavoured to see her? Why had he made no attempt
+to write to her? Had it been her part to do so, she would have found a
+hundred ways of getting at him. She absolutely had walked inside the
+garden of the square on Sunday morning, and had contrived to leave a
+gate open on each side. But he had made no sign. Her father had told
+her that he had not gone to Liverpool--and had assured her that he had
+never intended to go. Melmotte had been very savage with her about the
+money, and had loudly accused Sir Felix of stealing it. The repayment
+he never mentioned,--a piece of honesty, indeed, which had showed no
+virtue on the part of Sir Felix. But even if he had spent the money,
+why was he not man enough to come and say so? Marie could have
+forgiven that fault,--could have forgiven even the gambling and the
+drunkenness which had caused the failure of the enterprise on his
+side, if he had had the courage to come and confess to her. What she
+could not forgive was continued indifference,--or the cowardice which
+forbade him to show himself. She had more than once almost doubted his
+love, though as a lover he had been better than Nidderdale. But now,
+as far as she could see, he was ready to consent that the thing should
+be considered as over between them. No doubt she could write to him.
+She had more than once almost determined to do so. But then she had
+reflected that if he really loved her he would come to her. She was
+quite ready to run away with a lover, if her lover loved her; but she
+would not fling herself at a man's head. Therefore she had done
+nothing beyond leaving the garden gates open on the Sunday morning.
+
+But what was she to do with herself? She also felt, she knew not why,
+that the present turmoil of her father's life might be brought to an
+end by some dreadful convulsion. No girl could be more anxious to be
+married and taken away from her home. If Sir Felix did not appear
+again, what should she do? She had seen enough of life to be aware
+that suitors would come,--would come as long as that convulsion was
+staved off. She did not suppose that her journey to Liverpool would
+frighten all the men away. But she had thought that it would put an
+end to Lord Nidderdale's courtship; and when her father had commanded
+her, shaking her by the shoulders, to accept Lord Nidderdale when he
+should come on Sunday, she had replied by expressing her assurance
+that Lord Nidderdale would never be seen at that house any more. On
+the Sunday he had not come; but here he was now, standing with his
+back to the drawing-room door, and cutting off her retreat with the
+evident intention of renewing his suit. She was determined at any
+rate that she would speak up. 'I don't know what you should have to
+say to me, Lord Nidderdale.'
+
+'Why shouldn't I have something to say to you?'
+
+'Because--. Oh, you know why. Besides, I've told you ever so often, my
+lord. I thought a gentleman would never go on with a lady when the
+lady has told him that she liked somebody else better.'
+
+'Perhaps I don't believe you when you tell me.'
+
+'Well; that is impudent! You may believe it then. I think I've given
+you reason to believe it, at any rate.'
+
+'You can't be very fond of him now, I should think.'
+
+'That's all you know about it, my lord. Why shouldn't I be fond of
+him? Accidents will happen, you know.'
+
+'I don't want to make any allusion to anything that's unpleasant, Miss
+Melmotte.'
+
+'You may say just what you please. All the world knows about it. Of
+course I went to Liverpool, and of course papa had me brought back
+again.'
+
+'Why did not Sir Felix go?'
+
+'I don't think, my lord, that that can be any business of yours.'
+
+'But I think that it is, and I'll tell you why. You might as well let
+me say what I've got to say,--out at once.'
+
+'You may say what you like, but it can't make any difference.'
+
+'You knew me before you knew him, you know.'
+
+'What does that matter? If it comes to that, I knew ever so many
+people before I knew you.'
+
+'And you were engaged to me.'
+
+'You broke it off.'
+
+'Listen to me for a moment or two. I know I did. Or, rather, your
+father and my father broke it off for us.'
+
+'If we had cared for each other they couldn't have broken it off.
+Nobody in the world could break me off as long as I felt that he
+really loved me;--not if they were to cut me in pieces. But you
+didn't care, not a bit. You did it just because your father told
+you. And so did I. But I know better than that now. You never cared
+for me a bit more than for the old woman at the crossing. You
+thought I didn't understand;--but I did. And now you've come again
+because your father has told you again. And you'd better go away.'
+
+'There's a great deal of truth in what you say.'
+
+'It's all true, my lord. Every word of it.'
+
+'I wish you wouldn't call me my lord.'
+
+'I suppose you are a lord, and therefore I shall call you so. I never
+called you anything else when they pretended that we were to be
+married, and you never asked me. I never even knew what your name was
+till I looked it out in the book after I had consented.'
+
+'There is truth in what you say;--but it isn't true now. How was I to
+love you when I had seen so little of you? I do love you now.'
+
+'Then you needn't;--for it isn't any good.'
+
+'I do love you now, and I think you'd find that I should be truer to
+you than that fellow who wouldn't take the trouble to go down to
+Liverpool with you.'
+
+'You don't know why he didn't go.'
+
+'Well;--perhaps I do. But I did not come here to say anything about
+that.'
+
+'Why didn't he go, Lord Nidderdale?' She asked the question with an
+altered tone and an altered face. 'If you really know, you might as
+well tell me.'
+
+'No, Marie;--that's just what I ought not to do. But he ought to tell
+you. Do you really in your heart believe that he means to come back to
+you?'
+
+'I don't know,' she said, sobbing. 'I do love him;--I do indeed. I
+know that you are good-natured. You are more good-natured than he is.
+But he did like me. You never did;--no; not a bit. It isn't true. I
+ain't a fool. I know. No;--go away. I won't let you now. I don't care
+what he is; I'll be true to him. Go away, Lord Nidderdale. You
+oughtn't to go on like that because papa and mamma let you come here.
+I didn't let you come. I don't want you to come. No;--I won't say any
+kind word to you. I love Sir Felix Carbury better--than any person--in
+all the world. There! I don't know whether you call that kind, but
+it's true.'
+
+'Say good-bye to me, Marie.'
+
+'Oh, I don't mind saying good-bye. Good-bye, my lord; and don't come
+any more.'
+
+'Yes, I shall. Good-bye, Marie. You'll find the difference between me
+and him yet.' So he took his leave, and as he sauntered away he
+thought that upon the whole he had prospered, considering the extreme
+difficulties under which he had laboured in carrying on his
+suit. 'She's quite a different sort of girl from what I took her to
+be,' he said to himself 'Upon my word, she's awfully jolly.'
+
+Marie, when the interview was over, walked about the room almost in
+dismay. It was borne in upon her by degrees that Sir Felix Carbury was
+not at all points quite as nice as she had thought him. Of his beauty
+there was no doubt; but then she could trust him for no other good
+quality. Why did he not come to her? Why did he not show some pluck?
+Why did he not tell her the truth? She had quite believed Lord
+Nidderdale when he said that he knew the cause that had kept Sir Felix
+from going to Liverpool. And she had believed him, too, when he said
+that it was not his business to tell her. But the reason, let it be
+what it might, must, if known, be prejudicial to her love. Lord
+Nidderdale was, she thought, not at all beautiful. He had a
+commonplace, rough face, with a turn-up nose, high cheek bones, no
+especial complexion, sandy-coloured whiskers, and bright laughing
+eyes,--not at all an Adonis such as her imagination had painted. But
+if he had only made love at first as he had attempted to do it now, she
+thought that she would have submitted herself to be cut in pieces for
+him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LVIII - MR SQUERCUM IS EMPLOYED
+
+
+While these things were being done in Bruton Street and Grosvenor
+Square horrid rumours were prevailing in the City and spreading from
+the City westwards to the House of Commons, which was sitting this
+Monday afternoon with a prospect of an adjournment at seven o'clock in
+consequence of the banquet to be given to the Emperor. It is difficult
+to explain the exact nature of this rumour, as it was not thoroughly
+understood by those who propagated it. But it is certainly the case
+that the word forgery was whispered by more than one pair of lips.
+
+Many of Melmotte's staunchest supporters thought that he was very
+wrong not to show himself that day in the City. What good could he do
+pottering about among the chairs and benches in the banqueting room?
+There were people to manage that kind of thing. In such an affair it
+was his business to do simply as he was told, and to pay the bill. It
+was not as though he were giving a little dinner to a friend, and had
+to see himself that the wine was brought up in good order. His work
+was in the City; and at such a time as this and in such a crisis as
+this, he should have been in the City. Men will whisper forgery behind
+a man's back who would not dare even to think it before his face.
+
+Of this particular rumour our young friend Dolly Longestaffe was the
+parent. With unhesitating resolution, nothing awed by his father,
+Dolly had gone to his attorney, Mr Squercum, immediately after that
+Friday on which Mr Longestaffe first took his seat at the Railway
+Board. Dolly was possessed of fine qualities, but it must be owned
+that veneration was not one of them. 'I don't know why Mr Melmotte is
+to be different from anybody else,' he had said to his father. 'When I
+buy a thing and don't pay for it, it is because I haven't got the tin,
+and I suppose it's about the same with him. It's all right, no doubt,
+but I don't see why he should have got hold of the place till the
+money was paid down.'
+
+'Of course it's all right,' said the father. 'You think you understand
+everything, when you really understand nothing at all.'
+
+'Of course I'm slow,' said Dolly. 'I don't comprehend these things.
+But then Squercum does. When a fellow is stupid himself, he ought to
+have a sharp fellow to look after his business.'
+
+'You'll ruin me and yourself too, if you go to such a man as that. Why
+can't you trust Mr Bideawhile? Slow and Bideawhile have been the
+family lawyers for a century.' Dolly made some remark as to the old
+family advisers which was by no means pleasing to the father's ears,
+and went his way. The father knew his boy, and knew that his boy would
+go to Squercum. All he could himself do was to press Mr Melmotte for
+the money with what importunity he could assume. He wrote a timid
+letter to Mr Melmotte, which had no result; and then, on the next
+Friday, again went into the City and there encountered perturbation of
+spirit and sheer loss of time,--as the reader has already learned.
+
+Squercum was a thorn in the side of all the Bideawhiles. Mr Slow had
+been gathered to his fathers, but of the Bideawhiles there were three
+in the business, a father and two sons, to whom Squercum was a pest
+and a musquito, a running sore and a skeleton in the cupboard. It was
+not only in reference to Mr Longestaffe's affairs that they knew
+Squercum. The Bideawhiles piqued themselves on the decorous and
+orderly transaction of their business. It had grown to be a rule in
+the house that anything done quickly must be done badly. They never
+were in a hurry for money, and they expected their clients never to be
+in a hurry for work. Squercum was the very opposite to this. He had
+established himself, without predecessors and without a partner, and
+we may add without capital, at a little office in Fetter Lane, and had
+there made a character for getting things done after a marvellous and
+new fashion. And it was said of him that he was fairly honest, though
+it must be owned that among the Bideawhiles of the profession this was
+not the character which he bore. He did sharp things no doubt, and had
+no hesitation in supporting the interests of sons against those of
+their fathers. In more than one case he had computed for a young heir
+the exact value of his share in a property as compared to that of his
+father, and had come into hostile contact with many family
+Bideawhiles. He had been closely watched. There were some who, no
+doubt, would have liked to crush a man who was at once so clever, and
+so pestilential. But he had not as yet been crushed, and had become
+quite in vogue with elder sons. Some three years since his name had
+been mentioned to Dolly by a friend who had for years been at war with
+his father, and Squercum had been quite a comfort to Dolly.
+
+He was a mean-looking little man, not yet above forty, who always wore
+a stiff light-coloured cotton cravat, an old dress coat, a coloured
+dingy waistcoat, and light trousers of some hue different from his
+waistcoat. He generally had on dirty shoes and gaiters. He was
+light-haired, with light whiskers, with putty-formed features, a squat
+nose, a large mouth, and very bright blue eyes. He looked as unlike
+the normal Bideawhile of the profession as a man could be; and it must
+be owned, though an attorney, would hardly have been taken for a
+gentleman from his personal appearance. He was very quick, and active
+in his motions, absolutely doing his law work himself, and trusting to
+his three or four juvenile clerks for little more than scrivener's
+labour. He seldom or never came to his office on a Saturday, and many
+among his enemies said that he was a Jew. What evil will not a rival
+say to stop the flow of grist to the mill of the hated one? But this
+report Squercum rather liked, and assisted. They who knew the inner
+life of the little man declared that he kept a horse and hunted down
+in Essex on Saturday, doing a bit of gardening in the summer months;--
+and they said also that he made up for this by working hard all
+Sunday. Such was Mr Squercum,--a sign, in his way, that the old things
+are being changed.
+
+Squercum sat at a desk, covered with papers in chaotic confusion, on a
+chair which moved on a pivot. His desk was against the wall, and when
+clients came to him, he turned himself sharp round, sticking out his
+dirty shoes, throwing himself back till his body was an inclined
+plane, with his hands thrust into his pockets. In this attitude he
+would listen to his client's story, and would himself speak as little
+as possible. It was by his instructions that Dolly had insisted on
+getting his share of the purchase money for Pickering into his own
+hands, so that the incumbrance on his own property might be paid off.
+He now listened as Dolly told him of the delay in the payment.
+'Melmotte's at Pickering?' asked the attorney. Then Dolly informed him
+how the tradesmen of the great financier had already half knocked down
+the house. Squercum still listened, and promised to look to it. He did
+ask what authority Dolly had given for the surrender of the
+title-deeds. Dolly declared that he had given authority for the sale,
+but none for the surrender. His father, some time since, had put
+before him, for his signature, a letter, prepared in Mr Bideawhile's
+office, which Dolly said that he had refused even to read, and
+certainly had not signed. Squercum again said that he'd look to it,
+and bowed Dolly out of his room. 'They've got him to sign something
+when he was tight,' said Squercum to himself, knowing something of the
+habits of his client. 'I wonder whether his father did it, or old
+Bideawhile, or Melmotte himself?' Mr Squercum was inclined to think
+that Bideawhile would not have done it, that Melmotte could have had
+no opportunity, and that the father must have been the practitioner.
+'It's not the trick of a pompous old fool either,' said Mr Squercum,
+in his soliloquy. He went to work, however, making himself detestably
+odious among the very respectable clerks in Mr Bideawhile's office,--
+men who considered themselves to be altogether superior to Squercum
+himself in professional standing.
+
+And now there came this rumour which was so far particular in its
+details that it inferred the forgery, of which it accused Mr Melmotte,
+to his mode of acquiring the Pickering property. The nature of the
+forgery was of course described in various ways,--as was also the
+signature said to have been forged. But there were many who believed,
+or almost believed, that something wrong had been done,--that some
+great fraud had been committed; and in connection with this it was
+ascertained,--by some as a matter of certainty,--that the Pickering
+estate had been already mortgaged by Melmotte to its full value at
+an assurance office. In such a transaction there would be nothing
+dishonest; but as this place had been bought for the great man's own
+family use, and not as a speculation, even this report of the mortgage
+tended to injure his credit. And then, as the day went on, other
+tidings were told as to other properties. Houses in the East-end of
+London were said to have been bought and sold, without payment of the
+purchase money as to the buying, and with receipt of the purchase
+money as to the selling.
+
+It was certainly true that Squercum himself had seen the letter in Mr
+Bideawhile's office which conveyed to the father's lawyer the son's
+sanction for the surrender of the title-deeds, and that that letter,
+prepared in Mr Bideawhile's office, purported to have Dolly's
+signature. Squercum said but little, remembering that his client was
+not always clear in the morning as to anything he had done on the
+preceding evening. But the signature, though it was scrawled as Dolly
+always scrawled it, was not like the scrawl of a drunken man.
+
+The letter was said to have been sent to Mr Bideawhile's office with
+other letters and papers, direct from old Mr Longestaffe. Such was the
+statement made at first to Mr Squercum by the Bideawhile party, who at
+that moment had no doubt of the genuineness of the letter or of the
+accuracy of their statement. Then Squercum saw his client again, and
+returned to the charge at Bideawhile's office, with the positive
+assurance that the signature was a forgery. Dolly, when questioned by
+Squercum, quite admitted his propensity to be 'tight'. He had no
+reticence, no feeling of disgrace on such matters. But he had signed
+no letter when he was tight. 'Never did such a thing in my life, and
+nothing could make me,' said Dolly. 'I'm never tight except at the
+club, and the letter couldn't have been there. I'll be drawn and
+quartered if I ever signed it. That's flat.' Dolly was intent on going
+to his father at once, on going to Melmotte at once, on going to
+Bideawhile's at once, and making there 'no end of a row,'--but
+Squercum stopped him. 'We'll just ferret this thing out quietly,'
+said Squercum, who perhaps thought that there would be high honour
+in discovering the peccadillos of so great a man as Mr Melmotte. Mr
+Longestaffe, the father, had heard nothing of the matter till the
+Saturday after his last interview with Melmotte in the City. He had
+then called at Bideawhile's office in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and had
+been shown the letter. He declared at once that he had never sent the
+letter to Mr Bideawhile. He had begged his son to sign the letter and
+his son had refused. He did not at that moment distinctly remember
+what he had done with the letter unsigned. He believed he had left it
+with the other papers; but it was possible that his son might have
+taken it away. He acknowledged that at the time he had been both angry
+and unhappy. He didn't think that he could have sent the letter back
+unsigned,--but he was not sure. He had more than once been in his own
+study in Bruton Street since Mr Melmotte had occupied the house,--by
+that gentleman's leave,--having left various papers there under his own
+lock and key. Indeed it had been matter of agreement that he should
+have access to his own study when he let the house. He thought it
+probable that he would have kept back the unsigned letter, and have
+kept it under lock and key, when he sent away the other papers. Then
+reference was made to Mr Longestaffe's own letter to the lawyer, and
+it was found that he had not even alluded to that which his son had
+been asked to sign; but that he had said, in his own usually pompous
+style, that Mr Longestaffe, junior, was still prone to create
+unsubstantial difficulties. Mr Bideawhile was obliged to confess that
+there had been a want of caution among his own people. This allusion
+to the creation of difficulties by Dolly, accompanied, as it was
+supposed to have been, by Dolly's letter doing away with all
+difficulties, should have attracted notice. Dolly's letter must have
+come in a separate envelope; but such envelope could not be found, and
+the circumstance was not remembered by the clerk. The clerk who had
+prepared the letter for Dolly's signature represented himself as
+having been quite satisfied when the letter came again beneath his
+notice with Dolly's well-known signature.
+
+Such were the facts as far as they were known at Messrs. Slow and
+Bideawhile's office,--from whom no slightest rumour emanated; and as
+they had been in part collected by Squercum, who was probably less
+prudent. The Bideawhiles were still perfectly sure that Dolly had
+signed the letter, believing the young man to be quite incapable of
+knowing on any day what he had done on the day before.
+
+Squercum was quite sure that his client had not signed it. And it must
+be owned on Dolly's behalf that his manner on this occasion was
+qualified to convince. 'Yes,' he said to Squercum; 'it's easy saying
+that I'm lack-a-daisical. But I know when I'm lack-a-daisical and when
+I'm not. Awake or asleep, drunk or sober, I never signed that letter.'
+And Mr Squercum believed him.
+
+It would be hard to say how the rumour first got into the City on this
+Monday morning. Though the elder Longestaffe had first heard of the
+matter only on the previous Saturday, Mr Squercum had been at work for
+above a week. Mr Squercum's little matter alone might hardly have
+attracted the attention which certainly was given on this day to Mr
+Melmotte's private affairs;--but other facts coming to light assisted
+Squercum's views. A great many shares of the South Central Pacific and
+Mexican Railway had been thrown upon the market, all of which had
+passed through the hands of Mr Cohenlupe;--and Mr Cohenlupe in the City
+had been all to Mr Melmotte as Lord Alfred had been at the West End.
+Then there was the mortgage of this Pickering property, for which the
+money certainly had not been paid; and there was the traffic with half
+a street of houses near the Commercial Road, by which a large sum of
+money had come into Mr Melmotte's hands. It might, no doubt, all be
+right. There were many who thought that it would all be right. There
+were not a few who expressed the most thorough contempt for these
+rumours. But it was felt to be a pity that Mr Melmotte was not in the
+City.
+
+This was the day of the dinner. The Lord Mayor had even made up his
+mind that he would not go to the dinner. What one of his brother
+aldermen said to him about leaving others in the lurch might be quite
+true; but, as his lordship remarked, Melmotte was a commercial man,
+and as these were commercial transactions it behoved the Lord Mayor of
+London to be more careful than other men. He had always had his
+doubts, and he would not go. Others of the chosen few of the City who
+had been honoured with commands to meet the Emperor resolved upon
+absenting themselves unless the Lord Mayor went. The affair was very
+much discussed, and there were no less than six declared City
+defaulters. At the last moment a seventh was taken ill and sent a note
+to Miles Grendall excusing himself, which was thrust into the
+secretary's hands just as the Emperor arrived.
+
+But a reverse worse than this took place;--a defalcation more
+injurious to the Melmotte interests generally even than that which was
+caused either by the prudence or by the cowardice of the City Magnates.
+The House of Commons, at its meeting, had heard the tidings in an
+exaggerated form. It was whispered about that Melmotte had been
+detected in forging the deed of conveyance of a large property, and
+that he had already been visited by policemen. By some it was believed
+that the Great Financier would lie in the hands of the Philistines
+while the Emperor of China was being fed at his house. In the third
+edition of the 'Evening Pulpit' came out a mysterious paragraph which
+nobody could understand but they who had known all about it before. 'A
+rumour is prevalent that frauds to an enormous extent have been
+committed by a gentleman whose name we are particularly unwilling to
+mention. If it be so it is indeed remarkable that they should have
+come to light at the present moment. We cannot trust ourselves to say
+more than this.' No one wishes to dine with a swindler. No one likes
+even to have dined with a swindler,--especially to have dined with him
+at a time when his swindling was known or suspected. The Emperor of
+China no doubt was going to dine with this man. The motions of
+Emperors are managed with such ponderous care that it was held to be
+impossible now to save the country from what would doubtless be felt
+to be a disgrace if it should hereafter turn out that a forger had
+been solicited to entertain the imperial guest of the country. Nor was
+the thing as yet so far certain as to justify such a charge, were it
+possible. But many men were unhappy in their minds. How would the
+story be told hereafter if Melmotte should be allowed to play out his
+game of host to the Emperor, and be arrested for forgery as soon as
+the Eastern Monarch should have left his house? How would the brother
+of the Sun like the remembrance of the banquet which he had been
+instructed to honour with his presence? How would it tell in all the
+foreign newspapers, in New York, in Paris, and Vienna, that this man
+who had been cast forth from the United States, from France, and from
+Austria had been selected as the great and honourable type of British
+Commerce? There were those in the House who thought that the absolute
+consummation of the disgrace might yet be avoided, and who were of
+opinion that the dinner should be 'postponed.' The leader of the
+Opposition had a few words on the subject with the Prime Minister. 'It
+is the merest rumour,' said the Prime Minister. 'I have inquired, and
+there is nothing to justify me in thinking that the charges can be
+substantiated.'
+
+'They say that the story is believed in the City.'
+
+'I should not feel myself justified in acting upon such a report. The
+Prince might probably find it impossible not to go. Where should we be
+if Mr Melmotte to-morrow were able to prove the whole to be a calumny,
+and to show that the thing had been got up with a view of influencing
+the election at Westminster? The dinner must certainly go on.'
+
+'And you will go yourself?'
+
+'Most assuredly,' said the Prime Minister. 'And I hope that you will
+keep me in countenance.' His political antagonist declared with a
+smile that at such a crisis he would not desert his honourable
+friend;--but he could not answer for his followers. There was, he
+admitted, a strong feeling among the leaders of the Conservative party
+of distrust in Melmotte. He considered it probable that among his
+friends who had been invited there would be some who would be unwilling
+to meet even the Emperor of China on the existing terms. 'They should
+remember,' said the Prime Minister, 'that they are also to meet their
+own Prince, and that empty seats on such an occasion will be a
+dishonour to him.'
+
+'Just at present I can only answer for myself' said the leader of the
+Opposition.--At that moment even the Prime Minister was much disturbed
+in his mind; but in such emergencies a Prime Minister can only choose
+the least of two evils. To have taken the Emperor to dine with a
+swindler would be very bad; but to desert him, and to stop the coming
+of the Emperor and all the Princes on a false rumour, would be worse.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIX - THE DINNER
+
+
+It does sometimes occur in life that an unambitious man, who is in no
+degree given to enterprises, who would fain be safe, is driven by the
+cruelty of circumstances into a position in which he must choose a
+side, and in which, though he has no certain guide as to which side he
+should choose, he is aware that he will be disgraced if he should take
+the wrong side. This was felt as a hardship by many who were quite
+suddenly forced to make up their mind whether they would go to
+Melmotte's dinner, or join themselves to the faction of those who had
+determined to stay away although they had accepted invitations. Some
+there were not without a suspicion that the story against Melmotte had
+been got up simply as an electioneering trick,--so that Mr Alf might
+carry the borough on the next day. As a dodge for an election this
+might be very well, but any who might be deterred by such a manoeuvre
+from meeting the Emperor and supporting the Prince would surely be
+marked men. And none of the wives, when they were consulted, seemed to
+care a straw whether Melmotte was a swindler or not. Would the Emperor
+and the Princes and Princesses be there? This was the only question
+which concerned them. They did not care whether Melmotte was arrested
+at the dinner or after the dinner, so long as they, with others, could
+show their diamonds in the presence of eastern and western royalty.
+But yet,--what a fiasco would it be, if at this very instant of time
+the host should be apprehended for common forgery! The great thing was
+to ascertain whether others were going. If a hundred or more out of
+the two hundred were to be absent how dreadful would be the position
+of those who were present! And how would the thing go if at the last
+moment the Emperor should be kept away? The Prime Minister had decided
+that the Emperor and the Prince should remain altogether in ignorance
+of the charges which were preferred against the man; but of that these
+doubters were unaware. There was but little time for a man to go about
+town and pick up the truth from those who were really informed; and
+questions were asked in an uncomfortable and restless manner. 'Is your
+Grace going?' said Lionel Lupton to the Duchess of Stevenage,--having
+left the House and gone into the park between six and seven to pick up
+some hints among those who were known to have been invited. The
+Duchess was Lord Alfred's sister, and of course she was going. 'I
+usually keep engagements when I make them, Mr Lupton,' said the
+Duchess. She had been assured by Lord Alfred not a quarter of an hour
+before that everything was as straight as a die. Lord Alfred had not
+then even heard of the rumour. But ultimately both Lionel Lupton and
+Beauchamp Beauclerk attended the dinner. They had received special
+tickets as supporters of Mr Melmotte at the election,--out of the
+scanty number allotted to that gentleman himself,--and they thought
+themselves bound in honour to be there. But they, with their leader,
+and one other influential member of the party, were all who at last
+came as the political friends of the candidate for Westminster. The
+existing ministers were bound to attend to the Emperor and the Prince.
+But members of the Opposition, by their presence, would support the
+man and the politician, and both as a man and as a politician they
+were ashamed of him.
+
+When Melmotte arrived at his own door with his wife and daughter he
+had heard nothing of the matter. That a man so vexed with affairs of
+money, so laden with cares, encompassed by such dangers, should be
+free from suspicion and fear it is impossible to imagine. That such
+burdens should be borne at all is a wonder to those whose shoulders
+have never been broadened for such work;--as is the strength of the
+blacksmith's arm to men who have never wielded a hammer. Surely his
+whole life must have been a life of terrors! But of any special peril
+to which he was at that moment subject, or of any embarrassment which
+might affect the work of the evening, he knew nothing. He placed his
+wife in the drawing-room and himself in the hall, and arranged his
+immediate satellites around him,--among whom were included the two
+Grendalls, young Nidderdale, and Mr Cohenlupe,--with a feeling of
+gratified glory. Nidderdale down at the House had heard the rumour,
+but had determined that he would not as yet fly from his colours.
+Cohenlupe had also come up from the House, where no one had spoken to
+him. Though grievously frightened during the last fortnight, he had
+not dared to be on the wing as yet. And, indeed, to what clime could
+such a bird as he fly in safety? He had not only heard,--but also
+knew very much, and was not prepared to enjoy the feast. Since they
+had been in the hall Miles had spoken dreadful words to his father.
+'You've heard about it; haven't you?' whispered Miles. Lord Alfred,
+remembering his sister's question, became almost pale, but declared
+that he had heard nothing. 'They're saying all manner of things in the
+City;--forgery and heaven knows what. The Lord Mayor is not coming.'
+Lord Alfred made no reply. It was the philosophy of his life that
+misfortunes when they came should be allowed to settle themselves. But
+he was unhappy.
+
+The grand arrivals were fairly punctual, and the very grand people all
+came. The unfortunate Emperor,--we must consider a man to be unfortunate
+who is compelled to go through such work as this,--with impassible and
+awful dignity, was marshalled into the room on the ground floor,
+whence he and other royalties were to be marshalled back into the
+banqueting hall. Melmotte, bowing to the ground, walked backwards
+before him, and was probably taken by the Emperor for some Court
+Master of the Ceremonies especially selected to walk backwards on this
+occasion. The Princes had all shaken hands with their host, and the
+Princesses had bowed graciously. Nothing of the rumour had as yet been
+whispered in royal palaces. Besides royalty the company allowed to
+enter the room downstairs was very select. The Prime Minister, one
+archbishop, two duchesses, and an ex-governor of India with whose
+features the Emperor was supposed to be peculiarly familiar, were
+alone there. The remainder of the company, under the superintendence
+of Lord Alfred, were received in the drawing-room above. Everything
+was going on well, and they who had come and had thought of not coming
+were proud of their wisdom.
+
+But when the company was seated at dinner the deficiencies were
+visible enough, and were unfortunate. Who does not know the effect
+made by the absence of one or two from a table intended for ten or
+twelve,--how grievous are the empty places, how destructive of the
+outward harmony and grace which the hostess has endeavoured to
+preserve are these interstices, how the lady in her wrath declares to
+herself that those guilty ones shall never have another opportunity of
+filling a seat at her table? Some twenty, most of whom had been asked
+to bring their wives, had slunk from their engagements, and the empty
+spaces were sufficient to declare a united purpose. A week since it
+had been understood that admission for the evening could not be had
+for love or money, and that a seat at the dinner-table was as a seat
+at some banquet of the gods! Now it looked as though the room were but
+half-filled. There were six absences from the City. Another six of Mr
+Melmotte's own political party were away. The archbishops and the
+bishop were there, because bishops never hear worldly tidings till
+after other people;--but that very Master of the Buckhounds for whom
+so much pressure had been made did not come. Two or three peers were
+absent, and so also was that editor who had been chosen to fill Mr
+Alf's place. One poet, two painters, and a philosopher had received
+timely notice at their clubs, and had gone home. The three independent
+members of the House of Commons for once agreed in their policy, and
+would not lend the encouragement of their presence to a man suspected
+of forgery. Nearly forty places were vacant when the business of the
+dinner commenced.
+
+Melmotte had insisted that Lord Alfred should sit next to himself at
+the big table, and having had the objectionable bar removed, and his
+own chair shoved one step nearer to the centre, had carried his point.
+With the anxiety natural to such an occasion, he glanced repeatedly
+round the hall, and of course became aware that many were absent. 'How
+is it that there are so many places empty?' he said to his faithful
+Achates.
+
+'Don't know,' said Achates, shaking his head, steadfastly refusing to
+look round upon the hall.
+
+Melmotte waited awhile, then looked round again, and asked the
+question in another shape: 'Hasn't there been some mistake about the
+numbers? There's room for ever so many more.'
+
+'Don't know,' said Lord Alfred, who was unhappy in his mind, and
+repenting himself that he had ever seen Mr Melmotte.
+
+'What the deuce do you mean?' whispered Melmotte. 'You've been at it
+from the beginning and ought to know. When I wanted to ask Brehgert,
+you swore that you couldn't squeeze a place.'
+
+'Can't say anything about it,' said Lord Alfred, with his eyes fixed
+upon his plate.
+
+'I'll be d---- if I don't find out,' said Melmotte. 'There's either some
+horrible blunder, or else there's been imposition. I don't see quite
+clearly. Where's Sir Gregory Gribe?'
+
+'Hasn't come, I suppose.'
+
+'And where's the Lord Mayor?' Melmotte, in spite of royalty, was now
+sitting with his face turned round upon the hall. 'I know all their
+places, and I know where they were put. Have you seen the Lord Mayor?'
+
+'No; I haven't seen him at all.'
+
+'But he was to come. What's the meaning of it, Alfred?'
+
+'Don't know anything about it.' He shook his head but would not, for
+even a moment, look round upon the room.
+
+'And where's Mr Killegrew,--and Sir David Boss?' Mr Killegrew and Sir
+David were gentlemen of high standing, and destined for important
+offices in the Conservative party. 'There are ever so many people not
+here. Why, there's not above half of them down the room. What's up,
+Alfred? I must know.'
+
+'I tell you I know nothing. I could not make them come.' Lord Alfred's
+answers were made not only with a surly voice, but also with a surly
+heart. He was keenly alive to the failure, and alive also to the
+feeling that the failure would partly be attached to himself. At the
+present moment he was anxious to avoid observation, and it seemed to
+him that Melmotte, by the frequency and impetuosity of his questions,
+was drawing special attention to him. 'If you go on making a row,' he
+said, 'I shall go away.' Melmotte looked at him with all his eyes.
+'Just sit quiet and let the thing go on. You'll know all about it soon
+enough.' This was hardly the way to give Mr Melmotte peace of mind.
+For a few minutes he did sit quiet. Then he got up and moved down the
+hall behind the guests.
+
+In the meantime, Imperial Majesty and Royalties of various
+denominations ate their dinner, without probably observing those
+Banquo's seats. As the Emperor talked Manchoo only, and as there was
+no one present who could even interpret Manchoo into English,--the
+imperial interpreter condescending only to interpret Manchoo into
+ordinary Chinese which had to be reinterpreted,--it was not within
+his Imperial Majesty's power to have much conversation with his
+neighbours. And as his neighbours on each side of him were all cousins
+and husbands, and brothers and wives, who saw each constantly under,
+let us presume, more comfortable circumstances, they had not very much
+to say to each other. Like most of us, they had their duties to do,
+and, like most of us, probably found their duties irksome. The
+brothers and sisters and cousins were used to it; but that awful
+Emperor, solid, solemn, and silent, must, if the spirit of an Eastern
+Emperor be at all like that of a Western man, have had a weary time of
+it. He sat there for more than two hours, awful, solid, solemn, and
+silent, not eating very much,--for this was not his manner of eating;
+nor drinking very much,--for this was not his manner of drinking; but
+wondering, no doubt, within his own awful bosom, at the changes which
+were coming when an Emperor of China was forced, by outward
+circumstances, to sit and hear this buzz of voices and this clatter of
+knives and forks. 'And this,' he must have said to himself, 'is what
+they call royalty in the West!' If a prince of our own was forced, for
+the good of the country, to go among some far-distant outlandish
+people, and there to be poked in the ribs, and slapped on the back all
+round, the change to him could hardly be so great.
+
+'Where's Sir Gregory?' said Melmotte, in a hoarse whisper, bending
+over the chair of a City friend. It was old Todd, the senior partner
+of Todd, Brehgert, and Goldsheiner. Mr Todd was a very wealthy man,
+and had a considerable following in the City.
+
+'Ain't he here?' said Todd,--knowing very well who had come from the
+City and who had declined.
+
+'No;--and the Lord Mayor's not come;--nor Postlethwaite, nor Bunter.
+What's the meaning of it?'
+
+Todd looked first at one neighbour and then at another before he
+answered. 'I'm here, that's all I can say, Mr Melmotte; and I've had a
+very good dinner. They who haven't come, have lost a very good
+dinner.'
+
+There was a weight upon Melmotte's mind of which he could not rid
+himself. He knew from the old man's manner, and he knew also from Lord
+Alfred's manner, that there was something which each of them could
+tell him if he would. But he was unable to make the men open their
+mouths. And yet it might be so important to him that he should know!
+'It's very odd,' he said, 'that gentlemen should promise to come and
+then stay away. There were hundreds anxious to be present whom I
+should have been glad to welcome, if I had known that there would be
+room. I think it is very odd.'
+
+'It is odd,' said Mr Todd, turning his attention to the plate before
+him.
+
+Melmotte had lately seen much of Beaucharnp Beauclerk, in reference to
+the coming election. Passing back up the table, he found the gentleman
+with a vacant seat on one side of him. There were many vacant seats in
+this part of the room, as the places for the Conservative gentlemen
+had been set apart together. There Mr Melmotte seated himself for a
+minute, thinking that he might get the truth from his new ally.
+Prudence should have kept him silent. Let the cause of these
+desertions have been what it might, it ought to have been clear to him
+that he could apply no remedy to it now. But he was bewildered and
+dismayed, and his mind within him was changing at every moment. He was
+now striving to trust to his arrogance and declaring that nothing
+should cow him. And then again he was so cowed that he was ready to
+creep to any one for assistance. Personally, Mr Beauclerk had disliked
+the man greatly. Among the vulgar, loud upstarts whom he had known,
+Melmotte was the vulgarest, the loudest, and the most arrogant. But he
+had taken the business of Melmotte's election in hand, and considered
+himself bound to stand by Melmotte till that was over; and he was now
+the guest of the man in his own house, and was therefore constrained
+to courtesy. His wife was sitting by him, and he at once introduced
+her to Mr Melmotte. 'You have a wonderful assemblage here, Mr
+Melmotte,' said the lady, looking up at the royal table.
+
+'Yes, ma'am, yes. His Majesty the Emperor has been pleased to intimate
+that he has been much gratified.'--Had the Emperor in truth said so, no
+one who looked at him could have believed his imperial word.--'Can you
+tell me, Mr Beauchamp, why those other gentlemen are not here? It
+looks very odd; does it not?'
+
+'Ah; you mean Killegrew.'
+
+'Yes; Mr Killegrew and Sir David Boss, and the whole lot. I made a
+particular point of their coming. I said I wouldn't have the dinner at
+all unless they were to be asked. They were going to make it a
+Government thing; but I said no. I insisted on the leaders of our own
+party; and now they're not here. I know the cards were sent and, by
+George, I have their answers, saying they'd come.'
+
+'I suppose some of them are engaged,' said Mr Beauchamp.
+
+'Engaged! What business has a man to accept one engagement and then
+take another? And, if so, why shouldn't he write and make his excuses?
+No, Mr Beauchamp, that won't go down.'
+
+'I'm here, at any rate,' said Beauchamp, making the very answer that
+had occurred to Mr Todd.
+
+'Oh, yes, you're here. You're all right. But what is it, Mr Beauchamp?
+There's something up, and you must have heard.' And so it was clear to
+Mr Beauchamp that the man knew nothing about it himself. If there was
+anything wrong, Melmotte was not aware that the wrong had been
+discovered. 'Is it anything about the election to-morrow?'
+
+'One never can tell what is actuating people,' said Mr Beauchamp.
+
+'If you know anything about the matter I think you ought to tell me.'
+
+'I know nothing except that the ballot will be taken to-morrow. You and
+I have got nothing more to do in the matter except to wait the
+result.'
+
+'Well; I suppose it's all right,' said Melmotte, rising and going back
+to his seat. But he knew that things were not all right. Had his
+political friends only been absent, he might have attributed their
+absence to some political cause which would not have touched him
+deeply. But the treachery of the Lord Mayor and of Sir Gregory Gribe
+was a blow. For another hour after he had returned to his place, the
+Emperor sat solemn in his chair; and then, at some signal given by
+some one, he was withdrawn. The ladies had already left the room about
+half an hour. According to the programme arranged for the evening, the
+royal guests were to return to the smaller room for a cup of coffee,
+and were then to be paraded upstairs before the multitude who would by
+that time have arrived, and to remain there long enough to justify the
+invited ones in saying that they had spent the evening with the
+Emperor and the Princes and the Princesses. The plan was carried out
+perfectly. At half-past ten the Emperor was made to walk upstairs, and
+for half an hour sat awful and composed in an arm-chair that had been
+prepared for him. How one would wish to see the inside of the mind of
+the Emperor as it worked on that occasion!
+
+Melmotte, when his guests ascended his stairs, went back into the
+banqueting-room and through to the hall, and wandered about till he
+found Miles Grendall.
+
+'Miles,' he said, 'tell me what the row is.'
+
+'How row?' asked Miles.
+
+'There's something wrong, and you know all about it. Why didn't the
+people come?' Miles, looking guilty, did not even attempt to deny his
+knowledge. 'Come; what is it? We might as well know all about it at
+once.' Miles looked down on the ground, and grunted something. 'Is it
+about the election?'
+
+'No, it's not that,' said Miles.
+
+'Then what is it?'
+
+'They got hold of something to-day in the City--about Pickering.'
+
+'They did, did they? And what were they saying about Pickering? Come;
+you might as well out with it. You don't suppose that I care what lies
+they tell.'
+
+'They say there's been something--forged. Title-deeds, I think they
+say.'
+
+'Title-deeds! that I have forged title-deeds. Well; that's beginning
+well. And his lordship has stayed away from my house after accepting
+my invitation because he has heard that story! All right, Miles; that
+will do.' And the Great Financier went upstairs into his own
+drawing-room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LX - MISS LONGESTAFFE'S LOVER
+
+
+A few days before that period in our story which we have now reached,
+Miss Longestaffe was seated in Lady Monogram's back drawing-room,
+discussing the terms on which the two tickets for Madame Melmotte's
+grand reception had been transferred to Lady Monogram,--the place on
+the cards for the names of the friends whom Madame Melmotte had the
+honour of inviting to meet the Emperor and the Princes, having been
+left blank; and the terms also on which Miss Longestaffe had been asked
+to spend two or three days with her dear friend Lady Monogram. Each lady
+was disposed to get as much and to give as little as possible,--in which
+desire the ladies carried out the ordinary practice of all parties to
+a bargain. It had of course been settled that Lady Monogram was to
+have the two tickets,--for herself and her husband,--such tickets at
+that moment standing very high in the market. In payment for these
+valuable considerations, Lady Monogram was to undertake to chaperon
+Miss Longestaffe at the entertainment, to take Miss Longestaffe as a
+visitor for three days, and to have one party at her own house during
+the time, so that it might be seen that Miss Longestaffe had other
+friends in London besides the Melmottes on whom to depend for her
+London gaieties. At this moment Miss Longestaffe felt herself
+justified in treating the matter as though she were hardly receiving a
+fair equivalent. The Melmotte tickets were certainly ruling very high.
+They had just culminated. They fell a little soon afterwards, and at
+ten p.m. on the night of the entertainment were hardly worth anything.
+At the moment which we have now in hand, there was a rush for them.
+Lady Monogram had already secured the tickets. They were in her desk.
+But, as will sometimes be the case in a bargain, the seller was
+complaining that as she had parted with her goods too cheap, some
+make-weight should be added to the stipulated price.
+
+'As for that, my dear,' said Miss Longestaffe, who, since the rise in
+Melmotte stock generally, had endeavoured to resume something of her
+old manners, 'I don't see what you mean at all. You meet Lady Julia
+Goldsheiner everywhere, and her father-in-law is Mr Brehgert's junior
+partner.'
+
+'Lady Julia is Lady Julia, my dear, and young Mr Goldsheiner has, in
+some sort of way, got himself in. He hunts, and Damask says that he is
+one of the best shots at Hurlingham. I never met old Mr Goldsheiner
+anywhere.'
+
+'I have.'
+
+'Oh, yes, I dare say. Mr Melmotte, of course, entertains all the City
+people. I don't think Sir Damask would like me to ask Mr Brehgert to
+dine here.' Lady Monogram managed everything herself with reference to
+her own parties; invited all her own guests, and never troubled Sir
+Damask,--who, again, on his side, had his own set of friends; but she
+was very clever in the use which she made of her husband. There were
+some aspirants who really were taught to think that Sir Damask was
+very particular as to the guests whom he welcomed to his own house.
+
+'May I speak to Sir Damask about it?' asked Miss Longestaffe, who was
+very urgent on the occasion.
+
+'Well, my dear, I really don't think you ought to do that. There are
+little things which a man and his wife must manage together without
+interference.'
+
+'Nobody can ever say that I interfered in any family. But really,
+Julia, when you tell me that Sir Damask cannot receive Mr Brehgert, it
+does sound odd. As for City people, you know as well as I do, that
+that kind of thing is all over now. City people are just as good as
+West End people.'
+
+'A great deal better, I dare say. I'm not arguing about that. I don't
+make the lines; but there they are; and one gets to know in a sort of
+way what they are. I don't pretend to be a bit better than my
+neighbours. I like to see people come here whom other people who come
+here will like to meet. I'm big enough to hold my own, and so is Sir
+Damask. But we ain't big enough to introduce newcomers. I don't
+suppose there's anybody in London understands it better than you do,
+Georgiana, and therefore it's absurd my pretending to teach you. I go
+pretty well everywhere, as you are aware; and I shouldn't know Mr
+Brehgert if I were to see him.'
+
+'You'll meet him at the Melmottes', and, in spite of all you said
+once, you're glad enough to go there.'
+
+'Quite true, my dear. I don't think that you are just the person to
+throw that in my teeth; but never mind that. There's the butcher round
+the corner in Bond Street, or the man who comes to do my hair. I don't
+at all think of asking them to my house. But if they were suddenly to
+turn out wonderful men, and go everywhere, no doubt I should be glad
+to have them here. That's the way we live, and you are as well used to
+it as I am. Mr Brehgert at present to me is like the butcher round the
+corner.' Lady Monogram had the tickets safe under lock and key, or I
+think she would hardly have said this.
+
+'He is not a bit like a butcher,' said Miss Longestaffe, blazing up in
+real wrath.
+
+'I did not say that he was.'
+
+'Yes, you did; and it was the unkindest thing you could possibly say.
+It was meant to be unkind. It was monstrous. How would you like it if
+I said that Sir Damask was like a hair-dresser?'
+
+'You can say so if you please. Sir Damask drives four in hand, rides
+as though he meant to break his neck every winter, is one of the best
+shots going, and is supposed to understand a yacht as well as any
+other gentleman out. And I'm rather afraid that before he was married
+he used to box with all the prize-fighters, and to be a little too
+free behind the scenes. If that makes a man like a hair-dresser,
+well, there he is.'
+
+'How proud you are of his vices.'
+
+'He's very good-natured, my dear, and as he does not interfere with
+me, I don't interfere with him. I hope you'll do as well. I dare say
+Mr Brehgert is good-natured.'
+
+'He's an excellent man of business, and is making a very large
+fortune.'
+
+'And has five or six grown-up children, who, no doubt, will be a
+comfort.'
+
+'If I don't mind them, why need you? You have none at all, and you
+find it lonely enough.'
+
+'Not at all lonely. I have everything that I desire. How hard you are
+trying to be ill-natured, Georgiana.'
+
+'Why did you say that he was a--butcher?'
+
+'I said nothing of the kind. I didn't even say that he was like a
+butcher. What I did say was this,--that I don't feel inclined to risk my
+own reputation on the appearance of new people at my table. Of course,
+I go in for what you call fashion. Some people can dare to ask anybody
+they meet in the streets. I can't. I've my own line, and I mean to
+follow it. It's hard work, I can tell you; and it would be harder
+still if I wasn't particular. If you like Mr Brehgert to come here on
+Tuesday evening, when the rooms will be full, you can ask him; but as
+for having him to dinner, I--won't--do--it.' So the matter was at last
+settled. Miss Longestaffe did ask Mr Brehgert for the Tuesday evening,
+and the two ladies were again friends.
+
+Perhaps Lady Monogram, when she illustrated her position by an
+allusion to a butcher and a hair-dresser, had been unaware that Mr
+Brehgert had some resemblance to the form which men in that trade are
+supposed to bear. Let us at least hope that she was so. He was a fat,
+greasy man, good-looking in a certain degree, about fifty, with hair
+dyed black, and beard and moustache dyed a dark purple colour. The
+charm of his face consisted in a pair of very bright black eyes, which
+were, however, set too near together in his face for the general
+delight of Christians. He was stout;--fat all over rather than
+corpulent,--and had that look of command in his face which has become
+common to master-butchers, probably by long intercourse with sheep and
+oxen. But Mr Brehgert was considered to be a very good man of business,
+and was now regarded as being, in a commercial point of view, the
+leading member of the great financial firm of which he was the second
+partner. Mr Todd's day was nearly done. He walked about constantly
+between Lombard Street, the Exchange, and the Bank, and talked much to
+merchants; he had an opinion too of his own on particular cases; but
+the business had almost got beyond him, and Mr Brehgert was now
+supposed to be the moving spirit of the firm. He was a widower, living
+in a luxurious villa at Fulham with a family, not indeed grown up, as
+Lady Monogram had ill-naturedly said, but which would be grown up
+before long, varying from an eldest son of eighteen, who had just been
+placed at a desk in the office, to the youngest girl of twelve, who
+was at school at Brighton. He was a man who always asked for what he
+wanted; and having made up his mind that he wanted a second wife, had
+asked Miss Georgiana Longestaffe to fill that situation. He had met
+her at the Melmottes', had entertained her, with Madame Melmotte and
+Marie, at Beaudesert, as he called his villa, had then proposed in the
+square, and two days after had received an assenting answer in Bruton
+Street.
+
+Poor Miss Longestaffe! Although she had acknowledged the fact to Lady
+Monogram in her desire to pave the way for the reception of herself
+into society as a married woman, she had not as yet found courage to
+tell her family. The man was absolutely a Jew;--not a Jew that had been,
+as to whom there might possibly be a doubt whether he or his father or
+his grandfather had been the last Jew of the family; but a Jew that
+was. So was Goldsheiner a Jew, whom Lady Julia Start had married,--or
+at any rate had been one a very short time before he ran away with that
+lady. She counted up ever so many instances on her fingers of 'decent
+people' who had married Jews or Jewesses. Lord Frederic Framlinghame
+had married a girl of the Berrenhoffers; and Mr Hart had married a
+Miss Chute. She did not know much of Miss Chute, but was certain that
+she was a Christian. Lord Frederic's wife and Lady Julia Goldsheiner
+were seen everywhere. Though she hardly knew how to explain the matter
+even to herself, she was sure that there was at present a general
+heaving-up of society on this matter, and a change in progress which
+would soon make it a matter of indifference whether anybody was Jew or
+Christian. For herself she regarded the matter not at all, except as
+far as it might be regarded by the world in which she wished to live.
+She was herself above all personal prejudices of that kind. Jew, Turk,
+or infidel was nothing to her. She had seen enough of the world to be
+aware that her happiness did not lie in that direction, and could not
+depend in the least on the religion of her husband. Of course she
+would go to church herself. She always went to church. It was the
+proper thing to do. As to her husband, though she did not suppose that
+she could ever get him to church,--nor perhaps would it be desirable,--
+she thought that she might induce him to go nowhere, so that she might
+be able to pass him off as a Christian. She knew that such was the
+Christianity of young Goldsheiner, of which the Starts were now
+boasting.
+
+Had she been alone in the world she thought that she could have looked
+forward to her destiny with complacency; but she was afraid of her
+father and mother. Lady Pomona was distressingly old-fashioned, and
+had so often spoken with horror even of the approach of a Jew,--and had
+been so loud in denouncing the iniquity of Christians who allowed such
+people into their houses! Unfortunately, too, Georgiana in her earlier
+days had re-echoed all her mother's sentiments. And then her father,--
+if he had ever earned for himself the right to be called a Conservative
+politician by holding a real opinion of his own,--it had been on that
+matter of admitting the Jews into parliament. When that had been done
+he was certain that the glory of England was sunk for ever. And since
+that time, whenever creditors were more than ordinarily importunate,
+when Slow and Bideawhile could do nothing for him, he would refer to
+that fatal measure as though it was the cause of every embarrassment
+which had harassed him. How could she tell parents such as these that
+she was engaged to marry a man who at the present moment went to
+synagogue on a Saturday and carried out every other filthy abomination
+common to the despised people?
+
+That Mr Brehgert was a fat, greasy man of fifty, conspicuous for
+hair-dye, was in itself distressing:--but this minor distress was
+swallowed up in the greater. Miss Longestaffe was a girl possessing
+considerable discrimination, and was able to weigh her own possessions
+in just scales. She had begun life with very high aspirations,
+believing in her own beauty, in her mother's fashion, and her father's
+fortune. She had now been ten years at the work, and was aware that
+she had always flown a little too high for her mark at the time. At
+nineteen and twenty and twenty-one she had thought that all the world
+was before her. With her commanding figure, regular long features, and
+bright complexion, she had regarded herself as one of the beauties of
+the day, and had considered herself entitled to demand wealth and a
+Coronet. At twenty-two, twenty-three, and twenty-four any young peer,
+or peer's eldest son, with a house in town and in the country, might
+have sufficed. Twenty-five and six had been the years for baronets and
+squires; and even a leading fashionable lawyer or two had been marked
+by her as sufficient since that time. But now she was aware that
+hitherto she had always fixed her price a little too high. On three
+things she was still determined,--that she would not be poor, that she
+would not be banished from London, and that she would not be an old
+maid. 'Mamma,' she had often said, 'there's one thing certain. I shall
+never do to be poor.' Lady Pomona had expressed full concurrence with
+her child. 'And, mamma, to do as Sophia is doing would kill me. Fancy
+having to live at Toodlam all one's life with George Whitstable!' Lady
+Pomona had agreed to this also, though she thought that Toodlam Hall
+was a very nice home for her elder daughter. 'And, mamma, I should
+drive you and papa mad if I were to stay at home always. And what
+would become of me when Dolly was master of everything?' Lady Pomona,
+looking forward as well as she was able to the time at which she
+should herself have departed, when her dower and dower-house would
+have reverted to Dolly, acknowledged that Georgiana should provide
+herself with a home of her own before that time.
+
+And how was this to be done? Lovers with all the glories and all the
+graces are supposed to be plentiful as blackberries by girls of
+nineteen, but have been proved to be rare hothouse fruits by girls of
+twenty-nine. Brehgert was rich, would live in London, and would be a
+husband. People did such odd things now and 'lived them down,' that
+she could see no reason why she should not do this and live this down.
+Courage was the one thing necessary,--that and perseverance. She must
+teach herself to talk about Brehgert as Lady Monogram did of Sir
+Damask. She had plucked up so much courage as had enabled her to
+declare her fate to her old friend,--remembering as she did so how in
+days long past she and her friend Julia Triplex had scattered their
+scorn upon some poor girl who had married a man with a Jewish name,--
+whose grandfather had possibly been a Jew. 'Dear me,' said Lady
+Monogram. 'Todd, Brehgert, and Goldsheiner! Mr Todd is--one of us, I
+suppose.'
+
+'Yes,' said Georgiana boldly, 'and Mr Brehgert is a Jew. His name is
+Ezekiel Brehgert, and he is a Jew. You can say what you like about
+it.'
+
+'I don't say anything about it, my dear.'
+
+'And you can think anything you like. Things are changed since you and
+I were younger.'
+
+'Very much changed, it appears,' said Lady Monogram. Sir Damask's
+religion had never been doubted, though except on the occasion of his
+marriage no acquaintance of his had probably ever seen him in church.
+
+But to tell her father and mother required a higher spirit than she
+had shown even in her communication to Lady Monogram, and that spirit
+had not as yet come to her. On the morning before she left the
+Melmottes in Bruton Street, her lover had been with her. The Melmottes
+of course knew of the engagement and quite approved of it. Madame
+Melmotte rather aspired to credit for having had so happy an affair
+arranged under her auspices. It was some set-off against Marie's
+unfortunate escapade. Mr Brehgert, therefore, had been allowed to come
+and go as he pleased, and on that morning he had pleased to come. They
+were sitting alone in some back room, and Brehgert was pressing for an
+early day. 'I don't think we need talk of that yet, Mr Brehgert,' she
+said.
+
+'You might as well get over the difficulty and call me Ezekiel at
+once,' he remarked. Georgiana frowned, and made no soft little attempt
+at the name as ladies in such circumstances are wont to do. 'Mrs
+Brehgert'--he alluded of course to the mother of his children--'used
+to call me Ezzy.'
+
+'Perhaps I shall do so some day,' said Miss Longestaffe, looking at
+her lover, and asking herself why she should not have been able to
+have the house and the money and the name of the wife without the
+troubles appertaining. She did not think it possible that she should
+ever call him Ezzy.
+
+'And ven shall it be? I should say as early in August as possible.'
+
+'In August!' she almost screamed. It was already July.
+
+'Vy not, my dear? Ve would have our little holiday in Germany at
+Vienna. I have business there, and know many friends.' Then he pressed
+her hard to fix some day in the next month. It would be expedient that
+they should be married from the Melmottes' house, and the Melmottes
+would leave town some time in August. There was truth in this. Unless
+married from the Melmottes' house, she must go down to Caversham for
+the occasion,--which would be intolerable. No,--she must separate
+herself altogether from father and mother, and become one with the
+Melmottes and the Brehgerts,--till she could live it down and make a
+position for herself. If the spending of money could do it, it should
+be done.
+
+'I must at any rate ask mamma about it,' said Georgiana. Mr Brehgert,
+with the customary good-humour of his people, was satisfied with the
+answer, and went away promising that he would meet his love at the
+great Melmotte reception. Then she sat silent, thinking how she should
+declare the matter to her family. Would it not be better for her to
+say to them at once that there must be a division among them,--an
+absolute breaking off of all old ties, so that it should be tacitly
+acknowledged that she, Georgiana, had gone out from among the
+Longestaffes altogether, and had become one with the Melmottes,
+Brehgerts, and Goldsheiners?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXI - LADY MONOGRAM PREPARES FOR THE PARTY
+
+
+When the little conversation took place between Lady Monogram and Miss
+Longestaffe, as recorded in the last chapter, Mr Melmotte was in all
+his glory, and tickets for the entertainment were very precious.
+Gradually their value subsided. Lady Monogram had paid very dear for
+hers,--especially as the reception of Mr Brehgert must be considered.
+But high prices were then being paid. A lady offered to take Marie
+Melmotte into the country with her for a week; but this was before the
+elopement. Mr Cohenlupe was asked out to dinner to meet two peers and
+a countess. Lord Alfred received various presents. A young lady gave a
+lock of her hair to Lord Nidderdale, although it was known that he was
+to marry Marie Melmotte. And Miles Grendall got back an I.O.U. of
+considerable nominal value from Lord Grasslough, who was anxious to
+accommodate two country cousins who were in London. Gradually the
+prices fell;--not at first from any doubt in Melmotte, but through
+that customary reaction which may be expected on such occasions. But
+at eight or nine o'clock on the evening of the party the tickets were
+worth nothing. The rumour had then spread itself through the whole
+town from Pimlico to Marylebone. Men coming home from clubs had told
+their wives. Ladies who had been in the park had heard it. Even the
+hairdressers had it, and ladies' maids had been instructed by the
+footmen and grooms who had been holding horses and seated on the
+coach-boxes. It had got into the air, and had floated round
+dining-rooms and over toilet-tables.
+
+I doubt whether Sir Damask would have said a word about it to his wife
+as he was dressing for dinner, had he calculated what might be the
+result to himself. But he came home open-mouthed, and made no
+calculation. 'Have you heard what's up, Ju?' he said, rushing
+half-dressed into his wife's room.
+
+'What is up?'
+
+'Haven't you been out?'
+
+'I was shopping, and that kind of thing. I don't want to take that
+girl into the Park. I've made a mistake in having her here, but I mean
+to be seen with her as little as I can.'
+
+'Be good-natured, Ju, whatever you are.'
+
+'Oh, bother! I know what I'm about. What is it you mean?'
+
+'They say Melmotte's been found out.'
+
+'Found out!' exclaimed Lady Monogram, stopping her maid in some
+arrangement which would not need to be continued in the event of her
+not going to the reception. 'What do you mean by found out?'
+
+'I don't know exactly. There are a dozen stories told. It's something
+about that place he bought of old Longestaffe.'
+
+'Are the Longestaffes mixed up in it? I won't have her here a day
+longer if there is anything against them.'
+
+'Don't be an ass, Ju. There's nothing against him except that the poor
+old fellow hasn't got a shilling of his money.'
+
+'Then he's ruined,--and there's an end of them.'
+
+'Perhaps he will get it now. Some say that Melmotte has forged a
+receipt, others a letter. Some declare that he has manufactured a
+whole set of title-deeds. You remember Dolly?'
+
+'Of course I know Dolly Longestaffe,' said Lady Monogram, who had
+thought at one time that an alliance with Dolly might be convenient.
+
+'They say he has found it all out. There was always something about
+Dolly more than fellows gave him credit for. At any rate, everybody
+says that Melmotte will be in quod before long.'
+
+'Not to-night, Damask!'
+
+'Nobody seems to know. Lupton was saying that the policemen would wait
+about in the room like servants till the Emperor and the Princes had
+gone away.'
+
+'Is Mr Lupton going?'
+
+'He was to have been at the dinner, but hadn't made up his mind
+whether he'd go or not when I saw him. Nobody seems to be quite
+certain whether the Emperor will go. Somebody said that a Cabinet
+Council was to be called to know what to do.'
+
+'A Cabinet Council!'
+
+'Why, you see it's rather an awkward thing, letting the Prince go to
+dine with a man who perhaps may have been arrested and taken to gaol
+before dinnertime. That's the worst part of it. Nobody knows.'
+
+Lady Monogram waved her attendant away. She piqued herself upon having
+a French maid who could not speak a word of English, and was therefore
+quite careless what she said in the woman's presence. But, of course,
+everything she did say was repeated downstairs in some language that
+had become intelligible to the servants generally. Lady Monogram sat
+motionless for some time, while her husband, retreating to his own
+domain, finished his operations. 'Damask,' she said, when he
+reappeared, 'one thing is certain;--we can't go.'
+
+'After you've made such a fuss about it!'
+
+'It is a pity,--having that girl here in the house. You know, don't
+you, she's going to marry one of these people?'
+
+'I heard about her marriage yesterday. But Brehgert isn't one of
+Melmotte's set. They tell me that Brehgert isn't a bad fellow. A
+vulgar cad, and all that, but nothing wrong about him.'
+
+'He's a Jew, and he's seventy years old, and makes up horribly.'
+
+'What does it matter to you if he's eighty? You are determined, then,
+you won't go?'
+
+But Lady Monogram had by no means determined that she wouldn't go. She
+had paid her price, and with that economy which sticks to a woman
+always in the midst of her extravagances, she could not bear to lose
+the thing that she had bought. She cared nothing for Melmotte's
+villainy, as regarded herself. That he was enriching himself by the
+daily plunder of the innocent she had taken for granted since she had
+first heard of him. She had but a confused idea of any difference
+between commerce and fraud. But it would grieve her greatly to become
+known as one of an awkward squad of people who had driven to the door,
+and perhaps been admitted to some wretched gathering of wretched
+people,--and not, after all, to have met the Emperor and the Prince.
+But then, should she hear on the next morning that the Emperor and the
+Princes, that the Princesses, and the Duchesses, with the Ambassadors,
+Cabinet Ministers, and proper sort of world generally, had all been
+there,--that the world, in short, had ignored Melmotte's villainy,--
+then would her grief be still greater. She sat down to dinner with her
+husband and Miss Longestaffe, and could not talk freely on the matter.
+Miss Longestaffe was still a guest of the Melmottes, although she had
+transferred herself to the Monograms for a day or two. And a horrible
+idea crossed Lady Monogram's mind. What should she do with her friend
+Georgiana if the whole Melmotte establishment were suddenly broken up?
+Of course, Madame Melmotte would refuse to take the girl back if her
+husband were sent to gaol. 'I suppose you'll go,' said Sir Damask as
+the ladies left the room.
+
+'Of course we shall,--in about an hour,' said Lady Monogram as she left
+the room, looking round at him and rebuking him for his imprudence.
+
+'Because, you know--' and then he called her back. 'If you want me I'll
+stay, of course; but if you don't, I'll go down to the club.'
+
+'How can I say, yet? You needn't mind the club to-night.'
+
+'All right;--only it's a bore being here alone.'
+
+Then Miss Longestaffe asked what 'was up.' 'Is there any doubt about
+our going to-night?'
+
+'I can't say. I'm so harassed that I don't know what I'm about. There
+seems to be a report that the Emperor won't be there.'
+
+'Impossible!'
+
+'It's all very well to say impossible, my dear,' said Lady Monogram;
+'but still that's what people are saying. You see Mr Melmotte is a
+very great man, but perhaps--something else has turned up, so that
+he may be thrown over. Things of that kind do happen. You had better
+finish dressing. I shall. But I shan't make sure of going till I hear
+that the Emperor is there.' Then she descended to her husband, whom
+she found forlornly consoling himself with a cigar. 'Damask,' she
+said, 'you must find out.'
+
+'Find out what?'
+
+'Whether the Prince and the Emperor are there.'
+
+'Send John to ask,' suggested the husband.
+
+'He would be sure to make a blunder about it. If you'd go yourself
+you'd learn the truth in a minute. Have a cab,--just go into the hall
+and you'll soon know how it all is;--I'd do it in a minute if I were
+you.' Sir Damask was the most good-natured man in the world, but he
+did not like the job. 'What can be the objection?' asked his wife.
+
+'Go to a man's house and find out whether a man's guests are come
+before you go yourself! I don't just see it, Ju.'
+
+'Guests! What nonsense! The Emperor and all the Royal Family! As if it
+were like any other party. Such a thing, probably, never happened
+before, and never will happen again. If you don't go, Damask, I must;
+and I will.' Sir Damask, after groaning and smoking for half a minute,
+said that he would go. He made many remonstrances. It was a confounded
+bore. He hated emperors and he hated princes. He hated the whole box
+and dice of that sort of thing! He 'wished to goodness' that he had
+dined at his club and sent word up home that the affair was to be off.
+But at last he submitted and allowed his wife to leave the room with
+the intention of sending for a cab. The cab was sent for and
+announced, but Sir Damask would not stir till he had finished his big
+cigar.
+
+It was past ten when he left his own house. On arriving in Grosvenor
+Square he could at once see that the party was going on. The house was
+illuminated. There was a concourse of servants round the door, and
+half the square was already blocked up with carriages.
+
+It was not without delay that he got to the door, and when there he
+saw the royal liveries. There was no doubt about the party. The
+Emperor and the Princes and the Princesses were all there. As far as
+Sir Damask could then perceive, the dinner had been quite a success.
+But again there was a delay in getting away, and it was nearly eleven
+before he could reach home. 'It's all right,' said he to his wife.
+'They're there, safe enough.'
+
+'You are sure that the Emperor is there.'
+
+'As sure as a man can be without having seen him.'
+
+Miss Longestaffe was present at this moment, and could not but resent
+what appeared to be a most unseemly slur cast upon her friends. 'I
+don't understand it at all,' she said. 'Of course the Emperor is
+there. Everybody has known for the last month that he was coming. What
+is the meaning of it, Julia?'
+
+'My dear, you must allow me to manage my own little affairs my own
+way. I dare say I am absurd. But I have my reason. Now, Damask, if the
+carriage is there we had better start.' The carriage was there, and
+they did start, and with a delay which seemed unprecedented, even to
+Lady Monogram, who was accustomed to these things, they reached the
+door. There was a great crush in the hall, and people were coming
+downstairs. But at last they made their way into the room above,
+and found that the Emperor of China and all the Royalties had been
+there,--but had taken their departure.
+
+Sir Damask put the ladies into the carriage and went at once to his
+club.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXII - THE PARTY
+
+
+Lady Monogram retired from Mr Melmotte's house in disgust as soon as
+she was able to escape; but we must return to it for a short time.
+When the guests were once in the drawing-room the immediate sense of
+failure passed away. The crowd never became so thick as had been
+anticipated. They who were knowing in such matters had declared that
+the people would not be able to get themselves out of the room till
+three or four o'clock in the morning, and that the carriages would not
+get themselves out of the Square till breakfast time. With a view to
+this kind of thing Mr Melmotte had been told that he must provide a
+private means of escape for his illustrious guests, and with a
+considerable sacrifice of walls and general house arrangements this
+had been done. No such gathering as was expected took place; but still
+the rooms became fairly full, and Mr Melmotte was able to console
+himself with the feeling that nothing certainly fatal had as yet
+occurred.
+
+There can be no doubt that the greater part of the people assembled
+did believe that their host had committed some great fraud which might
+probably bring him under the arm of the law. When such rumours are
+spread abroad, they are always believed. There is an excitement and a
+pleasure in believing them. Reasonable hesitation at such a moment is
+dull and phlegmatic. If the accused one be near enough to ourselves to
+make the accusation a matter of personal pain, of course we
+disbelieve. But, if the distance be beyond this, we are almost ready
+to think that anything may be true of anybody. In this case nobody
+really loved Melmotte and everybody did believe. It was so probable
+that such a man should have done something horrible! It was only hoped
+that the fraud might be great and horrible enough.
+
+Melmotte himself during that part of the evening which was passed
+upstairs kept himself in the close vicinity of royalty. He behaved
+certainly very much better than he would have done had he had no
+weight at his heart. He made few attempts at beginning any
+conversation, and answered, at any rate with brevity, when he was
+addressed. With scrupulous care he ticked off on his memory the names
+of those who had come and whom he knew, thinking that their presence
+indicated a verdict of acquittal from them on the evidence already
+before them. Seeing the members of the Government all there, he wished
+that he had come forward in Westminster as a Liberal. And he freely
+forgave those omissions of Royalty as to which he had been so angry at
+the India Office, seeing that not a Prince or Princess was lacking of
+those who were expected. He could turn his mind to all this, although
+he knew how great was his danger. Many things occurred to him as he
+stood, striving to smile as a host should smile. It might be the case
+that half-a-dozen detectives were already stationed in his own hall
+perhaps one or two, well dressed, in the very presence of royalty,--
+ready to arrest him as soon as the guests were gone, watching him now
+lest he should escape. But he bore the burden,--and smiled. He had
+always lived with the consciousness that such a burden was on him and
+might crush him at any time. He had known that he had to run these
+risks. He had told himself a thousand times that when the dangers
+came, dangers alone should never cow him. He had always endeavoured to
+go as near the wind as he could, to avoid the heavy hand of the
+criminal law of whatever country he inhabited. He had studied the
+criminal laws, so that he might be sure in his reckonings; but he had
+always felt that he might be carried by circumstances into deeper
+waters than he intended to enter. As the soldier who leads a forlorn
+hope, or as the diver who goes down for pearls, or as the searcher for
+wealth on fever-breeding coasts, knows that as his gains may be great,
+so are his perils, Melmotte had been aware that in his life, as it
+opened itself out to him, he might come to terrible destruction. He
+had not always thought, or even hoped, that he would be as he was now,
+so exalted as to be allowed to entertain the very biggest ones of the
+earth; but the greatness had grown upon him,--and so had the danger. He
+could not now be as exact as he had been. He was prepared himself to
+bear all mere ignominy with a tranquil mind,--to disregard any shouts
+of reprobation which might be uttered, and to console himself when the
+bad quarter of an hour should come with the remembrance that he had
+garnered up a store sufficient for future wants and placed it beyond
+the reach of his enemies. But as his intellect opened up to him new
+schemes, and as his ambition got the better of his prudence, he
+gradually fell from the security which he had preconceived, and became
+aware that he might have to bear worse than ignominy.
+
+Perhaps never in his life had he studied his own character and his own
+conduct more accurately, or made sterner resolves, than he did as he
+stood there smiling, bowing, and acting without impropriety the part
+of host to an Emperor. No;--he could not run away. He soon made himself
+sure of that. He had risen too high to be a successful fugitive, even
+should he succeed in getting off before hands were laid upon him. He
+must bide his ground, if only that he might not at once confess his
+own guilt by flight; and he would do so with courage. Looking back at
+the hour or two that had just passed he was aware that he had allowed
+himself not only to be frightened in the dinner-room,--but also to
+seem to be frightened. The thing had come upon him unawares and he had
+been untrue to himself. He acknowledged that. He should not have asked
+those questions of Mr Todd and Mr Beauclerk, and should have been more
+good-humoured than usual with Lord Alfred in discussing those empty
+seats. But for spilt milk there is no remedy. The blow had come upon
+him too suddenly, and he had faltered. But he would not falter again.
+Nothing should cow him,--no touch from a policeman, no warrant from a
+magistrate, no defalcation of friends, no scorn in the City, no
+solitude in the West End. He would go down among the electors to-morrow
+and would stand his ground, as though all with him were right. Men
+should know at any rate that he had a heart within his bosom. And he
+confessed also to himself that he had sinned in that matter of
+arrogance. He could see it now,--as so many of us do see the faults
+which we have committed, which we strive, but in vain, to discontinue,
+and which we never confess except to our own bosoms. The task which he
+had imposed on himself, and to which circumstances had added weight,
+had been very hard to bear. He should have been good-humoured to
+these great ones whose society he had gained. He should have bound
+these people to him by a feeling of kindness as well as by his money.
+He could see it all now. And he could see too that there was no help
+for spilt milk. I think he took some pride in his own confidence as to
+his own courage, as he stood there turning it all over in his mind.
+Very much might be suspected. Something might be found out. But the
+task of unravelling it all would not be easy. It is the small vermin
+and the little birds that are trapped at once. But wolves and vultures
+can fight hard before they are caught. With the means which would
+still be at his command, let the worst come to the worst, he could
+make a strong fight. When a man's frauds have been enormous there is a
+certain safety in their very diversity and proportions. Might it not
+be that the fact that these great ones of the earth had been his
+guests should speak in his favour? A man who had in very truth had the
+real brother of the Sun dining at his table could hardly be sent into
+the dock and then sent out of it like a common felon.
+
+Madame Melmotte during the evening stood at the top of her own stairs
+with a chair behind her on which she could rest herself for a moment
+when any pause took place in the arrivals. She had of course dined at
+the table,--or rather sat there;--but had been so placed that no duty
+had devolved upon her. She had heard no word of the rumours, and would
+probably be the last person in that house to hear them. It never
+occurred to her to see whether the places down the table were full or
+empty. She sat with her large eyes fixed on the Majesty of China and
+must have wondered at her own destiny at finding herself with an
+Emperor and Princes to look at. From the dining-room she had gone when
+she was told to go, up to the drawing-room, and had there performed
+her task, longing only for the comfort of her bedroom. She, I think,
+had but small sympathy with her husband in all his work, and but
+little understanding of the position in which she had been placed.
+Money she liked, and comfort, and perhaps diamonds and fine dresses,
+but she can hardly have taken pleasure in duchesses or have enjoyed
+the company of the Emperor. From the beginning of the Melmotte era it
+had been an understood thing that no one spoke to Madame Melmotte.
+
+Marie Melmotte had declined a seat at the dinner-table. This at first
+had been cause of quarrel between her and her father, as he desired to
+have seen her next to young Lord Nidderdale as being acknowledged to
+be betrothed to him. But since the journey to Liverpool he had said
+nothing on the subject. He still pressed the engagement, but thought
+now that less publicity might be expedient. She was, however, in the
+drawing-room standing at first by Madame Melmotte, and afterwards
+retreating among the crowd. To some ladies she was a person of
+interest as the young woman who had lately run away under such strange
+circumstances; but no one spoke to her till she saw a girl whom she
+herself knew, and whom she addressed, plucking up all her courage for
+the occasion. This was Hetta Carbury who had been brought hither by
+her mother.
+
+The tickets for Lady Carbury and Hetta had of course been sent before
+the elopement;--and also, as a matter of course, no reference had been
+made to them by the Melmotte family after the elopement. Lady Carbury
+herself was anxious that that affair should not be considered as
+having given cause for any personal quarrel between herself and Mr
+Melmotte, and in her difficulty had consulted Mr Broune. Mr Broune was
+the staff on which she leant at present in all her difficulties. Mr
+Broune was going to the dinner. All this of course took place while
+Melmotte's name was as yet unsullied as snow. Mr Broune saw no reason
+why Lady Carbury should not take advantage of her tickets. These
+invitations were simply tickets to see the Emperor surrounded by the
+Princes. The young lady's elopement is 'no affair of yours,' Mr Broune
+had said. 'I should go, if it were only for the sake of showing that
+you did not consider yourself to be implicated in the matter.' Lady
+Carbury did as she was advised, and took her daughter with her.
+'Nonsense,' said the mother, when Hetta objected; 'Mr Broune sees it
+quite in the right light. This is a grand demonstration in honour of
+the Emperor, rather than a private party;--and we have done nothing
+to offend the Melmottes. You know you wish to see the Emperor.' A few
+minutes before they started from Welbeck Street a note came from Mr
+Broune, written in pencil and sent from Melmotte's house by a
+Commissioner. 'Don't mind what you hear; but come. I am here and as
+far as I can see it is all right. The E. is beautiful, and P.'s are as
+thick as blackberries.' Lady Carbury, who had not been in the way of
+hearing the reports, understood nothing of this; but of course she
+went. And Hetta went with her.
+
+Hetta was standing alone in a corner, near to her mother, who was
+talking to Mr Booker, with her eyes fixed on the awful tranquillity of
+the Emperor's countenance, when Marie Melmotte timidly crept up to her
+and asked her how she was. Hetta, probably, was not very cordial to
+the poor girl, being afraid of her, partly as the daughter of the
+great Melmotte and partly as the girl with whom her brother had failed
+to run away; but Marie was not rebuked by this. 'I hope you won't be
+angry with me for speaking to you.' Hetta smiled more graciously. She
+could not be angry with the girl for speaking to her, feeling that she
+was there as the guest of the girl's mother. 'I suppose you know about
+your brother,' said Marie, whispering with her eyes turned to the
+ground.
+
+'I have heard about it,' said Hetta. 'He never told me himself.'
+
+'Oh, I do so wish that I knew the truth. I know nothing. Of course,
+Miss Carbury, I love him. I do love him so dearly! I hope you don't
+think I would have done it if I hadn't loved him better than anybody
+in the world. Don't you think that if a girl loves a man,--really
+loves him,--that ought to go before everything?'
+
+This was a question that Hetta was hardly prepared to answer. She felt
+quite certain that under no circumstances would she run away with a
+man. 'I don't quite know. It is so hard to say,' she replied.
+
+'I do. What's the good of anything if you're to be broken-hearted? I
+don't care what they say of me, or what they do to me, if he would
+only be true to me. Why doesn't he--let me know--something about it?'
+This also was a question difficult to be answered. Since that horrid
+morning on which Sir Felix had stumbled home drunk,--which was now
+four days since,--he had not left the house in Welbeck Street till
+this evening. He had gone out a few minutes before Lady Carbury had
+started, but up to that time he had almost kept his bed. He would not
+get up till dinner-time, would come down after some half-dressed
+fashion, and then get back to his bedroom, where he would smoke and
+drink brandy-and-water and complain of headache. The theory was that
+he was ill;--but he was in fact utterly cowed and did not dare to show
+himself at his usual haunts. He was aware that he had quarrelled at
+the club, aware that all the world knew of his intended journey to
+Liverpool, aware that he had tumbled about the streets intoxicated. He
+had not dared to show himself, and the feeling had grown upon him from
+day to day. Now, fairly worn out by his confinement, he had crept out
+intending, if possible, to find consolation with Ruby Ruggles. 'Do
+tell me. Where is he?' pleaded Marie.
+
+'He has not been very well lately.'
+
+'Is he ill? Oh, Miss Carbury, do tell me. You can understand what it
+is to love him as I do--can't you?'
+
+'He has been ill. I think he is better now.'
+
+'Why does he not come to me, or send to me; or let me know something?
+It is cruel, is it not? Tell me,--you must know,--does he really care
+for me?'
+
+Hetta was exceedingly perplexed. The real feeling betrayed by the girl
+recommended her. Hetta could not but sympathize with the affection
+manifested for her own brother, though she could hardly understand the
+want of reticence displayed by Marie in thus speaking of her love to
+one who was almost a stranger. 'Felix hardly ever talks about himself
+to me,' she said.
+
+'If he doesn't care for me, there shall be an end of it,' Marie said
+very gravely. 'If I only knew! If I thought that he loved me, I'd go
+through,--oh,--all the world for him. Nothing that papa could say
+should stop me. That's my feeling about it. I have never talked to
+any one but you about it. Isn't that strange? I haven't a person to
+talk to. That's my feeling, and I'm not a bit ashamed of it. There's
+no disgrace in being in love. But it's very bad to get married without
+being in love. That's what I think.'
+
+'It is bad,' said Hetta, thinking of Roger Carbury.
+
+'But if Felix doesn't care for me!' continued Marie, sinking her voice
+to a low whisper, but still making her words quite audible to her
+companion. Now Hetta was strongly of opinion that her brother did not
+in the least 'care for' Marie Melmotte, and that it would be very much
+for the best that Marie Melmotte should know the truth. But she had
+not that sort of strength which would have enabled her to tell it.
+'Tell me just what you think,' said Marie. Hetta was still silent.
+'Ah,--I see. Then I must give him up? Eh?'
+
+'What can I say, Miss Melmotte? Felix never tells me. He is my
+brother,--and of course I love you for loving him.' This was almost
+more than Hetta meant; but she felt herself constrained to say some
+gracious word.
+
+'Do you? Oh! I wish you did. I should so like to be loved by you.
+Nobody loves me, I think. That man there wants to marry me. Do you
+know him? He is Lord Nidderdale. He is very nice; but he does not love
+me any more than he loves you. That's the way with men. It isn't the
+way with me. I would go with Felix and slave for him if he were poor.
+Is it all to be over then? You will give him a message from me?'
+Hetta, doubting as to the propriety of the promise, promised that she
+would. 'Just tell him I want to know; that's all. I want to know.
+You'll understand. I want to know the real truth. I suppose I do know
+it now. Then I shall not care what happens to me. It will be all the
+same. I suppose I shall marry that young man, though it will be very
+bad. I shall just be as if I hadn't any self of my own at all. But he
+ought to send me word after all that has passed. Do not you think he
+ought to send me word?'
+
+'Yes, indeed.'
+
+'You tell him, then,' said Marie, nodding her head as she crept away.
+
+Nidderdale had been observing her while she had been talking to Miss
+Carbury. He had heard the rumour, and of course felt that it behoved
+him to be on his guard more specially than any one else. But he had
+not believed what he had heard. That men should be thoroughly immoral,
+that they should gamble, get drunk, run into debt, and make love to
+other men's wives, was to him a matter of everyday life. Nothing of
+that kind shocked him at all. But he was not as yet quite old enough
+to believe in swindling. It had been impossible to convince him that
+Miles Grendall had cheated at cards, and the idea that Mr Melmotte had
+forged was as improbable and shocking to him as that an officer should
+run away in battle. Common soldiers, he thought, might do that sort of
+thing. He had almost fallen in love with Marie when he saw her last,
+and was inclined to feel the more kindly to her now because of the
+hard things that were being said about her father. And yet he knew
+that he must be careful. If 'he came a cropper' in this matter, it
+would be such an awful cropper! 'How do you like the party?' he said
+to Marie.
+
+'I don't like it at all, my lord. How do you like it?'
+
+'Very much, indeed. I think the Emperor is the greatest fun I ever
+saw. Prince Frederic,'--one of the German princes who was staying at
+the time among his English cousins,--'Prince Frederic says that he's
+stuffed with hay, and that he's made up fresh every morning at a shop
+in the Haymarket.'
+
+'I've seen him talk.'
+
+'He opens his mouth, of course. There is machinery as well as hay. I
+think he's the grandest old buffer out, and I'm awfully glad that I've
+dined with him. I couldn't make out whether he really put anything to
+eat into his jolly old mouth.'
+
+'Of course he did.'
+
+'Have you been thinking about what we were talking about the other
+day?'
+
+'No, my lord,--I haven't thought about it since. Why should I?'
+
+'Well;--it's a sort of thing that people do think about, you know.'
+
+'You don't think about it.'
+
+'Don't I? I've been thinking about nothing else the last three
+months.'
+
+'You've been thinking whether you'd get married or not.'
+
+'That's what I mean,' said Lord Nidderdale.
+
+'It isn't what I mean, then.'
+
+'I'll be shot if I can understand you.'
+
+'Perhaps not. And you never will understand me. Oh, goodness they're
+all going, and we must get out of the way. Is that Prince Frederic,
+who told you about the hay? He is handsome; isn't he? And who is that
+in the violet dress with all the pearls?'
+
+'That's the Princess Dwarza.'
+
+'Dear me;--isn't it odd, having a lot of people in one's own house,
+and not being able to speak a word to them? I don't think it's at
+all nice. Good night, my lord. I'm glad you like the Emperor.'
+
+And then the people went, and when they had all gone Melmotte put his
+wife and daughter into his own carriage, telling them that he would
+follow them on foot to Bruton Street when he had given some last
+directions to the people who were putting out the lights, and
+extinguishing generally the embers of the entertainment. He had looked
+round for Lord Alfred, taking care to avoid the appearance of
+searching; but Lord Alfred had gone. Lord Alfred was one of those who
+knew when to leave a falling house. Melmotte at the moment thought of
+all that he had done for Lord Alfred, and it was something of the real
+venom of ingratitude that stung him at the moment rather than this
+additional sign of coming evil. He was more than ordinarily gracious
+as he put his wife into the carriage, and remarked that, considering
+all things, the party had gone off very well. 'I only wish it could
+have been done a little cheaper,' he said laughing. Then he went back
+into the house, and up into the drawing-rooms which were now utterly
+deserted. Some of the lights had been put out, but the men were busy
+in the rooms below, and he threw himself into the chair in which the
+Emperor had sat. It was wonderful that he should come to such a fate
+as this;--that he, the boy out of the gutter, should entertain at his
+own house, in London, a Chinese Emperor and English and German
+Royalty,--and that he should do so almost with a rope round his neck.
+Even if this were to be the end of it all, men would at any rate
+remember him. The grand dinner which he had given before he was put
+into prison would live in history. And it would be remembered, too,
+that he had been the Conservative candidate for the great borough of
+Westminster,--perhaps, even, the elected member. He, too, in his manner,
+assured himself that a great part of him would escape Oblivion. 'Non
+omnis moriar,' in some language of his own, was chanted by him within
+his own breast, as he sat there looking out on his own magnificent suite
+of rooms from the armchair which had been consecrated by the use of an
+Emperor.
+
+No policemen had come to trouble him yet. No hint that he would be
+'wanted' had been made to him. There was no tangible sign that things
+were not to go on as they went before. Things would be exactly as they
+were before, but for the absence of those guests from the
+dinner-table, and for the words which Miles Grendall had spoken. Had
+he not allowed himself to be terrified by shadows? Of course he had
+known that there must be such shadows. His life had been made dark by
+similar clouds before now, and he had lived through the storms which
+had followed them. He was thoroughly ashamed of the weakness which had
+overcome him at the dinner-table, and of that palsy of fear which he
+had allowed himself to exhibit. There should be no more shrinking such
+as that. When people talked of him they should say that he was at
+least a man.
+
+As this was passing through his mind a head was pushed in through one
+of the doors, and immediately withdrawn. It was his Secretary. 'Is
+that you, Miles?' he said. 'Come in. I'm just going home, and came up
+here to see how the empty rooms would look after they were all gone.
+What became of your father?'
+
+'I suppose he went away.'
+
+'I suppose he did,' said Melmotte, unable to hinder himself from
+throwing a certain tone of scorn into his voice,--as though proclaiming
+the fate of his own house and the consequent running away of the rat.
+'It went off very well, I think.'
+
+'Very well,' said Miles, still standing at the door. There had been a
+few words of consultation between him and his father,--only a very
+few words. 'You'd better see it out to-night, as you've had a regular
+salary, and all that. I shall hook it. I sha'n't go near him to-morrow
+till I find out how things are going. By G----, I've had about enough
+of him.' But hardly enough of his money or it may be presumed that Lord
+Alfred would have 'hooked it' sooner.
+
+'Why don't you come in, and not stand there?' said Melmotte. 'There's
+no Emperor here now for you to be afraid of.'
+
+'I'm afraid of nobody,' said Miles, walking into the middle of the
+room.
+
+'Nor am I. What's one man that another man should be afraid of him?
+We've got to die, and there'll be an end of it, I suppose.'
+
+'That's about it,' said Miles, hardly following the working of his
+master's mind.
+
+'I shouldn't care how soon. When a man has worked as I have done, he
+gets about tired at my age. I suppose I'd better be down at the
+committee-room about ten to-morrow?'
+
+'That's the best, I should say.'
+
+'You'll be there by that time?' Miles Grendall assented slowly, and
+with imperfect assent. 'And tell your father he might as well be there
+as early as convenient.'
+
+'All right,' said Miles as he took his departure.
+
+'Curs!' said Melmotte almost aloud. 'They neither of them will be
+there. If any evil can be done to me by treachery and desertion, they
+will do it.' Then it occurred to him to think whether the Grendall
+article had been worth all the money that he had paid for it. 'Curs!'
+he said again. He walked down into the hall, and through the
+banqueting-room, and stood at the place where he himself had sat. What
+a scene it had been, and how frightfully low his heart had sunk within
+him! It had been the defection of the Lord Mayor that had hit him
+hardest. 'What cowards they are!' The men went on with their work, not
+noticing him, and probably not knowing him. The dinner had been done
+by contract, and the contractor's foreman was there. The care of the
+house and the alterations had been confided to another contractor, and
+his foreman was waiting to see the place locked up. A confidential
+clerk, who had been with Melmotte for years, and who knew his ways,
+was there also to guard the property. 'Good night, Croll,' he said to
+the man in German. Croll touched his hat and bade him good night.
+Melmotte listened anxiously to the tone of the man's voice, trying to
+catch from it some indication of the mind within. Did Croll know of
+these rumours, and if so, what did he think of them? Croll had known
+him in some perilous circumstances before, and had helped him through
+them. He paused a moment as though he would ask a question, but
+resolved at last that silence would be safest. 'You'll see everything
+safe, eh, Croll?' Croll said that he would see everything safe, and
+Melmotte passed out into the Square.
+
+He had not far to go, round through Berkeley Square into Bruton
+Street, but he stood for a few moments looking up at the bright stars.
+If he could be there, in one of those unknown distant worlds, with all
+his present intellect and none of his present burdens, he would, he
+thought, do better than he had done here on earth. If he could even
+now put himself down nameless, fameless, and without possessions in
+some distant corner of the world, he could, he thought, do better. But
+he was Augustus Melmotte, and he must bear his burdens, whatever they
+were, to the end. He could reach no place so distant but that he would
+be known and traced.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXIII - MR MELMOTTE ON THE DAY OF THE ELECTION
+
+
+No election of a Member of Parliament by ballot in a borough so large
+as that of Westminster had as yet been achieved in England since the
+ballot had been established by law. Men who heretofore had known, or
+thought that they knew, how elections would go, who counted up
+promises, told off professed enemies, and weighed the doubtful ones,
+now confessed themselves to be in the dark. Three days since the odds
+had been considerably in Melmotte's favour; but this had come from the
+reputation attached to his name, rather than from any calculation as
+to the politics of the voters. Then Sunday had intervened. On the
+Monday Melmotte's name had continued to go down in the betting from
+morning to evening. Early in the day his supporters had thought little
+of this, attributing the fall to that vacillation which is customary
+in such matters; but towards the latter part of the afternoon the
+tidings from the City had been in everybody's mouth, and Melmotte's
+committee-room had been almost deserted. At six o'clock there were
+some who suggested that his name should be withdrawn. No such
+suggestion, however, was made to him,--perhaps, because no one dared to
+make it. On the Monday evening all work and strategy for the election,
+as regarded Melmotte and his party, died away; and the interest of the
+hour was turned to the dinner.
+
+But Mr Alf's supporters were very busy. There had been a close
+consultation among a few of them as to what should be done by their
+Committee as to these charges against the opposite candidate. In the
+'Pulpit' of that evening an allusion had been made to the affair,
+which was of course sufficiently intelligible to those who were
+immediately concerned in the matter, but which had given no name and
+mentioned no details. Mr Alf explained that this had been put in by
+the sub-editor, and that it only afforded such news as the paper was
+bound to give to the public. He himself pointed out the fact that no
+note of triumph had been sounded, and that the rumour had not been
+connected with the election.
+
+One old gentleman was of opinion that they were bound to make the most
+of it. 'It's no more than we've all believed all along,' said the old
+gentleman, 'and why are we to let a fellow like that get the seat if
+we can keep him out?' He was of opinion that everything should be done
+to make the rumour with all its exaggerations as public as possible,--
+so that there should be no opening for an indictment for libel; and
+the clever old gentleman was full of devices by which this might be
+effected. But the Committee generally was averse to fight in this
+manner. Public opinion has its Bar as well as the Law Courts. If,
+after all, Melmotte had committed no fraud,--or, as was much more
+probable, should not be convicted of fraud,--then it would be said that
+the accusation had been forged for purely electioneering purposes, and
+there might be a rebound which would pretty well crush all those who
+had been concerned. Individual gentlemen could, of course, say what
+they pleased to individual voters; but it was agreed at last that no
+overt use should be made of the rumours by Mr Alf's Committee. In
+regard to other matters, they who worked under the Committee were busy
+enough. The dinner to the Emperor was turned into ridicule, and the
+electors were asked whether they felt themselves bound to return a
+gentleman out of the City to Parliament because he had offered to
+spend a fortune on entertaining all the royalties then assembled in
+London. There was very much said on placards and published in
+newspapers to the discredit of Melmotte, but nothing was so printed
+which would not have appeared with equal venom had the recent rumours
+never been sent out from the City. At twelve o'clock at night, when Mr
+Alf's committee-room was being closed, and when Melmotte was walking
+home to bed, the general opinion at the clubs was very much in favour
+of Mr Alf.
+
+On the next morning Melmotte was up before eight. As yet no policeman
+had called for him, nor had any official intimation reached him that
+an accusation was to be brought against him. On coming down from his
+bedroom he at once went into the back-parlour on the ground floor,
+which Mr Longestaffe called his study, and which Mr Melmotte had used
+since he had been in Mr Longestaffe's house for the work which he did
+at home. He would be there often early in the morning, and often late
+at night after Lord Alfred had left him. There were two heavy
+desk-tables in the room, furnished with drawers down to the ground.
+One of these the owner of the house had kept locked for his own
+purposes. When the bargain for the temporary letting of the house had
+been made, Mr Melmotte and Mr Longestaffe were close friends. Terms
+for the purchase of Pickering had just been made, and no cause for
+suspicion had as yet arisen. Everything between the two gentlemen had
+been managed with the greatest ease. Oh dear, yes! Mr Longestaffe
+could come whenever he pleased. He, Melmotte, always left the house at
+ten and never returned till six. The ladies would never enter that
+room. The servants were to regard Mr Longestaffe quite as master of
+the house as far as that room was concerned. If Mr Longestaffe could
+spare it, Mr Melmotte would take the key of one of the tables. The
+matter was arranged very pleasantly.
+
+Mr Melmotte on entering the room bolted the door, and then, sitting at
+his own table, took certain papers out of the drawers,--a bundle of
+letters and another of small documents. From these, with very little
+examination, he took three or four,--two or three perhaps from each.
+These he tore into very small fragments and burned the bits,--holding
+them over a gas-burner and letting the ashes fall into a large china
+plate. Then he blew the ashes into the yard through the open window.
+This he did to all these documents but one. This one he put bit by bit
+into his mouth, chewing the paper into a pulp till he swallowed it.
+When he had done this, and had re-locked his own drawers, he walked
+across to the other table, Mr Longestaffe's table, and pulled the
+handle of one of the drawers. It opened;--and then, without touching
+the contents, he again closed it. He then knelt down and examined the
+lock, and the hole above into which the bolt of the lock ran. Having
+done this he again closed the drawer, drew back the bolt of the door,
+and, seating himself at his own desk, rang the bell which was close to
+hand. The servant found him writing letters after his usual hurried
+fashion, and was told that he was ready for breakfast. He always
+breakfasted alone with a heap of newspapers around him, and so he did
+on this day. He soon found the paragraph alluding to himself in the
+'Pulpit,' and read it without a quiver in his face or the slightest
+change in his colour. There was no one to see him now,--but he was
+acting under a resolve that at no moment, either when alone, or in a
+crowd, or when suddenly called upon for words,--not even when the
+policemen with their first hints of arrest should come upon him,--
+would he betray himself by the working of a single muscle, or the loss
+of a drop of blood from his heart. He would go through it, always
+armed, without a sign of shrinking. It had to be done, and he would do
+it.
+
+At ten he walked down to the central committee-room at Whitehall
+Place. He thought that he would face the world better by walking than
+if he were taken in his own brougham. He gave orders that the carriage
+should be at the committee-room at eleven, and wait an hour for him if
+he was not there. He went along Bond Street and Piccadilly, Regent
+Street and through Pall Mall to Charing Cross, with the blandly
+triumphant smile of a man who had successfully entertained the great
+guest of the day. As he got near the club he met two or three men whom
+he knew, and bowed to them. They returned his bow graciously enough,
+but not one of them stopped to speak to him. Of one he knew that he
+would have stopped, had it not been for the rumour. Even after the man
+had passed on he was careful to show no displeasure on his face. He
+would take it all as it would come and still be the blandly triumphant
+Merchant Prince,--as long as the police would allow him. He probably
+was not aware how very different was the part he was now playing from
+that which he had assumed at the India Office.
+
+At the committee-room he only found a few understrappers, and was
+informed that everything was going on regularly. The electors were
+balloting; but with the ballot,--so said the leader of the
+understrappers,--there never was any excitement. The men looked
+half-frightened,--as though they did not quite know whether they ought
+to seize their candidate, and hold him till the constable came. They
+certainly had not expected to see him there. 'Has Lord Alfred been
+here?' Melmotte asked, standing in the inner room with his back to the
+empty grate. No,--Lord Alfred had not been there. 'Nor Mr Grendall?'
+The senior understrapper knew that Melmotte would have asked for 'his
+Secretary,' and not for Mr Grendall, but for the rumours. It is so
+hard not to tumble into Scylla when you are avoiding Charybdis. Mr
+Grendall had not been there. Indeed, nobody had been there. 'In fact,
+there is nothing more to be done, I suppose?' said Mr Melmotte. The
+senior understrapper thought that there was nothing more to be done.
+He left word that his brougham should be sent away, and strolled out
+again on foot.
+
+He went up into Covent Garden, where there was a polling booth. The
+place seemed to him, as one of the chief centres for a contested
+election, to be wonderfully quiet. He was determined to face everybody
+and everything, and he went close up to the booth. Here he was
+recognised by various men, mechanics chiefly, who came forward and
+shook hands with him. He remained there for an hour conversing with
+people, and at last made a speech to a little knot around him. He did
+not allude to the rumour of yesterday, nor to the paragraph in the
+'Pulpit' to which his name had not been attached; but he spoke freely
+enough of the general accusations that had been brought against him
+previously. He wished the electors to understand that nothing which
+had been said against him made him ashamed to meet them here or
+elsewhere. He was proud of his position, and proud that the electors
+of Westminster should recognise it. He did not, he was glad to say,
+know much of the law, but he was told that the law would protect him
+from such aspersions as had been unfairly thrown upon him. He
+flattered himself that he was too good an Englishman to regard the
+ordinary political attacks to which candidates were, as a matter of
+course, subject at elections;--and he could stretch his back to bear
+perhaps a little more than these, particularly as he looked forward to
+a triumphant return. But things had been said, and published, which
+the excitement of an election could not justify, and as to these
+things he must have recourse to the law. Then he made some allusion to
+the Princes and the Emperor, and concluded by observing that it was
+the proudest boast of his life to be an Englishman and a Londoner.
+
+It was asserted afterwards that this was the only good speech he
+had ever been known to make; and it was certainly successful, as
+he was applauded throughout Covent Garden. A reporter for the
+'Breakfast-Table' who was on duty at the place, looking for paragraphs
+as to the conduct of electors, gave an account of the speech in that
+paper, and made more of it, perhaps, than it deserved. It was asserted
+afterwards, and given as a great proof of Melmotte's cleverness, that
+he had planned the thing and gone to Covent Garden all alone having
+considered that in that way could he best regain a step in reputation;
+but in truth the affair had not been pre-concerted. It was while in
+Whitehall Place that he had first thought of going to Covent Garden,
+and he had had no idea of making a speech till the people had gathered
+round him.
+
+It was then noon, and he had to determine what he should do next. He
+was half inclined to go round to all the booths and make speeches. His
+success at Covent Garden had been very pleasant to him. But he feared
+that he might not be so successful elsewhere. He had shown that he was
+not afraid of the electors. Then an idea struck him that he would go
+boldly into the City,--to his own offices in Abchurch Lane. He had
+determined to be absent on this day, and would not be expected. But
+his appearance there could not on that account be taken amiss.
+Whatever enmities there might be, or whatever perils, he would face
+them. He got a cab therefore and had himself driven to Abchurch Lane.
+
+The clerks were hanging about doing nothing, as though it were a
+holiday. The dinner, the election, and the rumour together had
+altogether demoralized them. But some of them at least were there, and
+they showed no signs of absolute insubordination. 'Mr Grendall has not
+been here?' he asked. No; Mr Grendall had not been there; but Mr
+Cohenlupe was in Mr Grendall's room. At this moment he hardly desired
+to see Mr Cohenlupe. That gentleman was privy to many of his
+transactions, but was by no means privy to them all. Mr Cohenlupe knew
+that the estate at Pickering had been purchased, and knew that it had
+been mortgaged. He knew also what had become of the money which had so
+been raised. But he knew nothing of the circumstances of the purchase,
+although he probably surmised that Melmotte had succeeded in getting
+the title-deeds on credit, without paying the money. He was afraid
+that he could hardly see Cohenlupe and hold his tongue, and that he
+could not speak to him without danger. He and Cohenlupe might have to
+stand in a dock together; and Cohenlupe had none of his spirit. But
+the clerks would think, and would talk, were he to leave the office
+without seeing his old friend. He went therefore into his own room,
+and called to Cohenlupe as he did so.
+
+'Ve didn't expect you here to-day,' said the member for Staines.
+
+'Nor did I expect to come. But there isn't much to do at Westminster
+while the ballot is going on; so I came up, just to look at the
+letters. The dinner went off pretty well yesterday, eh?'
+
+'Uncommon;--nothing better. Vy did the Lord Mayor stay away,
+Melmotte?'
+
+'Because he's an ass and a cur,' said Mr Melmotte with an assumed air
+of indignation. 'Alf and his people had got hold of him. There was
+ever so much fuss about it at first,--whether he would accept the
+invitation. I say it was an insult to the City to take it and not to
+come. I shall be even with him some of these days.'
+
+'Things will go on just the same as usual, Melmotte?'
+
+'Go on. Of course they'll go. What's to hinder them?'
+
+'There's ever so much been said,' whispered Cohenlupe.
+
+'Said;--yes,' ejaculated Melmotte very loudly. 'You're not such a
+fool, I hope, as to believe every word you hear. You'll have enough
+to believe, if you do.'
+
+'There's no knowing vat anybody does know, and vat anybody does not
+know,' said Cohenlupe.
+
+'Look you here, Cohenlupe,'--and now Melmotte also sank his voice to a
+whisper,--'keep your tongue in your mouth; go about just as usual, and
+say nothing. It's all right. There has been some heavy pulls upon us.'
+
+'Oh dear, there has indeed!'
+
+'But any paper with my name to it will come right.'
+
+'That's nothing;--nothing at all,' said Cohenlupe.
+
+'And there is nothing;--nothing at all! I've bought some property and
+have paid for it; and I have bought some, and have not yet paid for
+it. There's no fraud in that.'
+
+'No, no,--nothing in that.'
+
+'You hold your tongue, and go about your business. I'm going to the
+bank now.' Cohenlupe had been very low in spirits, and was still low
+in spirits; but he was somewhat better after the visit of the great
+man to the City.
+
+Mr Melmotte was as good as his word and walked straight to the bank.
+He kept two accounts at different banks, one for his business, and one
+for his private affairs. The one he now entered was that which kept
+what we may call his domestic account. He walked straight through,
+after his old fashion, to the room behind the bank in which sat the
+manager and the manager's one clerk, and stood upon the rug before the
+fireplace just as though nothing had happened,--or as nearly as though
+nothing had happened as was within the compass of his powers. He could
+not quite do it. In keeping up an appearance intended to be natural he
+was obliged to be somewhat milder than his wont. The manager did not
+behave nearly as well as he did, and the clerks manifestly betrayed
+their emotion. Melmotte saw that it was so;--but he had expected it,
+and had come there on purpose to 'put it down.'
+
+'We hardly expected to see you in the City to-day, Mr Melmotte.'
+
+'And I didn't expect to see myself here. But it always happens that
+when one expects that there's most to be done, there's nothing to be
+done at all. They're all at work down at Westminster, balloting; but
+as I can't go on voting for myself, I'm of no use. I've been at Covent
+Garden this morning, making a stump speech, and if all that they say
+there is true, I haven't much to be afraid of.'
+
+'And the dinner went off pretty well?' asked the manager.
+
+'Very well, indeed. They say the Emperor liked it better than anything
+that has been done for him yet.' This was a brilliant flash of
+imagination. 'For a friend to dine with me every day, you know, I
+should prefer somebody who had a little more to say for himself. But
+then, perhaps, you know, if you or I were in China we shouldn't have
+much to say for ourselves;--eh?' The manager acceded to this
+proposition. 'We had one awful disappointment. His lordship from over
+the way didn't come.'
+
+'The Lord Mayor, you mean.'
+
+'The Lord Mayor didn't come! He was frightened at the last moment;--
+took it into his head that his authority in the City was somehow
+compromised. But the wonder was that the dinner went on without him.'
+Then Melmotte referred to the purport of his call there that day. He
+would have to draw large cheques for his private wants. 'You don't
+give a dinner to an Emperor of China for nothing, you know.' He had
+been in the habit of overdrawing on his private account,--making
+arrangements with the manager. But now, in the manager's presence, he
+drew a regular cheque on his business account for a large sum, and
+then, as a sort of afterthought, paid in the £250 which he had
+received from Mr Broune on account of the money which Sir Felix had
+taken from Marie.
+
+'There don't seem much the matter with him,' said the manager, when
+Melmotte had left the room.
+
+'He brazens it out, don't he?' said the senior clerk. But the feeling
+of the room after full discussion inclined to the opinion that the
+rumours had been a political manoeuvre. Nevertheless, Mr Melmotte
+would not now have been allowed to overdraw at the present moment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXIV - THE ELECTION
+
+
+Mr Alf's central committee-room was in Great George Street, and there
+the battle was kept alive all the day. It had been decided, as the
+reader has been told, that no direct advantage should be taken of that
+loud blast of accusation which had been heard throughout the town on
+the previous afternoon. There had not been sufficient time for inquiry
+as to the truth of that blast. If there were just ground for the
+things that had been said, Mr Melmotte would no doubt soon be in gaol,
+or would be--wanted. Many had thought that he would escape as soon as
+the dinner was over, and had been disappointed when they heard that he
+had been seen walking down towards his own committee-room on the
+following morning. Others had been told that at the last moment his
+name would be withdrawn,--and a question arose as to whether he had
+the legal power to withdraw his name after a certain hour on the day
+before the ballot. An effort was made to convince a portion of the
+electors that he had withdrawn, or would have withdrawn, or should
+have withdrawn. When Melmotte was at Covent Garden, a large throng of
+men went to Whitehall Place with the view of ascertaining the truth.
+He certainly had made no attempt at withdrawal. They who propagated
+this report certainly damaged Mr Alf's cause. A second reaction set
+in, and there grew a feeling that Mr Melmotte was being ill-used.
+Those evil things had been said of him,--many at least so declared,--
+not from any true motive, but simply to secure Mr Alf's return. Tidings
+of the speech in Covent Garden were spread about at the various polling
+places, and did good service to the so-called Conservative cause. Mr
+Alf's friends, hearing all this, instigated him also to make a speech.
+Something should be said, if only that it might be reported in the
+newspapers, to show that they had behaved with generosity, instead of
+having injured their enemy by false attacks. Whatever Mr Alf might
+say, he might at any rate be sure of a favourable reporter.
+
+About two o'clock in the day, Mr Alf did make a speech,--and a very good
+speech it was, if correctly reported in the 'Evening Pulpit.' Mr Alf
+was a clever man, ready at all points, with all his powers immediately
+at command, and, no doubt, he did make a good speech. But in this
+speech, in which we may presume that it would be his intention to
+convince the electors that they ought to return him to Parliament,
+because, of the two candidates, he was the fittest to represent their
+views, he did not say a word as to his own political ideas, not,
+indeed, a word that could be accepted as manifesting his own fitness
+for the place which it was his ambition to fill. He contented himself
+with endeavouring to show that the other man was not fit;--and that he
+and his friends, though solicitous of proving to the electors that Mr
+Melmotte was about the most unfit man in the world, had been guilty of
+nothing shabby in their manner of doing so. 'Mr Melmotte,' he said,
+'comes before you as a Conservative, and has told us, by the mouths of
+his friends,--for he has not favoured us with many words of his own,--
+that he is supported by the whole Conservative party. That party is
+not my party, but I respect it. Where, however, are these Conservative
+supporters? We have heard, till we are sick of it, of the banquet
+which Mr Melmotte gave yesterday. I am told that very few of those
+whom he calls his Conservative friends could be induced to attend that
+banquet. It is equally notorious that the leading merchants of the
+City refused to grace the table of this great commercial prince. I say
+that the leaders of the Conservative party have at last found their
+candidate out, have repudiated him;--and are seeking now to free
+themselves from the individual shame of having supported the
+candidature of such a man by remaining in their own houses instead of
+clustering round the polling booths. Go to Mr Melmotte's
+committee-room and inquire if those leading Conservatives be there.
+Look about, and see whether they are walking with him in the streets,
+or standing with him in public places, or taking the air with him in
+the parks. I respect the leaders of the Conservative party; but they
+have made a mistake in this matter, and they know it.' Then he ended
+by alluding to the rumours of yesterday. 'I scorn,' said he, 'to say
+anything against the personal character of a political opponent, which
+I am not in a position to prove. I make no allusion, and have made no
+allusion, to reports which were circulated yesterday about him, and
+which I believe were originated in the City. They may be false or they
+may be true. As I know nothing of the matter, I prefer to regard them
+as false, and I recommend you to do the same. But I declared to you
+long before these reports were in men's mouths, that Mr Melmotte was
+not entitled by his character to represent you in parliament, and I
+repeat that assertion. A great British merchant, indeed! How long, do
+you think, should a man be known in this city before that title be
+accorded to him? Who knew aught of this man two years since,--unless,
+indeed, it be some one who had burnt his wings in trafficking with him
+in some continental city? Ask the character of this great British
+merchant in Hamburg and Vienna; ask it in Paris;--ask those whose
+business here has connected them with the assurance companies of
+foreign countries, and you will be told whether this is a fit man to
+represent Westminster in the British parliament!' There was much more
+yet; but such was the tone of the speech which Mr Alf made with the
+object of inducing the electors to vote for himself.
+
+At two or three o'clock in the day, nobody knew how the matter was
+going. It was supposed that the working-classes were in favour of
+Melmotte, partly from their love of a man who spends a great deal of
+money, partly from the belief that he was being ill-used,--partly, no
+doubt, from that occult sympathy which is felt for crime, when the
+crime committed is injurious to the upper classes. Masses of men will
+almost feel that a certain amount of injustice ought to be inflicted
+on their betters, so as to make things even, and will persuade
+themselves that a criminal should be declared to be innocent, because
+the crime committed has had a tendency to oppress the rich and pull
+down the mighty from their seats. Some few years since, the basest
+calumnies that were ever published in this country, uttered by one of
+the basest men that ever disgraced the country, levelled, for the most
+part, at men of whose characters and services the country was proud,
+were received with a certain amount of sympathy by men not themselves
+dishonest, because they who were thus slandered had received so many
+good things from Fortune, that a few evil things were thought to be
+due to them. There had not as yet been time for the formation of such
+a feeling generally, in respect of Mr Melmotte. But there was a
+commencement of it. It had been asserted that Melmotte was a public
+robber. Whom had he robbed? Not the poor. There was not a man in
+London who caused the payment of a larger sum in weekly wages than Mr
+Melmotte.
+
+About three o'clock, the editor of the 'Morning Breakfast-Table'
+called on Lady Carbury. 'What is it all about?' she asked, as soon as
+her friend was seated. There had been no time for him to explain
+anything at Madame Melmotte's reception, and Lady Carbury had as yet
+failed in learning any certain news of what was going on.
+
+'I don't know what to make of it,' said Mr Broune. 'There is a story
+abroad that Mr Melmotte has forged some document with reference to a
+purchase he made,--and hanging on to that story are other stories as
+to moneys that he has raised. I should say that it was simply an
+electioneering trick, and a very unfair trick, were it not that all
+his own side seem to believe it.'
+
+'Do you believe it?'
+
+'Ah,--I could answer almost any question sooner than that.'
+
+'Then he can't be rich at all.'
+
+'Even that would not follow. He has such large concerns in hand that
+he might be very much pressed for funds, and yet be possessed of
+immense wealth. Everybody says that he pays all his bills.'
+
+'Will he be returned?' she asked.
+
+'From what we hear, we think not; I shall know more about it in an
+hour or two. At present I should not like to have to publish an
+opinion; but were I forced to bet, I would bet against him. Nobody is
+doing anything for him. There can be no doubt that his own party are
+ashamed of him. As things used to be, this would have been fatal to
+him at the day of election; but now, with the ballot, it won't matter
+so much. If I were a candidate, at present, I think I would go to bed
+on the last day, and beg all my committee to do the same as soon as
+they had put in their voting papers.'
+
+'I am glad Felix did not go to Liverpool,' said Lady Carbury.
+
+'It would not have made much difference. She would have been brought
+back all the same. They say Lord Nidderdale still means to marry her.'
+
+'I saw him talking to her last night.'
+
+'There must be an immense amount of property somewhere. No one doubts
+that he was rich when he came to England two years ago, and they say
+everything has prospered that he has put his hand to since. The
+Mexican Railway shares had fallen this morning, but they were at £15
+premium yesterday morning. He must have made an enormous deal out of
+that.' But Mr Broune's eloquence on this occasion was chiefly
+displayed in regard to the presumption of Mr Alf. 'I shouldn't think
+him such a fool if he had announced his resignation of the editorship
+when he came before the world as a candidate for parliament. But a man
+must be mad who imagines that he can sit for Westminster and edit a
+London daily paper at the same time.'
+
+'Has it never been done?'
+
+'Never, I think;--that is, by the editor of such a paper as the
+"Pulpit." How is a man who sits in parliament himself ever to pretend
+to discuss the doings of parliament with impartiality? But Alf
+believes that he can do more than anybody else ever did, and he'll
+come to the ground. Where's Felix now?'
+
+'Do not ask me,' said the poor mother.
+
+'Is he doing anything?'
+
+'He lies in bed all day, and is out all night.'
+
+'But that wants money.' She only shook her head. 'You do not give him
+any?'
+
+'I have none to give.'
+
+'I should simply take the key of the house from him,--or bolt the door
+if he will not give it up.'
+
+'And be in bed, and listen while he knocks,--knowing that he must
+wander in the streets if I refuse to let him in? A mother cannot do
+that, Mr Broune. A child has such a hold upon his mother. When her
+reason has bade her to condemn him, her heart will not let her carry
+out the sentence.' Mr Broune never now thought of kissing Lady
+Carbury; but when she spoke thus, he got up and took her hand, and
+she, as she pressed his hand, had no fear that she would be kissed.
+The feeling between them was changed.
+
+Melmotte dined at home that evening with no company but that of his
+wife and daughter. Latterly one of the Grendalls had almost always
+joined their party when they did not dine out. Indeed, it was an
+understood thing, that Miles Grendall should dine there always, unless
+he explained his absence by some engagement,--so that his presence
+there had come to be considered as a part of his duty. Not infrequently
+'Alfred' and Miles would both come, as Melmotte's dinners and wines
+were good, and occasionally the father would take the son's place,--but
+on this day they were both absent. Madame Melmotte had not as yet said
+a word to any one indicating her own apprehension of any evil. But not
+a person had called to-day, the day after the great party,--and even
+she, though she was naturally callous in such matters, had begun to
+think that she was deserted. She had, too, become so used to the
+presence of the Grendalls, that she now missed their company. She
+thought that on this day, of all days, when the world was balloting
+for her husband at Westminster, they would both have been with him to
+discuss the work of the day. 'Is not Mr Grendall coming?' she asked,
+as she took her seat at the table.
+
+'No, he is not,' said Melmotte.
+
+'Nor Lord Alfred?'
+
+'Nor Lord Alfred.' Melmotte had returned home much comforted by the
+day's proceedings. No one had dared to say a harsh word to his face.
+Nothing further had reached his ears. After leaving the bank he had
+gone back to his office, and had written letters,--just as if nothing
+had happened; and, as far as he could judge, his clerks had plucked up
+courage. One of them, about five o'clock, came into him with news from
+the west, and with second editions of the evening papers. The clerk
+expressed his opinion that the election was going well. Mr Melmotte,
+judging from the papers, one of which was supposed to be on his side
+and the other of course against him, thought that his affairs
+altogether were looking well. The Westminster election had not the
+foremost place in his thoughts; but he took what was said on that
+subject as indicating the minds of men upon the other matter. He read
+Alf's speech, and consoled himself with thinking that Mr Alf had not
+dared to make new accusations against him. All that about Hamburg and
+Vienna and Paris was as old as the hills, and availed nothing. His
+whole candidature had been carried in the face of that. 'I think we
+shall do pretty well,' he said to the clerk. His very presence in
+Abchurch Lane of course gave confidence. And thus, when he came home,
+something of the old arrogance had come back upon him, and he could
+swagger at any rate before his wife and servants. 'Nor Lord Alfred,'
+he said with scorn. Then he added more. 'The father and son are two
+d---- curs.' This of course frightened Madame Melmotte, and she joined
+this desertion of the Grendalls to her own solitude all the day.
+
+'Is there anything wrong, Melmotte?' she said afterwards, creeping up
+to him in the back parlour, and speaking in French.
+
+'What do you call wrong?'
+
+'I don't know;--but I seem to be afraid of something.'
+
+'I should have thought you were used to that kind of feeling by this
+time.'
+
+'Then there is something.'
+
+'Don't be a fool. There is always something. There is always much. You
+don't suppose that this kind of thing can be carried on as smoothly as
+the life of an old maid with £400 a year paid quarterly in advance.'
+
+'Shall we have to move again?' she asked.
+
+'How am I to tell? You haven't much to do when we move, and may get
+plenty to eat and drink wherever you go. Does that girl mean to marry
+Lord Nidderdale?' Madame Melmotte shook her head. 'What a poor
+creature you must be when you can't talk her out of a fancy for such a
+reprobate as young Carbury. If she throws me over, I'll throw her
+over. I'll flog her within an inch of her life if she disobeys me. You
+tell her that I say so.'
+
+'Then he may flog me,' said Marie, when so much of the conversation
+was repeated to her that evening. 'Papa does not know me if he thinks
+that I'm to be made to marry a man by flogging.' No such attempt was
+at any rate made that night, for the father and husband did not again
+see his wife or daughter.
+
+Early the next day a report was current that Mr Alf had been returned.
+The numbers had not as yet been counted, or the books made up;--but
+that was the opinion expressed. All the morning newspapers, including
+the 'Breakfast-Table,' repeated this report,--but each gave it as the
+general opinion on the matter. The truth would not be known till seven
+or eight o'clock in the evening. The Conservative papers did not
+scruple to say that the presumed election of Mr Alf was owing to a
+sudden declension in the confidence originally felt in Mr Melmotte.
+The 'Breakfast-Table,' which had supported Mr Melmotte's candidature,
+gave no reason, and expressed more doubt on the result than the other
+papers. 'We know not how such an opinion forms itself,' the writer
+said,--'but it seems to have been formed. As nothing as yet is really
+known, or can be known, we express no opinion of our own upon the
+matter.'
+
+Mr Melmotte again went into the City, and found that things seemed to
+have returned very much into their usual grooves. The Mexican Railway
+shares were low, and Mr Cohenlupe was depressed in spirits and
+unhappy;--but nothing dreadful had occurred or seemed to be threatened.
+If nothing dreadful did occur, the railway shares would probably
+recover, or nearly recover, their position. In the course of the day,
+Melmotte received a letter from Messrs Slow and Bideawhile, which, of
+itself, certainly contained no comfort;--but there was comfort to be
+drawn even from that letter, by reason of what it did not contain. The
+letter was unfriendly in its tone and peremptory. It had come evidently
+from a hostile party. It had none of the feeling which had hitherto
+prevailed in the intercourse between these two well-known Conservative
+gentlemen, Mr Adolphus Longestaffe and Mr Augustus Melmotte. But there
+was no allusion in it to forgery; no question of criminal proceedings;
+no hint at aught beyond the not unnatural desire of Mr Longestaffe and
+Mr Longestaffe's son to be paid for the property at Pickering which Mr
+Melmotte had purchased.
+
+'We have to remind you,' said the letter, in continuation of
+paragraphs which had contained simply demands for the money, 'that the
+title-deeds were delivered to you on receipt by us of authority to
+that effect from the Messrs Longestaffe, father and son, on the
+understanding that the purchase-money was to be paid to us by you. We
+are informed that the property has been since mortgaged by you. We do
+not state this as a fact. But the information, whether true or untrue,
+forces upon us the necessity of demanding that you should at once pay
+to us the purchase-money,--£80,000,--or else return to us the
+title-deeds of the estate.'
+
+This letter, which was signed Slow and Bideawhile, declared positively
+that the title-deeds had been given up on authority received by them
+from both the Longestaffes,--father and son. Now the accusation brought
+against Melmotte, as far as he could as yet understand it, was that he
+had forged the signature to the young Mr Longestaffe's letter. Messrs
+Slow and Bideawhile were therefore on his side. As to the simple debt,
+he cared little comparatively about that. Many fine men were walking
+about London who owed large sums of money which they could not pay.
+
+As he was sitting at his solitary dinner this evening,--for both his
+wife and daughter had declined to join him, saying that they had dined
+early,--news was brought to him that he had been elected for
+Westminster. He had beaten Mr Alf by something not much less than a
+thousand votes.
+
+It was very much to be member for Westminster. So much had at any rate
+been achieved by him who had begun the world without a shilling and
+without a friend,--almost without education! Much as he loved money,
+and much as he loved the spending of money, and much as he had made and
+much as he had spent, no triumph of his life had been so great to him
+as this. Brought into the world in a gutter, without father or mother,
+with no good thing ever done for him, he was now a member of the
+British Parliament, and member for one of the first cities in the
+empire. Ignorant as he was he understood the magnitude of the
+achievement, and dismayed as he was as to his present position, still
+at this moment he enjoyed keenly a certain amount of elation. Of
+course he had committed forgery,--of course he had committed robbery.
+That, indeed, was nothing, for he had been cheating and forging and
+stealing all his life. Of course he was in danger of almost immediate
+detection and punishment. He hardly hoped that the evil day would be
+very much longer protracted, and yet he enjoyed his triumph. Whatever
+they might do, quick as they might be, they could hardly prevent his
+taking his seat in the House of Commons. Then if they sent him to
+penal servitude for life, they would have to say that they had so
+treated the member for Westminster!
+
+He drank a bottle of claret, and then got some brandy-and-water. In
+such troubles as were coming upon him now, he would hardly get
+sufficient support from wine. He knew that he had better not drink;--
+that is, he had better not drink, supposing the world to be free to
+him for his own work and his own enjoyment. But if the world were no
+longer free to him, if he were really coming to penal servitude and
+annihilation,--then why should he not drink while the time lasted? An
+hour of triumphant joy might be an eternity to a man, if the man's
+imagination were strong enough so make him so regard his hour. He
+therefore took his brandy-and-water freely, and as he took it he was
+able to throw his fears behind him, and to assure himself that, after
+all, he might even yet escape from his bondages. No;--he would drink
+no more. This he said to himself as he filled another beaker. He would
+work instead. He would put his shoulder to the wheel, and would yet
+conquer his enemies. It would not be so easy to convict a member for
+Westminster,--especially if money were spent freely. Was he not the man
+who, at his own cost, had entertained the Emperor of China? Would not
+that be remembered in his favour? Would not men be unwilling to punish
+the man who had received at his own table all the Princes of the land,
+and the Prime Minister, and all the Ministers? To convict him would be
+a national disgrace. He fully realized all this as he lifted the glass
+to his mouth, and puffed out the smoke in large volumes through his
+lips. But money must be spent! Yes;--money must be had! Cohenlupe
+certainly had money. Though he squeezed it out of the coward's veins
+he would have it. At any rate, he would not despair. There was a fight
+to be fought yet, and he would fight it to the end. Then he took a
+deep drink, and slowly, with careful and almost solemn steps, be made
+his way up to his bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXV - MISS LONGESTAFFE WRITES HOME
+
+
+Lady Monogram, when she left Madame Melmotte's house after that
+entertainment of Imperial Majesty which had been to her of so very
+little avail, was not in a good humour. Sir Damask, who had himself
+affected to laugh at the whole thing, but who had been in truth as
+anxious as his wife to see the Emperor in private society, put her
+ladyship and Miss Longestaffe into the carriage without a word, and
+rushed off to his club in disgust. The affair from beginning to end,
+including the final failure, had been his wife's doing. He had been
+made to work like a slave, and had been taken against his will to
+Melmotte's house, and had seen no Emperor and shaken hands with no
+Prince! 'They may fight it out between them now like the Kilkenny
+cats.' That was his idea as he closed the carriage-door on the two
+ladies,--thinking that if a larger remnant were left of one cat than
+of the other that larger remnant would belong to his wife.
+
+'What a horrid affair!' said Lady Monogram. 'Did anybody ever see
+anything so vulgar?' This was at any rate unreasonable, for whatever
+vulgarity there may have been, Lady Monogram had seen none of it.
+
+'I don't know why you were so late,' said Georgiana.
+
+'Late! Why it's not yet twelve. I don't suppose it was eleven when we
+got into the Square. Anywhere else it would have been early.'
+
+'You knew they did not mean to stay long. It was particularly said so.
+I really think it was your own fault.'
+
+'My own fault. Yes;--I don't doubt that. I know it was my own fault,
+my dear, to have had anything to do with it. And now I have got to
+pay for it.'
+
+'What do you mean by paying for it, Julia?'
+
+'You know what I mean very well. Is your friend going to do us the
+honour of coming to us to-morrow night?' She could not have declared in
+plainer language how very high she thought the price to be which she
+had consented to give for those ineffective tickets.
+
+'If you mean Mr Brehgert, he is coming. You desired me to ask him, and
+I did so.'
+
+'Desired you! The truth is, Georgiana, when people get into different
+sets, they'd better stay where they are. It's no good trying to mix
+things.' Lady Monogram was so angry that she could not control her
+tongue.
+
+Miss Longestaffe was ready to tear herself with indignation. That she
+should have been brought to hear insolence such as this from Julia
+Triplex,--she, the daughter of Adolphus Longestaffe of Caversham and
+Lady Pomona; she, who was considered to have lived in quite the first
+London circle! But she could hardly get hold of fit words for a reply.
+She was almost in tears, and was yet anxious to fight rather than
+weep. But she was in her friend's carriage, and was being taken to her
+friend's house, was to be entertained by her friend all the next day,
+and was to see her lover among her friend's guests. 'I wonder what has
+made you so ill-natured,' she said at last. 'You didn't use to be like
+that.'
+
+'It's no good abusing me,' said Lady Monogram. 'Here we are, and I
+suppose we had better get out,--unless you want the carriage to take
+you anywhere else.' Then Lady Monogram got out and marched into the
+house, and taking a candle went direct to her own room. Miss Longestaffe
+followed slowly to her own chamber, and having half undressed herself,
+dismissed her maid and prepared to write to her mother.
+
+The letter to her mother must be written. Mr Brehgert had twice
+proposed that he should, in the usual way, go to Mr Longestaffe, who
+had been backwards and forwards in London, and was there at the
+present moment. Of course it was proper that Mr Brehgert should see
+her father,--but, as she had told him, she preferred that he should
+postpone his visit for a day or two. She was now agonized by many
+doubts. Those few words about 'various sets' and the 'mixing of
+things' had stabbed her to the very heart,--as had been intended. Mr
+Brehgert was rich. That was a certainty. But she already repented of
+what she had done. If it were necessary that she should really go down
+into another and a much lower world, a world composed altogether of
+Brehgerts, Melmottes, and Cohenlupes, would it avail her much to be
+the mistress of a gorgeous house? She had known, and understood, and
+had revelled in the exclusiveness of county position. Caversham had
+been dull, and there had always been there a dearth of young men of
+the proper sort; but it had been a place to talk of, and to feel
+satisfied with as a home to be acknowledged before the world. Her
+mother was dull, and her father pompous and often cross; but they were
+in the right set,--miles removed from the Brehgerts and Melmottes,--
+until her father himself had suggested to her that she should go to the
+house in Grosvenor Square. She would write one letter to-night; but
+there was a question in her mind whether the letter should be written
+to her mother telling her the horrid truth,--or to Mr Brehgert begging
+that the match should be broken off. I think she would have decided on
+the latter had it not been that so many people had already heard of
+the match. The Monograms knew it, and had of course talked far and
+wide. The Melmottes knew it, and she was aware that Lord Nidderdale
+had heard it. It was already so far known that it was sure to be
+public before the end of the season. Each morning lately she had
+feared that a letter from home would call upon her to explain the
+meaning of some frightful rumours reaching Caversham, or that her
+father would come to her and with horror on his face demand to know
+whether it was indeed true that she had given her sanction to so
+abominable a report.
+
+And there were other troubles. She had just spoken to Madame Melmotte
+this evening, having met her late hostess as she entered the
+drawing-room, and had felt from the manner of her reception that she
+was not wanted back again. She had told her father that she was going
+to transfer herself to the Monograms for a time, not mentioning the
+proposed duration of her visit, and Mr Longestaffe, in his ambiguous
+way, had expressed himself glad that she was leaving the Melmottes.
+She did not think that she could go back to Grosvenor Square, although
+Mr Brehgert desired it. Since the expression of Mr Brehgert's wishes
+she had perceived that ill-will had grown up between her father and Mr
+Melmotte. She must return to Caversham. They could not refuse to take
+her in, though she had betrothed herself to a Jew!
+
+If she decided that the story should be told to her mother it would be
+easier to tell it by letter than by spoken words, face to face. But
+then if she wrote the letter there would be no retreat;--and how should
+she face her family after such a declaration? She had always given
+herself credit for courage, and now she wondered at her own cowardice.
+Even Lady Monogram, her old friend Julia Triplex, had trampled upon
+her. Was it not the business of her life, in these days, to do the
+best she could for herself, and would she allow paltry considerations
+as to the feelings of others to stand in her way and become bugbears
+to affright her? Who sent her to Melmotte's house? Was it not her own
+father? Then she sat herself square at the table, and wrote to her
+mother,--as follows,--dating her letter for the following morning:--
+
+
+   Hill Street, 9th July, 187-.
+
+   MY DEAR MAMMA,
+
+   I am afraid you will be very much astonished by this letter, and
+   perhaps disappointed. I have engaged myself to Mr Brehgert, a
+   member of a very wealthy firm in the City, called Todd,
+   Brehgert, and Goldsheiner. I may as well tell you the worst at
+   once. Mr Brehgert is a Jew. [This last word she wrote very
+   rapidly, but largely, determined that there should be no lack of
+   courage apparent in the letter.] He is a very wealthy man, and
+   his business is about banking and what he calls finance. I
+   understand they are among the most leading people in the City.
+   He lives at present at a very handsome house at Fulham. I don't
+   know that I ever saw a place more beautifully fitted up. I have
+   said nothing to papa, nor has he; but he says he will be willing
+   to satisfy papa perfectly as to settlements. He has offered to
+   have a house in London if I like,--and also to keep the villa at
+   Fulham or else to have a place somewhere in the country. Or I
+   may have the villa at Fulham and a house in the country. No man
+   can be more generous than he is. He has been married before, and
+   has a family, and now I think I have told you all.
+
+   I suppose you and papa will be very much dissatisfied. I hope
+   papa won't refuse his consent. It can do no good. I am not going
+   to remain as I am now all my life, and there is no use waiting
+   any longer. It was papa who made me go to the Melmottes, who are
+   not nearly so well placed as Mr Brehgert. Everybody knows that
+   Madame Melmotte is a Jewess, and nobody knows what Mr Melmotte
+   is. It is no good going on with the old thing when everything
+   seems to be upset and at sixes and sevens. If papa has got to be
+   so poor that he is obliged to let the house in town, one must of
+   course expect to be different from what we were.
+
+   I hope you won't mind having me back the day after to-morrow,--
+   that is to-morrow, Wednesday. There is a party here to-night,
+   and Mr Brehgert is coming. But I can't stay longer with Julia,
+   who doesn't make herself nice, and I do not at all want to go
+   back to the Melmottes. I fancy that there is something wrong
+   between papa and Mr Melmotte.
+
+   Send the carriage to meet me by the 2.30 train from London,--and
+   pray, mamma, don't scold when you see me, or have hysterics, or
+   anything of that sort. Of course it isn't all nice, but things
+   have got so that they never will be nice again. I shall tell Mr
+   Brehgert to go to papa on Wednesday.
+
+   Your affectionate daughter,
+
+   G.
+
+
+When the morning came she desired the servant to take the letter away
+and have it posted, so that the temptation to stop it might no longer
+be in her way.
+
+About one o'clock on that day Mr Longestaffe called at Lady
+Monogram's. The two ladies had breakfasted upstairs, and had only just
+met in the drawing-room when he came in. Georgiana trembled at first,
+but soon perceived that her father had as yet heard nothing of Mr
+Brehgert. She immediately told him that she proposed returning home on
+the following day. 'I am sick of the Melmottes,' she said.
+
+'And so am I,' said Mr Longestaffe, with a serious countenance.
+
+'We should have been delighted to have had Georgiana to stay with us a
+little longer,' said Lady Monogram; 'but we have but the one spare
+bedroom, and another friend is coming.' Georgiana, who knew both these
+statements to be false, declared that she wouldn't think of such a
+thing. 'We have a few friends corning to-night, Mr Longestaffe, and I
+hope you'll come in and see Georgiana.' Mr Longestaffe hummed and
+hawed and muttered something, as old gentlemen always do when they are
+asked to go out to parties after dinner. 'Mr Brehgert will be here,'
+continued Lady Monogram with a peculiar smile.
+
+'Mr who?' The name was not at first familiar to Mr Longestaffe.
+
+'Mr Brehgert.' Lady Monogram looked at her friend. 'I hope I'm not
+revealing any secret.'
+
+'I don't understand anything about it,' said Mr Longestaffe.
+'Georgiana, who is Mr Brehgert?' He had understood very much. He had
+been quite certain from Lady Monogram's manner and words, and also
+from his daughter's face, that Mr Brehgert was mentioned as an
+accepted lover. Lady Monogram had meant that it should be so, and any
+father would have understood her tone. As she said afterwards to Sir
+Damask, she was not going to have that Jew there at her house as
+Georgiana Longestaffe's accepted lover without Mr Longestaffe's
+knowledge.
+
+'My dear Georgiana,' she said, 'I supposed your father knew all about
+it.'
+
+'I know nothing. Georgiana, I hate a mystery. I insist upon knowing.
+Who is Mr Brehgert, Lady Monogram?'
+
+'Mr Brehgert is a--very wealthy gentleman. That is all I know of him.
+Perhaps, Georgiana, you will be glad to be alone with your father.'
+And Lady Monogram left the room.
+
+Was there ever cruelty equal to this! But now the poor girl was forced
+to speak,--though she could not speak as boldly as she had written.
+'Papa, I wrote to mamma this morning, and Mr Brehgert was to come to
+you to-morrow.'
+
+'Do you mean that you are engaged to marry him?'
+
+'Yes, papa.'
+
+'What Mr Brehgert is he?'
+
+'He is a merchant.'
+
+'You can't mean the fat Jew whom I've met with Mr Melmotte;--a man old
+enough to be your father!' The poor girl's condition now was certainly
+lamentable. The fat Jew, old enough to be her father, was the very man
+she did mean. She thought that she would try to brazen it out with her
+father. But at the present moment she had been so cowed by the manner
+in which the subject had been introduced that she did not know how to
+begin to be bold. She only looked at him as though imploring him to
+spare her. 'Is the man a Jew?' demanded Mr Longestaffe, with as much
+thunder as he knew how to throw into his voice.
+
+'Yes, papa,' she said.
+
+'He is that fat man?'
+
+'Yes, papa.'
+
+'And nearly as old as I am?'
+
+'No, papa,--not nearly as old as you are. He is fifty.'
+
+'And a Jew?' He again asked the horrid question, and again threw in
+the thunder. On this occasion she condescended to make no further
+reply. 'If you do, you shall do it as an alien from my house. I
+certainly will never see him. Tell him not to come to me, for I
+certainly will not speak to him. You are degraded and disgraced; but
+you shall not degrade and disgrace me and your mother and sister.'
+
+'It was you, papa, who told me to go to the Melmottes.'
+
+'That is not true. I wanted you to stay at Caversham. A Jew! an old
+fat Jew! Heavens and earth! that it should be possible that you should
+think of it! You;--my daughter,--that used to take such pride in
+yourself! Have you written to your mother?'
+
+'I have.'
+
+'It will kill her. It will simply kill her. And you are going home
+to-morrow?'
+
+'I wrote to say so.'
+
+'And there you must remain. I suppose I had better see the man and
+explain to him that it is utterly impossible. Heavens on earth;--a
+Jew! An old fat Jew! My daughter! I will take you down home myself
+to-morrow. What have I done that I should be punished by my children in
+this way?' The poor man had had rather a stormy interview with Dolly
+that morning. 'You had better leave this house to-day, and come to my
+hotel in Jermyn Street.'
+
+'Oh, papa, I can't do that.'
+
+'Why can't you do it? You can do it, and you shall do it. I will not
+have you see him again. I will see him. If you do not promise me to
+come, I will send for Lady Monogram and tell her that I will not
+permit you to meet Mr Brehgert at her house. I do wonder at her. A
+Jew! An old fat Jew!' Mr Longestaffe, putting up both his hands,
+walked about the room in despair.
+
+She did consent, knowing that her father and Lady Monogram between
+them would be too strong for her. She had her things packed up, and in
+the course of the afternoon allowed herself to be carried away. She
+said one word to Lady Monogram before she went. 'Tell him that I was
+called away suddenly.'
+
+'I will, my dear. I thought your papa would not like it.' The poor
+girl had not spirit sufficient to upbraid her friend; nor did it suit
+her now to acerbate an enemy. For the moment, at least, she must yield
+to everybody and everything. She spent a lonely evening with her
+father in a dull sitting-room in the hotel, hardly speaking or spoken
+to, and the following day she was taken down to Caversham. She
+believed that her father had seen Mr Brehgert in the morning of that
+day;--but he said no word to her, nor did she ask him any question.
+
+That was on the day after Lady Monogram's party. Early in the evening,
+just as the gentlemen were coming up from the dining-room, Mr
+Brehgert, apparelled with much elegance, made his appearance. Lady
+Monogram received him with a sweet smile. 'Miss Longestaffe,' she
+said, 'has left me and gone to her father.'
+
+'Oh, indeed.'
+
+'Yes,' said Lady Monogram, bowing her head, and then attending to
+other persons as they arrived. Nor did she condescend to speak another
+word to Mr Brehgert, or to introduce him even to her husband. He stood
+for about ten minutes inside the drawing-room, leaning against the
+wall, and then he departed. No one had spoken a word to him. But he
+was an even-tempered, good-humoured man. When Miss Longestaffe was his
+wife things would no doubt be different;--or else she would probably
+change her acquaintance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXVI - 'SO SHALL BE MY ENMITY'
+
+
+'You shall be troubled no more with Winifred Hurtle.' So Mrs Hurtle had
+said, speaking in perfect good faith to the man whom she had come to
+England with the view of marrying. And then when he had said good-bye
+to her, putting out his hand to take hers for the last time, she
+declined that. 'Nay,' she had said; 'this parting will bear no
+farewell.'
+
+Having left her after that fashion Paul Montague could not return home
+with very high spirits. Had she insisted on his taking that letter
+with the threat of the horsewhip as the letter which she intended to
+write to him,--that letter which she had shown him, owning it to be
+the ebullition of her uncontrolled passion, and had then destroyed,--
+he might at any rate have consoled himself with thinking that, however
+badly he might have behaved, her conduct had been worse than his. He
+could have made himself warm and comfortable with anger, and could
+have assured himself that under any circumstances he must be right to
+escape from the clutches of a wildcat such as that. But at the last
+moment she had shown that she was no wild cat to him. She had melted,
+and become soft and womanly. In her softness she had been exquisitely
+beautiful; and as he returned home he was sad and dissatisfied with
+himself. He had destroyed her life for her,--or, at least, had created
+a miserable episode in it which could hardly be obliterated. She had
+said that she was all alone, and had given up everything to follow
+him,--and he had believed her. Was he to do nothing for her now? She
+had allowed him to go, and after her fashion had pardoned him the wrong
+he had done her. But was that to be sufficient for him,--so that he
+might now feel inwardly satisfied at leaving her, and make no further
+inquiry as to her fate? Could he pass on and let her be as the wine
+that has been drunk,--as the hour that has been enjoyed as the day
+that is past?
+
+But what could he do? He had made good his own escape. He had resolved
+that, let her be woman or wild cat, he would not marry her, and in
+that he knew he had been right. Her antecedents, as now declared by
+herself, unfitted her for such a marriage. Were he to return to her he
+would be again thrusting his hand into the fire. But his own selfish
+coldness was hateful to him when he thought that there was nothing to
+be done but to leave her desolate and lonely in Mrs Pipkin's lodgings.
+
+During the next three or four days, while the preparations for the
+dinner and the election were going on, he was busy in respect to the
+American railway. He again went down to Liverpool, and at Mr
+Ramsbottom's advice prepared a letter to the board of directors, in
+which he resigned his seat, and gave his reasons for resigning it;
+adding that he should reserve to himself the liberty of publishing his
+letter, should at any time the circumstances of the railway company
+seem to him to make such a course desirable. He also wrote a letter to
+Mr Fisker, begging that gentleman to come to England, and expressing
+his own wish to retire altogether from the firm of Fisker, Montague,
+and Montague upon receiving the balance of money due to him,--a payment
+which must, he said, be a matter of small moment to his two partners,
+if, as he had been informed, they had enriched themselves by the
+success of the railway company in San Francisco. When he wrote these
+letters at Liverpool the great rumour about Melmotte had not yet
+sprung up. He returned to London on the day of the festival, and first
+heard of the report at the Beargarden. There he found that the old set
+had for the moment broken itself up. Sir Felix Carbury had not been
+heard of for the last four or five days,--and then the whole story of
+Miss Melmotte's journey, of which he had read something in the
+newspapers, was told to him. 'We think that Carbury has drowned
+himself' said Lord Grasslough, 'and I haven't heard of anybody being
+heartbroken about it.' Lord Nidderdale had hardly been seen at the
+club. 'He's taken up the running with the girl,' said Lord Grasslough.
+'What he'll do now, nobody knows. If I was at it, I'd have the money
+down in hard cash before I went into the church. He was there at the
+party yesterday, talking to the girl all the night;--a sort of thing
+he never did before. Nidderdale is the best fellow going, but he was
+always an ass.' Nor had Miles Grendall been seen in the club for three
+days. 'We've got into a way of play the poor fellow doesn't like,'
+said Lord Grasslough; 'and then Melmotte won't let him out of his
+sight. He has taken to dine there every day.' This was said during the
+election,--on the very day on which Miles deserted his patron; and on
+that evening he did dine at the club. Paul Montague also dined there,
+and would fain have heard something from Grendall as to Melmotte's
+condition; but the secretary, if not faithful in all things, was
+faithful at any rate in his silence. Though Grasslough talked openly
+enough about Melmotte in the smoking-room Miles Grendall said never a
+word.
+
+On the next day, early in the afternoon, almost without a fixed
+purpose, Montague strolled up to Welbeck Street, and found Hetta
+alone. 'Mamma has gone to her publisher's,' she said. 'She is writing
+so much now that she is always going there. Who has been elected, Mr
+Montague?' Paul knew nothing about the election, and cared very
+little. At that time, however, the election had not been decided. 'I
+suppose it will make no difference to you whether your chairman be in
+Parliament or not?' Paul said that Melmotte was no longer a chairman
+of his. 'Are you out of it altogether, Mr Montague?' Yes;--as far as
+it lay within his power to be out of it, he was out of it. He did not
+like Mr Melmotte, nor believe in him. Then with considerable warmth he
+repudiated all connection with the Melmotte party, expressing deep
+regret that circumstances had driven him for a time into that
+alliance. 'Then you think that Mr Melmotte is--?'
+
+'Just a scoundrel;--that's all.'
+
+'You heard about Felix?'
+
+'Of course I heard that he was to marry the girl, and that he tried to
+run off with her. I don't know much about it. They say that Lord
+Nidderdale is to marry her now.'
+
+'I think not, Mr Montague.'
+
+'I hope not, for his sake. At any rate, your brother is well out of
+it.'
+
+'Do you know that she loves Felix? There is no pretence about that. I
+do think she is good. The other night at the party she spoke to me.'
+
+'You went to the party, then?'
+
+'Yes;--I could not refuse to go when mamma chose to take me. And when
+I was there she spoke to me about Felix. I don't think she will marry
+Lord Nidderdale. Poor girl;--I do pity her. Think what a downfall it
+will be if anything happens.'
+
+But Paul Montague had certainly not come there with the intention of
+discussing Melmotte's affairs, nor could he afford to lose the
+opportunity which chance had given him. He was off with one love, and
+now he thought that he might be on with the other. 'Hetta,' he said,
+'I am thinking more of myself than of her,--or even of Felix.'
+
+'I suppose we all do think more of ourselves than of other people,'
+said Hetta, who knew from his voice at once what it was in his mind to
+do.
+
+'Yes;--but I am not thinking of myself only. I am thinking of myself,
+and you. In all my thoughts of myself I am thinking of you too.'
+
+'I do not know why you should do that.'
+
+'Hetta, you must know that I love you.'
+
+'Do you?' she said. Of course she knew it. And of course she thought
+that he was equally sure of her love. Had he chosen to read signs that
+ought to have been plain enough to him, could he have doubted her love
+after the few words that had been spoken on that night when Lady
+Carbury had come in with Roger and interrupted them? She could not
+remember exactly what had been said; but she did remember that he had
+spoken of leaving England for ever in a certain event, and that she
+had not rebuked him;--and she remembered also how she had confessed her
+own love to her mother. He, of course, had known nothing of that
+confession; but he must have known that he had her heart!
+
+So at least she thought. She had been working some morsel of lace, as
+ladies do when ladies wish to be not quite doing nothing. She had
+endeavoured to ply her needle, very idly, while he was speaking to
+her, but now she allowed her hands to fall into her lap. She would
+have continued to work at the lace had she been able, but there are
+times when the eyes will not see clearly, and when the hands will
+hardly act mechanically.
+
+'Yes,--I do. Hetta, say a word to me. Can it be so? Look at me for one
+moment so as to let me know.' Her eyes had turned downwards after her
+work. 'If Roger is dearer to you than I am, I will go at once.'
+
+'Roger is very dear to me.'
+
+'Do you love him as I would have you love me?'
+
+She paused for a time, knowing that his eyes were fixed upon her, and
+then she answered the question in a low voice, but very clearly. 'No,'
+she said,--'not like that.'
+
+'Can you love me like that?' He put out both his arms as though to
+take her to his breast should the answer be such as he longed to hear.
+She raised her hand towards him, as if to keep him back, and left it
+with him when he seized it. 'Is it mine?' he said.
+
+'If you want it.'
+
+Then he was at her feet in a moment, kissing her hand, and her dress,
+looking up into her face with his eyes full of tears, ecstatic with
+joy as though he had really never ventured to hope for such success.
+'Want it!' he said. 'Hetta, I have never wanted anything but that with
+real desire. Oh, Hetta, my own. Since I first saw you this has been my
+only dream of happiness. And now it is my own.'
+
+She was very quiet, but full of joy. Now that she had told him the
+truth she did not coy her love. Having once spoken the word she did
+not care how often she repeated it. She did not think that she could
+ever have loved anybody but him even,--if he had not been fond of her.
+As to Roger,--dear Roger, dearest Roger,--no; it was not the same
+thing. 'He is as good as gold,' she said,--'ever so much better than
+you are, Paul,' stroking his hair with her hand and looking into his
+eyes.
+
+'Better than anybody I have ever known,' said Montague with all his
+energy.
+
+'I think he is;--but, ah, that is not everything. I suppose we ought
+to love the best people best; but I don't, Paul.'
+
+'I do,' said he.
+
+'No,--you don't. You must love me best, but I won't be called good. I
+do not know why it has been so. Do you know, Paul, I have sometimes
+thought I would do as he would have me, out of sheer gratitude. I did
+not know how to refuse such a trifling thing to one who ought to have
+everything that he wants.'
+
+'Where should I have been?'
+
+'Oh, you! Somebody else would have made you happy. But do you know,
+Paul, I think he will never love any one else. I ought not to say so,
+because it seems to be making so much of myself. But I feel it. He is
+not so young a man, and yet I think that he never was in love before.
+He almost told me so once, and what he says is true. There is an
+unchanging way with him that is awful to think of. He said that he
+never could be happy unless I would do as he would have me,--and he made
+me almost believe even that. He speaks as though every word he says
+must come true in the end. Oh, Paul, I love you so dearly,--but I almost
+think that I ought to have obeyed him.' Paul Montague of course had
+very much to say in answer to this. Among the holy things which did
+exist to gild this every-day unholy world, love was the holiest. It
+should be soiled by no falsehood, should know nothing of compromises,
+should admit no excuses, should make itself subject to no external
+circumstances. If Fortune had been so kind to him as to give him her
+heart, poor as his claim might be, she could have no right to refuse
+him the assurance of her love. And though his rival were an angel, he
+could have no shadow of a claim upon her,--seeing that he had failed to
+win her heart. It was very well said,--at least so Hetta thought,--and
+she made no attempt at argument against him. But what was to be done in
+reference to poor Roger? She had spoken the word now, and, whether for
+good or bad, she had given herself to Paul Montague. Even though Roger
+should have to walk disconsolate to the grave, it could not now be
+helped. But would it not be right that it should be told? 'Do you know
+I almost feel that he is like a father to me,' said Hetta, leaning on
+her lover's shoulder.
+
+Paul thought it over for a few minutes, and then said that he would
+himself write to Roger. 'Hetta, do you know, I doubt whether he will
+ever speak to me again.'
+
+'I cannot believe that.'
+
+'There is a sternness about him which it is very hard to understand.
+He has taught himself to think that as I met you in his house, and as
+he then wished you to be his wife, I should not have ventured to love
+you. How could I have known?'
+
+'That would be unreasonable.'
+
+'He is unreasonable--about that. It is not reason with him. He always
+goes by his feelings. Had you been engaged to him--'
+
+'Oh, then, you never could have spoken to me like this.'
+
+'But he will never look at it in that way;--and he will tell me that
+I have been untrue to him and ungrateful.'
+
+'If you think, Paul--'
+
+'Nay; listen to me. If it be so I must bear it. It will be a great
+sorrow, but it will be as nothing to that other sorrow, had that come
+upon me. I will write to him, and his answer will be all scorn and
+wrath. Then you must write to him afterwards. I think he will forgive
+you, but he will never forgive me.' Then they parted, she having
+promised that she would tell her mother directly Lady Carbury came
+home, and Paul undertaking to write to Roger that evening.
+
+And he did, with infinite difficulty, and much trembling of the
+spirit. Here is his letter:--
+
+
+   MY DEAR ROGER,--
+
+   I think it right to tell you at once what has occurred to-day. I
+   have proposed to Miss Carbury and she has accepted me. You have
+   long known what my feelings were, and I have also known yours. I
+   have known, too, that Miss Carbury has more than once declined
+   to take your offer. Under these circumstances I cannot think
+   that I have been untrue to friendship in what I have done, or
+   that I have proved myself ungrateful for the affectionate
+   kindness which you have always shown me. I am authorised by
+   Hetta to say that, had I never spoken to her, it must have been
+   the same to you. [This was hardly a fair representation of what
+   had been said, but the writer, looking back upon his interview
+   with the lady, thought that it had been implied.]
+
+   I should not say so much by way of excusing myself, but that you
+   once said, that should such a thing occur there must be a
+   division between us ever after. If I thought that you would
+   adhere to that threat, I should be very unhappy and Hetta would
+   be miserable. Surely, if a man loves he is bound to tell his
+   love, and to take the chance. You would hardly have thought it
+   manly in me if I had abstained. Dear friend, take a day or two
+   before you answer this, and do not banish us from your heart if
+   you can help it.
+
+   Your affectionate friend,
+
+   PAUL MONTAGUE.
+
+
+Roger Carbury did not take a single day,--or a single hour to answer
+the letter. He received it at breakfast, and after rushing out on the
+terrace and walking there for a few minutes, he hurried to his desk
+and wrote his reply. As he did so, his whole face was red with wrath,
+and his eyes were glowing with indignation.
+
+
+   There is an old French saying that he who makes excuses is his
+   own accuser. You would not have written as you have done, had
+   you not felt yourself to be false and ungrateful. You knew where
+   my heart was, and there you went and undermined my treasure, and
+   stole it away. You have destroyed my life, and I will never
+   forgive you.
+
+   You tell me not to banish you both from my heart. How dare you
+   join yourself with her in speaking of my feelings! She will
+   never be banished from my heart. She will be there morning,
+   noon, and night, and as is and will be my love to her, so shall
+   be my enmity to you.
+
+   ROGER CARBURY.
+
+
+It was hardly a letter for a Christian to write; and, yet, in those
+parts Roger Carbury had the reputation of being a good Christian.
+
+Henrietta told her mother that morning, immediately on her return.
+'Mamma, Mr Paul Montague has been here.'
+
+'He always comes here when I am away,' said Lady Carbury.
+
+'That has been an accident. He could not have known that you were
+going to Messrs. Leadham and Loiter's.'
+
+'I'm not so sure of that, Hetta.'
+
+'Then, mamma, you must have told him yourself, and I don't think you
+knew till just before you were going. But, mamma, what does it matter?
+He has been here, and I have told him--'
+
+'You have not accepted him?'
+
+'Yes, mamma.'
+
+'Without even asking me?'
+
+'Mamma, you knew. I will not marry him without asking you. How was I
+not to tell him when he asked me whether I--loved him--'
+
+'Marry him! How is it possible you should marry him? Whatever he had
+got was in that affair of Melmotte's, and that has gone to the dogs.
+He is a ruined man, and for aught I know may be compromised in all
+Melmotte's wickedness.'
+
+'Oh, mamma, do not say that!'
+
+'But I do say it. It is hard upon me. I did think that you would try
+to comfort me after all this trouble with Felix. But you are as bad as
+he is;--or worse, for you have not been thrown into temptation like
+that poor boy! And you will break your cousin's heart. Poor Roger! I
+feel for him;--he that has been so true to us! But you think nothing
+of that.'
+
+'I think very much of my cousin Roger.'
+
+'And how do you show it;--or your love for me? There would have been a
+home for us all. Now we must starve, I suppose. Hetta, you have been
+worse to me even than Felix.' Then Lady Carbury, in her passion, burst
+out of the room, and took herself to her own chamber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXVII - SIR FELIX PROTECTS HIS SISTER
+
+
+Up to this period of his life Sir Felix Carbury had probably felt but
+little of the punishment due to his very numerous shortcomings. He had
+spent all his fortune; he had lost his commission in the army; he had
+incurred the contempt of everybody that had known him; he had
+forfeited the friendship of those who were his natural friends, and
+had attached to him none others in their place; he had pretty nearly
+ruined his mother and sister; but, to use his own language, he had
+always contrived 'to carry on the game.' He had eaten and drunk, had
+gambled, hunted, and diverted himself generally after the fashion
+considered to be appropriate to young men about town. He had kept up
+till now. But now there seemed to him to have come an end to all
+things. When he was lying in bed in his mother's house he counted up
+all his wealth. He had a few pounds in ready money, he still had a
+little roll of Mr Miles Grendall's notes of hand, amounting perhaps to
+a couple of hundred pounds,--and Mr Melmotte owed him £600. But where
+was he to turn, and what was he to do with himself? Gradually he
+learned the whole story of the journey to Liverpool,--how Marie had
+gone there and had been sent back by the police, how Marie's money had
+been repaid to Mr Melmotte by Mr Broune, and how his failure to make
+the journey to Liverpool had become known. He was ashamed to go to his
+club. He could not go to Melmotte's house. He was ashamed even to show
+himself in the streets by day.
+
+He was becoming almost afraid even of his mother. Now that the
+brilliant marriage had broken down, and seemed to be altogether beyond
+hope, now that he had to depend on her household for all his comforts,
+he was no longer able to treat her with absolute scorn,--nor was she
+willing to yield as she had yielded.
+
+One thing only was clear to him. He must realize his possessions. With
+this view he wrote both to Miles Grendall and to Melmotte. To the
+former he said he was going out of town,--probably for some time, and
+he must really ask for a cheque for the amount due. He went on to
+remark that he could hardly suppose that a nephew of the Duke of Albury
+was unable to pay debts of honour to the amount of £200;--but that if
+such was the case he would have no alternative but to apply to the
+Duke himself. The reader need hardly be told that to this letter Mr
+Grendall vouchsafed no answer whatever. In his letter to Mr Melmotte
+he confined himself to one matter of business in hand. He made no
+allusion whatever to Marie, or to the great man's anger, or to his
+seat at the board. He simply reminded Mr Melmotte that there was a sum
+of £600 still due to him, and requested that a cheque might be sent to
+him for that amount. Melmotte's answer to this was not altogether
+unsatisfactory, though it was not exactly what Sir Felix had wished. A
+clerk from Mr Melmotte's office called at the house in Welbeck Street,
+and handed to Felix railway scrip in the South Central Pacific and
+Mexican Railway to the amount of the sum claimed,--insisting on a full
+receipt for the money before he parted with the scrip. The clerk went
+on to explain, on behalf of his employer, that the money had been left
+in Mr Melmotte's hands for the purpose of buying these shares. Sir
+Felix, who was glad to get anything, signed the receipt and took the
+scrip. This took place on the day after the balloting at Westminster,
+when the result was not yet known,--and when the shares in the railway
+were very low indeed. Sir Felix had asked as to the value of the
+shares at the time. The clerk professed himself unable to quote the
+price,--but there were the shares if Sir Felix liked to take them. Of
+course he took them;--and hurrying off into the City found that they
+might perhaps be worth about half the money due to him. The broker to
+whom he showed them could not quite answer for anything. Yes;--the
+scrip had been very high; but there was a panic. They might recover,--
+or, more probably, they might go to nothing. Sir Felix cursed the Great
+Financier aloud, and left the scrip for sale. That was the first time
+that he had been out of the house before dark since his little
+accident.
+
+But he was chiefly tormented in these days by the want of amusement.
+He had so spent his life hitherto that he did not know how to get
+through a day in which no excitement was provided for him. He never
+read. Thinking was altogether beyond him. And he had never done a
+day's work in his life. He could lie in bed. He could eat and drink.
+He could smoke and sit idle. He could play cards; and could amuse
+himself with women,--the lower the culture of the women, the better
+the amusement. Beyond these things the world had nothing for him.
+Therefore he again took himself to the pursuit of Ruby Ruggles.
+
+Poor Ruby had endured a very painful incarceration at her aunt's
+house. She had been wrathful and had stormed, swearing that she would
+be free to come and go as she pleased. Free to go, Mrs Pipkin told her
+that she was;--but not free to return if she went out otherwise than as
+she, Mrs Pipkin, chose. 'Am I to be a slave?' Ruby asked, and almost
+upset the perambulator which she had just dragged in at the hall door.
+Then Mrs Hurtle had taken upon herself to talk to her, and poor Ruby
+had been quelled by the superior strength of the American lady. But
+she was very unhappy, finding that it did not suit her to be nursemaid
+to her aunt. After all John Crumb couldn't have cared for her a bit,
+or he would have come to look after her. While she was in this
+condition Sir Felix came to Mrs Pipkin's house, and asked for her at
+the door, it happened that Mrs Pipkin herself had opened the door,--
+and, in her fright and dismay at the presence of so pernicious a young
+man in her own passage, had denied that Ruby was in the house. But
+Ruby had heard her lover's voice, and had rushed up and thrown herself
+into his arms. Then there had been a great scene. Ruby had sworn that
+she didn't care for her aunt, didn't care for her grandfather, or for
+Mrs Hurtle, or for John Crumb,--or for any person or anything. She
+cared only for her lover. Then Mrs Hurtle had asked the young man his
+intentions. Did he mean to marry Ruby? Sir Felix had said that he
+supposed he might as well some day. 'There,' said Ruby, 'there!'--
+shouting in triumph as though an offer had been made to her with the
+completest ceremony of which such an event admits. Mrs Pipkin had
+been very weak. Instead of calling in the assistance of her
+strong-minded lodger, she had allowed the lovers to remain together
+for half an hour in the dining-room. I do not know that Sir Felix in
+any way repeated his promise during that time, but Ruby was probably
+too blessed with the word that had been spoken to ask for such
+renewal. 'There must be an end of this,' said Mrs Pipkin, coming in
+when the half-hour was over. Then Sir Felix had gone, promising to
+come again on the following evening. 'You must not come here, Sir
+Felix,' said Mrs Pipkin, 'unless you puts it in writing.' To this, of
+course, Sir Felix made no answer. As he went home he congratulated
+himself on the success of his adventure. Perhaps the best thing he
+could do when he had realized the money for the shares would be to
+take Ruby for a tour abroad. The money would last for three or four
+months,--and three or four months ahead was almost an eternity.
+
+That afternoon before dinner he found his sister alone in the
+drawing-room. Lady Carbury had gone to her own room after hearing the
+distressing story of Paul Montague's love, and had not seen Hetta
+since. Hetta was melancholy, thinking of her mother's hard words,--
+thinking perhaps of Paul's poverty as declared by her mother, and of
+the ages which might have to wear themselves out before she could
+become his wife; but still tinting all her thoughts with a rosy hue
+because of the love which had been declared to her. She could not but
+be happy if he really loved her. And she,--as she had told him that she
+loved him,--would be true to him through everything! In her present
+mood she could not speak of herself to her brother, but she took the
+opportunity of making good the promise which Marie Melmotte had
+extracted from her. She gave him some short account of the party, and
+told him that she had talked with Marie. 'I promised to give you a
+message,' she said.
+
+'It's all of no use now,' said Felix.
+
+'But I must tell you what she said. I think, you know, that she really
+loves you.'
+
+'But what's the good of it? A man can't marry a girl when all the
+policemen in the country are dodging her.'
+
+'She wants you to let her know what,--what you intend to do. If you
+mean to give her up, I think you should tell her.'
+
+'How can I tell her? I don't suppose they would let her receive a
+letter.'
+
+'Shall I write to her;--or shall I see her?'
+
+'Just as you like. I don't care.'
+
+'Felix, you are very heartless.'
+
+'I don't suppose I'm much worse than other men;--or for the matter of
+that, worse than a great many women either. You all of you here put me
+up to marry her.'
+
+'I never put you up to it.'
+
+'Mother did. And now because it did not go off all serene, I am to
+hear nothing but reproaches. Of course I never cared so very much
+about her.'
+
+'Oh, Felix, that is so shocking!'
+
+'Awfully shocking, I dare say. You think I am as black as the very
+mischief, and that sugar wouldn't melt in other men's mouths. Other
+men are just as bad as I am,--and a good deal worse too. You believe
+that there is nobody on earth like Paul Montague.' Hetta blushed, but
+said nothing. She was not yet in a condition to boast of her lover
+before her brother, but she did, in very truth, believe that but few
+young men were as true-hearted as Paul Montague. 'I suppose you'd be
+surprised to hear that Master Paul is engaged to marry an American
+widow living at Islington.'
+
+'Mr Montague--engaged--to marry--an American widow! I don't believe
+it.'
+
+'You'd better believe it if it's any concern of yours, for it's true.
+And it's true too that he travelled about with her for ever so long in
+the United States, and that he had her down with him at the hotel at
+Lowestoft about a fortnight ago. There's no mistake about it.'
+
+'I don't believe it,' repeated Hetta, feeling that to say even as much
+as that was some relief to her. It could not be true. It was
+impossible that the man should have come to her with such a lie in his
+mouth as that. Though the words astounded her, though she felt faint,
+almost as though she would fall in a swoon, yet in her heart of hearts
+she did not believe it. Surely it was some horrid joke,--or perhaps
+some trick to divide her from the man she loved. 'Felix, how dare you
+say things so wicked as that to me?'
+
+'What is there wicked in it? If you have been fool enough to become
+fond of the man, it is only right you should be told. He is engaged to
+marry Mrs Hurtle, and she is lodging with one Mrs Pipkin in Islington.
+I know the house, and could take you there to-morrow, and show you the
+woman. There,' said he, 'that's where she is;'--and he wrote Mrs
+Hurtle's name down on a scrap of paper.
+
+'It is not true,' said Hetta, rising from her seat, and standing
+upright. 'I am engaged to Mr Montague, and I am sure he would not
+treat me in that way.'
+
+'Then, by heaven, he shall answer it to me,' said Felix, jumping up.
+'If he has done that, it is time that I should interfere. As true as I
+stand here, he is engaged to marry a woman called Mrs Hurtle whom he
+constantly visits at that place in Islington.'
+
+'I do not believe it,' said Hetta, repeating the only defence for her
+lover which was applicable at the moment.
+
+'By George, this is beyond a joke. Will you believe it if Roger
+Carbury says it's true? I know you'd believe anything fast enough
+against me, if he told you.'
+
+'Roger Carbury will not say so?'
+
+'Have you the courage to ask him? I say he will say so. He knows all
+about it,--and has seen the woman.'
+
+'How can you know? Has Roger told you?'
+
+'I do know, and that's enough. I will make this square with Master
+Paul. By heaven, yes! He shall answer to me. But my mother must manage
+you. She will not scruple to ask Roger, and she will believe what
+Roger tells her.'
+
+'I do not believe a word of it,' said Hetta, leaving the room. But
+when she was alone she was very wretched. There must be some
+foundation for such a tale. Why should Felix have referred to Roger
+Carbury? And she did feel that there was something in her brother's
+manner which forbade her to reject the whole story as being altogether
+baseless. So she sat upon her bed and cried, and thought of all the
+tales she had heard of faithless lovers. And yet why should the man
+have come to her, not only with soft words of love, but asking her
+hand in marriage, if it really were true that he was in daily
+communication with another woman whom he had promised to make his
+wife?
+
+Nothing on the subject was said at dinner. Hetta with difficulty to
+herself sat at the table, and did not speak. Lady Carbury and her son
+were nearly as silent. Soon after dinner Felix slunk away to some
+music hall or theatre in quest probably of some other Ruby Ruggles.
+Then Lady Carbury, who had now been told as much as her son knew,
+again attacked her daughter. Very much of the story Felix had learned
+from Ruby. Ruby had of course learned that Paul was engaged to Mrs
+Hurtle. Mrs Hurtle had at once declared the fact to Mrs Pipkin, and
+Mrs Pipkin had been proud of the position of her lodger. Ruby had
+herself seen Paul Montague at the house, and had known that he had
+taken Mrs Hurtle to Lowestoft. And it had also become known to the
+two women, the aunt and her niece, that Mrs Hurtle had seen Roger
+Carbury on the sands at Lowestoft. Thus the whole story with most of
+its details,--not quite with all,--had come round to Lady Carbury's
+ears. 'What he has told you, my dear, is true. Much as I disapprove
+of Mr Montague, you do not suppose that I would deceive you.'
+
+'How can he know, mamma?'
+
+'He does know. I cannot explain to you how. He has been at the same
+house.'
+
+'Has he seen her?'
+
+'I do not know that he has, but Roger Carbury has seen her. If I write
+to him you will believe what he says?'
+
+'Don't do that, mamma. Don't write to him.'
+
+'But I shall. Why should I not write if he can tell me? If this other
+man is a villain am I not bound to protect you? Of course Felix is not
+steady. If it came only from him you might not credit it. And he has
+not seen her. If your cousin Roger tells you that it is true,--tells
+me that he knows the man is engaged to marry this woman, then I
+suppose you will be contented.'
+
+'Contented, mamma!'
+
+'Satisfied that what we tell you is true.'
+
+'I shall never be contented again. If that is true, I will never
+believe anything. It can't be true. I suppose there is something, but
+it can't be that.'
+
+The story was not altogether displeasing to Lady Carbury, though it
+pained her to see the agony which her daughter suffered. But she had
+no wish that Paul Montague should be her son-in-law, and she still
+thought that if Roger would persevere he might succeed. On that very
+night before she went to bed she wrote to Roger, and told him the
+whole story. 'If,' she said, 'you know that there is such a person as
+Mrs Hurtle, and if you know also that Mr Montague has promised to make
+her his wife, of course you will tell me.' Then she declared her own
+wishes, thinking that by doing so she could induce Roger Carbury to
+give such real assistance in this matter that Paul Montague would
+certainly be driven away. Who could feel so much interest in doing
+this as Roger, or who be so closely acquainted with all the
+circumstances of Montague's life? 'You know,' she said, 'what my
+wishes are about Hetta, and how utterly opposed I am to Mr Montague's
+interference. If it is true, as Felix says, that he is at the present
+moment entangled with another woman, he is guilty of gross insolence;
+and if you know all the circumstances you can surely protect us,--and
+also yourself.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXVIII - MISS MELMOTTE DECLARES HER PURPOSE
+
+
+Poor Hetta passed a very bad night. The story she had heard seemed to
+be almost too awful to be true,--even about any one else. The man had
+come to her, and had asked her to be his wife,--and yet at that very
+moment was living in habits of daily intercourse with another woman
+whom he had promised to marry! And then, too, his courtship with her
+had been so graceful, so soft, so modest, and yet so long continued!
+Though he had been slow in speech, she had known since their first
+meeting how he regarded her! The whole state of his mind had, she had
+thought, been visible to her,--had been intelligible, gentle, and
+affectionate. He had been aware of her friends' feeling, and had
+therefore hesitated. He had kept himself from her because he had owed
+so much to friendship. And yet his love had not been the less true,
+and had not been less dear to poor Hetta. She had waited, sure that it
+would come,--having absolute confidence in his honour and love. And
+now she was told that this man had been playing a game so base, and at
+the same time so foolish, that she could find not only no excuse but
+no possible cause for it. It was not like any story she had heard
+before of man's faithlessness. Though she was wretched and sore at
+heart she swore to herself that she would not believe it. She knew
+that her mother would write to Roger Carbury,--but she knew also that
+nothing more would be said about the letter till the answer should
+come. Nor could she turn anywhere else for comfort. She did not dare
+to appeal to Paul himself. As regarded him, for the present she could
+only rely on the assurance, which she continued to give herself, that
+she would not believe a word of the story that had been told her.
+
+But there was other wretchedness besides her own. She had undertaken
+to give Marie Melmotte's message to her brother. She had done so, and
+she must now let Marie have her brother's reply. That might be told in
+a very few words--'Everything is over!' But it had to be told.
+
+'I want to call upon Miss Melmotte, if you'll let me,' she said to her
+mother at breakfast.
+
+'Why should you want to see Miss Melmotte? I thought you hated the
+Melmottes?'
+
+'I don't hate them, mamma. I certainly don't hate her. I have a
+message to take to her,--from Felix.'
+
+'A message--from Felix.'
+
+'It is an answer from him. She wanted to know if all that was over. Of
+course it is over. Whether he said so or not, it would be so. They
+could never be married now, could they, mamma?'
+
+The marriage, in Lady Carbury's mind, was no longer even desirable.
+She, too, was beginning to disbelieve in the Melmotte wealth, and did
+quite disbelieve that that wealth would come to her son, even should
+he succeed in marrying the daughter. It was impossible that Melmotte
+should forgive such offence as had now been committed. 'It is out of
+the question,' she said. 'That, like everything else with us, has been
+a wretched failure. You can go, if you please. Felix is under no
+obligation to them, and has taken nothing from them. I should much
+doubt whether the girl will get anybody to take her now. You can't go
+alone, you know,' Lady Carbury added. But Hetta said that she did not
+at all object to going alone as far as that. It was only just over
+Oxford Street.
+
+So she went out and made her way into Grosvenor Square. She had heard,
+but at the time remembered nothing, of the temporary migration of the
+Melmottes to Bruton Street. Seeing, as she approached the house, that
+there was a confusion there of carts and workmen, she hesitated. But
+she went on, and rang the bell at the door, which was wide open.
+Within the hall the pilasters and trophies, the wreaths and the
+banners, which three or four days since had been built up with so much
+trouble, were now being pulled down and hauled away. And amidst the
+ruins Melmotte himself was standing. He was now a member of
+Parliament, and was to take his place that night in the House.
+Nothing, at any rate, should prevent that. It might be but for a short
+time;--but it should be written in the history of his life that he had
+sat in the British House of Commons as member for Westminster. At the
+present moment he was careful to show himself everywhere. It was now
+noon, and he had already been into the City. At this moment he was
+talking to the contractor for the work,--having just propitiated that
+man by a payment which would hardly have been made so soon but for the
+necessity which these wretched stories had entailed upon him of
+keeping up his credit for the possession of money. Hetta timidly asked
+one of the workmen whether Miss Melmotte was there. 'Do you want my
+daughter?' said Melmotte coming forward, and just touching his
+hat. 'She is not living here at present.'
+
+'Oh,--I remember now,' said Hetta.
+
+'May I be allowed to tell her who was asking after her?' At the
+present moment Melmotte was not unreasonably suspicious about his
+daughter.
+
+'I am Miss Carbury,' said Hetta in a very low voice.
+
+'Oh, indeed;--Miss Carbury!--the sister of Sir Felix Carbury?' There
+was something in the tone of the man's voice which grated painfully on
+Hetta's ears,--but she answered the question. 'Oh;--Sir Felix's sister!
+May I be permitted to ask whether--you have any business with my
+daughter?' The story was a hard one to tell, with all the workmen
+around her, in the midst of the lumber, with the coarse face of the
+suspicious man looking down upon her; but she did tell it very simply.
+She had come with a message from her brother. There had been something
+between her brother and Miss Melmotte, and her brother had felt that
+it would be best that he should acknowledge that it must be all over.
+'I wonder whether that is true,' said Melmotte, looking at her out of
+his great coarse eyes, with his eyebrows knit, with his hat on his
+head and his hands in his pockets. Hetta, not knowing how, at the
+moment, to repudiate the suspicion expressed, was silent. 'Because,
+you know, there has been a deal of falsehood and double dealing. Sir
+Felix has behaved infamously; yes,--by G----, infamously. A day or two
+before my daughter started, he gave me a written assurance that the
+whole thing was over, and now he sends you here. How am I to know what
+you are really after?'
+
+'I have come because I thought I could do some good,' she said,
+trembling with anger and fear. 'I was speaking to your daughter at
+your party.'
+
+'Oh, you were there;--were you? It may be as you say, but how is
+one to tell? When one has been deceived like that, one is apt to be
+suspicious, Miss Carbury.' Here was one who had spent his life in lying
+to the world, and who was in his very heart shocked at the atrocity of
+a man who had lied to him! 'You are not plotting another journey to
+Liverpool;--are you?' To this Hetta could make no answer. The insult
+was too much, but alone, unsupported, she did not know how to give him
+back scorn for scorn. At last he proposed to take her across to Bruton
+Street himself and at his bidding she walked by his side. 'May I hear
+what you say to her?' he asked.
+
+'If you suspect me, Mr Melmotte, I had better not see her at all. It
+is only that there may no longer be any doubt.'
+
+'You can say it all before me.'
+
+'No;--I could not do that. But I have told you, and you can say it
+for me. If you please, I think I will go home now.'
+
+But Melmotte knew that his daughter would not believe him on such a
+subject. This girl she probably would believe. And though Melmotte
+himself found it difficult to trust anybody, he thought that there was
+more possible good than evil to be expected from the proposed
+interview. 'Oh, you shall see her,' he said. 'I don't suppose she's
+such a fool as to try that kind of thing again.' Then the door in
+Bruton Street was opened, and Hetta, repenting her mission, found
+herself almost pushed into the hall. She was bidden to follow Melmotte
+upstairs, and was left alone in the drawing-room, as she thought, for
+a long time. Then the door was slowly opened and Marie crept into the
+room. 'Miss Carbury,' she said, 'this is so good of you,--so good of
+you! I do so love you for coming to me! You said you would love me.
+You will; will you not?' and Marie, sitting down by the stranger, took
+her hand and encircled her waist.
+
+'Mr Melmotte has told you why I have come.'
+
+'Yes;--that is, I don't know. I never believe what papa says to me.'
+To poor Hetta such an announcement as this was horrible. 'We are at
+daggers drawn. He thinks I ought to do just what he tells me, as
+though my very soul were not my own. I won't agree to that;--would
+you?' Hetta had not come there to preach disobedience, but could not
+fail to remember at the moment that she was not disposed to obey her
+mother in an affair of the same kind. 'What does he say, dear?'
+
+Hetta's message was to be conveyed in three words, and when those were
+told, there was nothing more to be said. 'It must all be over, Miss
+Melmotte.'
+
+'Is that his message, Miss Carbury?' Hetta nodded her head. 'Is that
+all?'
+
+'What more can I say? The other night you told me to bid him send you
+word. And I thought he ought to do so. I gave him your message, and I
+have brought back the answer. My brother, you know, has no income of
+his own;--nothing at all.'
+
+'But I have,' said Marie with eagerness.
+
+'But your father--'
+
+'It does not depend upon papa. If papa treats me badly, I can give it
+to my husband. I know I can. If I can venture, cannot he?'
+
+'I think it is impossible.'
+
+'Impossible! Nothing should be impossible. All the people that one
+hears of that are really true to their loves never find anything
+impossible. Does he love me, Miss Carbury? It all depends on that.
+That's what I want to know.' She paused, but Hetta could not answer
+the question. 'You must know about your brother. Don't you know
+whether he does love me? If you know I think you ought to tell me.'
+Hetta was still silent. 'Have you nothing to say?'
+
+'Miss Melmotte-' began poor Hetta very slowly.
+
+'Call me Marie. You said you would love me, did you not? I don't even
+know what your name is.'
+
+'My name is Hetta.'
+
+'Hetta;--that's short for something. But it's very pretty. I have
+no brother, no sister. And I'll tell you, though you must not tell
+anybody again;--I have no real mother. Madame Melmotte is not my
+mamma, though papa chooses that it should be thought so.' All this she
+whispered, with rapid words, almost into Hetta's ear. 'And papa is so
+cruel to me! He beats me sometimes.' The new friend, round whom Marie
+still had her arm, shuddered as she heard this. 'But I never will
+yield a bit for that. When he boxes and thumps me I always turn and
+gnash my teeth at him. Can you wonder that I want to have a friend?
+Can you be surprised that I should be always thinking of my lover?
+But,--if he doesn't love me, what am I to do then?'
+
+'I don't know what I am to say,' ejaculated Hetta amidst her sobs.
+Whether the girl was good or bad, to be sought or to be avoided, there
+was so much tragedy in her position that Hetta's heart was melted with
+sympathy.
+
+'I wonder whether you love anybody, and whether he loves you,' said
+Marie. Hetta certainly had not come there to talk of her own affairs,
+and made no reply to this. 'I suppose you won't tell me about
+yourself.'
+
+'I wish I could tell you something for your own comfort.'
+
+'He will not try again, you think?'
+
+'I am sure he will not.'
+
+'I wonder what he fears. I should fear nothing,--nothing. Why should
+not we walk out of the house, and be married any way? Nobody has a
+right to stop me. Papa could only turn me out of his house. I will
+venture if he will.'
+
+It seemed to Hetta that even listening to such a proposition amounted
+to falsehood,--to that guilt of which Mr Melmotte had dared to suppose
+that she could be capable. 'I cannot listen to it. Indeed I cannot
+listen to it. My brother is sure that he cannot--cannot--'
+
+'Cannot love me, Hetta! Say it out, if it is true.'
+
+'It is true,' said Hetta. There came over the face of the other girl a
+stern hard look, as though she had resolved at the moment to throw
+away from her all soft womanly things. And she relaxed her hold on
+Hetta's waist. 'Oh, my dear, I do not mean to be cruel, but you ask me
+for the truth.'
+
+'Yes; I did.'
+
+'Men are not, I think, like girls.'
+
+'I suppose not,' said Marie slowly. 'What liars they are, what
+brutes;--what wretches! Why should he tell me lies like that? Why
+should he break my heart? That other man never said that he loved me.
+Did he never love me,--once?'
+
+Hetta could hardly say that her brother was incapable of such love as
+Marie expected, but she knew that it was so. 'It is better that you
+should think of him no more.'
+
+'Are you like that? If you had loved a man and told him of it, and
+agreed to be his wife and done as I have, could you bear to be told to
+think of him no more,--just as though you had got rid of a servant or a
+horse? I won't love him. No;--I'll hate him. But I must think of him.
+I'll marry that other man to spite him, and then, when he finds that
+we are rich, he'll be broken-hearted.'
+
+'You should try to forgive him, Marie.'
+
+'Never. Do not tell him that I forgive him. I command you not to tell
+him that. Tell him,--tell him, that I hate him, and that if I ever meet
+him, I will look at him so that he shall never forget it. I could,--oh!
+--you do not know what I could do. Tell me;--did he tell you to say
+that he did not love me?'
+
+'I wish I had not come,' said Hetta.
+
+'I am glad you have come. It was very kind. I don't hate you. Of
+course I ought to know. But did he say that I was to be told that he
+did not love me?'
+
+'No;--he did not say that.'
+
+'Then how do you know? What did he say?'
+
+'That it was all over.'
+
+'Because he is afraid of papa. Are you sure he does not love me?'
+
+'I am sure.'
+
+'Then he is a brute. Tell him that I say that he is a false-hearted
+liar, and that I trample him under my foot.' Marie as she said this
+thrust her foot upon the ground as though that false one were in truth
+beneath it,--and spoke aloud, as though regardless who might hear her.
+'I despise him;--despise him. They are all bad, but he is the worst of
+all. Papa beats me, but I can bear that. Mamma reviles me and I can
+bear that. He might have beaten me and reviled me, and I could have
+borne it. But to think that he was a liar all the time;--that I can't
+bear.' Then she burst into tears. Hetta kissed her, tried to comfort
+her, and left her sobbing on the sofa.
+
+Later in the day, two or three hours after Miss Carbury had gone,
+Marie Melmotte, who had not shown herself at luncheon, walked into
+Madame Melmotte's room, and thus declared her purpose. 'You can tell
+papa that I will marry Lord Nidderdale whenever he pleases.' She spoke
+in French and very rapidly.
+
+On hearing this Madame Melmotte expressed herself to be delighted.
+'Your papa,' said she, 'will be very glad to hear that you have
+thought better of this at last. Lord Nidderdale is, I am sure, a very
+good young man.'
+
+'Yes,' continued Marie, boiling over with passion as she spoke. 'I'll
+marry Lord Nidderdale, or that horrid Mr Grendall who is worse than
+all the others, or his old fool of a father,--or the sweeper at the
+crossing,--or the black man that waits at table, or anybody else that
+he chooses to pick up. I don't care who it is the least in the world.
+But I'll lead him such a life afterwards! I'll make Lord Nidderdale
+repent the hour he saw me! You may tell papa.' And then, having thus
+entrusted her message to Madame Melmotte, Marie left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXIX - MELMOTTE IN PARLIAMENT
+
+
+Melmotte did not return home in time to hear the good news that day,--
+good news as he would regard it, even though, when told to him, it
+should be accompanied by all the extraneous additions with which Marie
+had communicated her purpose to Madame Melmotte. It was nothing to him
+what the girl thought of the marriage,--if the marriage could now be
+brought about. He, too, had cause for vexation, if not for anger. If
+Marie had consented a fortnight since he might have so hurried affairs
+that Lord Nidderdale might by this time have been secured. Now there
+might be,--must be, doubt, through the folly of his girl and the
+villainy of Sir Felix Carbury. Were he once the father-in-law of the
+eldest son of a marquis, he thought he might almost be safe. Even
+though something might be all but proved against him,--which might come
+to certain proof in less august circumstances,--matters would hardly be
+pressed against a Member for Westminster whose daughter was married to
+the heir of the Marquis of Auld Reekie! So many persons would then be
+concerned! Of course his vexation with Marie had been great. Of course
+his wrath against Sir Felix was unbounded. The seat for Westminster
+was his. He was to be seen to occupy it before all the world on this
+very day. But he had not as yet heard that his daughter had yielded in
+reference to Lord Nidderdale.
+
+There was considerable uneasiness felt in some circles as to the
+manner in which Melmotte should take his seat. When he was put forward
+as the Conservative candidate for the borough a good deal of fuss had
+been made with him by certain leading politicians. It had been the
+manifest intention of the party that his return, if he were returned,
+should be hailed as a great Conservative triumph, and be made much of
+through the length and the breadth of the land. He was returned,--but
+the trumpets had not as yet been sounded loudly. On a sudden, within
+the space of forty-eight hours, the party had become ashamed of their
+man. And, now, who was to introduce him to the House? But with this
+feeling of shame on one side, there was already springing up an idea
+among another class that Melmotte might become as it were a
+Conservative tribune of the people,--that he might be the realization
+of that hitherto hazy mixture of Radicalism and old-fogyism, of which
+we have lately heard from a political master, whose eloquence has been
+employed in teaching us that progress can only be expected from those
+whose declared purpose is to stand still. The new farthing newspaper,
+'The Mob,' was already putting Melmotte forward as a political hero,
+preaching with reference to his commercial transactions the grand
+doctrine that magnitude in affairs is a valid defence for certain
+irregularities. A Napoleon, though he may exterminate tribes in
+carrying out his projects, cannot be judged by the same law as a young
+lieutenant who may be punished for cruelty to a few negroes. 'The Mob'
+thought that a good deal should be overlooked in a Melmotte, and that
+the philanthropy of his great designs should be allowed to cover a
+multitude of sins. I do not know that the theory was ever so plainly
+put forward as it was done by the ingenious and courageous writer in
+'The Mob'; but in practice it has commanded the assent of many
+intelligent minds.
+
+Mr Melmotte, therefore, though he was not where he had been before
+that wretched Squercum had set afloat the rumours as to the purchase
+of Pickering, was able to hold his head much higher than on the
+unfortunate night of the great banquet. He had replied to the letter
+from Messrs. Slow and Bideawhile, by a note written in the ordinary
+way in the office, and only signed by himself. In this he merely said
+that he would lose no time in settling matters as to the purchase of
+Pickering. Slow and Bideawhile were of course anxious that things
+should be settled. They wanted no prosecution for forgery. To make
+themselves clear in the matter, and their client,--and if possible to
+take some wind out of the sails of the odious Squercum;--this would
+suit them best. They were prone to hope that for his own sake Melmotte
+would raise the money. If it were raised there would be no reason why
+that note purporting to have been signed by Dolly Longestaffe should
+ever leave their office. They still protested their belief that it did
+bear Dolly's signature. They had various excuses for themselves. It
+would have been useless for them to summon Dolly to their office, as
+they knew from long experience that Dolly would not come. The very
+letter written by themselves,--as a suggestion,--and given to Dolly's
+father, had come back to them with Dolly's ordinary signature, sent to
+them,--as they believed,--with other papers by Dolly's father. What
+justification could be clearer? But still the money had not been paid.
+That was the fault of Longestaffe senior. But if the money could be
+paid, that would set everything right. Squercum evidently thought that
+the money would not be paid, and was ceaseless in his intercourse with
+Bideawhile's people. He charged Slow and Bideawhile with having
+delivered up the title-deeds on the authority of a mere note, and that
+a note with a forged signature. He demanded that the note should be
+impounded. On the receipt by Mr Bideawhile of Melmotte's rather curt
+reply Mr Squercum was informed that Mr Melmotte had promised to pay
+the money at once, but that a day or two must be allowed. Mr Squercum
+replied that on his client's behalf he should open the matter before
+the Lord Mayor.
+
+But in this way two or three days had passed without any renewal of
+the accusation before the public, and Melmotte had in a certain degree
+recovered his position. The Beauclerks and the Luptons disliked and
+feared him as much as ever, but they did not quite dare to be so loud
+and confident in condemnation as they had been. It was pretty well
+known that Mr Longestaffe had not received his money,--and that was a
+condition of things tending greatly to shake the credit of a man
+living after Melmotte's fashion. But there was no crime in that. No
+forgery was implied by the publication of any statement to that
+effect. The Longestaffes, father and son, might probably have been
+very foolish. Whoever expected anything but folly from either? And
+Slow and Bideawhile might have been very remiss in their duty. It was
+astonishing, some people said, what things attorneys would do in these
+days! But they who had expected to see Melmotte behind the bars of a
+prison before this, and had regulated their conduct accordingly, now
+imagined that they had been deceived.
+
+Had the Westminster triumph been altogether a triumph it would have
+become the pleasant duty of some popular Conservative to express to
+Melmotte the pleasure he would have in introducing his new political
+ally to the House. In such case Melmotte himself would have been
+walked up the chamber with a pleasurable ovation and the thing would
+have been done without trouble to him. But now this was not the
+position of affairs. Though the matter was debated at the Carlton, no
+such popular Conservative offered his services. 'I don't think we
+ought to throw him over,' Mr Beauclerk said. Sir Orlando Drought,
+quite a leading Conservative, suggested that as Lord Nidderdale was
+very intimate with Mr Melmotte he might do it. But Nidderdale was not
+the man for such a performance. He was a very good fellow and
+everybody liked him. He belonged to the House because his father had
+territorial influence in a Scotch county;--but he never did anything
+there, and his selection for such a duty would be a declaration to the
+world that nobody else would do it. 'It wouldn't hurt you, Lupton,'
+said Mr Beauclerk. 'Not at all,' said Lupton; 'but I also, like
+Nidderdale am a young man and of no use,--and a great deal too bashful.'
+Melmotte, who knew but little about it, went down to the House at four
+o'clock, somewhat cowed by want of companionship, but carrying out his
+resolution that he would be stopped by no phantom fears,--that he would
+lose nothing by want of personal pluck. He knew that he was a Member,
+and concluded that if he presented himself he would be able to make
+his way in and assume his right. But here again fortune befriended
+him. The very leader of the party, the very founder of that new
+doctrine of which it was thought that Melmotte might become an apostle
+and an expounder,--who, as the reader may remember, had undertaken to
+be present at the banquet when his colleagues were dismayed and untrue
+to him, and who kept his promise and sat there almost in solitude,--he
+happened to be entering the House, as his late host was claiming from
+the doorkeeper the fruition of his privilege. 'You had better let me
+accompany you,' said the Conservative leader, with something of
+chivalry in his heart. And so Mr Melmotte was introduced to the House
+by the head of his party! When this was seen many men supposed that
+the rumours had been proved to be altogether false. Was not this a
+guarantee sufficient to guarantee any man's respectability?
+
+Lord Nidderdale saw his father in the lobby of the House of Lords that
+afternoon and told him what had occurred. The old man had been in a
+state of great doubt since the day of the dinner party. He was aware
+of the ruin that would be incurred by a marriage with Melmotte's
+daughter, if the things which had been said of Melmotte should be
+proved to be true. But he knew also that if his son should now recede,
+there must be an end of the match altogether;--and he did not believe
+the rumours. He was fully determined that the money should be paid
+down before the marriage was celebrated; but if his son were to secede
+now, of course no money would be forthcoming. He was prepared to
+recommend his son to go on with the affair still a little longer. 'Old
+Cure tells me he doesn't believe a word of it,' said the father. Cure
+was the family lawyer of the Marquises of Auld Reekie.
+
+'There's some hitch about Dolly Longestaffe's money, sir,' said the
+son.
+
+'What's that to us if he has our money ready? I suppose it isn't
+always easy even for a man like that to get a couple of hundred
+thousand together. I know I've never found it easy to get a thousand.
+If he has borrowed a trifle from Longestaffe to make up the girl's
+money, I shan't complain. You stand to your guns. There's no harm done
+till the parson has said the word.'
+
+'You couldn't let me have a couple of hundred;--could you, sir?'
+suggested the son.
+
+'No, I couldn't,' replied the father with a very determined aspect.
+
+'I'm awfully hard up.'
+
+'So am I.' Then the old man toddled into his own chamber, and after
+sitting there ten minutes went away home.
+
+Lord Nidderdale also got quickly through his legislative duties and
+went to the Beargarden. There he found Grasslough and Miles Grendall
+dining together, and seated himself at the next table. They were full
+of news. 'You've heard it, I suppose,' said Miles in an awful whisper.
+
+'Heard what?'
+
+'I believe he doesn't know!' said Lord Grasslough. 'By Jove,
+Nidderdale, you're in a mess like some others.'
+
+'What's up now?'
+
+'Only fancy that they shouldn't have known down at the House! Vossner
+has bolted!'
+
+'Bolted!' exclaimed Nidderdale, dropping the spoon with which he was
+just going to eat his soup.
+
+'Bolted,' repeated Grasslough. Lord Nidderdale looked round the room
+and became aware of the awful expression of dismay which hung upon the
+features of all the dining members. 'Bolted, by George! He has sold
+all our acceptances to a fellow in Great Marlbro' that's called
+"Flatfleece".'
+
+'I know him,' said Nidderdale shaking his head.
+
+'I should think so,' said Miles ruefully.
+
+'A bottle of champagne!' said Nidderdale, appealing to the waiter in
+almost a humble voice, feeling that he wanted sustenance in this new
+trouble that had befallen him. The waiter, beaten almost to the ground
+by an awful sense of the condition of the club, whispered to him the
+terrible announcement that there was not a bottle of champagne in the
+house. 'Good G----,' exclaimed the unfortunate nobleman. Miles Grendall
+shook his head. Grasslough shook his head.
+
+'It's true,' said another young lord from the table on the other side.
+Then the waiter, still speaking with suppressed and melancholy voice,
+suggested that there was some port left. It was now the middle of
+July.
+
+'Brandy?' suggested Nidderdale. There had been a few bottles of
+brandy, but they had been already consumed. 'Send out and get some
+brandy,' said Nidderdale with rapid impetuosity. But the club was so
+reduced in circumstances that he was obliged to take silver out of his
+pocket before he could get even such humble comfort as he now
+demanded.
+
+Then Lord Grasslough told the whole story as far as it was known. Herr
+Vossner had not been seen since nine o'clock on the preceding evening.
+The head waiter had known for some weeks that heavy bills were due. It
+was supposed that three or four thousand pounds were owing to
+tradesmen, who now professed that the credit had been given, not to
+Herr Vossner but to the club. And the numerous acceptances for large
+sums which the accommodating purveyor held from many of the members
+had all been sold to Mr Flatfleece. Mr Flatfleece had spent a
+considerable portion of the day at the club, and it was now suggested
+that he and Herr Vossner were in partnership. At this moment Dolly
+Longestaffe came in. Dolly had been at the club before and had heard
+the story,--but had gone at once to another club for his dinner when
+he found that there was not even a bottle of wine to be had. 'Here's a
+go,' said Dolly. 'One thing atop of another! There'll be nothing left
+for anybody soon. Is that brandy you're drinking, Nidderdale? There
+was none here when I left.'
+
+'Had to send round the corner for it, to the public.'
+
+'We shall be sending round the corner for a good many things now. Does
+anybody know anything of that fellow Melmotte?'
+
+'He's down in the House, as big as life,' said Nidderdale. 'He's all
+right I think.'
+
+'I wish he'd pay me my money then. That fellow Flatfleece was here,
+and he showed me notes of mine for about £1,500! I write such a
+beastly hand that I never know whether I've written it or not. But, by
+George, a fellow can't eat and drink £1,500 in less than six months!'
+
+'There's no knowing what you can do, Dolly,' said Lord Grasslough.
+
+'He's paid some of your card money, perhaps,' said Nidderdale.
+
+'I don't think he ever did. Carbury had a lot of my I.O.U.'s while that
+was going on, but I got the money for that from old Melmotte. How is a
+fellow to know? If any fellow writes D. Longestaffe, am I obliged to
+pay it? Everybody is writing my name! How is any fellow to stand that
+kind of thing? Do you think Melmotte's all right?' Nidderdale said
+that he did think so. 'I wish he wouldn't go and write my name then.
+That's a sort of thing that a man should be left to do for himself. I
+suppose Vossner is a swindler; but, by Jove, I know a worse than
+Vossner.' With that he turned on his heels and went into the
+smoking-room. And, after he was gone, there was silence at the table,
+for it was known that Lord Nidderdale was to marry Melmotte's
+daughter.
+
+In the meantime a scene of a different kind was going on in the House
+of Commons. Melmotte had been seated on one of the back Conservative
+benches, and there he remained for a considerable time unnoticed and
+forgotten. The little emotion that had attended his entrance had
+passed away, and Melmotte was now no more than any one else. At first
+he had taken his hat off, but, as soon as he observed that the
+majority of members were covered, he put it on again. Then he sat
+motionless for an hour, looking round him and wondering. He had never
+hitherto been even in the gallery of the House. The place was very
+much smaller than he had thought, and much less tremendous. The
+Speaker did not strike him with the awe which he had expected, and it
+seemed to him that they who spoke were talking much like other people
+in other places. For the first hour he hardly caught the meaning of a
+sentence that was said, nor did he try to do so. One man got up very
+quickly after another, some of them barely rising on their legs to say
+the few words that they uttered. It seemed to him to be a very
+commonplace affair,--not half so awful as those festive occasions on
+which he had occasionally been called upon to propose a toast or to
+return thanks. Then suddenly the manner of the thing was changed, and
+one gentleman made a long speech. Melmotte by this time, weary of
+observing, had begun to listen, and words which were familiar to him
+reached his ears. The gentleman was proposing some little addition to
+a commercial treaty and was expounding in very strong language the
+ruinous injustice to which England was exposed by being tempted to use
+gloves made in a country in which no income tax was levied. Melmotte
+listened to his eloquence caring nothing about gloves, and very little
+about England's ruin. But in the course of the debate which followed,
+a question arose about the value of money, of exchange, and of the
+conversion of shillings into francs and dollars. About this Melmotte
+really did know something and he pricked up his ears. It seemed to him
+that a gentleman whom he knew very well in the city,--and who had
+maliciously stayed away from his dinner,--one Mr Brown, who sat just
+before him on the same side of the House, and who was plodding wearily
+and slowly along with some pet fiscal theory of his own, understood
+nothing at all of what he was saying. Here was an opportunity for
+himself! Here was at his hand the means of revenging himself for the
+injury done him, and of showing to the world at the same time that
+he was not afraid of his city enemies! It required some courage
+certainly,--this attempt that suggested itself to him of getting upon
+his legs a couple of hours after his first introduction to
+parliamentary life. But he was full of the lesson which he was now ever
+teaching himself. Nothing should cow him. Whatever was to be done by
+brazen-faced audacity he would do. It seemed to be very easy, and he
+saw no reason why he should not put that old fool right. He knew nothing
+of the forms of the House;--was more ignorant of them than an ordinary
+schoolboy;--but on that very account felt less trepidation than might
+another parliamentary novice. Mr Brown was tedious and prolix; and
+Melmotte, though he thought much of his project and had almost told
+himself that he would do the thing, was still doubting, when,
+suddenly, Mr Brown sat down. There did not seem to be any particular
+end to the speech, nor had Melmotte followed any general thread of
+argument. But a statement had been made and repeated, containing, as
+Melmotte thought, a fundamental error in finance; and he longed to set
+the matter right. At any rate he desired to show the House that Mr
+Brown did not know what he was talking about,--because Mr Brown had not
+come to his dinner. When Mr Brown was seated, nobody at once rose. The
+subject was not popular, and they who understood the business of the
+House were well aware that the occasion had simply been one on which
+two or three commercial gentlemen, having crazes of their own, should
+be allowed to ventilate them. The subject would have dropped;--but on
+a sudden the new member was on his legs.
+
+Now it was probably not in the remembrance of any gentleman there that
+a member had got up to make a speech within two or three hours of his
+first entry into the House. And this gentleman was one whose recent
+election had been of a very peculiar kind. It had been considered by
+many of his supporters that his name should be withdrawn just before
+the ballot; by others that he would be deterred by shame from showing
+himself even if he were elected; and again by another party that his
+appearance in Parliament would be prevented by his disappearance
+within the walls of Newgate. But here he was, not only in his seat,
+but on his legs! The favourable grace, the air of courteous attention,
+which is always shown to a new member when he first speaks, was
+extended also to Melmotte. There was an excitement in the thing which
+made gentlemen willing to listen, and a consequent hum, almost of
+approbation.
+
+As soon as Melmotte was on his legs, and, looking round, found that
+everybody was silent with the intent of listening to him, a good deal
+of his courage oozed out of his fingers' ends. The House, which, to
+his thinking, had by no means been august while Mr Brown had been
+toddling through his speech, now became awful. He caught the eyes of
+great men fixed upon him,--of men who had not seemed to him to be at
+all great as he had watched them a few minutes before, yawning beneath
+their hats. Mr Brown, poor as his speech had been, had, no doubt,
+prepared it,--and had perhaps made three or four such speeches every
+year for the last fifteen years. Melmotte had not dreamed of putting
+two words together. He had thought, as far as he had thought at all,
+that he could rattle off what he had to say just as he might do it
+when seated in his chair at the Mexican Railway Board. But there was
+the Speaker, and those three clerks in their wigs, and the mace,--and
+worse than all, the eyes of that long row of statesmen opposite to
+him! His position was felt by him to be dreadful. He had forgotten
+even the very point on which he had intended to crush Mr Brown.
+
+But the courage of the man was too high to allow him to be altogether
+quelled at once. The hum was prolonged; and though he was red in the
+face, perspiring, and utterly confused, he was determined to make a
+dash at the matter with the first words which would occur to him. 'Mr
+Brown is all wrong,' he said. He had not even taken off his hat as he
+rose. Mr Brown turned slowly round and looked up at him. Some one,
+whom he could not exactly hear, touching him behind, suggested that he
+should take off his hat. There was a cry of order, which of course he
+did not understand. 'Yes, you are,' said Melmotte, nodding his head,
+and frowning angrily at poor Mr Brown.
+
+'The honourable member,' said the Speaker, with the most good-natured
+voice which he could assume, 'is not perhaps as yet aware that he
+should not call another member by his name. He should speak of the
+gentleman to whom he alluded as the honourable member for Whitechapel.
+And in speaking he should address, not another honourable member, but
+the chair.'
+
+'You should take your hat off,' said the good-natured gentleman
+behind.
+
+In such a position how should any man understand so many and such
+complicated instructions at once, and at the same time remember the
+gist of the argument to be produced? He did take off his hat, and was
+of course made hotter and more confused by doing so. 'What he said was
+all wrong,' continued Melmotte; 'and I should have thought a man out
+of the City, like Mr Brown, ought to have known better.' Then there
+were repeated calls of order, and a violent ebullition of laughter
+from both sides of the House. The man stood for a while glaring around
+him, summoning his own pluck for a renewal of his attack on Mr Brown,
+determined that he would be appalled and put down neither by the
+ridicule of those around him, nor by his want of familiarity with the
+place; but still utterly unable to find words with which to carry on
+the combat. 'I ought to know something about it,' said Melmotte
+sitting down and hiding his indignation and his shame under his hat.
+
+'We are sure that the honourable member for Westminster does
+understand the subject,' said the leader of the House, 'and we shall
+be very glad to hear his remarks. The House I am sure will pardon
+ignorance of its rules in so young a member.'
+
+But Mr Melmotte would not rise again. He had made a great effort, and
+had at any rate exhibited his courage. Though they might all say that
+he had not displayed much eloquence, they would be driven to admit
+that he had not been ashamed to show himself. He kept his seat till
+the regular stampede was made for dinner, and then walked out with as
+stately a demeanour as he could assume.
+
+'Well, that was plucky!' said Cohenlupe, taking his friend's arm in
+the lobby.
+
+'I don't see any pluck in it. That old fool Brown didn't know what he
+was talking about, and I wanted to tell them so. They wouldn't let me
+do it, and there's an end of it. It seems to me to be a stupid sort of
+a place.'
+
+'Has Longestaffe's money been paid?' said Cohenlupe opening his black
+eyes while he looked up into his friend's face.
+
+'Don't you trouble your head about Longestaffe, or his money either,'
+said Melmotte, getting into his brougham; 'do you leave Mr Longestaffe
+and his money to me. I hope you are not such a fool as to be scared by
+what the other fools say. When men play such a game as you and I are
+concerned in, they ought to know better than to be afraid of every
+word that is spoken.'
+
+'Oh, dear; yes,' said Cohenlupe apologetically. 'You don't suppose
+that I am afraid of anything.' But at that moment Mr Cohenlupe was
+meditating his own escape from the dangerous shores of England, and
+was trying to remember what happy country still was left in which an
+order from the British police would have no power to interfere with
+the comfort of a retired gentleman such as himself.
+
+That evening Madame Melmotte told her husband that Marie was now
+willing to marry Lord Nidderdale;--but she did not say anything as
+to the crossing-sweeper or the black footman, nor did she allude to
+Marie's threat of the sort of life she would lead her husband.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXX - SIR FELIX MEDDLES WITH MANY MATTERS
+
+
+There is no duty more certain or fixed in the world than that which
+calls upon a brother to defend his sister from ill-usage; but, at the
+same time, in the way we live now, no duty is more difficult, and we
+may say generally more indistinct. The ill-usage to which men's
+sisters are most generally exposed is one which hardly admits of
+either protection or vengeance,--although the duty of protecting and
+avenging is felt and acknowledged. We are not allowed to fight duels,
+and that banging about of another man with a stick is always
+disagreeable and seldom successful. A John Crumb can do it, perhaps,
+and come out of the affair exulting; but not a Sir Felix Carbury, even
+if the Sir Felix of the occasion have the requisite courage. There is
+a feeling, too, when a girl has been jilted,--thrown over, perhaps, is
+the proper term,--after the gentleman has had the fun of making love to
+her for an entire season, and has perhaps even been allowed privileges
+as her promised husband, that the less said the better. The girl does
+not mean to break her heart for love of the false one, and become the
+tragic heroine of a tale for three months. It is her purpose again to
+
+        --trick her beams, and with new-spangled ore
+        Flame in the forehead of the morning sky.
+
+Though this one has been false, as were perhaps two or three before,
+still the road to success is open. Uno avulso non deficit alter. But
+if all the notoriety of cudgels and cutting whips be given to the late
+unfortunate affair, the difficulty of finding a substitute will be
+greatly increased. The brother recognizes his duty, and prepares for
+vengeance. The injured one probably desires that she may be left to
+fight her own little battles alone.
+
+'Then, by heaven, he shall answer it to me,' Sir Felix had said very
+grandly, when his sister had told him that she was engaged to a man
+who was, as he thought he knew, engaged also to marry another woman.
+Here, no doubt, was gross ill-usage, and opportunity at any rate for
+threats. No money was required and no immediate action,--and Sir Felix
+could act the fine gentleman and the dictatorial brother at very
+little present expense. But Hetta, who ought perhaps to have known her
+brother more thoroughly, was fool enough to believe him. On the day
+but one following, no answer had as yet come from Roger Carbury,--nor
+could as yet have come. But Hetta's mind was full of her trouble, and
+she remembered her brother's threat. Felix had forgotten that he had
+made a threat,--and, indeed, had thought no more of the matter since
+his interview with his sister.
+
+'Felix,' she said, 'you won't mention that to Mr Montague!'
+
+'Mention what? Oh! about that woman, Mrs Hurtle? Indeed I shall. A man
+who does that kind of thing ought to be crushed;--and, by heavens, if
+he does it to you, he shall be crushed.'
+
+'I want to tell you, Felix. If it is so, I will see him no more.'
+
+'If it is so! I tell you I know it.'
+
+'Mamma has written to Roger. At least I feel sure she has.'
+
+'What has she written to him for? What has Roger Carbury to do with
+our affairs?'
+
+'Only you said he knew! If he says so, that is, if you and he both say
+that he is to marry that woman,--I will not see Mr Montague again. Pray
+do not go to him. If such a misfortune does come, it is better to bear
+it and to be silent. What good can be done?'
+
+'Leave that to me,' said Sir Felix, walking out of the room with much
+fraternal bluster. Then he went forth, and at once had himself driven
+to Paul Montague's lodgings. Had Hetta not been foolish enough to
+remind him of his duty, he would not now have undertaken the task. He
+too, no doubt, remembered as he went that duels were things of the
+past, and that even fists and sticks are considered to be out of
+fashion. 'Montague,' he said, assuming all the dignity of demeanour
+that his late sorrows had left to him, 'I believe I am right in saying
+that you are engaged to marry that American lady, Mrs Hurtle.'
+
+'Then let me tell you that you were never more wrong in your life.
+What business have you with Mrs Hurtle?'
+
+'When a man proposes to my sister, I think I've a great deal of
+business,' said Sir Felix.
+
+'Well;--yes; I admit that fully. If I answered you roughly, I beg your
+pardon. Now as to the facts. I am not going to marry Mrs Hurtle. I
+suppose I know how you have heard her name;--but as you have heard it,
+I have no hesitation in telling you so much. As you know where she is
+to be found you can go and ask her if you please. On the other hand,
+it is the dearest wish of my heart to marry your sister. I trust that
+will be enough for you.'
+
+'You were engaged to Mrs Hurtle?'
+
+'My dear Carbury, I don't think I'm bound to tell you all the details
+of my past life. At any rate, I don't feel inclined to do so in answer
+to hostile questions. I dare say you have heard enough of Mrs Hurtle
+to justify you, as your sister's brother, in asking me whether I am in
+any way entangled by a connection with her. I tell you that I am not.
+If you still doubt, I refer you to the lady herself. Beyond that, I do
+not think I am called on to go; and beyond that I won't go,--at any
+rate, at present.' Sir Felix still blustered, and made what capital he
+could out of his position as a brother; but he took no steps towards
+positive revenge. 'Of course, Carbury,' said the other, 'I wish to
+regard you as a brother; and if I am rough to you, it is only because
+you are rough to me.'
+
+Sir Felix was now in that part of town which he had been accustomed to
+haunt,--for the first time since his misadventure,--and, plucking up
+his courage, resolved that he would turn into the Beargarden. He would
+have a glass of sherry, and face the one or two men who would as yet
+be there, and in this way gradually creep back to his old habits. But
+when he arrived there, the club was shut up. 'What the deuce is
+Vossner about?' said he, pulling out his watch. It was nearly five
+o'clock. He rang the bell, and knocked at the door, feeling that this
+was an occasion for courage. One of the servants, in what we may call
+private clothes, after some delay, drew back the bolts, and told him
+the astounding news;--The club was shut up! 'Do you mean to say I can't
+come in?' said Sir Felix. The man certainly did mean to tell him so,
+for he opened the door no more than a foot, and stood in that narrow
+aperture. Mr Vossner had gone away. There had been a meeting of the
+Committee, and the club was shut up. Whatever further information
+rested in the waiter's bosom he declined to communicate to Sir Felix
+Carbury.
+
+'By George!' The wrong that was done him filled the young baronet's
+bosom with indignation. He had intended, he assured himself, to dine
+at his club, to spend the evening there sportively, to be pleasant
+among his chosen companions. And now the club was shut up, and Vossner
+had gone away! What business had the club to be shut up? What right
+had Vossner to go away? Had he not paid his subscription in advance?
+Throughout the world, the more wrong a man does, the more indignant is
+he at wrong done to him. Sir Felix almost thought that he could
+recover damages from the whole Committee.
+
+He went direct to Mrs Pipkin's house. When he made that half promise
+of marriage in Mrs Pipkin's hearing, he had said that he would come
+again on the morrow. This he had not done; but of that he thought
+nothing. Such breaches of faith, when committed by a young man in his
+position, require not even an apology. He was admitted by Ruby herself
+who was of course delighted to see him. 'Who do you think is in town?'
+she said. 'John Crumb; but though he came here ever so smart, I
+wouldn't so much as speak to him, except to tell him to go away.' Sir
+Felix, when he heard the name, felt an uncomfortable sensation creep
+over him. 'I don't know I'm sure what he should come after me for, and
+me telling him as plain as the nose on his face that I never want to
+see him again.'
+
+'He's not of much account,' said the baronet.
+
+'He would marry me out and out immediately, if I'd have him,'
+continued Ruby, who perhaps thought that her honest old lover should
+not be spoken of as being altogether of no account. 'And he has
+everything comfortable in the way of furniture, and all that. And they
+do say he's ever so much money in the bank. But I detest him,' said
+Ruby, shaking her pretty head, and inclining herself towards her
+aristocratic lover's shoulder.
+
+This took place in the back parlour, before Mrs Pipkin had ascended
+from the kitchen prepared to disturb so much romantic bliss with
+wretched references to the cold outer world. 'Well, now, Sir Felix,'
+she began, 'if things is square, of course you're welcome to see my
+niece.'
+
+'And what if they're round, Mrs Pipkin?' said the gallant, careless,
+sparkling Lothario.
+
+'Well, or round either, so long as they're honest.'
+
+'Ruby and I are both honest;--ain't we, Ruby? I want to take her out
+to dinner, Mrs Pipkin. She shall be back before late;--before ten; she
+shall indeed.' Ruby inclined herself still more closely towards his
+shoulder. 'Come, Ruby, get your hat and change your dress, and we'll
+be off. I've ever so many things to tell you.'
+
+Ever so many things to tell her! They must be to fix a day for the
+marriage, and to let her know where they were to live, and to settle
+what dress she should wear,--and perhaps to give her the money to go
+and buy it! Ever so many things to tell her! She looked up into Mrs
+Pipkin's face with imploring eyes. Surely on such an occasion as this
+an aunt would not expect that her niece should be a prisoner and a
+slave. 'Have it been put in writing, Sir Felix Carbury?' demanded Mrs
+Pipkin with cruel gravity. Mrs Hurtle had given it as her decided
+opinion that Sir Felix would not really mean to marry Ruby Ruggles
+unless he showed himself willing to do so with all the formality of a
+written contract.
+
+'Writing be bothered,' said Sir Felix.
+
+'That's all very well, Sir Felix. Writing do bother, very often. But
+when a gentleman has intentions, a bit of writing shows it plainer nor
+words. Ruby don't go nowhere to dine unless you puts it into writing.'
+
+'Aunt Pipkin!' exclaimed the wretched Ruby.
+
+'What do you think I'm going to do with her?' asked Sir Felix.
+
+'If you want to make her your wife, put it in writing. And if it be as
+you don't, just say so, and walk away,--free.'
+
+'I shall go,' said Ruby. 'I'm not going to be kept here a prisoner for
+any one. I can go when I please. You wait, Felix, and I'll be down in
+a minute.' The girl, with a nimble spring, ran upstairs, and began to
+change her dress without giving herself a moment for thought.
+
+'She don't come back no more here, Sir Felix,' said Mrs Pipkin, in her
+most solemn tones. 'She ain't nothing to me, no more than she was my
+poor dear husband's sister's child. There ain't no blood between us,
+and won't be no disgrace. But I'd be loth to see her on the streets.'
+
+'Then why won't you let me bring her back again?'
+
+''Cause that'd be the way to send her there. You don't mean to marry
+her.' To this Sir Felix said nothing. 'You're not thinking of that.
+It's just a bit of sport,--and then there she is, an old shoe to be
+chucked away, just a rag to be swept into the dust-bin. I've seen
+scores of 'em, and I'd sooner a child of mine should die in a workus',
+or be starved to death. But it's all nothing to the likes o' you.'
+
+'I haven't done her any harm,' said Sir Felix, almost frightened.
+
+'Then go away, and don't do her any. That's Mrs Hurtle's door open.
+You go and speak to her. She can talk a deal better nor me.'
+
+'Mrs Hurtle hasn't been able to manage her own affairs very well.'
+
+'Mrs Hurtle's a lady, Sir Felix, and a widow, and one as has seen the
+world.' As she spoke, Mrs Hurtle came downstairs, and an introduction,
+after some rude fashion, was effected between her and Sir Felix. Mrs
+Hurtle had heard often of Sir Felix Carbury, and was quite as certain
+as Mrs Pipkin that he did not mean to marry Ruby Ruggles. In a few
+minutes Felix found himself alone with Mrs Hurtle in her own room. He
+had been anxious to see the woman since he had heard of her engagement
+with Paul Montague, and doubly anxious since he had also heard of
+Paul's engagement with his sister. It was not an hour since Paul
+himself had referred him to her for corroboration of his own
+statement.
+
+'Sir Felix Carbury,' she said, 'I am afraid you are doing that poor
+girl no good, and are intending to do her none.' It did occur to him
+very strongly that this could be no affair of Mrs Hurtle's, and that
+he, as a man of position in society, was being interfered with in an
+unjustifiable manner. Aunt Pipkin wasn't even an aunt; but who was Mrs
+Hurtle? 'Would it not be better that you should leave her to become
+the wife of a man who is really fond of her?'
+
+He could already see something in Mrs Hurtle's eye which prevented his
+at once bursting into wrath;--but! who was Mrs Hurtle, that she should
+interfere with him? 'Upon my word, ma'am,' he said, 'I'm very much
+obliged to you, but I don't quite know to what I owe the honour of
+your--your--'
+
+'Interference you mean.'
+
+'I didn't say so, but perhaps that's about it.'
+
+'I'd interfere to save any woman that God ever made,' said Mrs Hurtle
+with energy. 'We're all apt to wait a little too long, because we're
+ashamed to do any little good that chance puts in our way. You must go
+and leave her, Sir Felix.'
+
+'I suppose she may do as she pleases about that.'
+
+'Do you mean to make her your wife?' asked Mrs Hurtle sternly.
+
+'Does Mr Paul Montague mean to make you his wife?' rejoined Sir Felix
+with an impudent swagger. He had struck the blow certainly hard
+enough, and it had gone all the way home. She had not surmised that he
+would have heard aught of her own concerns. She only barely connected
+him with that Roger Carbury who, she knew, was Paul's great friend,
+and she had as yet never heard that Hetta Carbury was the girl whom
+Paul loved. Had Paul so talked about her that this young scamp should
+know all her story?
+
+She thought awhile,--she had to think for a moment,--before she could
+answer him. 'I do not see,' she said, with a faint attempt at a smile,
+'that there is any parallel between the two cases. I, at any rate, am
+old enough to take care of myself. Should he not marry me, I am as I
+was before. Will it be so with that poor girl if she allows herself to
+be taken about the town by you at night?' She had desired in what she
+said to protect Ruby rather than herself. What could it matter whether
+this young man was left in a belief that she was, or that she was not,
+about to be married?
+
+'If you'll answer me, I'll answer you,' said Sir Felix. 'Does Mr
+Montague mean to make you his wife?'
+
+'It does not concern you to know,' said she, flashing upon him. 'The
+question is insolent.'
+
+'It does concern me,--a great deal more than anything about Ruby can
+concern you. And as you won't answer me, I won't answer you.'
+
+'Then, sir, that girl's fate will be upon your head.'
+
+'I know all about that,' said the baronet.
+
+'And the young man who has followed her up to town will probably know
+where to find you,' added Mrs Hurtle.
+
+To such a threat as this, no answer could be made, and Sir Felix left
+the room. At any rate, John Crumb was not there at present. And were
+there not policemen in London? And what additional harm would be done
+to John Crumb, or what increase of danger engendered in that true
+lover's breast, by one additional evening's amusement? Ruby had danced
+with him so often at the Music Hall that John Crumb could hardly be
+made more bellicose by the fact of her dining with him on this
+evening. When he descended, he found Ruby in the hall, all arrayed.
+'You don't come in here again to-night,' said Mrs Pipkin, thumping the
+little table which stood in the passage, 'if you goes out of that
+there door with that there young man.'
+
+'Then I shall,' said Ruby linking herself on to her lover's arm.
+
+'Baggage! Slut!' said Mrs Pipkin; 'after all I've done for you, just
+as one as though you were my own flesh and blood.'
+
+'I've worked for it, I suppose;--haven't I?' rejoined Ruby.
+
+'You send for your things to-morrow, for you don't come in here no
+more. You ain't nothing to me no more nor no other girl. But I'd 've
+saved you, if you'd but a' let me. As for you,'--and she looked at Sir
+Felix,--'only because I've lodgings to let, and because of the lady
+upstairs, I'd shake you that well, you'd never come here no more after
+poor girls.' I do not think that she need have feared any remonstrance
+from Mrs Hurtle, even had she put her threat into execution.
+
+Sir Felix, thinking that he had had enough of Mrs Pipkin and her
+lodger, left the house with Ruby on his arm. For the moment, Ruby had
+been triumphant, and was happy. She did not stop to consider whether
+her aunt would or would not open her door when she should return
+tired, and perhaps repentant. She was on her lover's arm, in her best
+clothes, and going out to have a dinner given to her. And her lover
+had told her that he had ever so many things,--ever so many things to
+say to her! But she would ask no impertinent questions in the first
+hour of her bliss. It was so pleasant to walk with him up to
+Pentonville;--so joyous to turn into a gay enclosure, half public-house
+and half tea-garden; so pleasant to hear him order the good things,
+which in his company would be so nice! Who cannot understand that even
+an urban Rosherville must be an Elysium to those who have lately been
+eating their meals in all the gloom of a small London underground
+kitchen? There we will leave Ruby in her bliss.
+
+At about nine that evening John Crumb called at Mrs Pipkin's, and was
+told that Ruby had gone out with Sir Felix Carbury. He hit his leg a
+blow with his fist, and glared out of his eyes. 'He'll have it hot
+some day,' said John Crumb. He was allowed to remain waiting for Ruby
+till midnight, and then, with a sorrowful heart, he took his
+departure.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXI - JOHN CRUMB FALLS INTO TROUBLE
+
+
+It was on a Friday evening, an inauspicious Friday, that poor Ruby
+Ruggles had insisted on leaving the security of her Aunt Pipkin's
+house with her aristocratic and vicious lover, in spite of the
+positive assurance made to her by Mrs Pipkin that if she went forth in
+such company she should not be allowed to return. 'Of course you must
+let her in,' Mrs Hurtle had said soon after the girl's departure.
+Whereupon Mrs Pipkin had cried. She knew her own softness too well to
+suppose it to be possible that she could keep the girl out in the
+streets all night; but yet it was hard upon her, very hard, that she
+should be so troubled. 'We usen't to have our ways like that when I
+was young,' she said, sobbing. What was to be the end of it? Was she
+to be forced by circumstances to keep the girl always there, let the
+girl's conduct be what it might? Nevertheless she acknowledged that
+Ruby must be let in when she came back. Then, about nine o'clock, John
+Crumb came; and the latter part of the evening was more melancholy
+even than the first. It was impossible to conceal the truth from John
+Crumb. Mrs Hurtle saw the poor man and told the story in Mrs Pipkin's
+presence.
+
+'She's headstrong, Mr Crumb,' said Mrs Hurtle.
+
+'She is that, ma'am. And it was along wi' the baronite she went?'
+
+'It was so, Mr Crumb.'
+
+'Baro-nite! Well;--perhaps I shall catch him some of these days;--went
+to dinner wi' him, did she? Didn't she have no dinner here?'
+
+Then Mrs Pipkin spoke up with a keen sense of offence. Ruby Ruggles
+had had as wholesome a dinner as any young woman in London,--a
+bullock's heart and potatoes,--just as much as ever she had pleased to
+eat of it. Mrs Pipkin could tell Mr Crumb that there was 'no starvation
+nor yet no stint in her house.' John Crumb immediately produced a very
+thick and admirably useful blue cloth cloak, which he had brought up
+with him to London from Bungay, as a present to the woman who had been
+good to his Ruby. He assured her that he did not doubt that her victuals
+were good and plentiful, and went on to say that he had made bold to
+bring her a trifle out of respect. It was some little time before Mrs
+Pipkin would allow herself to be appeased;--but at last she permitted
+the garment to be placed on her shoulders. But it was done after a
+melancholy fashion. There was no smiling consciousness of the bestowal
+of joy on the countenance of the donor as he gave it, no exuberance of
+thanks from the recipient as she received it. Mrs Hurtle, standing by,
+declared it to be perfect;--but the occasion was one which admitted of
+no delight. 'It's very good of you, Mr Crumb, to think of an old woman
+like me,--particularly when you've such a deal of trouble with a young
+un'.'
+
+'It's like the smut in the wheat, Mrs Pipkin, or the d'sease in the
+'tatoes;--it has to be put up with, I suppose. Is she very partial,
+ma'am, to that young baronite?' This question was asked of Mrs Hurtle.
+
+'Just a fancy for the time, Mr Crumb,' said the lady.
+
+'They never thinks as how their fancies may wellnigh half kill a man!'
+Then he was silent for a while, sitting back in his chair, not moving
+a limb, with his eyes fastened on Mrs Pipkin's ceiling. Mrs Hurtle had
+some work in her hand, and sat watching him. The man was to her an
+extraordinary being,--so constant, so slow, so unexpressive, so unlike
+her own countrymen,--willing to endure so much, and at the same time so
+warm in his affections! 'Sir Felix Carbury!' he said. 'I'll Sir Felix
+him some of these days. If it was only dinner, wouldn't she be back
+afore this, ma'am?'
+
+'I suppose they've gone to some place of amusement,' said Mrs Hurtle.
+
+'Like enough,' said John Crumb in a low voice.
+
+'She's that mad after dancing as never was,' said Mrs Pipkin.
+
+'And where is it as 'em dances?' asked Crumb, getting up from his
+chair, and stretching himself. It was evident to both the ladies that
+he was beginning to think that he would follow Ruby to the music hall.
+Neither of them answered him, however, and then he sat down again.
+'Does 'em dance all night at them places, Mrs Pipkin?'
+
+'They do pretty nearly all that they oughtn't to do,' said Mrs Pipkin.
+John Crumb raised one of his fists, brought it down heavily on the
+palm of his other hand, and then sat silent for awhile.
+
+'I never knowed as she was fond o' dancing,' he said. 'I'd a had
+dancing for her down at Bungay,--just as ready as anything. D'ye
+think, ma'am, it's the dancing she's after, or the baro-nite?' This
+was another appeal to Mrs Hurtle.
+
+'I suppose they go together,' said the lady.
+
+Then there was another long pause, at the end of which poor John Crumb
+burst out with some violence. 'Domn him! Domn him! What 'ad I ever dun
+to him? Nothing! Did I ever interfere wi' him? Never! But I wull. I
+wull. I wouldn't wonder but I'll swing for this at Bury!'
+
+'Oh, Mr Crumb, don't talk like that,' said Mrs Pipkin.
+
+'Mr Crumb is a little disturbed, but he'll get over it presently,'
+said Mrs Hurtle.
+
+'She's a nasty slut to go and treat a young man as she's treating
+you,' said Mrs Pipkin.
+
+'No, ma'am;--she ain't nasty,' said the lover. 'But she's crou'll,--
+horrid crou'll. It's no more use my going down about meal and pollard,
+nor business, and she up here with that baro-nite,--no, no more nor
+nothin'! When I handles it I don't know whether its middlings nor
+nothin' else. If I was to twist his neck, ma'am, would you take it on
+yourself to say as I was wrong?'
+
+'I'd sooner hear that you had taken the girl away from him,' said Mrs
+Hurtle.
+
+'I could pretty well eat him,--that's what I could. Half past eleven;
+is it? She must come some time, mustn't she?' Mrs Pipkin, who did not
+want to burn candles all night long, declared that she could give no
+assurance on that head. If Ruby did come, she should, on that night,
+be admitted. But Mrs Pipkin thought that it would be better to get up
+and let her in than to sit up for her. Poor Mr Crumb did not at once
+take the hint, and remained there for another half-hour, saying
+little, but waiting with the hope that Ruby might come. But when the
+clock struck twelve he was told that he must go. Then he slowly
+collected his limbs and dragged them out of the house.
+
+'That young man is a good fellow,' said Mrs Hurtle as soon as the door
+was closed.
+
+'A deal too good for Ruby Ruggles,' said Mrs Pipkin. 'And he can
+maintain a wife. Mr Carbury says as he's as well to do as any
+tradesman down in them parts.'
+
+Mrs Hurtle disliked the name of Mr Carbury, and took this last
+statement as no evidence in John Crumb's favour. 'I don't know that I
+think better of the man for having Mr Carbury's friendship,' she said.
+
+'Mr Carbury ain't any way like his cousin, Mrs Hurtle.'
+
+'I don't think much of any of the Carburys, Mrs Pipkin. It seems to me
+that everybody here is either too humble or too overbearing. Nobody
+seems content to stand firm on his own footing and interfere with
+nobody else.' This was all Greek to poor Mrs Pipkin. 'I suppose we may
+as well go to bed now. When that girl comes and knocks, of course we
+must let her in. If I hear her, I'll go down and open the door for
+her.'
+
+Mrs Pipkin made very many apologies to her lodger for the condition of
+her household. She would remain up herself to answer the door at the
+first sound, so that Mrs Hurtle should not be disturbed. She would do
+her best to prevent any further annoyance. She trusted Mrs Hurtle
+would see that she was endeavouring to do her duty by the naughty
+wicked girl. And then she came round to the point of her discourse.
+She hoped that Mrs Hurtle would not be induced to quit the rooms by
+these disagreeable occurrences. 'I don't mind saying it now, Mrs
+Hurtle, but your being here is ever so much to me. I ain't nothing to
+depend on,--only lodgers, and them as is any good is so hard to get!'
+The poor woman hardly understood Mrs Hurtle, who, as a lodger, was
+certainly peculiar. She cared nothing for disturbances, and rather
+liked than otherwise the task of endeavouring to assist in the
+salvation of Ruby. Mrs Hurtle begged that Mrs Pipkin would go to bed.
+She would not be in the least annoyed by the knocking. Another
+half-hour had thus been passed by the two ladies in the parlour after
+Crumb's departure. Then Mrs Hurtle took her candle and had ascended
+the stairs half way to her own sitting-room, when a loud double knock
+was heard. She immediately joined Mrs Pipkin in the passage. The door
+was opened, and there stood Ruby Ruggles, John Crumb, and two
+policemen! Ruby rushed in, and casting herself on to one of the stairs
+began to throw her hands about, and to howl piteously. 'Laws a mercy;
+what is it?' asked Mrs Pipkin.
+
+'He's been and murdered him!' screamed Ruby. 'He has! He's been and
+murdered him!'
+
+'This young woman is living here;--is she?' asked one of the
+policemen.
+
+'She is living here,' said Mrs Hurtle. But now we must go back to the
+adventures of John Crumb after he had left the house.
+
+He had taken a bedroom at a small inn close to the Eastern Counties
+Railway Station which he was accustomed to frequent when business
+brought him up to London, and thither he proposed to himself to
+return. At one time there had come upon him an idea that he would
+endeavour to seek Ruby and his enemy among the dancing saloons of the
+metropolis; and he had asked a question with that view. But no answer
+had been given which seemed to aid him in his project, and his purpose
+had been abandoned as being too complex and requiring more
+intelligence than he gave himself credit for possessing. So he had
+turned down a street with which he was so far acquainted as to know
+that it would take him to the Islington Angel,--where various roads
+meet, and whence he would know his way eastwards. He had just passed
+the Angel, and the end of Goswell Road, and was standing with his
+mouth open, looking about, trying to make certain of himself that he
+would not go wrong, thinking that he would ask a policeman whom he
+saw, and hesitating because he feared that the man would want to know
+his business. Then, of a sudden, he heard a woman scream, and knew
+that it was Ruby's voice. The sound was very near him, but in the
+glimmer of the gaslight he could not quite see whence it came. He
+stood still, putting his hand up to scratch his head under his hat,--
+trying to think what, in such an emergency, it would be well that he
+should do. Then he heard the voice distinctly, 'I won't;--I won't,'
+and after that a scream. Then there were further words. 'It's no good
+--I won't.' At last he was able to make up his mind. He rushed after
+the sound, and turning down a passage to the right which led back into
+Goswell Road, saw Ruby struggling in a man's arms. She had left the
+dancing establishment with her lover; and when they had come to the
+turn of the passage, there had arisen a question as to her further
+destiny for the night. Ruby, though she well remembered Mrs Pipkin's
+threats, was minded to try her chance at her aunt's door. Sir Felix
+was of opinion that he could make a preferable arrangement for her;
+and as Ruby was not at once amenable to his arguments he had thought
+that a little gentle force might avail him. He had therefore dragged
+Ruby into the passage. The unfortunate one! That so ill a chance
+should have come upon him in the midst of his diversion! He had
+swallowed several tumblers of brandy and water, and was therefore
+brave with reference to that interference of the police, the fear of
+which might otherwise have induced him to relinquish his hold of
+Ruby's arm when she first raised her voice. But what amount of brandy
+and water would have enabled him to persevere, could he have dreamed
+that John Crumb was near him? On a sudden he found a hand on his coat,
+and he was swung violently away, and brought with his back against the
+railings so forcibly as to have the breath almost knocked out of his
+body. But he could hear Ruby's exclamation, 'If it isn't John Crumb!'
+Then there came upon him a sense of coming destruction, as though the
+world for him were all over; and, collapsing throughout his limbs, he
+slunk down upon the ground.
+
+'Get up, you wiper,' said John Crumb. But the baronet thought it
+better to cling to the ground. 'You sholl get up,' said John, taking
+him by the collar of his coat and lifting him. 'Now, Ruby, he's
+a-going to have it,' said John. Whereupon Ruby screamed at the top of
+her voice, with a shriek very much louder than that which had at first
+attracted John Crumb's notice.
+
+'Don't hit a man when he's down,' said the baronet, pleading as though
+for his life.
+
+'I wunt,' said John;--'but I'll hit a fellow when un's up.' Sir Felix
+was little more than a child in the man's arms. John Crumb raised him,
+and catching him round the neck with his left arm,--getting his head
+into chancery as we used to say when we fought at school,--struck the
+poor wretch some half-dozen times violently in the face, not knowing
+or caring exactly where he hit him, but at every blow obliterating a
+feature. And he would have continued had not Ruby flown at him and
+rescued Sir Felix from his arms. 'He's about got enough of it,' said
+John Crumb as he gave over his work. Then Sir Felix fell again to the
+ground, moaning fearfully. 'I know'd he'd have to have it,' said John
+Crumb.
+
+Ruby's screams of course brought the police, one arriving from each
+end of the passage on the scene of action at the same time. And now
+the cruellest thing of all was that Ruby in the complaints which she
+made to the policemen said not a word against Sir Felix, but was as
+bitter as she knew how to be in her denunciations of John Crumb. It
+was in vain that John endeavoured to make the man understand that the
+young woman had been crying out for protection when he had interfered.
+Ruby was very quick of speech and John Crumb was very slow. Ruby swore
+that nothing so horrible, so cruel, so bloodthirsty had ever been done
+before. Sir Felix himself when appealed to could say nothing. He could
+only moan and make futile efforts to wipe away the stream of blood
+from his face when the men stood him up leaning against the railings.
+And John, though he endeavoured to make the policemen comprehend the
+extent of the wickedness of the young baronet, would not say a word
+against Ruby. He was not even in the least angered by her
+denunciations of himself. As he himself said sometimes afterwards, he
+had 'dropped into the baronite' just in time, and, having been
+successful in this, felt no wrath against Ruby for having made such an
+operation necessary.
+
+There was soon a third policeman on the spot, and a dozen other
+persons, cab-drivers, haunters of the street by night, and houseless
+wanderers, casuals who at this season of the year preferred the
+pavements to the poorhouse wards. They all took part against John
+Crumb. Why had the big man interfered between the young woman and her
+young man? Two or three of them wiped Sir Felix's face, and dabbed his
+eyes, and proposed this and the other remedy. Some thought that he had
+better be taken straight to an hospital. One lady remarked that he was
+so mashed and mauled that she was sure he would never 'come to'
+again. A precocious youth remarked that he was 'all one as a dead
+un'.' A cabman observed that he had ''ad it awful 'eavy.' To all these
+criticisms on his condition Sir Felix himself made no direct reply,
+but he intimated his desire to be carried away somewhere, though he did
+not much care whither.
+
+At last the policemen among them decided upon a course of action. They
+had learned by the united testimony of Ruby and Crumb that Sir Felix
+was Sir Felix. He was to be carried in a cab by one constable to
+Bartholomew Hospital, who would then take his address so that he might
+be produced and bound over to prosecute. Ruby should be even conducted
+to the address she gave,--not half a mile from the spot on which they
+now stood,--and be left there or not according to the account which
+might be given of her. John Crumb must be undoubtedly locked up in the
+station-house. He was the offender;--for aught that any of them yet
+knew, the murderer. No one said a good word for him. He hardly said a
+good word for himself, and certainly made no objection to the
+treatment that had been proposed for him. But, no doubt, he was buoyed
+up inwardly by the conviction that he had thoroughly thrashed his
+enemy.
+
+Thus it came to pass that the two policemen with John Crumb and Ruby
+came together to Mrs Pipkin's door. Ruby was still loud with
+complaints against the ruffian who had beaten her lover,--who, perhaps,
+had killed her loved one. She threatened the gallows, and handcuffs,
+and perpetual imprisonment, and an action for damages amidst her
+lamentations. But from Mrs Hurtle the policemen did manage to learn
+something of the truth. Oh yes;--the girl lived there and was--
+respectable. This man whom they had arrested was respectable also, and
+was the girl's proper lover. The other man who had been beaten was
+undoubtedly the owner of a title; but he was not respectable, and was
+only the girl's improper lover. And John Crumb's name was given. 'I'm
+John Crumb of Bungay,' said he, 'and I ain't afeared of nothin' nor
+nobody. And I ain't a been a drinking; no, I ain't. Mauled un'! In
+course I've mauled un'. And I meaned it. That ere young woman is
+engaged to be my wife.'
+
+'No, I ain't,' shouted Ruby.
+
+'But she is,' persisted John Crumb.
+
+'Well then, I never will,' rejoined Ruby.
+
+John Crumb turned upon her a look of love, and put his hand on his
+heart. Whereupon the senior policeman said that he saw at a glance how
+it all was, but that Mr Crumb had better come along with him just for
+the present. To this arrangement the unfortunate hero from Bungay made
+not the slightest objection.
+
+'Miss Ruggles,' said Mrs Hurtle, 'if that young man doesn't conquer
+you at last you can't have a heart in your bosom.'
+
+'Indeed and I have then, and I don't mean to give it him if it's ever
+so. He's been and killed Sir Felix.' Mrs Hurtle in a whisper to Mrs
+Pipkin expressed a wicked wish that it might be so. After that the
+three women all went to bed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXII - 'ASK HIMSELF'
+
+
+Roger Carbury when he received the letter from Hetta's mother desiring
+him to tell her all that he knew of Paul Montague's connection with
+Mrs Hurtle found himself quite unable to write a reply. He endeavoured
+to ask himself what he would do in such a case if he himself were not
+personally concerned. What advice in this emergency would he give to
+the mother and what to the daughter, were he himself uninterested? He
+was sure that, as Hetta's cousin and asking as though he were Hetta's
+brother, he would tell her that Paul Montague's entanglement with that
+American woman should have forbidden him at any rate for the present
+to offer his hand to any other lady. He thought that he knew enough of
+all the circumstances to be sure that such would be his decision. He
+had seen Mrs Hurtle with Montague at Lowestoft, and had known that
+they were staying together as friends at the same hotel. He knew that
+she had come to England with the express purpose of enforcing the
+fulfilment of an engagement which Montague had often acknowledged. He
+knew that Montague made frequent visits to her in London. He had,
+indeed, been told by Montague himself that, let the cost be what it
+might, the engagement should be and in fact had been broken off. He
+thoroughly believed the man's word, but put no trust whatever in his
+firmness. And, hitherto, he had no reason whatever for supposing that
+Mrs Hurtle had consented to be abandoned. What father, what elder
+brother would allow a daughter or a sister to become engaged to a man
+embarrassed by such difficulties? He certainly had counselled Montague
+to rid himself of the trammels by which he had surrounded himself;--
+but not on that account could he think that the man in his present
+condition was fit to engage himself to another woman.
+
+All this was clear to Roger Carbury. But then it had been equally
+clear to him that he could not, as a man of honour, assist his own
+cause by telling a tale,--which tale had become known to him as the
+friend of the man against whom it would have to be told. He had
+resolved upon that as he left Montague and Mrs Hurtle together upon
+the sands at Lowestoft. But what was he to do now? The girl whom he
+loved had confessed her love for the other man,--that man, who in
+seeking the girl's love, had been as he thought so foul a traitor to
+himself! That he would hold himself as divided from the man by a
+perpetual and undying hostility he had determined. That his love for
+the woman would be equally perpetual he was quite sure. Already there
+were floating across his brain ideas of perpetuating his name in the
+person of some child of Hetta's,--but with the distinct understanding
+that he and the child's father should never see each other. No more
+than twenty-four hours had intervened between the receipt of Paul's
+letter and that from Lady Carbury,--but during those four-and-twenty
+hours he had almost forgotten Mrs Hurtle. The girl was gone from him,
+and he thought only of his own loss and of Paul's perfidy. Then came
+the direct question as to which he was called upon for a direct
+answer. Did he know anything of facts relating to the presence of a
+certain Mrs Hurtle in London which were of a nature to make it
+inexpedient that Hetta should accept Paul Montague as her betrothed
+lover? Of course he did. The facts were all familiar to him. But how
+was he to tell the facts? In what words was he to answer such a
+letter? If he told the truth as he knew it how was he to secure
+himself against the suspicion of telling a story against his rival in
+order that he might assist himself, or at any rate, punish the rival?
+
+As he could not trust himself to write an answer to Lady Carbury's
+letter he determined that he would go to London. If he must tell the
+story he could tell it better face to face than by any written words.
+So he made the journey, arrived in town late in the evening, and
+knocked at the door in Welbeck Street between ten and eleven on the
+morning after the unfortunate meeting which took place between Sir
+Felix and John Crumb. The page when he opened the door looked as a
+page should look when the family to which he is attached is suffering
+from some terrible calamity. 'My lady' had been summoned to the
+hospital to see Sir Felix who was,--as the page reported,--in a very
+bad way indeed. The page did not exactly know what had happened, but
+supposed that Sir Felix had lost most of his limbs by this time. Yes;
+Miss Carbury was upstairs; and would no doubt see her cousin, though
+she, too, was in a very bad condition; and dreadfully put about. That
+poor Hetta should be 'put about' with her brother in the hospital and
+her lover in the toils of an abominable American woman was natural
+enough.
+
+'What's this about Felix?' asked Roger. The new trouble always has
+precedence over those which are of earlier date.
+
+'Oh Roger, I am so glad to see you. Felix did not come home last
+night, and this morning there came a man from the hospital in the city
+to say that he is there.'
+
+'What has happened to him?'
+
+'Somebody,--somebody has,--beaten him,' said Hetta whimpering. Then she
+told the story as far as she knew it. The messenger from the hospital
+had declared that the young man was in no danger and that none of his
+bones were broken, but that he was terribly bruised about the face,
+that his eyes were in a frightful condition, sundry of his teeth
+knocked out, and his lips cut open. But, the messenger had gone on to
+say, the house surgeon had seen no reason why the young gentleman
+should not be taken home. 'And mamma has gone to fetch him,' said
+Hetta.
+
+'That's John Crumb,' said Roger. Hetta had never heard of John Crumb,
+and simply stared into her cousin's face. 'You have not been told
+about John Crumb? No;--you would not hear of him.'
+
+'Why should John Crumb beat Felix like that?'
+
+'They say, Hetta, that women are the cause of most troubles that occur
+in the world.' The girl blushed up to her eyes, as though the whole
+story of Felix's sin and folly had been told to her. 'If it be as I
+suppose,' continued Roger, 'John Crumb has considered himself to be
+aggrieved and has thus avenged himself.'
+
+'Did you--know of him before?'
+
+'Yes indeed;--very well. He is a neighbour of mine and was in love with
+a girl, with all his heart; and he would have made her his wife and
+have been good to her. He had a home to offer her, and is an honest
+man with whom she would have been safe and respected and happy. Your
+brother saw her and, though he knew the story, though he had been told
+by myself that this honest fellow had placed his happiness on the
+girl's love, he thought,--well, I suppose he thought that such a
+pretty thing as this girl was too good for John Crumb.'
+
+'But Felix has been going to marry Miss Melmotte!'
+
+'You're old-fashioned, Hetta. It used to be the way,--to be off with
+your old love before you are on with the new; but that seems to be all
+changed now. Such fine young fellows as there are now can be in love
+with two at once. That I fear is what Felix has thought;--and now he
+has been punished.'
+
+'You know all about it then?'
+
+'No;--I don't know. But I think it has been so. I do know that John
+Crumb had threatened to do this thing, and I felt sure that sooner or
+later he would be as good as his word. If it has been so, who is to
+blame him?'
+
+Hetta as she heard the story hardly knew whether her cousin, in his
+manner of telling the story, was speaking of that other man, of that
+stranger of whom she had never heard, or of himself. He would have
+made her his wife and have been good to her. He had a home to offer
+her. He was an honest man with whom she would have been safe and
+respected and happy! He had looked at her while speaking as though it
+were her own case of which he spoke. And then, when he talked of the
+old-fashioned way, of being off with the old love before you are on
+with the new, had he not alluded to Paul Montague and this story of
+the American woman? But, if so, it was not for Hetta to notice it
+by words. He must speak more plainly than that before she could be
+supposed to know that he alluded to her own condition. 'It is very
+shocking,' she said.
+
+'Shocking;--yes. One is shocked at it all. I pity your mother, and I
+pity you.'
+
+'It seems to me that nothing ever will be happy for us,' said Hetta.
+She was longing to be told something of Mrs Hurtle, but she did not as
+yet dare to ask the question.
+
+'I do not know whether to wait for your mother or not,' said he after
+a short pause.
+
+'Pray wait for her if you are not very busy.'
+
+'I came up only to see her, but perhaps she would not wish me to be
+here when she brings Felix back to the house.'
+
+'Indeed she will. She would like you always to be here when there are
+troubles. Oh, Roger, I wish you could tell me.'
+
+'Tell you what?'
+
+'She has written to you;--has she not?'
+
+'Yes; she has written to me.'
+
+'And about me?'
+
+'Yes;--about you, Hetta. And, Hetta, Mr Montague has written to me
+also.'
+
+'He told me that he would,' whispered Hetta.
+
+'Did he tell you my answer?'
+
+'No;--he has told me of no answer. I have not seen him since.'
+
+'You do not think that it can have been very kind, do you? I also have
+something of the feeling of John Crumb, though I shall not attempt to
+show it after the same fashion.'
+
+'Did you not say the girl had promised to love that man?'
+
+'I did not say so;--but she had promised. Yes, Hetta; there is a
+difference. The girl then was fickle and went back from her word. You
+never have done that. I am not justified in thinking even a hard
+thought of you. I have never harboured a hard thought of you. It is
+not you that I reproach. But he,--he has been if possible more false
+than Felix.'
+
+'Oh, Roger, how has he been false?'
+
+Still he was not wishful to tell her the story of Mrs Hurtle. The
+treachery of which he was speaking was that which he had thought had
+been committed by his friend towards himself. 'He should have left the
+place and never have come near you,' said Roger, 'when he found how it
+was likely to be with him. He owed it to me not to take the cup of
+water from my lips.'
+
+How was she to tell him that the cup of water never could have touched
+his lips? And yet if this were the only falsehood of which he had to
+tell, she was bound to let him know that it was so. That horrid story
+of Mrs Hurtle;--she would listen to that if she could hear it. She
+would be all ears for that. But she could not admit that her lover had
+sinned in loving her. 'But, Roger,' she said,--'it would have been the
+same.'
+
+'You may say so. You may feel it. You may know it. I at any rate will
+not contradict you when you say that it must have been so. But he
+didn't feel it. He didn't know it. He was to me as a younger brother,--
+and he has robbed me of everything. I understand, Hetta, what you
+mean. I should never have succeeded! My happiness would have been
+impossible if Paul had never come home from America. I have told
+myself so a hundred times, but I cannot therefore forgive him. And I
+won't forgive him, Hetta. Whether you are his wife, or another man's,
+or whether you are Hetta Carbury on to the end, my feeling to you will
+be the same. While we both live, you must be to me the dearest
+creature living. My hatred to him--'
+
+'Oh, Roger, do not say hatred.'
+
+'My hostility to him can make no difference in my feeling to you. I
+tell you that should you become his wife you will still be my love. As
+to not coveting,--how is a man to cease to covet that which he has
+always coveted? But I shall be separated from you. Should I be dying,
+then I should send for you. You are the very essence of my life. I
+have no dream of happiness otherwise than as connected with you. He
+might have my whole property and I would work for my bread, if I could
+only have a chance of winning you to share my toils with me.'
+
+But still there was no word of Mrs Hurtle. 'Roger,' she said, 'I have
+given it all away now. It cannot be given twice.'
+
+'If he were unworthy would your heart never change?'
+
+'I think--never. Roger, is he unworthy?'
+
+'How can you trust me to answer such a question? He is my enemy. He
+has been ungrateful to me as one man hardly ever is to another. He has
+turned all my sweetness to gall, all my flowers to bitter weeds; he
+has choked up all my paths. And now you ask me whether he is unworthy!
+I cannot tell you.'
+
+'If you thought him worthy you would tell me,' she said, getting up
+and taking him by the arm.
+
+'No;--I will tell you nothing. Go to some one else, not to me;' and
+he tried with gentleness but tried ineffectually to disengage himself
+from her hold.
+
+'Roger, if you knew him to be good you would tell me, because you
+yourself are so good. Even though you hated him you would say so. It
+would not be you to leave a false impression even against your
+enemies. I ask you because, however it may be with you, I know I can
+trust you. I can be nothing else to you, Roger; but I love you as a
+sister loves, and I come to you as a sister comes to a brother. He has
+my heart. Tell me;--is there any reason why he should not also have my
+hand?'
+
+'Ask himself, Hetta.'
+
+'And you will tell me nothing? You will not try to save me though you
+know that I am in danger? Who is--Mrs Hurtle?'
+
+'Have you asked him?'
+
+'I had not heard her name when he parted from me. I did not even know
+that such a woman lived. Is it true that he has promised to marry her?
+Felix told me of her, and told me also that you knew. But I cannot
+trust Felix as I would trust you. And mamma says that it is so;--but
+mamma also bids me ask you. There is such a woman?'
+
+'There is such a woman certainly.'
+
+'And she has been,--a friend of Paul's?'
+
+'Whatever be the story, Hetta, you shall not hear it from me. I will
+say neither evil nor good of the man except in regard to his conduct
+to myself. Send for him and ask him to tell you the story of Mrs
+Hurtle as it concerns himself. I do not think he will lie, but if he
+lies you will know that he is lying.'
+
+'And that is all?'
+
+'All that I can say, Hetta. You ask me to be your brother;--but I
+cannot put myself in the place of your brother. I tell you plainly that
+I am your lover, and shall remain so. Your brother would welcome the man
+whom you would choose as your husband. I can never welcome any husband
+of yours. I think if twenty years were to pass over us, and you were
+still Hetta Carbury, I should still be your lover,--though an old one.
+What is now to be done about Felix, Hetta?'
+
+'Ah what can be done? I think sometimes that it will break mamma's
+heart.'
+
+'Your mother makes me angry by her continual indulgence.'
+
+'But what can she do? You would not have her turn him into the
+street?'
+
+'I do not know that I would not. For a time it might serve him
+perhaps. Here is the cab. Here they are. Yes; you had better go down
+and let your mother know that I am here. They will perhaps take him up
+to bed, so that I need not see him.'
+
+Hetta did as she was bid, and met her mother and her brother in the
+hall. Felix having the full use of his arms and legs was able to
+descend from the cab, and hurry across the pavement into the house,
+and then, without speaking a word to his sister, hid himself in the
+dining-room. His face was strapped up with plaister so that not a
+feature was visible; and both his eyes were swollen and blue; part of
+his beard had been cut away, and his physiognomy had altogether been
+so treated that even the page would hardly have known him. 'Roger is
+upstairs, mamma,' said Hetta in the hall.
+
+'Has he heard about Felix;--has he come about that?'
+
+'He has heard only what I have told him. He has come because of your
+letter. He says that a man named Crumb did it.'
+
+'Then he does know. Who can have told him? He always knows everything.
+Oh, Hetta, what am I to do? Where shall I go with this wretched boy?'
+
+'Is he hurt, mamma?'
+
+'Hurt;--of course he is hurt; horribly hurt. The brute tried to kill
+him. They say that he will be dreadfully scarred for ever. But oh,
+Hetta;--what am I to do with him? What am I to do with myself and
+you?'
+
+On this occasion Roger was saved from the annoyance of any personal
+intercourse with his cousin Felix. The unfortunate one was made as
+comfortable as circumstances would permit in the parlour, and Lady
+Carbury then went up to her cousin in the drawing-room. She had
+learned the truth with some fair approach to accuracy, though Sir
+Felix himself had of course lied as to every detail. There are some
+circumstances so distressing in themselves as to make lying almost a
+necessity. When a young man has behaved badly about a woman, when a
+young man has been beaten without returning a blow, when a young man's
+pleasant vices are brought directly under a mother's eyes, what can he
+do but lie? How could Sir Felix tell the truth about that rash
+encounter? But the policeman who had brought him to the hospital had
+told all that he knew. The man who had thrashed the baronet had been
+Crumb, and the thrashing had been given on the score of a young woman
+called Ruggles. So much was known at the hospital, and so much could
+not be hidden by any lies which Sir Felix might tell. And when Sir
+Felix swore that a policeman was holding him while Crumb was beating
+him, no one believed him. In such cases the liar does not expect to be
+believed. He knows that his disgrace will be made public, and only
+hopes to be saved from the ignominy of declaring it with his own
+words.
+
+'What am I to do with him?' Lady Carbury said to her cousin. 'It is no
+use telling me to leave him. I can't do that. I know he is bad. I know
+that I have done much to make him what he is.' As she said this the
+tears were running down her poor worn cheeks. 'But he is my child.
+What am I to do with him now?'
+
+This was a question which Roger found it almost impossible to answer.
+If he had spoken his thoughts he would have declared that Sir Felix
+had reached an age at which, if a man will go headlong to destruction,
+he must go headlong to destruction. Thinking as he did of his cousin
+he could see no possible salvation for him. 'Perhaps I should take him
+abroad,' he said.
+
+'Would he be better abroad than here?'
+
+'He would have less opportunity for vice, and fewer means of running
+you into debt.'
+
+Lady Carbury, as she turned this counsel in her mind, thought of all
+the hopes which she had indulged,--her literary aspirations, her
+Tuesday evenings, her desire for society, her Brounes, her Alfs, and
+her Bookers, her pleasant drawing-room, and the determination which
+she had made that now in the afternoon of her days she would become
+somebody in the world. Must she give it all up and retire to the
+dreariness of some French town because it was no longer possible that
+she should live in London with such a son as hers? There seemed to be
+a cruelty in this beyond all cruelties that she had hitherto endured.
+This was harder even than those lies which had been told of her when
+almost in fear of her life she had run from her husband's house. But
+yet she must do even this if in no other way she and her son could be
+together. 'Yes,' she said, 'I suppose it would be so. I only wish that
+I might die, so that were an end of it.'
+
+'He might go out to one of the Colonies,' said Roger.
+
+'Yes;--be sent away that he might kill himself with drink in
+the bush, and so be got rid of. I have heard of that before.
+Wherever he goes I shall go.'
+
+As the reader knows, Roger Carbury had not latterly held this cousin
+of his in much esteem. He knew her to be worldly and he thought her to
+be unprincipled. But now, at this moment, her exceeding love for the
+son whom she could no longer pretend to defend, wiped out all her
+sins. He forgot the visit made to Carbury under false pretences, and
+the Melmottes, and all the little tricks which he had detected, in his
+appreciation of an affection which was pure and beautiful. 'If you
+like to let your house for a period,' he said, 'mine is open to you.'
+
+'But, Felix?'
+
+'You shall take him there. I am all alone in the world. I can make a
+home for myself at the cottage. It is empty now. If you think that
+would save you you can try it for six months.'
+
+'And turn you out of your own house? No, Roger. I cannot do that. And,
+Roger;--what is to be done about Hetta?' Hetta herself had retreated,
+leaving Roger and her mother alone together, feeling sure that there
+would be questions asked and answered in her absence respecting Mrs
+Hurtle, which her presence would prevent. She wished it could have
+been otherwise--that she might have been allowed to hear it all herself
+--as she was sure that the story coming through her mother would not
+savour so completely of unalloyed truth as if told to her by her
+cousin Roger.
+
+'Hetta can be trusted to judge for herself,' he said.
+
+'How can you say that when she has just accepted this young man? Is it
+not true that he is even now living with an American woman whom he has
+promised to marry?'
+
+'No;--that is not true.'
+
+'What is true then? Is he not engaged to the woman?' Roger hesitated a
+moment. 'I do not know that even that is true. When last he spoke to
+me about it he declared that the engagement was at an end. I have told
+Hetta to ask himself. Let her tell him that she has heard of this
+woman from you, and that it behoves her to know the truth. I do not
+love him, Lady Carbury. He has no longer any place in my friendship.
+But I think that if Hetta asks him simply what is the nature of his
+connexion with Mrs Hurtle, he will tell her the truth.'
+
+Roger did not again see Hetta before he left the house, nor did he see
+his cousin Felix at all. He had now done all that he could do by his
+journey up to London, and he returned on that day back to Carbury.
+Would it not be better for him, in spite of the protestations which he
+had made, to dismiss the whole family from his mind? There could be no
+other love for him. He must be desolate and alone. But he might then
+save himself from a world of cares, and might gradually teach himself
+to live as though there were no such woman as Hetta Carbury in the
+world. But no! He would not allow himself to believe that this could
+be right. The very fact of his love made it a duty to him,--made it
+almost the first of his duties,--to watch over the interests of her he
+loved and of those who belonged to her.
+
+But among those so belonging he did not recognise Paul Montague.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXIII - MARIE'S FORTUNE
+
+
+When Marie Melmotte assured Sir Felix Carbury that her father had
+already endowed her with a large fortune which could not be taken from
+her without her own consent, she spoke no more than the truth. She
+knew of the matter almost as little as it was possible that she should
+know. As far as reticence on the subject was compatible with the
+object he had in view Melmotte had kept from her all knowledge of the
+details of the arrangement. But it had been necessary when the thing
+was done to explain, or to pretend to explain, much; and Marie's
+memory and also her intelligence had been strong beyond her father's
+anticipation. He was deriving a very considerable income from a large
+sum of money which he had invested in foreign funds in her name, and
+had got her to execute a power of attorney enabling him to draw this
+income on her behalf. This he had done fearing shipwreck in the course
+which he meant to run, and resolved that, let circumstances go as they
+might, there should still be left enough to him of the money which he
+had realised to enable him to live in comfort and luxury, should he be
+doomed to live in obscurity, or even in infamy. He had sworn to
+himself solemnly that under no circumstances would he allow this money
+to go back into the vortex of his speculations, and hitherto he had
+been true to his oath. Though bankruptcy and apparent ruin might be
+imminent he would not bolster up his credit by the use of this money
+even though it might appear at the moment that the money would be
+sufficient for the purpose. If such a day should come, then, with that
+certain income, he would make himself happy, if possible, or at any
+rate luxurious, in whatever city of the world might know least of his
+antecedents, and give him the warmest welcome on behalf of his wealth.
+Such had been his scheme of life. But he had failed to consider
+various circumstances. His daughter might be untrue to him, or in the
+event of her marriage might fail to release his property,--or it might
+be that the very money should be required to dower his daughter. Or
+there might come troubles on him so great that even the certainty of a
+future income would not enable him to bear them. Now, at this present
+moment, his mind was tortured by great anxiety. Were he to resume this
+property it would more than enable him to pay all that was due to the
+Longestaffes. It would do that and tide him for a time over some other
+difficulties. Now in regard to the Longestaffes themselves, he
+certainly had no desire to depart from the rule which he had made for
+himself, on their behalf. Were it necessary that a crash should come
+they would be as good creditors as any other. But then he was
+painfully alive to the fact that something beyond simple indebtedness
+was involved in that transaction. He had with his own hand traced
+Dolly Longestaffe's signature on the letter which he had found in old
+Mr Longestaffe's drawer. He had found it in an envelope, addressed by
+the elder Mr Longestaffe to Messrs. Slow and Bideawhile, and he had
+himself posted this letter in a pillarbox near to his house. In the
+execution of this manoeuvre, circumstances had greatly befriended him.
+He had become the tenant of Mr Longestaffe's house, and at the same
+time had only been the joint tenant of Mr Longestaffe's study,--so
+that Mr Longestaffe's papers were almost in his very hands. To pick a
+lock was with him an accomplishment long since learned. But his science
+in that line did not go so far as to enable him to replace the bolt in
+its receptacle. He had picked a lock, had found the letter prepared by
+Mr Bideawhile with its accompanying envelope, and had then already
+learned enough of the domestic circumstances of the Longestaffe family
+to feel assured that unless he could assist the expedition of this
+hitherto uncompleted letter by his own skill, the letter would never
+reach its intended destination. In all this fortune had in some degree
+befriended him. The circumstances being as they were it was hardly
+possible that the forgery should be discovered. Even though the young
+man were to swear that the signature was not his, even though the old
+man were to swear that he had left that drawer properly locked with
+the unsigned letter in it, still there could be no evidence. People
+might think. People might speak. People might feel sure. And then a
+crash would come. But there would still be that ample fortune on which
+to retire and eat and drink and make merry for the rest of his days.
+
+Then there came annoying complications in his affairs. What had been
+so easy in reference to that letter which Dolly Longestaffe never
+would have signed, was less easy but still feasible in another matter.
+Under the joint pressure of immediate need, growing ambition, and
+increasing audacity it had been done. Then the rumours that were
+spread abroad,--which to Melmotte were serious indeed,--they named, at
+any rate in reference to Dolly Longestaffe, the very thing that had
+been done. Now if that, or the like of that, were brought actually home
+to him, if twelve jurymen could be got to say that he had done that
+thing, of what use then would be all that money? When that fear arose,
+then there arose also the question whether it might not be well to use
+the money to save him from such ruin, if it might be so used. No doubt
+all danger in that Longestaffe affair might be bought off by payment
+of the price stipulated for the Pickering property. Neither would
+Dolly Longestaffe nor Squercum, of whom Mr Melmotte had already heard,
+concern himself in this matter if the money claimed were paid. But
+then the money would be as good as wasted by such a payment, if, as he
+firmly believed, no sufficient evidence could be produced to prove the
+thing which he had done.
+
+But the complications were so many! Perhaps in his admiration for the
+country of his adoption Mr Melmotte had allowed himself to attach
+higher privileges to the British aristocracy than do in truth belong
+to them. He did in his heart believe that could he be known to all the
+world as the father-in-law of the eldest son of the Marquis of Auld
+Reekie he would become, not really free of the law, but almost safe
+from its fangs in regard to such an affair as this. He thought he
+could so use the family with which he would be connected as to force
+from it that protection which he would need. And then again, if he
+could tide over this bad time, how glorious would it be to have a
+British Marquis for his son-in-law! Like many others he had failed
+altogether to inquire when the pleasure to himself would come, or what
+would be its nature. But he did believe that such a marriage would add
+a charm to his life. Now he knew that Lord Nidderdale could not be got
+to marry his daughter without the positive assurance of absolute
+property, but he did think that the income which might thus be
+transferred with Marie, though it fell short of that which had been
+promised, might suffice for the time; and he had already given proof
+to the Marquis's lawyer that his daughter was possessed of the
+property in question.
+
+And indeed, there was another complication which had arisen within the
+last few days and which had startled Mr Melmotte very much indeed. On
+a certain morning he had sent for Marie to the study and had told her
+that he should require her signature in reference to a deed. She had
+asked him what deed. He had replied that it would be a document
+regarding money and reminded her that she had signed such a deed once
+before, telling her that it was all in the way of business. It was not
+necessary that she should ask any more questions as she would be
+wanted only to sign the paper. Then Marie astounded him, not merely by
+showing him that she understood a great deal more of the transaction
+than he had thought,--but also by a positive refusal to sign anything at
+all. The reader may understand that there had been many words between
+them. 'I know, papa. It is that you may have the money to do what you
+like with. You have been so unkind to me about Sir Felix Carbury that
+I won't do it. If I ever marry the money will belong to my husband!'
+His breath almost failed him as he listened to these words. He did not
+know whether to approach her with threats, with entreaties, or with
+blows. Before the interview was over he had tried all three. He had
+told her that he could and would put her in prison for conduct so
+fraudulent. He besought her not to ruin her parent by such monstrous
+perversity. And at last he took her by both arms and shook her
+violently. But Marie was quite firm. He might cut her to pieces; but
+she would sign nothing. 'I suppose you thought Sir Felix would have
+had the entire sum,' said the father with deriding scorn.
+
+'And he would;--if he had the spirit to take it,' answered Marie.
+
+This was another reason for sticking to the Nidderdale plan. He would
+no doubt lose the immediate income, but in doing so he would secure
+the Marquis. He was therefore induced, on weighing in his
+nicest-balanced scales the advantages and disadvantages, to leave the
+Longestaffes unpaid and to let Nidderdale have the money. Not that he
+could make up his mind to such a course with any conviction that he
+was doing the best for himself. The dangers on all sides were very
+great! But at the present moment audacity recommended itself to him,
+and this was the boldest stroke. Marie had now said that she would
+accept Nidderdale,--or the sweep at the crossing.
+
+On Monday morning,--it was on the preceding Thursday that he had made
+his famous speech in Parliament,--one of the Bideawhiles had come to
+him in the City. He had told Mr Bideawhile that all the world knew that
+just at the present moment money was very 'tight' in the City. 'We are
+not asking for payment of a commercial debt,' said Mr Bideawhile, 'but
+for the price of a considerable property which you have purchased.' Mr
+Melmotte had suggested that the characteristics of the money were the
+same, let the sum in question have become due how it might. Then he
+offered to make the payment in two bills at three and six months'
+date, with proper interest allowed. But this offer Mr Bideawhile
+scouted with indignation, demanding that the title-deeds might be
+restored to them.
+
+'You have no right whatever to demand the title-deeds,' said Melmotte.
+'You can only claim the sum due, and I have already told you how I
+propose to pay it.'
+
+Mr Bideawhile was nearly beside himself with dismay. In the whole
+course of his business, in all the records of the very respectable
+firm to which he belonged, there had never been such a thing as this.
+Of course Mr Longestaffe had been the person to blame,--so at least
+all the Bideawhiles declared among themselves. He had been so anxious
+to have dealings with the man of money that he had insisted that the
+title-deeds should be given up. But then the title-deeds had not been
+his to surrender. The Pickering estate had been the joint property of
+him and his son. The house had been already pulled down, and now the
+purchaser offered bills in lieu of the purchase money! 'Do you mean to
+tell me, Mr Melmotte, that you have not got the money to pay for what
+you have bought, and that nevertheless the title-deeds have already
+gone out of your hands?'
+
+'I have property to ten times the value, twenty times the value,
+thirty times the value,' said Melmotte proudly; 'but you must know I
+should think by this time that a man engaged in large affairs cannot
+always realise such a sum as eighty thousand pounds at a day's notice.'
+Mr Bideawhile without using language that was absolutely vituperative
+gave Mr Melmotte to understand that he thought that he and his client
+had been robbed, and that he should at once take whatever severest
+steps the law put in his power. As Mr Melmotte shrugged his shoulders
+and made no further reply, Mr Bideawhile could only take his
+departure.
+
+The attorney, although he was bound to be staunch to his own client,
+and to his own house in opposition to Mr Squercum, nevertheless was
+becoming doubtful in his own mind as to the genuineness of the letter
+which Dolly was so persistent in declaring that he had not signed. Mr
+Longestaffe himself, who was at any rate an honest man, had given it
+as his opinion that Dolly had not signed the letter. His son had
+certainly refused to sign it once, and as far as he knew could have
+had no opportunity of signing it since. He was all but sure that he
+had left the letter under lock and key in his own drawer in the room
+which had latterly become Melmotte's study as well as his own. Then,
+on entering the room in Melmotte's presence,--their friendship at the
+time having already ceased,--he found that his drawer was open. This
+same Mr Bideawhile was with him at the time. 'Do you mean to say that
+I have opened your drawer?' said Mr Melmotte. Mr Longestaffe had
+become very red in the face and had replied by saying that he
+certainly made no such accusation, but as certainly he had not left
+the drawer unlocked. He knew his own habits and was sure that he had
+never left that drawer open in his life. 'Then you must have changed
+the habits of your life on this occasion,' said Mr Melmotte with
+spirit. Mr Longestaffe would trust himself to no other word within the
+house, but, when they were out in the street together, he assured the
+lawyer that certainly that drawer had been left locked, and that to
+the best of his belief the letter unsigned had been left within the
+drawer. Mr Bideawhile could only remark that it was the most
+unfortunate circumstance with which he had ever been concerned.
+
+The marriage with Nidderdale would upon the whole be the best thing,
+if it could only be accomplished. The reader must understand that
+though Mr Melmotte had allowed himself considerable poetical licence
+in that statement as to property thirty times as great as the price
+which he ought to have paid for Pickering, still there was property.
+The man's speculations had been so great and so wide that he did not
+really know what he owned, or what he owed. But he did know that at
+the present moment he was driven very hard for large sums. His chief
+trust for immediate money was in Cohenlupe, in whose hands had really
+been the manipulation of the shares of the Mexican railway. He had
+trusted much to Cohenlupe,--more than it had been customary with him
+to trust to any man. Cohenlupe assured him that nothing could be done
+with the railway shares at the present moment. They had fallen under
+the panic almost to nothing. Now in the time of his trouble Melmotte
+wanted money from the great railway, but just because he wanted money
+the great railway was worth nothing. Cohenlupe told him that he must
+tide over the evil hour,--or rather over an evil month. It was at
+Cohenlupe's instigation that he had offered the two bills to Mr
+Bideawhile. 'Offer 'em again,' said Cohenlupe. 'He must take the bills
+sooner or later.'
+
+On the Monday afternoon Melmotte met Lord Nidderdale in the lobby of
+the House. 'Have you seen Marie lately?' he said. Nidderdale had been
+assured that morning, by his father's lawyer, in his father's
+presence, that if he married Miss Melmotte at present he would
+undoubtedly become possessed of an income amounting to something over
+£5,000 a year. He had intended to get more than that,--and was hardly
+prepared to accept Marie at such a price; but then there probably
+would be more. No doubt there was a difficulty about Pickering.
+Melmotte certainly had been raising money. But this might probably be
+an affair of a few weeks. Melmotte had declared that Pickering should
+be made over to the young people at the marriage. His father had
+recommended him to get the girl to name a day. The marriage could be
+broken off at the last day if the property were not forthcoming.
+
+'I'm going up to your house almost immediately,' said Nidderdale.
+
+'You'll find the women at tea to a certainty between five and six,'
+said Melmotte.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXIV - MELMOTTE MAKES A FRIEND
+
+
+'Have you been thinking any more about it?' Lord Nidderdale said to
+the girl as soon as Madame Melmotte had succeeded in leaving them
+alone together.
+
+'I have thought ever so much more about it,' said Marie.
+
+'And what's the result?'
+
+'Oh,--I'll have you.'
+
+'That's right,' said Nidderdale, throwing himself on the sofa close to
+her, so that he might put his arm round her waist.
+
+'Wait a moment, Lord Nidderdale,' she said.
+
+'You might as well call me John.'
+
+'Then wait a moment,--John. You think you might as well marry me,
+though you don't love me a bit.'
+
+'That's not true, Marie.'
+
+'Yes it is;--it's quite true. And I think just the same,--that I might
+as well marry you, though I don't love you a bit.'
+
+'But you will.'
+
+'I don't know. I don't feel like it just at present. You had better
+know the exact truth, you know. I have told my father that I did not
+think you'd ever come again, but that if you did I would accept you.
+But I'm not going to tell any stories about it. You know who I've been
+in love with.'
+
+'But you can't be in love with him now.'
+
+'Why not? I can't marry him. I know that. And if he were to come to
+me, I don't think that I would. He has behaved bad.'
+
+'Have I behaved bad?'
+
+'Not like him. You never did care, and you never said you cared.'
+
+'Oh yes,--I have.'
+
+'Not at first. You say it now because you think that I shall like it.
+But it makes no difference now. I don't mind about your arm being
+there if we are to be married, only it's just as well for both of us
+to look on it as business.'
+
+'How very hard you are, Marie.'
+
+'No, I ain't. I wasn't hard to Sir Felix Carbury, and so I tell you. I
+did love him.'
+
+'Surely you have found him out now.'
+
+'Yes, I have,' said Marie. 'He's a poor creature.'
+
+'He has just been thrashed, you know, in the streets,--most horribly.'
+Marie had not been told of this, and started back from her lover's
+arms. 'You hadn't heard it?'
+
+'Who has thrashed him?'
+
+'I don't want to tell the story against him, but they say he has been
+cut about in a terrible manner.'
+
+'Why should anybody beat him? Did he do anything?'
+
+'There was a young lady in the question, Marie.'
+
+'A young lady! What young lady? I don't believe it. But it's nothing
+to me. I don't care about anything, Lord Nidderdale;--not a bit. I
+suppose you've made up all that out of your own head.'
+
+'Indeed, no. I believe he was beaten, and I believe it was about a
+young woman. But it signifies nothing to me, and I don't suppose it
+signifies much to you. Don't you think we might fix a day, Marie?'
+
+'I don't care the least,' said Marie. 'The longer it's put off the
+better I shall like it;--that's all.'
+
+'Because I'm so detestable?'
+
+'No,--you ain't detestable. I think you are a very good fellow; only
+you don't care for me. But it is detestable not being able to do what
+one wants. It's detestable having to quarrel with everybody and never
+to be good friends with anybody. And it's horribly detestable having
+nothing on earth to give one any interest.'
+
+'You couldn't take any interest in me?'
+
+'Not the least.'
+
+'Suppose you try. Wouldn't you like to know anything about the place
+where we live?'
+
+'It's a castle, I know.'
+
+'Yes;--Castle Reekie; ever so many hundred years old.'
+
+'I hate old places. I should like a new house, and a new dress, and a
+new horse every week,--and a new lover. Your father lives at the
+castle. I don't suppose we are to go and live there too.'
+
+'We shall be there sometimes. When shall it be?'
+
+'The year after next.'
+
+'Nonsense, Marie.'
+
+'To-morrow.'
+
+'You wouldn't be ready.'
+
+'You may manage it all just as you like with papa. Oh, yes,--kiss me;
+of course you may. If I'm to belong to you what does it matter? No;--I
+won't say that I love you. But if ever I do say it, you may be sure it
+will be true. That's more than you can say of yourself,--John.'
+
+So the interview was over and Nidderdale walked back to the house
+thinking of his lady love, as far as he was able to bring his mind to
+any operation of thinking. He was fully determined to go on with it.
+As far as the girl herself was concerned, she had, in these latter
+days, become much more attractive to him than when he had first known
+her. She certainly was not a fool. And, though he could not tell
+himself that she was altogether like a lady, still she had a manner of
+her own which made him think that she would be able to live with
+ladies. And he did think that, in spite of all she said to the
+contrary, she was becoming fond of him,--as he certainly had become
+fond of her. 'Have you been up with the ladies?' Melmotte asked him.
+
+'Oh yes.'
+
+'And what does Marie say?'
+
+'That you must fix the day.'
+
+'We'll have it very soon then;--some time next month. You'll want to get
+away in August. And to tell the truth so shall I. I never was worked
+so hard in my life as I've been this summer. The election and that
+horrid dinner had something to do with it. And I don't mind telling
+you that I've had a fearful weight on my mind in reference to money. I
+never had to find so many large sums in so short a time! And I'm not
+quite through it yet.'
+
+'I wonder why you gave the dinner then.'
+
+'My dear boy,'--it was very pleasant to him to call the son of a
+marquis his dear boy,--'as regards expenditure that was a flea-bite.
+Nothing that I could spend myself would have the slightest effect
+upon my condition one way or the other.'
+
+'I wish it could be the same way with me,' said Nidderdale.
+
+'If you chose to go into business with me instead of taking Marie's
+money out, it very soon would be so with you. But the burden is very
+great. I never know whence these panics arise, or why they come, or
+whither they go. But when they do come, they are like a storm at sea.
+It is only the strong ships that can stand the fury of the winds and
+waves. And then the buffeting which a man gets leaves him only half
+the man he was. I've had it very hard this time.'
+
+'I suppose you are getting right now.'
+
+'Yes;--I am getting right. I am not in any fear, if you mean that. I
+don't mind telling you everything as it is settled now that you are to
+be Marie's husband. I know that you are honest, and that if you could
+hurt me by repeating what I say you wouldn't do it.'
+
+'Certainly I would not.'
+
+'You see I've no partner,--nobody that is bound to know my affairs.
+My wife is the best woman in the world, but is utterly unable to
+understand anything about it. Of course I can't talk freely to Marie.
+Cohenlupe whom you see so much with me is all very well,--in his way,
+but I never talk over my affairs with him. He is concerned with me in
+one or two things,--our American railway for instance, but he has no
+interest generally in my house. It is all on my own shoulders, and I
+can tell you the weight is a little heavy. It will be the greatest
+comfort to me in the world if I can get you to have an interest in the
+matter.'
+
+'I don't suppose I could ever really be any good at business,' said
+the modest young lord.
+
+'You wouldn't come and work, I suppose. I shouldn't expect that. But
+I should be glad to think that I could tell you how things are going
+on. Of course you heard all that was said just before the election.
+For forty-eight hours I had a very bad time of it then. The fact
+was that Alf and they who were supporting him thought that they
+could carry the election by running me down. They were at it for
+a fortnight,--perfectly unscrupulous as to what they said or what
+harm they might do me and others. I thought that very cruel. They
+couldn't get their man in, but they could and did have the effect of
+depreciating my property suddenly by nearly half a million of money.
+Think what that is!'
+
+'I don't understand how it could be done.'
+
+'Because you don't understand how delicate a thing is credit. They
+persuaded a lot of men to stay away from that infernal dinner, and
+consequently it was spread about the town that I was ruined. The
+effect upon shares which I held was instantaneous and tremendous. The
+Mexican railway were at 117, and they fell from that in two days to
+something quite nominal,--so that selling was out of the question.
+Cohenlupe and I between us had about 8,000 of these shares. Think what
+that comes to!' Nidderdale tried to calculate what it did come to, but
+failed altogether. 'That's what I call a blow;--a terrible blow. When
+a man is concerned as I am with money interests, and concerned largely
+with them all, he is of course exchanging one property for another
+every day of his life,--according as the markets go. I don't keep such
+a sum as that in one concern as an investment. Nobody does. Then when
+a panic comes, don't you see how it hits?'
+
+'Will they never go up again?'
+
+'Oh yes,--perhaps higher than ever. But it will take time. And in the
+meantime I am driven to fall back upon property intended for other
+purposes. That's the meaning of what you hear about that place down in
+Sussex which I bought for Marie. I was so driven that I was obliged to
+raise forty or fifty thousand wherever I could. But that will be all
+right in a week or two. And as for Marie's money,--that, you know, is
+settled.'
+
+He quite succeeded in making Nidderdale believe every word that he
+spoke, and he produced also a friendly feeling in the young man's
+bosom, with something approaching to a desire that he might be of
+service to his future father-in-law. Hazily, as through a thick fog,
+Lord Nidderdale thought that he did see something of the troubles, as
+he had long seen something of the glories, of commerce on an extended
+scale, and an idea occurred to him that it might be almost more
+exciting than whist or unlimited loo. He resolved too that whatever
+the man might tell him should never be divulged. He was on this
+occasion somewhat captivated by Melmotte, and went away from the
+interview with a conviction that the financier was a big man;--one with
+whom he could sympathise, and to whom in a certain way he could become
+attached.
+
+And Melmotte himself had derived positive pleasure even from a
+simulated confidence in his son-in-law. It had been pleasant to him
+to talk as though he were talking to a young friend whom he trusted.
+It was impossible that he could really admit any one to a
+participation in his secrets. It was out of the question that he
+should ever allow himself to be betrayed into speaking the truth of
+his own affairs. Of course every word he had said to Nidderdale had
+been a lie, or intended to corroborate lies. But it had not been only
+on behalf of the lies that he had talked after this fashion. Even
+though his friendship with the young man were but a mock friendship,--
+though it would too probably be turned into bitter enmity before three
+months had passed by,--still there was a pleasure in it. The Grendalls
+had left him since the day of the dinner,--Miles having sent him a
+letter up from the country complaining of severe illness. It was a
+comfort to him to have someone to whom he could speak, and he much
+preferred Nidderdale to Miles Grendall.
+
+This conversation took place in the smoking-room. When it was over
+Melmotte went into the House, and Nidderdale strolled away to the
+Beargarden. The Beargarden had been opened again though with
+difficulty, and with diminished luxury. Nor could even this be done
+without rigid laws as to the payment of ready money. Herr Vossner had
+never more been heard of, but the bills which Vossner had left unpaid
+were held to be good against the club, whereas every note of hand
+which he had taken from the members was left in the possession of Mr
+Flatfleece. Of course there was sorrow and trouble at the Beargarden;
+but still the institution had become so absolutely necessary to its
+members that it had been reopened under a new management. No one had
+felt this need more strongly during every hour of the day,--of the day
+as he counted his days, rising as he did about an hour after noon and
+going to bed three or four hours after midnight,--than did Dolly
+Longestaffe. The Beargarden had become so much to him that he had
+begun to doubt whether life would be even possible without such a
+resort for his hours. But now the club was again open, and Dolly could
+have his dinner and his bottle of wine with the luxury to which he was
+accustomed.
+
+But at this time he was almost mad with the sense of injury.
+Circumstances had held out to him a prospect of almost unlimited ease
+and indulgence. The arrangement made as to the Pickering estate would
+pay all his debts, would disembarrass his own property, and would
+still leave him a comfortable sum in hand. Squercum had told him that
+if he would stick to his terms he would surely get them. He had stuck
+to his terms and he had got them. And now the property was sold, and
+the title-deeds gone,--and he had not received a penny! He did not
+know whom to be loudest in abusing,--his father, the Bideawhiles, or Mr
+Melmotte. And then it was said that he had signed that letter! He was
+very open in his manner of talking about his misfortune at the club.
+His father was the most obstinate old fool that ever lived. As for the
+Bideawhiles,--he would bring an action against them. Squercum had
+explained all that to him. But Melmotte was the biggest rogue the
+world had ever produced. 'By George! the world,' he said, 'must be
+coming to an end. There's that infernal scoundrel sitting in
+Parliament just as if he had not robbed me of my property, and forged
+my name, and--and--by George! he ought to be hung. If any man ever
+deserved to be hung, that man deserves to be hung.' This he spoke
+openly in the coffee-room of the club, and was still speaking as
+Nidderdale was taking his seat at one of the tables. Dolly had been
+dining, and had turned round upon his chair so as to face some
+half-dozen men whom he was addressing.
+
+Nidderdale leaving his chair walked up to him very gently. 'Dolly,'
+said he, 'do not go on in that way about Melmotte when I am in the
+room. I have no doubt you are mistaken, and so you'll find out in a
+day or two. You don't know Melmotte.'
+
+'Mistaken!' Dolly still continued to exclaim with a loud voice. 'Am I
+mistaken in supposing that I haven't been paid my money?'
+
+'I don't believe it has been owing very long.'
+
+'Am I mistaken in supposing that my name has been forged to a letter?'
+
+'I am sure you are mistaken if you think that Melmotte had anything to
+do with it.'
+
+'Squercum says--'
+
+'Never mind Squercum. We all know what are the suspicions of a fellow
+of that kind.'
+
+'I'd believe Squercum a deuced sight sooner than Melmotte.'
+
+'Look here, Dolly. I know more probably of Melmotte's affairs than you
+do or perhaps than anybody else. If it will induce you to remain quiet
+for a few days and to hold your tongue here,--I'll make myself
+responsible for the entire sum he owes you.'
+
+'The devil you will.'
+
+'I will indeed.'
+
+Nidderdale was endeavouring to speak so that only Dolly should hear
+him, and probably nobody else did hear him; but Dolly would not lower
+his voice. 'That's out of the question, you know,' he said. 'How could
+I take your money? The truth is, Nidderdale, the man is a thief, and
+so you'll find out, sooner or later. He has broken open a drawer in my
+father's room and forged my name to a letter. Everybody knows it. Even
+my governor knows it now,--and Bideawhile. Before many days are over
+you'll find that he will be in gaol for forgery.'
+
+This was very unpleasant, as every one knew that Nidderdale was either
+engaged or becoming engaged to Melmotte's daughter.
+
+'Since you will speak about it in this public way--' began Nidderdale.
+
+'I think it ought to be spoken about in a public way,' said Dolly.
+
+'I deny it as publicly. I can't say anything about the letter except
+that I am sure Mr Melmotte did not put your name to it. From what I
+understand there seems to have been some blunder between your father
+and his lawyer.'
+
+'That's true enough,' said Dolly; 'but it doesn't excuse Melmotte.'
+
+'As to the money, there can be no more doubt that it will be paid than
+that I stand here. What is it?--twenty-five thousand, isn't it?'
+
+'Eighty thousand, the whole.'
+
+'Well,--eighty thousand. It's impossible to suppose that such a man
+as Melmotte shouldn't be able to raise eighty thousand pounds.'
+
+'Why don't he do it then?' asked Dolly.
+
+All this was very unpleasant and made the club less social than it
+used to be in old days. There was an attempt that night to get up a
+game of cards; but Nidderdale would not play because he was offended
+with Dolly Longestaffe; and Miles Grendall was away in the country,--a
+fugitive from the face of Melmotte, and Carbury was in hiding at home
+with his countenance from top to bottom supported by plasters, and
+Montague in these days never went to the club. At the present moment
+he was again in Liverpool, having been summoned thither by Mr
+Ramsbottom. 'By George,' said Dolly, as he filled another pipe and
+ordered more brandy and water, 'I think everything is going to come to
+an end. I do indeed. I never heard of such a thing before as a man
+being done in this way. And then Vossner has gone off, and it seems
+everybody is to pay just what he says they owed him. And now one can't
+even get up a game of cards. I feel as though there were no good in
+hoping that things would ever come right again.'
+
+The opinion of the club was a good deal divided as to the matter in
+dispute between Lord Nidderdale and Dolly Longestaffe. It was admitted
+by some to be 'very fishy.' If Melmotte were so great a man why didn't
+he pay the money, and why should he have mortgaged the property before
+it was really his own? But the majority of the men thought that Dolly
+was wrong. As to the signature of the letter, Dolly was a man who
+would naturally be quite unable to say what he had and what he had not
+signed. And then, even into the Beargarden there had filtered, through
+the outer world, a feeling that people were not now bound to be so
+punctilious in the paying of money as they were a few years since. No
+doubt it suited Melmotte to make use of the money, and therefore,--as
+he had succeeded in getting the property into his hands,--he did make
+use of it. But it would be forthcoming sooner or later! In this way of
+looking at the matter the Beargarden followed the world at large. The
+world at large, in spite of the terrible falling-off at the Emperor of
+China's dinner, in spite of all the rumours, in spite of the ruinous
+depreciation of the Mexican Railway stock, and of the undoubted fact
+that Dolly Longestaffe had not received his money, was inclined to
+think that Melmotte would 'pull through.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXV - IN BRUTON STREET
+
+
+Mr Squercum all this time was in a perfect fever of hard work and
+anxiety. It may be said of him that he had been quite sharp enough to
+perceive the whole truth. He did really know it all,--if he could prove
+that which he knew. He had extended his inquiries in the city till he
+had convinced himself that, whatever wealth Melmotte might have had
+twelve months ago, there was not enough of it left at present to cover
+the liabilities. Squercum was quite sure that Melmotte was not a
+falling, but a fallen star,--perhaps not giving sufficient credence to
+the recuperative powers of modern commerce. Squercum told a certain
+stockbroker in the City, who was his specially confidential friend,
+that Melmotte was a 'gone coon.' The stockbroker made also some few
+inquiries, and on that evening agreed with Squercum that Melmotte was
+a 'gone coon.' If such were the case it would positively be the making
+of Squercum if it could be so managed that he should appear as the
+destroying angel of this offensive dragon. So Squercum raged among the
+Bideawhiles, who were unable altogether to shut their doors against
+him. They could not dare to bid defiance to Squercum,--feeling that
+they had themselves blundered, and feeling also that they must be
+careful not to seem to screen a fault by a falsehood. 'I suppose you
+give it up about the letter having been signed by my client,' said
+Squercum to the elder of the two younger Bideawhiles.
+
+'I give up nothing and I assert nothing,' said the superior attorney.
+'Whether the letter be genuine or not we had no reason to believe it
+to be otherwise. The young gentleman's signature is never very plain,
+and this one is about as like any other as that other would be like
+the last.'
+
+'Would you let me look at it again, Mr Bideawhile?' Then the letter
+which had been very often inspected during the last ten days was
+handed to Mr Squercum. 'It's a stiff resemblance;--such as he never
+could have written had he tried it ever so.'
+
+'Perhaps not, Mr Squercum. We are not generally on the look out for
+forgeries in letters from our clients or our clients' sons.'
+
+'Just so, Mr Bideawhile. But then Mr Longestaffe had already told you
+that his son would not sign the letter.'
+
+'How is one to know when and how and why a young man like that will
+change his purpose?'
+
+'Just so, Mr Bideawhile. But you see, after such a declaration as that
+on the part of my client's father, the letter,--which is in itself a
+little irregular perhaps--'
+
+'I don't know that it's irregular at all.'
+
+'Well;--it didn't reach you in a very confirmatory manner. We'll just
+say that. What Mr Longestaffe can have been at to wish to give up his
+title-deeds without getting anything for them--'
+
+'Excuse me, Mr Squercum, but that's between Mr Longestaffe and us.'
+
+'Just so;--but as Mr Longestaffe and you have jeopardised my client's
+property it is natural that I should make a few remarks. I think you'd
+have made a few remarks yourself, Mr Bideawhile, if the case had been
+reversed. I shall bring the matter before the Lord Mayor, you know.'
+To this Mr Bideawhile said not a word. 'And I think I understand you
+now that you do not intend to insist on the signature as being
+genuine.'
+
+'I say nothing about it, Mr Squercum. I think you'll find it very hard
+to prove that it's not genuine.'
+
+'My client's oath, Mr Bideawhile.'
+
+'I'm afraid your client is not always very clear as to what he does.'
+
+'I don't know what you mean by that, Mr Bideawhile. I fancy that if I
+were to speak in that way of your client you would be very angry with
+me. Besides, what does it all amount to? Will the old gentleman say
+that he gave the letter into his son's hands, so that, even if such a
+freak should have come into my client's head, he could have signed it
+and sent it off? If I understand, Mr Longestaffe says that he locked
+the letter up in a drawer in the very room which Melmotte occupied,
+and that he afterwards found the drawer open. It won't, I suppose, be
+alleged that my client knew so little what he was about that he broke
+open the drawer in order that he might get at the letter. Look at it
+whichever way you will, he did not sign it, Mr Bideawhile.'
+
+'I have never said he did. All I say is that we had fair ground for
+supposing that it was his letter. I really don't know that I can say
+anything more.'
+
+'Only that we are to a certain degree in the same boat together in
+this matter.'
+
+'I won't admit even that, Mr Squercum.'
+
+'The difference being that your client by his fault has jeopardised
+his own interests and those of my client, while my client has not been
+in fault at all. I shall bring the matter forward before the Lord
+Mayor to-morrow, and as at present advised shall ask for an
+investigation with reference to a charge of fraud. I presume you will
+be served with a subpoena to bring the letter into court.'
+
+'If so you may be sure that we shall produce it.' Then Mr Squercum
+took his leave and went straight away to Mr Bumby, a barrister well
+known in the City. The game was too powerful to be hunted down by Mr
+Squercum's unassisted hands. He had already seen Mr Bumby on the
+matter more than once. Mr Bumby was inclined to doubt whether it might
+not be better to get the money, or some guarantee for the money. Mr
+Bumby thought that if a bill at three months could be had for Dolly's
+share of the property it might be expedient to take it. Mr Squercum
+suggested that the property itself might be recovered, no genuine sale
+having been made. Mr Bumby shook his head. 'Title-deeds give
+possession, Mr Squercum. You don't suppose that the company which has
+lent money to Melmotte on the title-deeds would have to lose it. Take
+the bill; and if it is dishonoured run your chance of what you'll get
+out of the property. There must be assets.'
+
+'Every rap will have been made over,' said Mr Squercum.
+
+This took place on the Monday, the day on which Melmotte had offered
+his full confidence to his proposed son-in-law. On the following
+Wednesday three gentlemen met together in the study in the house in
+Bruton Street from which it was supposed that the letter had been
+abstracted. There were Mr Longestaffe, the father, Dolly Longestaffe,
+and Mr Bideawhile. The house was still in Melmotte's possession, and
+Melmotte and Mr Longestaffe were no longer on friendly terms. Direct
+application for permission to have this meeting in this place had been
+formally made to Mr Melmotte, and he had complied. The meeting took
+place at eleven o'clock--a terribly early hour. Dolly had at first
+hesitated as to placing himself as he thought between the fire of two
+enemies, and Mr Squercum had told him that as the matter would
+probably soon be made public, he could not judiciously refuse to meet
+his father and the old family lawyer. Therefore Dolly had attended, at
+great personal inconvenience to himself. 'By George, it's hardly worth
+having if one is to take all this trouble about it,' Dolly had said to
+Lord Grasslough, with whom he had fraternised since the quarrel with
+Nidderdale. Dolly entered the room last, and at that time neither Mr
+Longestaffe nor Mr Bideawhile had touched the drawer, or even the
+table, in which the letter had been deposited.
+
+'Now, Mr Longestaffe,' said Mr Bideawhile, 'perhaps you will show us
+where you think you put the letter.'
+
+'I don't think at all,' said he. 'Since the matter has been discussed
+the whole thing has come back upon my memory.'
+
+'I never signed it,' said Dolly, standing with his hands in his
+pockets and interrupting his father.
+
+'Nobody says you did, sir,' rejoined the father with an angry voice.
+'If you will condescend to listen we may perhaps arrive at the truth.'
+
+'But somebody has said that I did. I've been told that Mr Bideawhile
+says so.'
+
+'No, Mr Longestaffe; no. We have never said so. We have only said that
+we had no reason for supposing the letter to be other than genuine. We
+have never gone beyond that.'
+
+'Nothing on earth would have made me sign it,' said Dolly. 'Why should
+I have given my property up before I got my money? I never heard such
+a thing in my life.'
+
+The father looked up at the lawyer and shook his head, testifying as
+to the hopelessness of his son's obstinacy. 'Now, Mr Longestaffe,'
+continued the lawyer, 'let us see where you put the letter.'
+
+Then the father very slowly, and with much dignity of deportment,
+opened the drawer,--the second drawer from the top, and took from it a
+bundle of papers very carefully folded and docketed, 'There,' said he,
+'the letter was not placed in the envelope but on the top of it, and
+the two were the two first documents in the bundle.' He went on to say
+that as far as he knew no other paper had been taken away. He was
+quite certain that he had left the drawer locked. He was very
+particular in regard to that particular drawer, and he remembered that
+about this time Mr Melmotte had been in the room with him when he had
+opened it, and,--as he was certain,--had locked it again. At that
+special time there had been, he said, considerable intimacy between him
+and Melmotte. It was then that Mr Melmotte had offered him a seat at
+the Board of the Mexican railway.
+
+'Of course he picked the lock, and stole the letter,' said Dolly.
+'It's as plain as a pikestaff. It's clear enough to hang any man.'
+
+'I am afraid that it falls short of evidence, however strong and just
+may be the suspicion induced,' said the lawyer. 'Your father for a
+time was not quite certain about the letter.'
+
+'He thought that I had signed it,' said Dolly.
+
+'I am quite certain now,' rejoined the father angrily. 'A man has to
+collect his memory before he can be sure of anything.'
+
+'I am thinking you know how it would go to a jury.'
+
+'What I want to know is how are we to get the money,' said Dolly. 'I
+should like to see him hung of,--course; but I'd sooner have the money.
+Squercum says--'
+
+'Adolphus, we don't want to know here what Mr Squercum says.'
+
+'I don't know why what Mr Squercum says shouldn't be as good as what
+Mr Bideawhile says. Of course Squercum doesn't sound very
+aristocratic.'
+
+'Quite as much so as Bideawhile, no doubt,' said the lawyer laughing.
+
+'No; Squercum isn't aristocratic, and Fetter Lane is a good deal lower
+than Lincoln's Inn. Nevertheless Squercum may know what he's about. It
+was Squercum who was first down upon Melmotte in this matter, and if
+it wasn't for Squercum we shouldn't know as much about it as we do at
+present.' Squercum's name was odious to the elder Longestaffe. He
+believed, probably without much reason, that all his family troubles
+came to him from Squercum, thinking that if his son would have left
+his affairs in the hands of the old Slows and the old Bideawhiles,
+money would never have been scarce with him, and that he would not
+have made this terrible blunder about the Pickering property. And the
+sound of Squercum, as his son knew, was horrid to his ears. He hummed
+and hawed, and fumed and fretted about the room, shaking his head and
+frowning. His son looked at him as though quite astonished at his
+displeasure. 'There's nothing more to be done here, sir, I suppose,'
+said Dolly putting on his hat.
+
+'Nothing more,' said Mr Bideawhile. 'It may be that I shall have to
+instruct counsel, and I thought it well that I should see in the
+presence of both of you exactly how the thing stood. You speak so
+positively, Mr Longestaffe, that there can be no doubt?'
+
+'There is no doubt.'
+
+'And now perhaps you had better lock the drawer in our presence. Stop
+a moment--I might as well see whether there is any sign of violence
+having been used.' So saying Mr Bideawhile knelt down in front of the
+table and began to examine the lock. This he did very carefully and
+satisfied himself that there was 'no sign of violence.' 'Whoever has
+done it, did it very well,' said Bideawhile.
+
+'Of course Melmotte did it,' said Dolly Longestaffe standing
+immediately over Bideawhile's shoulder.
+
+At that moment there was a knock at the door,--a very distinct, and,
+we may say, a formal knock. There are those who knock and immediately
+enter without waiting for the sanction asked. Had he who knocked done
+so on this occasion Mr Bideawhile would have been found still on his
+knees, with his nose down to the level of the keyhole. But the
+intruder did not intrude rapidly, and the lawyer jumped on to his
+feet, almost upsetting Dolly with the effort. There was a pause,
+during which Mr Bideawhile moved away from the table,--as he might
+have done had he been picking a lock;--and then Mr Longestaffe bade the
+stranger come in with a sepulchral voice. The door was opened, and Mr
+Melmotte appeared.
+
+Now Mr Melmotte's presence certainly had not been expected. It was
+known that it was his habit to be in the City at this hour. It was
+known also that he was well aware that this meeting was to be held in
+this room at this special hour,--and he might well have surmised with
+what view. There was now declared hostility between both the
+Longestaffes and Mr Melmotte, and it certainly was supposed by all the
+gentlemen concerned that he would not have put himself out of the way
+to meet them on this occasion. 'Gentlemen,' he said, 'perhaps you
+think that I am intruding at the present moment.' No one said that he
+did not think so. The elder Longestaffe simply bowed very coldly. Mr
+Bideawhile stood upright and thrust his thumbs into his waistcoat
+pockets. Dolly, who at first forgot to take his hat off, whistled a
+bar, and then turned a pirouette on his heel. That was his mode of
+expressing his thorough surprise at the appearance of his debtor. 'I
+fear that you do think I am intruding,' said Melmotte, 'but I trust
+that what I have to say will be held to excuse me. I see, sir,' he
+said, turning to Mr Longestaffe, and glancing at the still open
+drawer, 'that you have been examining your desk. I hope that you will
+be more careful in locking it than you were when you left it before.'
+
+'The drawer was locked when I left it,' said Mr Longestaffe. 'I make
+no deductions and draw no conclusions, but the drawer was locked.'
+
+'Then I should say it must have been locked when you returned to it.'
+
+'No, sir, I found it open. I make no deductions and draw no
+conclusions,--but I left it locked and I found it open.'
+
+'I should make a deduction and draw a conclusion,' said Dolly; 'and
+that would be that somebody else had opened it.'
+
+'This can answer no purpose at all,' said Bideawhile.
+
+'It was but a chance remark,' said Melmotte. 'I did not come here out
+of the City at very great personal inconvenience to myself to squabble
+about the lock of the drawer. As I was informed that you three gentlemen
+would be here together, I thought the opportunity a suitable one for
+meeting you and making you an offer about this unfortunate business.' He
+paused a moment; but neither of the three spoke. It did occur to Dolly
+to ask them to wait while he should fetch Squercum; but on second
+thoughts he reflected that a great deal of trouble would have to be
+taken, and probably for no good. 'Mr Bideawhile, I believe,' suggested
+Melmotte; and the lawyer bowed his head. 'If I remember rightly I
+wrote to you offering to pay the money due to your clients--'
+
+'Squercum is my lawyer,' said Dolly.
+
+'That will make no difference.'
+
+'It makes a deal of difference,' said Dolly.
+
+'I wrote,' continued Melmotte, 'offering my bills at three and six
+months' date.'
+
+'They couldn't be accepted, Mr Melmotte.'
+
+'I would have allowed interest. I never have had my bills refused
+before.'
+
+'You must be aware, Mr Melmotte,' said the lawyer, 'that the sale of a
+property is not like an ordinary mercantile transaction in which bills
+are customarily given and taken. The understanding was that money
+should be paid in the usual way. And when we learned, as we did learn,
+that the property had been at once mortgaged by you, of course we
+became,--well, I think I may be justified in saying more than
+suspicious. It was a most,--most--unusual proceeding. You say you have
+another offer to make, Mr Melmotte.'
+
+'Of course I have been short of money. I have had enemies whose
+business it has been for some time past to run down my credit, and,
+with my credit, has fallen the value of stocks in which it has been
+known that I have been largely interested. I tell you the truth
+openly. When I purchased Pickering I had no idea that the payment of
+such a sum of money could inconvenience me in the least. When the time
+came at which I should pay it, stocks were so depreciated that it was
+impossible to sell. Very hostile proceedings are threatened against me
+now. Accusations are made, false as hell,'--Mr Melmotte as he spoke
+raised his voice and looked round the room 'but which at the present
+crisis may do me most cruel damage. I have come to say that, if you
+will undertake to stop proceedings which have been commenced in the
+City, I will have fifty thousand pounds,--which is the amount due to
+these two gentlemen,--ready for payment on Friday at noon.'
+
+'I have taken no proceedings as yet,' said Bideawhile.
+
+'It's Squercum,' says Dolly.
+
+'Well, sir,' continued Melmotte addressing Dolly, 'let me assure you
+that if these proceedings are stayed the money will be forthcoming;--
+but if not, I cannot produce the money. I little thought two months ago
+that I should ever have to make such a statement in reference to such
+a sum as fifty thousand pounds. But so it is. To raise that money by
+Friday, I shall have to cripple my resources frightfully. It will be
+done at a terrible cost. But what Mr Bideawhile says is true. I have
+no right to suppose that the purchase of this property should be
+looked upon as an ordinary commercial transaction. The money should
+have been paid,--and, if you will now take my word, the money shall be
+paid. But this cannot be done if I am made to appear before the Lord
+Mayor to-morrow. The accusations brought against me are damnably false.
+I do not know with whom they have originated. Whoever did originate
+them, they are damnably false. But unfortunately, false as they are,
+in the present crisis, they may be ruinous to me. Now gentlemen,
+perhaps you will give me an answer.'
+
+Both the father and the lawyer looked at Dolly. Dolly was in truth the
+accuser through the mouthpiece of his attorney Squercum. It was at
+Dolly's instance that these proceedings were being taken. 'I, on
+behalf of my client,' said Mr Bideawhile, 'will consent to wait till
+Friday at noon.'
+
+'I presume, Adolphus, that you will say as much,' said the elder
+Longestaffe.
+
+Dolly Longestaffe was certainly not an impressionable person, but
+Melmotte's eloquence had moved even him. It was not that he was sorry
+for the man, but that at the present moment he believed him. Though he
+had been absolutely sure that Melmotte had forged his name or caused
+it to be forged,--and did not now go so far into the matter as to
+abandon that conviction,--he had been talked into crediting the reasons
+given for Melmotte's temporary distress, and also into a belief that
+the money would be paid on Friday. Something of the effect which
+Melmotte's false confessions had had upon Lord Nidderdale, they now
+also had on Dolly Longestaffe. 'I'll ask Squercum, you know,' he said.
+
+'Of course Mr Squercum will act as you instruct him,' said Bideawhile.
+
+'I'll ask Squercum. I'll go to him at once. I can't do any more than
+that. And upon my word, Mr Melmotte, you've given me a great deal of
+trouble.'
+
+Melmotte with a smile apologized. Then it was settled that they three
+should meet in that very room on Friday at noon, and that the payment
+should then be made,--Dolly stipulating that as his father would be
+attended by Bideawhile, so would he be attended by Squercum. To this
+Mr Longestaffe senior yielded with a very bad grace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXVI - HETTA AND HER LOVER
+
+
+Lady Carbury was at this time so miserable in regard to her son that
+she found herself unable to be active as she would otherwise have been
+in her endeavours to separate Paul Montague and her daughter. Roger
+had come up to town and given his opinion, very freely at any rate
+with regard to Sir Felix. But Roger had immediately returned to
+Suffolk, and the poor mother in want of assistance and consolation
+turned naturally to Mr Broune, who came to see her for a few minutes
+almost every evening. It had now become almost a part of Mr Broune's
+life to see Lady Carbury once in the day. She told him of the two
+propositions which Roger had made: first, that she should fix her
+residence in some second-rate French or German town, and that Sir
+Felix should be made to go with her; and, secondly, that she should
+take possession of Carbury manor for six months. 'And where would Mr
+Carbury go?' asked Mr Broune.
+
+'He's so good that he doesn't care what he does with himself. There's
+a cottage on the place, he says, that he would move to.' Mr Broune
+shook his head. Mr Broune did not think that an offer so quixotically
+generous as this should be accepted. As to the German or French town,
+Mr Broune said that the plan was no doubt feasible, but he doubted
+whether the thing to be achieved was worth the terrible sacrifice
+demanded. He was inclined to think that Sir Felix should go to the
+colonies. 'That he might drink himself to death,' said Lady Carbury,
+who now had no secrets from Mr Broune. Sir Felix in the meantime was
+still in the doctor's hands upstairs. He had no doubt been very
+severely thrashed, but there was not in truth very much ailing him
+beyond the cuts on his face. He was, however, at the present moment
+better satisfied to be an invalid than to have to come out of his room
+and to meet the world. 'As to Melmotte,' said Mr Broune, 'they say now
+that he is in some terrible mess which will ruin him and all who have
+trusted him.'
+
+'And the girl?'
+
+'It is impossible to understand it at all. Melmotte was to have been
+summoned before the Lord Mayor to-day on some charge of fraud;--but it
+was postponed. And I was told this morning that Nidderdale still means
+to marry the girl. I don't think anybody knows the truth about it. We
+shall hold our tongue about him till we really do know something.' The
+'we' of whom Mr Broune spoke was, of course, the 'Morning Breakfast
+Table.'
+
+But in all this there was nothing about Hetta. Hetta, however, thought
+very much of her own condition, and found herself driven to take some
+special step by the receipt of two letters from her lover, written to
+her from Liverpool. They had never met since she had confessed her
+love to him. The first letter she did not at once answer, as she was
+at that moment waiting to hear what Roger Carbury would say about Mrs
+Hurtle. Roger Carbury had spoken, leaving a conviction on her mind
+that Mrs Hurtle was by no means a fiction,--but indeed a fact very
+injurious to her happiness. Then Paul's second love-letter had come,
+full of joy, and love, and contentment,--with not a word in it which
+seemed to have been in the slightest degree influenced by the
+existence of a Mrs Hurtle. Had there been no Mrs Hurtle, the letter
+would have been all that Hetta could have desired; and she could have
+answered it, unless forbidden by her mother, with all a girl's usual
+enthusiastic affection for her chosen lord. But it was impossible that
+she should now answer it in that strain;--and it was equally impossible
+that she should leave such letters unanswered. Roger had told her to
+'ask himself;' and she now found herself constrained to bid him either
+come to her and answer the question, or, if he thought it better, to
+give her some written account of Mrs Hurtle so that she might know who
+the lady was, and whether the lady's condition did in any way
+interfere with her own happiness. So she wrote to Paul, as follows:
+
+'Welbeck Street, 16 July, 18--
+
+'MY DEAR PAUL.' She found that after that which had passed between them
+she could not call him 'My dear Sir,' or 'My dear Mr Montague,' and
+that it must either be 'Sir' or 'My dear Paul.' He was dear to her,--
+very dear; and she thought that he had not been as yet convicted of any
+conduct bad enough to force her to treat him as an outcast. Had there
+been no Mrs Hurtle he would have been her 'Dearest Paul,'--but she made
+her choice, and so commenced.
+
+
+   MY DEAR PAUL,
+
+   A strange report has come round to me about a lady called Mrs
+   Hurtle. I have been told that she is an American lady living in
+   London, and that she is engaged to be your wife. I cannot
+   believe this. It is too horrid to be true. But I fear,--I fear
+   there is something true that will be very very sad for me to
+   hear. It was from my brother I first heard it,--who was of
+   course bound to tell me anything he knew. I have talked to mamma
+   about it, and to my cousin Roger. I am sure Roger knows it
+   all;--but he will not tell me. He said,--"Ask himself." And so I
+   ask you. Of course I can write about nothing else till I have
+   heard about this. I am sure I need not tell you that it has made
+   me very unhappy. If you cannot come and see me at once, you had
+   better write. I have told mamma about this letter.
+
+
+Then came the difficulty of the signature, with the declaration which
+must naturally be attached to it. After some hesitation she subscribed
+herself,
+
+
+   Your affectionate friend,
+
+   HENRIETTA CARBURY.
+
+
+'Most affectionately your own Hetta' would have been the form in which
+she would have wished to finish the first letter she had ever written
+to him.
+
+Paul received it at Liverpool on the Wednesday morning, and on the
+Wednesday evening he was in Welbeck Street. He had been quite aware
+that it had been incumbent on him to tell her the whole history of Mrs
+Hurtle. He had meant to keep back--almost nothing. But it had been
+impossible for him to do so on that one occasion on which he had
+pleaded his love to her successfully. Let any reader who is
+intelligent in such matters say whether it would have been possible
+for him then to have commenced the story of Mrs Hurtle and to have
+told it to the bitter end. Such a story must be postponed for a second
+or third interview. Or it may, indeed, be communicated by letter. When
+Paul was called away to Liverpool he did consider whether he should
+write the story. But there are many reasons strong against such
+written communications. A man may desire that the woman he loves
+should hear the record of his folly,--so that, in after days, there
+may be nothing to detect: so that, should the Mrs Hurtle of his life
+at any time intrude upon his happiness, he may with a clear brow and
+undaunted heart say to his beloved one,--'Ah, this is the trouble of
+which I spoke to you.' And then he and his beloved one will be in one
+cause together. But he hardly wishes to supply his beloved one with a
+written record of his folly. And then who does not know how much
+tenderness a man may show to his own faults by the tone of his voice,
+by half-spoken sentences, and by an admixture of words of love for the
+lady who has filled up the vacant space once occupied by the Mrs
+Hurtle of his romance? But the written record must go through from
+beginning to end, self-accusing, thoroughly perspicuous, with no
+sweet, soft falsehoods hidden under the half-expressed truth. The soft
+falsehoods which would be sweet as the scent of violets in a personal
+interview, would stand in danger of being denounced as deceit added to
+deceit, if sent in a letter. I think therefore that Paul Montague did
+quite right in hurrying up to London.
+
+He asked for Miss Carbury, and when told that Miss Henrietta was with
+her mother, he sent his name up and said that he would wait in the
+dining-room. He had thoroughly made up his mind to this course. They
+should know that he had come at once; but he would not, if it could be
+helped, make his statement in the presence of Lady Carbury. Then,
+upstairs, there was a little discussion. Hetta pleaded her right to
+see him alone. She had done what Roger had advised, and had done it
+with her mother's consent. Her mother might be sure that she would not
+again accept her lover till this story of Mrs Hurtle had been sifted
+to the very bottom. But she must herself hear what her lover had to
+say for himself. Felix was at the time in the drawing-room and
+suggested that he should go down and see Paul Montague on his sister's
+behalf;--but his mother looked at him with scorn, and his sister
+quietly said that she would rather see Mr Montague herself. Felix had
+been so cowed by circumstances that he did not say another word, and
+Hetta left the room alone.
+
+When she entered the parlour Paul stept forward to take her in his
+arms. That was a matter of course. She knew it would be so, and she
+had prepared herself for it. 'Paul,' she said, 'let me hear about all
+this--first.' She sat down at some distance from him,--and he found
+himself compelled to seat himself at some distance from her.
+
+'And so you have heard of Mrs Hurtle,' he said, with a faint attempt
+at a smile.
+
+'Yes;--Felix told me, and Roger evidently had heard about her.'
+
+'Oh yes; Roger Carbury has heard about her from the beginning;--knows
+the whole history almost as well as I know it myself. I don't think
+your brother is as well informed.'
+
+'Perhaps not. But--isn't it a story that--concerns me?'
+
+'Certainly it so far concerns you, Hetta, that you ought to know it.
+And I trust you will believe that it was my intention to tell it you.'
+
+'I will believe anything that you will tell me.'
+
+'If so, I don't think that you will quarrel with me when you know all.
+I was engaged to marry Mrs Hurtle.'
+
+'Is she a widow?'--He did not answer this at once. 'I suppose she must
+be a widow if you were going to marry her.'
+
+'Yes;--she is a widow. She was divorced.'
+
+'Oh, Paul! And she is an American?'
+
+'Yes.'
+
+'And you loved her?'
+
+Montague was desirous of telling his own story, and did not wish to be
+interrogated. 'If you will allow me I will tell it you all from
+beginning to end.'
+
+'Oh, certainly. But I suppose you loved her. If you meant to marry her
+you must have loved her.' There was a frown upon Hetta's brow and a
+tone of anger in her voice which made Paul uneasy.
+
+'Yes;--I loved her once; but I will tell you all.' Then he did tell
+his story, with a repetition of which the reader need not be detained.
+Hetta listened with fair attention,--not interrupting very often,
+though when she did interrupt, the little words which she spoke were
+bitter enough. But she heard the story of the long journey across the
+American continent, of the ocean journey before the end of which Paul
+had promised to make this woman his wife. 'Had she been divorced
+then?' asked Hetta,--'because I believe they get themselves divorced
+just when they like.' Simple as the question was he could not answer
+it. 'I could only know what she told me,' he said, as he went on with
+his story. Then Mrs Hurtle had gone on to Paris, and he, as soon as he
+reached Carbury, had revealed everything to Roger. 'Did you give her
+up then?' demanded Hetta with stern severity. No;--not then. He had
+gone back to San Francisco, and,--he had not intended to say that the
+engagement had been renewed, but he was forced to acknowledge that it
+had not been broken off. Then he had written to her on his second
+return to England,--and then she had appeared in London at Mrs Pipkin's
+lodgings in Islington. 'I can hardly tell you how terrible that was to
+me,' he said, 'for I had by that time become quite aware that my
+happiness must depend upon you.' He tried the gentle, soft falsehoods
+that should have been as sweet as violets. Perhaps they were sweet. It
+is odd how stern a girl can be, while her heart is almost breaking
+with love. Hetta was very stern.
+
+'But Felix says you took her to Lowestoft,--quite the other day.'
+
+Montague had intended to tell all,--almost all. There was a something
+about the journey to Lowestoft which it would be impossible to make
+Hetta understand, and he thought that that might be omitted. 'It was
+on account of her health.'
+
+'Oh;--on account of her health. And did you go to the play with her?'
+
+'I did.'
+
+'Was that for her health?'
+
+'Oh, Hetta, do not speak to me like that! Cannot you understand that
+when she came here, following me, I could not desert her?'
+
+'I cannot understand why you deserted her at all,' said Hetta. 'You
+say you loved her, and you promised to marry her. It seems horrid to
+me to marry a divorced woman,--a woman who just says that she was
+divorced. But that is because I don't understand American ways. And I
+am sure you must have loved her when you took her to the theatre, and
+down to Lowestoft,--for her health. That was only a week ago.'
+
+'It was nearly three weeks,' said Paul in despair.
+
+'Oh;--nearly three weeks! That is not such a very long time for a
+gentleman to change his mind on such a matter. You were engaged to
+her, not three weeks ago.'
+
+'No, Hetta, I was not engaged to her then.'
+
+'I suppose she thought you were when she went to Lowestoft with you.'
+
+'She wanted then to force me to--to--to--. Oh, Hetta, it is so hard to
+explain, but I am sure that you understand. I do know that you do not,
+cannot think that I have, even for one moment, been false to you.'
+
+'But why should you be false to her? Why should I step in and crush
+all her hopes? I can understand that Roger should think badly of her
+because she was--divorced. Of course he would. But an engagement is an
+engagement. You had better go back to Mrs Hurtle and tell her that you
+are quite ready to keep your promise.'
+
+'She knows now that it is all over.'
+
+'I dare say you will be able to persuade her to reconsider it. When
+she came all the way here from San Francisco after you, and when she
+asked you to take her to the theatre, and to Lowestoft--because of
+her health, she must be very much attached to you. And she is waiting
+here,--no doubt on purpose for you. She is a very old friend,--very
+old,--and you ought not to treat her unkindly. Good bye, Mr Montague.
+I think you had better lose no time in going--back to Mrs Hurtle.' All
+this she said with sundry little impedimentary gurgles in her throat,
+but without a tear and without any sign of tenderness.
+
+'You don't mean to tell me, Hetta, that you are going to quarrel with
+me!'
+
+'I don't know about quarrelling. I don't wish to quarrel with any one.
+But of course we can't be friends when you have married Mrs Hurtle.'
+
+'Nothing on earth would induce me to marry her.'
+
+'Of course I cannot say anything about that. When they told me this
+story I did not believe them. No; I hardly believed Roger when,--he
+would not tell it for he was too kind,--but when he would not contradict
+it. It seemed to be almost impossible that you should have come to me
+just at the very same moment. For, after all, Mr Montague, nearly
+three weeks is a very short time. That trip to Lowestoft couldn't
+have been much above a week before you came to me.'
+
+'What does it matter?'
+
+'Oh no; of course not;--nothing to you. I think I will go away now, Mr
+Montague. It was very good of you to come and tell me all. It makes it
+so much easier.'
+
+'Do you mean to say that--you are going to--throw me over?'
+
+'I don't want you to throw Mrs Hurtle over. Good bye.'
+
+'Hetta!'
+
+'No; I will not have you lay your hand upon me. Good night, Mr
+Montague.' And so she left him.
+
+Paul Montague was beside himself with dismay as he left the house. He
+had never allowed himself for a moment to believe that this affair of
+Mrs Hurtle would really separate him from Hetta Carbury. If she could
+only really know it all, there could be no such result. He had been
+true to her from the first moment in which he had seen her, never
+swerving from his love. It was to be supposed that he had loved some
+woman before; but, as the world goes, that would not, could not,
+affect her. But her anger was founded on the presence of Mrs Hurtle in
+London,--which he would have given half his possessions to have
+prevented. But when she did come, was he to have refused to see her?
+Would Hetta have wished him to be cold and cruel like that? No doubt
+he had behaved badly to Mrs Hurtle;--but that trouble he had overcome.
+And now Hetta was quarrelling with him, though he certainly had never
+behaved badly to her.
+
+He was almost angry with Hetta as he walked home. Everything that he
+could do he had done for her. For her sake he had quarrelled with
+Roger Carbury. For her sake,--in order that he might be effectually
+free from Mrs Hurtle,--he had determined to endure the spring of the
+wild cat. For her sake,--so he told himself,--he had been content to
+abide by that odious railway company, in order that he might if possible
+preserve an income on which to support her. And now she told him that
+they must part,--and that only because he had not been cruelly
+indifferent to the unfortunate woman who had followed him from
+America. There was no logic in it, no reason,--and, as he thought, very
+little heart. 'I don't want you to throw Mrs Hurtle over,' she had
+said. Why should Mrs Hurtle be anything to her? Surely she might have
+left Mrs Hurtle to fight her own battles. But they were all against
+him. Roger Carbury, Lady Carbury, and Sir Felix; and the end of it
+would be that she would be forced into marriage with a man almost old
+enough to be her father! She could not ever really have loved him.
+That was the truth. She must be incapable of such love as was his own
+for her. True love always forgives. And here there was really so very
+little to forgive! Such were his thoughts as he went to bed that
+night. But he probably omitted to ask himself whether he would have
+forgiven her very readily had he found that she had been living
+'nearly three weeks ago' in close intercourse with another lover of
+whom he had hitherto never even heard the name. But then,--as all the
+world knows,--there is a wide difference between young men and young
+women!
+
+Hetta, as soon as she had dismissed her lover, went up at once to her
+own room. Thither she was soon followed by her mother, whose anxious
+ear had heard the closing of the front door. 'Well; what has he said?'
+asked Lady Carbury. Hetta was in tears,--or very nigh to tears,--
+struggling to repress them, and struggling almost successfully. 'You
+have found that what we told you about that woman was all true.'
+
+'Enough of it was true,' said Hetta, who, angry as she was with her
+lover, was not on that account less angry with her mother for
+disturbing her bliss.
+
+'What do you mean by that, Hetta? Had you not better speak to me
+openly?'
+
+'I say, mamma, that enough was true. I do not know how to speak more
+openly. I need not go into all the miserable story of the woman. He is
+like other men, I suppose. He has entangled himself with some
+abominable creature and then when he is tired of her thinks that he
+has nothing to do but to say so,--and to begin with somebody else.'
+
+'Roger Carbury is very different.'
+
+'Oh, mamma, you will make me ill if you go on like that. It seems to
+me that you do not understand in the least.'
+
+'I say he is not like that.'
+
+'Not in the least. Of course I know that he is not in the least like
+that.'
+
+'I say that he can be trusted.'
+
+'Of course he can be trusted. Who doubts it?'
+
+'And that if you would give yourself to him, there would be no cause
+for any alarm.'
+
+'Mamma,' said Hetta jumping up, 'how can you talk to me in that way?
+As soon as one man doesn't suit, I am to give myself to another! Oh,
+mamma, how can you propose it? Nothing on earth will ever induce me to
+be more to Roger Carbury than I am now.'
+
+'You have told Mr Montague that he is not to come here again?'
+
+'I don't know what I told him, but he knows very well what I mean.'
+
+'That it is all over?' Hetta made no reply. 'Hetta, I have a right to
+ask that, and I have a right to expect a reply. I do not say that you
+have hitherto behaved badly about Mr Montague.'
+
+'I have not behaved badly. I have told you everything. I have done
+nothing that I am ashamed of.'
+
+'But we have now found out that he has behaved very badly. He has come
+here to you,--with unexampled treachery to your cousin Roger--'
+
+'I deny that,' exclaimed Hetta.
+
+'And at the very time was almost living with this woman who says that
+she is divorced from her husband in America! Have you told him that
+you will see him no more?'
+
+'He understood that.'
+
+'If you have not told him so plainly, I must tell him.'
+
+'Mamma, you need not trouble yourself. I have told him very plainly.'
+Then Lady Carbury expressed herself satisfied for the moment, and left
+her daughter to her solitude.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXVII - ANOTHER SCENE IN BRUTON STREET
+
+
+When Mr Melmotte made his promise to Mr Longestaffe and to Dolly, in
+the presence of Mr Bideawhile, that he would, on the next day but one,
+pay to them a sum of fifty thousand pounds, thereby completing,
+satisfactorily as far as they were concerned, the purchase of the
+Pickering property, he intended to be as good as his word. The reader
+knows that he had resolved to face the Longestaffe difficulty,--that
+he had resolved that at any rate he would not get out of it by
+sacrificing the property to which he had looked forward as a safe
+haven when storms should come. But, day by day, every resolution that
+he made was forced to undergo some change. Latterly he had been intent
+on purchasing a noble son-in-law with this money,--still trusting to
+the chapter of chances for his future escape from the Longestaffe and
+other difficulties. But Squercum had been very hard upon him; and in
+connexion with this accusation as to the Pickering property, there was
+another, which he would be forced to face also, respecting certain
+property in the East of London, with which the reader need not much
+trouble himself specially, but in reference to which it was stated
+that he had induced a foolish old gentleman to consent to accept
+railway shares in lieu of money. The old gentleman had died during the
+transaction, and it was asserted that the old gentleman's letter was
+hardly genuine. Melmotte had certainly raised between twenty and
+thirty thousand pounds on the property, and had made payment for it in
+stock which was now worth--almost nothing at all. Melmotte thought that
+he might face this matter successfully if the matter came upon him
+single-handed;--but in regard to the Longestaffes he considered that
+now, at this last moment, he had better pay for Pickering.
+
+The property from which he intended to raise the necessary funds was
+really his own. There could be no doubt about that. It had never been
+his intention to make it over to his daughter. When he had placed it
+in her name, he had done so simply for security,--feeling that his
+control over his only daughter would be perfect and free from danger.
+No girl apparently less likely to take it into her head to defraud her
+father could have crept quietly about a father's house. Nor did he now
+think that she would disobey him when the matter was explained to her.
+Heavens and earth! That he should be robbed by his own child,--robbed
+openly, shamefully, with brazen audacity! It was impossible. But still
+he had felt the necessity of going about this business with some
+little care. It might be that she would disobey him if he simply sent
+for her and bade her to affix her signature here and there. He thought
+much about it and considered that it would be wise that his wife
+should be present on the occasion, and that a full explanation should
+be given to Marie, by which she might be made to understand that the
+money had in no sense become her own. So he gave instructions to his
+wife when he started into the city that morning; and when he returned,
+for the sake of making his offer to the Longestaffes, he brought with
+him the deeds which it would be necessary that Marie should sign, and
+he brought also Mr Croll, his clerk, that Mr Croll might witness the
+signature.
+
+When he left the Longestaffes and Mr Bideawhile he went at once to his
+wife's room. 'Is she here?' he asked.
+
+'I will send for her. I have told her.'
+
+'You haven't frightened her?'
+
+'Why should I frighten her? It is not very easy to frighten her,
+Melmotte. She is changed since these young men have been so much about
+her.'
+
+'I shall frighten her if she does not do as I bid her. Bid her come
+now.' This was said in French. Then Madame Melmotte left the room, and
+Melmotte arranged a lot of papers in order upon a table. Having done
+so, he called to Croll, who was standing on the landing-place, and
+told him to seat himself in the back drawing-room till he should be
+called. Melmotte then stood with his back to the fireplace in his
+wife's sitting-room, with his hands in his pockets, contemplating what
+might be the incidents of the coming interview. He would be very
+gracious,--affectionate if it were possible,--and, above all things,
+explanatory. But, by heavens, if there were continued opposition to
+his demand,--to his just demand,--if this girl should dare to insist
+upon exercising her power to rob him, he would not then be affectionate
+nor gracious! There was some little delay in the coming of the two
+women, and he was already beginning to lose his temper when Marie
+followed Madame Melmotte into the room. He at once swallowed his rising
+anger with an effort. He would put a constraint upon himself The
+affection and the graciousness should be all there,--as long as they
+might secure the purpose in hand.
+
+'Marie,' he began, 'I spoke to you the other day about some property
+which for certain purposes was placed in your name just as we were
+leaving Paris.'
+
+'Yes, papa.'
+
+'You were such a child then,--I mean when we left Paris,--that I could
+hardly explain to you the purpose of what I did.'
+
+'I understood it, papa.'
+
+'You had better listen to me, my dear. I don't think you did quite
+understand it. It would have been very odd if you had, as I never
+explained it to you.'
+
+'You wanted to keep it from going away if you got into trouble.'
+
+This was so true that Melmotte did not know how at the moment to
+contradict the assertion. And yet he had not intended to talk of the
+possibility of trouble. 'I wanted to lay aside a large sum of money
+which should not be liable to the ordinary fluctuations of commercial
+enterprise.'
+
+'So that nobody could get at it.'
+
+'You are a little too quick, my dear.'
+
+'Marie, why can't you let your papa speak?' said Madame Melmotte.
+
+'But of course, my dear,' continued Melmotte, 'I had no idea of
+putting the money beyond my own reach. Such a transaction is very
+common; and in such cases a man naturally uses the name of some one
+who is very near and dear to him, and in whom he is sure that he can
+put full confidence. And it is customary to choose a young person, as
+there will then be less danger of the accident of death. It was for
+these reasons, which I am sure that you will understand, that I chose
+you. Of course the property remained exclusively my own.'
+
+'But it is really mine,' said Marie.
+
+'No, miss; it was never yours,' said Melmotte, almost bursting out
+into anger, but restraining himself. 'How could it become yours,
+Marie? Did I ever make you a gift of it?'
+
+'But I know that it did become mine,--legally.'
+
+'By a quibble of law,--yes; but not so as to give you any right to it.
+I always draw the income.'
+
+'But I could stop that, papa,--and if I were married, of course it
+would be stopped.'
+
+Then, quick as a flash of lightning, another idea occurred to
+Melmotte, who feared that he already began to see that this child of
+his might be stiff-necked. 'As we are thinking of your marriage,' he
+said, 'it is necessary that a change should be made. Settlements must
+be drawn for the satisfaction of Lord Nidderdale and his father. The
+old Marquis is rather hard upon me, but the marriage is so splendid
+that I have consented. You must now sign these papers in four or five
+places. Mr Croll is here, in the next room, to witness your signature,
+and I will call him.'
+
+'Wait a moment, papa.'
+
+'Why should we wait?'
+
+'I don't think I will sign them.'
+
+'Why not sign them? You can't really suppose that the property is your
+own. You could not even get it if you did think so.'
+
+'I don't know how that may be; but I had rather not sign them. If I am
+to be married, I ought not to sign anything except what he tells me.'
+
+'He has no authority over you yet. I have authority over you. Marie,
+do not give more trouble. I am very much pressed for time. Let me call
+in Mr Croll.'
+
+'No, papa,' she said.
+
+Then came across his brow that look which had probably first induced
+Marie to declare that she would endure to be 'cut to pieces,' rather
+than to yield in this or that direction. The lower jaw squared itself
+and the teeth became set, and the nostrils of his nose became
+extended,--and Marie began to prepare herself to be 'cut to pieces.'
+But he reminded himself that there was another game which he had
+proposed to play before he resorted to anger and violence. He would
+tell her how much depended on her compliance. Therefore he relaxed the
+frown,--as well as he knew how, and softened his face towards her, and
+turned again to his work. 'I am sure, Marie, that you will not refuse
+to do this when I explain to you its importance to me. I must have that
+property for use in the city to-morrow, or--I shall be ruined.' The
+statement was very short, but the manner in which he made it was not
+without effect.
+
+'Oh!' shrieked his wife.
+
+'It is true. These harpies have so beset me about the election that
+they have lowered the price of every stock in which I am concerned,
+and have brought the Mexican Railway so low that they cannot be sold
+at all. I don't like bringing my troubles home from the city; but on
+this occasion I cannot help it. The sum locked up here is very large,
+and I am compelled to use it. In point of fact it is necessary to save
+us from destruction.' This he said, very slowly, and with the utmost
+solemnity.
+
+'But you told me just now you wanted it because I was going to be
+married,' rejoined Marie.
+
+A liar has many points to his favour,--but he has this against him,
+that unless he devote more time to the management of his lies than life
+will generally allow, he cannot make them tally. Melmotte was thrown
+back for a moment, and almost felt that the time for violence had
+come. He longed to be at her that he might shake the wickedness, and
+the folly, and the ingratitude out of her. But he once more
+condescended to argue and to explain. 'I think you misunderstood me,
+Marie. I meant you to understand that settlements must be made, and
+that of course I must get my own property back into my own hands
+before anything of that kind can be done. I tell you once more, my
+dear, that if you do not do as I bid you, so that I may use that
+property the first thing to-morrow, we are all ruined. Everything will
+be gone.'
+
+'This can't be gone,' said Marie, nodding her head at the papers.
+
+'Marie,--do you wish to see me disgraced and ruined? I have done a
+great deal for you.'
+
+'You turned away the only person I ever cared for,' said Marie.
+
+'Marie, how can you be so wicked? Do as your papa bids you,' said
+Madame Melmotte.
+
+'No!' said Melmotte. 'She does not care who is ruined, because we saved
+her from that reprobate.'
+
+'She will sign them now,' said Madame Melmotte.
+
+'No;--I will not sign them,' said Marie. 'If I am to be married to Lord
+Nidderdale as you all say, I am sure I ought to sign nothing without
+telling him. And if the property was once made to be mine, I don't
+think I ought to give it up again because papa says that he is going
+to be ruined. I think that's a reason for not giving it up again.'
+
+'It isn't yours to give. It's mine,' said Melmotte gnashing his teeth.
+
+'Then you can do what you like with it without my signing,' said
+Marie.
+
+He paused a moment, and then laying his hand gently upon her shoulder,
+he asked her yet once again. His voice was changed, and was very
+hoarse. But he still tried to be gentle with her. 'Marie,' he said,
+'will you do this to save your father from destruction?'
+
+But she did not believe a word that he said to her. How could she
+believe him? He had taught her to regard him as her natural enemy,
+making her aware that it was his purpose to use her as a chattel for
+his own advantage, and never allowing her for a moment to suppose that
+aught that he did was to be done for her happiness. And now, almost in
+a breath, he had told her that this money was wanted that it might be
+settled on her and the man to whom she was to be married, and then
+that it might be used to save him from instant ruin. She believed
+neither one story nor the other. That she should have done as she was
+desired in this matter can hardly be disputed. The father had used her
+name because he thought that he could trust her. She was his daughter
+and should not have betrayed his trust. But she had steeled herself to
+obstinacy against him in all things. Even yet, after all that had
+passed, although she had consented to marry Lord Nidderdale, though
+she had been forced by what she had learned to despise Sir Felix
+Carbury, there was present to her an idea that she might escape with
+the man she really loved. But any such hope could depend only on the
+possession of the money which she now claimed as her own. Melmotte had
+endeavoured to throw a certain supplicatory pathos into the question
+he had asked her; but, though he was in some degree successful with
+his voice, his eyes and his mouth and his forehead still threatened
+her. He was always threatening her. All her thoughts respecting him
+reverted to that inward assertion that he might 'cut her to pieces' if
+he liked. He repeated his question in the pathetic strain. 'Will you
+do this now,--to save us all from ruin?' But his eyes still threatened
+her.
+
+'No;' she said, looking up into his face as though watching for the
+personal attack which would be made upon her; 'no, I won't.'
+
+'Marie!' exclaimed Madame Melmotte.
+
+She glanced round for a moment at her pseudo-mother with contempt.
+'No;' she said. 'I don't think I ought,--and I won't.'
+
+'You won't!' shouted Melmotte. She merely shook her head. 'Do you mean
+that you, my own child, will attempt to rob your father just at the
+moment you can destroy him by your wickedness?' She shook her head but
+said no other word.
+
+     'Nec pueros coram populo Medea trucidet.'
+
+     'Let not Medea with unnatural rage
+      Slaughter her mangled infants on the stage.'
+
+Nor will I attempt to harrow my readers by a close description of the
+scene which followed. Poor Marie. That cutting her up into pieces was
+commenced after a most savage fashion. Marie crouching down hardly
+uttered a sound. But Madame Melmotte frightened beyond endurance
+screamed at the top of her voice,--'Ah, Melmotte, tu la tueras!' And
+then she tried to drag him from his prey. 'Will you sign them now?'
+said Melmotte, panting. At that moment Croll, frightened by the
+screams, burst into the room. It was perhaps not the first time that
+he had interfered to save Melmotte from the effects of his own wrath.
+
+'Oh, Mr Melmotte, vat is de matter?' asked the clerk. Melmotte was out
+of breath and could hardly tell his story. Marie gradually recovered
+herself; and crouched, cowering, in the corner of a sofa, by no means
+vanquished in spirit, but with a feeling that the very life had been
+crushed out of her body. Madame Melmotte was standing weeping
+copiously, with her handkerchief up to her eyes. 'Will you sign the
+papers?' Melmotte demanded. Marie, lying as she was, all in a heap,
+merely shook her head. 'Pig!' said Melmotte,--'wicked, ungrateful
+pig.'
+
+'Ah, Ma'am-moiselle,' said Croll, 'you should oblige your fader.'
+
+'Wretched, wicked girl' said Melmotte, collecting the papers together.
+Then he left the room, and followed by Croll descended to the study,
+whence the Longestaffes and Mr Bideawhile had long since taken their
+departure.
+
+Madame Melmotte came and stood over the girl, but for some minutes
+spoke never a word. Marie lay on the sofa, all in a heap, with her
+hair dishevelled and her dress disordered, breathing hard, but
+uttering no sobs and shedding no tears. The stepmother,--if she might
+so be called,--did not think of attempting to persuade where her
+husband had failed. She feared Melmotte so thoroughly, and was so timid
+in regard to her own person, that she could not understand the girl's
+courage. Melmotte was to her an awful being, powerful as Satan,--whom
+she never openly disobeyed, though she daily deceived him, and was
+constantly detected in her deceptions. Marie seemed to her to have all
+her father's stubborn, wicked courage, and very much of his power. At
+the present moment she did not dare to tell the girl that she had been
+wrong. But she had believed her husband when he had said that
+destruction was coming, and had partly believed him when he declared
+that the destruction might be averted by Marie's obedience. Her life
+had been passed in almost daily fear of destruction. To Marie the last
+two years of splendour had been so long that they had produced a
+feeling of security. But to the elder woman the two years had not
+sufficed to eradicate the remembrance of former reverses, and never
+for a moment had she felt herself to be secure. At last she asked the
+girl what she would like to have done for her. 'I wish he had killed
+me,' Marie said, slowly dragging herself up from the sofa, and
+retreating without another word to her own room.
+
+In the meantime another scene was being acted in the room below.
+Melmotte after he reached the room,--hardly made a reference to his
+daughter merely saying that nothing would overcome her wicked
+obstinacy. He made no allusion to his own violence, nor had Croll the
+courage to expostulate with him now that the immediate danger was
+over. The Great Financier again arranged the papers, just as they had
+been laid out before,--as though he thought that the girl might be
+brought down to sign them there. And then he went on to explain to
+Croll what he had wanted to have done,--how necessary it was that the
+thing should be done, and how terribly cruel it was to him that in
+such a crisis of his life he should be hampered, impeded,--he did not
+venture to his clerk to say ruined,--by the ill-conditioned obstinacy
+of a girl! He explained very fully how absolutely the property was his
+own, how totally the girl was without any right to withhold it from
+him! How monstrous in its injustice was the present position of
+things! In all this Croll fully agreed. Then Melmotte went on to
+declare that he would not feel the slightest scruple in writing
+Marie's signature to the papers himself. He was the girl's father and
+was justified in acting for her. The property was his own property,
+and he was justified in doing with it as he pleased. Of course he
+would have no scruple in writing his daughter's name. Then he looked
+up at the clerk. The clerk again assented,--after a fashion, not by any
+means with the comfortable certainty with which he had signified his
+accordance with his employer's first propositions. But he did not, at
+any rate, hint any disapprobation of the step which Melmotte proposed
+to take. Then Melmotte went a step farther, and explained that the
+only difficulty in reference to such a transaction would be that the
+signature of his daughter would be required to be corroborated by that
+of a witness before he could use it. Then he again looked up at
+Croll;--but on this occasion Croll did not move a muscle of his face.
+There certainly was no assent. Melmotte continued to look at him; but
+then came upon the old clerk's countenance a stern look which amounted
+to very strong dissent. And yet Croll had been conversant with some
+irregular doings in his time, and Melmotte knew well the extent of
+Croll's experience. Then Melmotte made a little remark to himself. 'He
+knows that the game is pretty well over.' 'You had better return to
+the city now,' he said aloud. 'I shall follow you in half an hour. It
+is quite possible that I may bring my daughter with me. If I can make
+her understand this thing I shall do so. In that case I shall want you
+to be ready.' Croll again smiled, and again assented, and went his
+way.
+
+But Melmotte made no further attempt upon his daughter. As soon as
+Croll was gone he searched among various papers in his desk and
+drawers, and having found two signatures, those of his daughter and of
+this German clerk, set to work tracing them with some thin tissue
+paper. He commenced his present operation by bolting his door and
+pulling down the blinds. He practised the two signatures for the best
+part of an hour. Then he forged them on the various documents;--and,
+having completed the operation, refolded them, placed them in a locked
+bag of which he had always kept the key in his purse, and then, with
+the bag in his hand, was taken in his brougham into the city.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXVIII - MISS LONGESTAFFE AGAIN AT CAVERSHAM
+
+
+All this time Mr Longestaffe was necessarily detained in London while
+the three ladies of his family were living forlornly at Caversham.
+He had taken his younger daughter home on the day after his visit to
+Lady Monogram, and in all his intercourse with her had spoken of her
+suggested marriage with Mr Brehgert as a thing utterly out of the
+question. Georgiana had made one little fight for her independence at
+the Jermyn Street Hotel. 'Indeed, papa, I think it's very hard,' she
+said.
+
+'What's hard? I think a great many things are hard; but I have to bear
+them.'
+
+'You can do nothing for me.'
+
+'Do nothing for you! Haven't you got a home to live in, and clothes to
+wear, and a carriage to go about in,--and books to read if you choose
+to read them? What do you expect?'
+
+'You know, papa, that's nonsense.'
+
+'How do you dare to tell me that what I say is nonsense?'
+
+'Of course there's a house to live in and clothes to wear; but what's
+to be the end of it? Sophia, I suppose, is going to be married.'
+
+'I am happy to say she is,--to a most respectable young man and a
+thorough gentleman.'
+
+'And Dolly has his own way of going on.'
+
+'You have nothing to do with Adolphus.'
+
+'Nor will he have anything to do with me. If I don't marry what's to
+become of me? It isn't that Mr Brehgert is the sort of man I should
+choose.'
+
+'Do not mention his name to me.'
+
+'But what am I to do? You give up the house in town, and how am I to
+see people? It was you sent me to Mr Melmotte.'
+
+'I didn't send you to Mr Melmotte.'
+
+'It was at your suggestion I went there, papa. And of course I could
+only see the people he had there. I like nice people as well as
+anybody.'
+
+'There's no use talking any more about it.'
+
+'I don't see that. I must talk about it, and think about it too. If I
+can put up with Mr Brehgert I don't see why you and mamma should
+complain.'
+
+'A Jew!'
+
+'People don't think about that as they used to, papa. He has a very
+fine income, and I should always have a house in--'
+
+Then Mr Longestaffe became so furious and loud, that he stopped her
+for that time. 'Look here,' he said, 'if you mean to tell me that you
+will marry that man without my consent, I can't prevent it. But you
+shall not marry him as my daughter. You shall be turned out of my
+house, and I will never have your name pronounced in my presence
+again. It is disgusting, degrading,--disgraceful!' And then he left
+her.
+
+On the next morning before he started for Caversham he did see Mr
+Brehgert; but he told Georgiana nothing of the interview, nor had she
+the courage to ask him. The objectionable name was not mentioned again
+in her father's hearing, but there was a sad scene between herself,
+Lady Pomona, and her sister. When Mr Longestaffe and his younger
+daughter arrived, the poor mother did not go down into the hall to
+meet her child,--from whom she had that morning received the dreadful
+tidings about the Jew. As to these tidings she had as yet heard no
+direct condemnation from her husband. The effect upon Lady Pomona had
+been more grievous even than that made upon the father. Mr Longestaffe
+had been able to declare immediately that the proposed marriage was
+out of the question, that nothing of the kind should be allowed, and
+could take upon himself to see the Jew with the object of breaking off
+the engagement. But poor Lady Pomona was helpless in her sorrow. If
+Georgiana chose to marry a Jew tradesman she could not help it. But
+such an occurrence in the family would, she felt, be to her as though
+the end of all things had come. She could never again hold up her
+head, never go into society, never take pleasure in her powdered
+footmen. When her daughter should have married a Jew, she didn't think
+that she could pluck up the courage to look even her neighbours Mrs
+Yeld and Mrs Hepworth in the face. Georgiana found no one in the hall
+to meet her, and dreaded to go to her mother. She first went with her
+maid to her own room, and waited there till Sophia came to her. As she
+sat pretending to watch the process of unpacking, she strove to regain
+her courage. Why need she be afraid of anybody? Why, at any rate,
+should she be afraid of other females? Had she not always been
+dominant over her mother and sister? 'Oh, Georgey,' said Sophia, 'this
+is wonderful news!'
+
+'I suppose it seems wonderful that anybody should be going to be
+married except yourself.'
+
+'No;--but such a very odd match!'
+
+'Look here, Sophia. If you don't like it, you need not talk about it.
+We shall always have a house in town, and you will not. If you don't
+like to come to us, you needn't. That's about all.'
+
+'George wouldn't let me go there at all,' said Sophia.
+
+'Then--George--had better keep you at home at Toodlam. Where's mamma?
+I should have thought somebody might have come and met me to say a word
+to me, instead of allowing me to creep into the house like this.'
+
+'Mamma isn't at all well; but she's up in her own room. You mustn't be
+surprised, Georgey, if you find mamma very--very much cut up about
+this.' Then Georgiana understood that she must be content to stand all
+alone in the world, unless she made up her mind to give up Mr
+Brehgert.
+
+'So I've come back,' said Georgiana, stooping down and kissing her
+mother.
+
+'Oh, Georgiana; oh, Georgiana!' said Lady Pomona, slowly raising
+herself and covering her face with one of her hands. 'This is
+dreadful. It will kill me. It will indeed. I didn't expect it from
+you.'
+
+'What is the good of all that, mamma?'
+
+'It seems to me that it can't be possible. It's unnatural. It's worse
+than your wife's sister. I'm sure there's something in the Bible
+against it. You never would read your Bible, or you wouldn't be going
+to do this.'
+
+'Lady Julia Start has done just the same thing,--and she goes
+everywhere.'
+
+'What does your papa say? I'm sure your papa won't allow it. If he's
+fixed about anything, it's about the Jews. An accursed race;--think of
+that, Georgiana;--expelled from Paradise.'
+
+'Mamma, that's nonsense.'
+
+'Scattered about all over the world, so that nobody knows who anybody
+is. And it's only since those nasty Radicals came up that they have
+been able to sit in Parliament.'
+
+'One of the greatest judges in the land is a Jew,' said Georgiana, who
+had already learned to fortify her own case.
+
+'Nothing that the Radicals can do can make them anything else but what
+they are. I'm sure that Mr Whitstable, who is to be your
+brother-in-law, will never condescend to speak to him.'
+
+Now if there was anybody whom Georgiana Longestaffe had despised from
+her youth upwards it was George Whitstable. He had been a
+laughing-stock to her when they were children, had been regarded as a
+lout when he left school, and had been her common example of rural
+dullness since he had become a man. He certainly was neither beautiful
+nor bright;--but he was a Conservative squire born of Tory parents.
+Nor was he rich;--having but a moderate income, sufficient to maintain
+a moderate country house and no more. When first there came indications
+that Sophia intended to put up with George Whitstable, the more
+ambitious sister did not spare the shafts of her scorn. And now she
+was told that George Whitstable would not speak to her future husband!
+She was not to marry Mr Brehgert lest she should bring disgrace, among
+others, upon George Whitstable! This was not to be endured.
+
+'Then Mr Whitstable may keep himself at home at Toodlam and not
+trouble his head at all about me or my husband. I'm sure I shan't
+trouble myself as to what a poor creature like that may think about
+me. George Whitstable knows as much about London as I do about the
+moon.'
+
+'He has always been in county society,' said Sophia, 'and was staying
+only the other day at Lord Cantab's.'
+
+'Then there were two fools together,' said Georgiana, who at this
+moment was very unhappy.
+
+'Mr Whitstable is an excellent young man, and I am sure he will make
+your sister happy; but as for Mr Brehgert,--I can't bear to have his
+name mentioned in my hearing.'
+
+'Then, mamma, it had better not be mentioned. At any rate it shan't be
+mentioned again by me.' Having so spoken, Georgiana bounced out of the
+room and did not meet her mother and sister again till she came down
+into the drawing-room before dinner.
+
+Her position was one very trying both to her nerves and to her
+feelings. She presumed that her father had seen Mr Brehgert, but did
+not in the least know what had passed between them. It might be that
+her father had been so decided in his objection as to induce Mr
+Brehgert to abandon his intention,--and if this were so, there could be
+no reason why she should endure the misery of having the Jew thrown in
+her face. Among them all they had made her think that she would never
+become Mrs Brehgert. She certainly was not prepared to nail her
+colours upon the mast and to live and die for Brehgert. She was almost
+sick of the thing herself. But she could not back out of it so as to
+obliterate all traces of the disgrace. Even if she should not
+ultimately marry the Jew, it would be known that she had been engaged
+to a Jew,--and then it would certainly be said afterwards that the
+Jew had jilted her. She was thus vacillating in her mind, not knowing
+whether to go on with Brehgert or to abandon him. That evening Lady
+Pomona retired immediately after dinner, being 'far from well.' It was
+of course known to them all that Mr Brehgert was her ailment. She was
+accompanied by her elder daughter, and Georgiana was left with her
+father. Not a word was spoken between them. He sat behind his
+newspaper till he went to sleep, and she found herself alone and
+deserted in that big room. It seemed to her that even the servants
+treated her with disdain. Her own maid had already given her notice.
+It was manifestly the intention of her family to ostracise her
+altogether. Of what service would it be to her that Lady Julia
+Goldsheiner should be received everywhere, if she herself were to be
+left without a single Christian friend? Would a life passed
+exclusively among the Jews content even her lessened ambition? At ten
+o'clock she kissed her father's head and went to bed. Her father
+grunted less audibly than usual under the operation. She had always
+given herself credit for high spirits, but she began to fear that her
+courage would not suffice to carry her through sufferings such as
+these.
+
+On the next day her father returned to town, and the three ladies were
+left alone. Great preparations were going on for the Whitstable
+wedding. Dresses were being made and linen marked, and consultations
+held,--from all which things Georgiana was kept quite apart. The
+accepted lover came over to lunch, and was made as much of as though
+the Whitstables had always kept a town house. Sophy loomed so large in
+her triumph and happiness, that it was not to be borne. All Caversham
+treated her with a new respect. And yet if Toodlam was a couple of
+thousand a year, it was all it was:--and there were two unmarried
+sisters! Lady Pomona went half into hysterics every time she saw her
+younger daughter, and became in her way a most oppressive parent. Oh,
+heavens;--was Mr Brehgert with his two houses worth all this? A feeling
+of intense regret for the things she was losing came over her. Even
+Caversham, the Caversham of old days which she had hated, but in which
+she had made herself respected and partly feared by everybody about
+the place,--had charms for her which seemed to her delightful now that
+they were lost for ever. Then she had always considered herself to be
+the first personage in the house,--superior even to her father;--but
+now she was decidedly the last.
+
+Her second evening was worse even than the first. When Mr Longestaffe
+was not at home the family sat in a small dingy room between the
+library and the dining-room, and on this occasion the family consisted
+only of Georgiana. In the course of the evening she went upstairs and
+calling her sister out into the passage demanded to be told why she
+was thus deserted. 'Poor mamma is very ill,' said Sophy.
+
+'I won't stand it if I'm to be treated like this,' said Georgiana.
+'I'll go away somewhere.'
+
+'How can I help it, Georgey? It's your own doing. Of course you must
+have known that you were going to separate yourself from us.'
+
+On the next morning there came a dispatch from Mr Longestaffe,--of
+what nature Georgey did not know as it was addressed to Lady Pomona.
+But one enclosure she was allowed to see. 'Mamma,' said Sophy, 'thinks
+you ought to know how Dolly feels about it.' And then a letter from
+Dolly to his father was put into Georgey's hands. The letter was as
+follows:--
+
+
+   MY DEAR FATHER,--
+
+   Can it be true that Georgey is thinking of marrying that horrid
+   vulgar Jew, old Brehgert? The fellows say so; but I can't
+   believe it. I'm sure you wouldn't let her. You ought to lock her
+   up.
+
+   Yours affectionately,
+
+   A. LONGESTAFFE.
+
+
+Dolly's letters made his father very angry, as, short as they were,
+they always contained advice or instruction, such as should come from
+a father to a son, rather than from a son to a father. This letter had
+not been received with a welcome. Nevertheless the head of the family
+had thought it worth his while to make use of it, and had sent it to
+Caversham in order that it might be shown to his rebellious daughter.
+
+And so Dolly had said that she ought to be locked up! She'd like to
+see somebody do it! As soon as she had read her brother's epistle she
+tore it into fragments and threw it away in her sister's presence.
+'How can mamma be such a hypocrite as to pretend to care what Dolly
+says? Who doesn't know that he's an idiot? And papa has thought it
+worth his while to send that down here for me to see! Well, after that
+I must say that I don't much care what papa does.'
+
+'I don't see why Dolly shouldn't have an opinion as well as anybody
+else,' said Sophy.
+
+'As well as George Whitstable? As far as stupidness goes they are
+about the same. But Dolly has a little more knowledge of the world.'
+
+'Of course we all know, Georgiana,' rejoined the elder sister, 'that
+for cuteness and that kind of thing one must look among the commercial
+classes, and especially among a certain sort.'
+
+'I've done with you all,' said Georgey, rushing out of the room. 'I'll
+have nothing more to do with any one of you.'
+
+But it is very difficult for a young lady to have done with her
+family! A young man may go anywhere, and may be lost at sea; or come
+and claim his property after twenty years. A young man may demand an
+allowance, and has almost a right to live alone. The young male bird
+is supposed to fly away from the paternal nest. But the daughter of a
+house is compelled to adhere to her father till she shall get a
+husband. The only way in which Georgey could 'have done' with them all
+at Caversham would be by trusting herself to Mr Brehgert, and at the
+present moment she did not know whether Mr Brehgert did or did not
+consider himself as engaged to her.
+
+That day also passed away with ineffable tedium. At one time she was
+so beaten down by ennui that she almost offered her assistance to her
+sister in reference to the wedding garments. In spite of the very
+bitter words which had been spoken in the morning she would have done
+so had Sophy afforded her the slightest opportunity. But Sophy was
+heartlessly cruel in her indifference. In her younger days she had had
+her bad things, and now,--with George Whitstable by her side,--she
+meant to have good things, the goodness of which was infinitely
+enhanced by the badness of her sister's things. She had been so greatly
+despised that the charm of despising again was irresistible. And she
+was able to reconcile her cruelty to her conscience by telling herself
+that duty required her to show implacable resistance to such a marriage
+as this which her sister contemplated. Therefore Georgiana dragged out
+another day, not in the least knowing what was to be her fate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXIX - THE BREHGERT CORRESPONDENCE
+
+
+Mr Longestaffe had brought his daughter down to Caversham on a
+Wednesday. During the Thursday and Friday she had passed a very sad
+time, not knowing whether she was or was not engaged to marry Mr
+Brehgert. Her father had declared to her that he would break off the
+match, and she believed that he had seen Mr Brehgert with that
+purpose. She had certainly given no consent, and had never hinted to
+any one of the family an idea that she was disposed to yield. But she
+felt that, at any rate with her father, she had not adhered to her
+purpose with tenacity, and that she had allowed him to return to
+London with a feeling that she might still be controlled. She was
+beginning to be angry with Mr Brehgert, thinking that he had taken his
+dismissal from her father without consulting her. It was necessary
+that something should be settled, something known. Life such as she
+was leading now would drive her mad. She had all the disadvantages of
+the Brehgert connection and none of the advantages. She could not
+comfort herself with thinking of the Brehgert wealth and the Brehgert
+houses, and yet she was living under the general ban of Caversham on
+account of her Brehgert associations. She was beginning to think that
+she herself must write to Mr Brehgert,--only she did not know what to
+say to him.
+
+But on the Saturday morning she got a letter from Mr Brehgert. It was
+handed to her as she was sitting at breakfast with her sister,--who
+at that moment was triumphant with a present of gooseberries which
+had been sent over from Toodlam. The Toodlam gooseberries were noted
+throughout Suffolk, and when the letters were being brought in Sophia
+was taking her lover's offering from the basket with her own fair
+hands. 'Well!' Georgey had exclaimed, 'to send a pottle of
+gooseberries to his lady love across the country! Who but George
+Whitstable would do that?'
+
+'I dare say you get nothing but gems and gold,' Sophy retorted. 'I
+don't suppose that Mr Brehgert knows what a gooseberry is.' At that
+moment the letter was brought in, and Georgiana knew the writing. 'I
+suppose that's from Mr Brehgert,' said Sophy.
+
+'I don't think it matters much to you who it's from.' She tried to be
+composed and stately, but the letter was too important to allow of
+composure, and she retired to read it in privacy.
+
+The letter was as follows:--
+
+
+   MY DEAR GEORGIANA,
+
+   Your father came to me the day after I was to have met you at
+   Lady Monogram's party. I told him then that I would not write to
+   you till I had taken a day or two to consider what he said to
+   me;--and also that I thought it better that you should have a
+   day or two to consider what he might say to you. He has now
+   repeated what he said at our first interview, almost with more
+   violence; for I must say that I think he has allowed himself to
+   be violent when it was surely unnecessary.
+
+   The long and short of it is this. He altogether disapproves of
+   your promise to marry me. He has given three reasons;--first
+   that I am in trade; secondly that I am much older than you, and
+   have a family; and thirdly that I am a Jew. In regard to the
+   first I can hardly think that he is earnest. I have explained to
+   him that my business is that of a banker; and I can hardly
+   conceive it to be possible that any gentleman in England should
+   object to his daughter marrying a banker, simply because the man
+   is a banker. There would be a blindness of arrogance in such a
+   proposition of which I think your father to be incapable. This
+   has merely been added in to strengthen his other objections.
+
+   As to my age, it is just fifty-one. I do not at all think myself
+   too old to be married again. Whether I am too old for you is for
+   you to judge,--as is also that question of my children who, of
+   course, should you become my wife will be to some extent a care
+   upon your shoulders. As this is all very serious you will not, I
+   hope, think me wanting in gallantry if I say that I should
+   hardly have ventured to address you if you had been quite a
+   young girl. No doubt there are many years between us;--and so I
+   think there should be. A man of my age hardly looks to marry a
+   woman of the same standing as himself. But the question is one
+   for the lady to decide and you must decide it now.
+
+   As to my religion, I acknowledge the force of what your father
+   says,--though I think that a gentleman brought up with fewer
+   prejudices would have expressed himself in language less likely
+   to give offence. However I am a man not easily offended; and on
+   this occasion I am ready to take what he has said in good part.
+   I can easily conceive that there should be those who think that
+   the husband and wife should agree in religion. I am indifferent
+   to it myself. I shall not interfere with you if you make me
+   happy by becoming my wife, nor, I suppose, will you with me.
+   Should you have a daughter or daughters I am quite willing that
+   they should be brought up subject to your influence.
+
+
+There was a plain-speaking in this which made Georgiana look round the
+room as though to see whether any one was watching her as she read it.
+
+
+   But no doubt your father objects to me specially because I am a
+   Jew. If I were an atheist he might, perhaps, say nothing on the
+   subject of religion. On this matter as well as on others it
+   seems to me that your father has hardly kept pace with the
+   movements of the age. Fifty years ago, whatever claim a Jew
+   might have to be as well considered as a Christian, he certainly
+   was not so considered. Society was closed against him, except
+   under special circumstances, and so were all the privileges of
+   high position. But that has been altered. Your father does not
+   admit the change; but I think he is blind to it, because he does
+   not wish to see.
+
+   I say all this more as defending myself than as combating his
+   views with you. It must be for you and for you alone to decide
+   how far his views shall govern you. He has told me, after a
+   rather peremptory fashion, that I have behaved badly to him and
+   to his family because I did not go to him in the first instance
+   when I thought of obtaining the honour of an alliance with his
+   daughter. I have been obliged to tell him that in this matter I
+   disagree with him entirely, though in so telling him I
+   endeavoured to restrain myself from any appearance of warmth. I
+   had not the pleasure of meeting you in his house, nor had I any
+   acquaintance with him. And again, at the risk of being thought
+   uncourteous, I must say that you are to a certain degree
+   emancipated by age from that positive subordination to which a
+   few years ago you probably submitted without a question. If a
+   gentleman meets a lady in society, as I met you in the home of
+   our friend Mr Melmotte, I do not think that the gentleman is to
+   be debarred from expressing his feelings because the lady may
+   possibly have a parent. Your father, no doubt with propriety,
+   had left you to be the guardian of yourself, and I cannot submit
+   to be accused of improper conduct because, finding you in that
+   condition, I availed myself of it.
+
+   And now, having said so much, I must leave the question to be
+   decided entirely by yourself. I beg you to understand that I do
+   not at all wish to hold you to a promise merely because the
+   promise has been given. I readily acknowledge that the opinion
+   of your family should be considered by you, though I will not
+   admit that I was bound to consult that opinion before I spoke to
+   you. It may well be that your regard for me or your appreciation
+   of the comforts with which I may be able to surround you, will
+   not suffice to reconcile you to such a breach from your own
+   family as your father, with much repetition, has assured me will
+   be inevitable. Take a day or two to think of this and turn it
+   well over in your mind. When I last had the happiness of
+   speaking to you, you seemed to think that your parents might
+   raise objections, but that those objections would give way
+   before an expression of your own wishes. I was flattered by your
+   so thinking; but, if I may form any judgment from your father's
+   manner, I must suppose that you were mistaken. You will
+   understand that I do not say this as any reproach to you. Quite
+   the contrary. I think your father is irrational; and you may
+   well have failed to anticipate that be should be so.
+
+   As to my own feelings they remain exactly as they were when I
+   endeavoured to explain them to you. Though I do not find myself
+   to be too old to marry, I do think myself too old to write love
+   letters. I have no doubt you believe me when I say that I
+   entertain a most sincere affection for you; and I beseech you to
+   believe me in saying further that should you become my wife it
+   shall be the study of my life to make you happy.
+
+   It is essentially necessary that I should allude to one other
+   matter, as to which I have already told your father what I will
+   now tell you. I think it probable that within this week I shall
+   find myself a loser of a very large sum of money through the
+   failure of a gentleman whose bad treatment of me I will the more
+   readily forgive because he was the means of making me known to
+   you. This you must understand is private between you and me,
+   though I have thought it proper to inform your father. Such
+   loss, if it fall upon me, will not interfere in the least with
+   the income which I have proposed to settle upon you for your use
+   after my death; and, as your father declares that in the event
+   of your marrying me he will neither give to you nor bequeath to
+   you a shilling, he might have abstained from telling me to my
+   face that I was a bankrupt merchant when I myself told him of my
+   loss. I am not a bankrupt merchant nor at all likely to become
+   so. Nor will this loss at all interfere with my present mode of
+   living. But I have thought it right to inform you of it,
+   because, if it occur,--as I think it will,--I shall not deem it
+   right to keep a second establishment probably for the next two
+   or three years. But my house at Fulham and my stables there will
+   be kept up just as they are at present.
+
+   I have now told you everything which I think it is necessary you
+   should know, in order that you may determine either to adhere to
+   or to recede from your engagement. When you have resolved you
+   will let me know but a day or two may probably be necessary for
+   your decision. I hope I need not say that a decision in my
+   favour will make me a happy man.
+
+   I am, in the meantime, your affectionate friend,
+
+   EZEKIEL BREHGERT.
+
+
+This very long letter puzzled Georgey a good deal, and left her, at
+the time of reading it, very much in doubt as to what she would do.
+She could understand that it was a plain-spoken and truth-telling
+letter. Not that she, to herself, gave it praise for those virtues;
+but that it imbued her unconsciously with a thorough belief. She was
+apt to suspect deceit in other people;--but it did not occur to her
+that Mr Brehgert had written a single word with an attempt to deceive
+her. But the single-minded genuine honesty of the letter was altogether
+thrown away upon her. She never said to herself, as she read it, that
+she might safely trust herself to this man, though he were a Jew,
+though greasy and like a butcher, though over fifty and with a family,
+because he was an honest man. She did not see that the letter was
+particularly sensible;--but she did allow herself to be pained by the
+total absence of romance. She was annoyed at the first allusion to her
+age, and angry at the second; and yet she had never supposed that
+Brehgert had taken her to be younger than she was. She was well aware
+that the world in general attributes more years to unmarried women
+than they have lived, as a sort of equalising counter-weight against
+the pretences which young women make on the other side, or the lies
+which are told on their behalf. Nor had she wished to appear
+peculiarly young in his eyes. But, nevertheless, she regarded the
+reference to be uncivil,--perhaps almost butcher-like,--and it had its
+effect upon her. And then the allusion to the 'daughter or daughters'
+troubled her. She told herself that it was vulgar,--just what a butcher
+might have said. And although she was quite prepared to call her
+father the most irrational, the most prejudiced, and most ill-natured
+of men, yet she was displeased that Mr Brehgert should take such a
+liberty with him. But the passage in Mr Brehgert's letter which was
+most distasteful to her was that which told her of the loss which he
+might probably incur through his connection with Melmotte. What right
+had he to incur a loss which would incapacitate him from keeping his
+engagements with her? The town-house had been the great persuasion,
+and now he absolutely had the face to tell her that there was to be no
+town-house for three years. When she read this she felt that she ought
+to be indignant, and for a few moments was minded to sit down without
+further consideration and tell the man with considerable scorn that
+she would have nothing more to say to him.
+
+But on that side too there would be terrible bitterness. How would she
+have fallen from her greatness when, barely forgiven by her father and
+mother for the vile sin which she had contemplated, she should consent
+to fill a common bridesmaid place at the nuptials of George
+Whitstable! And what would then be left to her in life? This episode
+of the Jew would make it quite impossible for her again to contest the
+question of the London house with her father. Lady Pomona and Mrs
+George Whitstable would be united with him against her. There would be
+no 'season' for her, and she would be nobody at Caversham. As for
+London, she would hardly wish to go there! Everybody would know the
+story of the Jew. She thought that she could have plucked up courage
+to face the world as the Jew's wife, but not as the young woman who
+had wanted to marry the Jew and had failed. How would her future life
+go with her, should she now make up her mind to retire from the
+proposed alliance? If she could get her father to take her abroad at
+once, she would do it; but she was not now in a condition to make any
+terms with her father. As all this gradually passed through her mind,
+she determined that she would so far take Mr Brehgert's advice as to
+postpone her answer till she had well considered the matter.
+
+She slept upon it, and the next day she asked her mother a few
+questions. 'Mamma, have you any idea what papa means to do?'
+
+'In what way, my dear?' Lady Pomona's voice was not gracious, as she
+was free from that fear of her daughter's ascendancy which had
+formerly affected her.
+
+'Well;--I suppose he must have some plan.'
+
+'You must explain yourself. I don't know why he should have any
+particular plan.'
+
+'Will he go to London next year?'
+
+'That depends upon money, I suppose. What makes you ask?'
+
+'Of course I have been very cruelly circumstanced. Everybody must see
+that. I'm sure you do, mamma. The long and short of it is this;--if I
+give up my engagement, will he take us abroad for a year?'
+
+'Why should he?'
+
+'You can't suppose that I should be very comfortable in England. If we
+are to remain here at Caversham, how am I to hope ever to get
+settled?'
+
+'Sophy is doing very well.'
+
+'Oh, mamma, there are not two George Whitstables;--thank God.' She
+had meant to be humble and supplicating, but she could not restrain
+herself from the use of that one shaft. 'I don't mean but what Sophy
+may be very happy, and I am sure that I hope she will. But that won't
+do me any good. I should be very unhappy here.'
+
+'I don't see how you are to find any one to marry you by going
+abroad,' said Lady Pomona, 'and I don't see why your papa is to be
+taken away from his own home. He likes Caversham.'
+
+'Then I am to be sacrificed on every side,' said Georgey, stalking out
+of the room. But still she could not make up her mind what letter she
+would write to Mr Brehgert, and she slept upon it another night.
+
+On the next day after breakfast she did write her letter, though when
+she sat down to her task she had not clearly made up her mind what she
+would say. But she did get it written, and here it is.
+
+
+   Caversham, Monday.
+
+   MY DEAR MR BREHGERT,
+
+   As you told me not to hurry, I have taken a little time to think
+   about your letter. Of course it would be very disagreeable to
+   quarrel with papa and mamma and everybody. And if I do do so,
+   I'm sure somebody ought to be very grateful. But papa has been
+   very unfair in what he has said. As to not asking him, it could
+   have been of no good, for of course he would be against it. He
+   thinks a great deal of the Longestaffe family, and so, I
+   suppose, ought I. But the world does change so quick that one
+   doesn't think of anything now as one used to do. Anyway, I don't
+   feel that I'm bound to do what papa tells me just because he
+   says it. Though I'm not quite so old as you seem to think, I'm
+   old enough to judge for myself,--and I mean to do so. You say
+   very little about affection, but I suppose I am to take all that
+   for granted.
+
+   I don't wonder at papa being annoyed about the loss of the
+   money. It must be a very great sum when it will prevent your
+   having a house in London,--as you agreed. It does make a great
+   difference, because, of course, as you have no regular place in
+   the country, one could only see one's friends in London. Fulham
+   is all very well now and then, but I don't think I should like
+   to live at Fulham all the year through. You talk of three years,
+   which would be dreadful. If as you say it will not have any
+   lasting effect, could you not manage to have a house in town? If
+   you can do it in three years, I should think you could do it
+   now. I should like to have an answer to this question. I do
+   think so much about being the season in town!
+
+   As for the other parts of your letter, I knew very well
+   beforehand that papa would be unhappy about it. But I don't know
+   why I'm to let that stand in my way when so very little is done
+   to make me happy. Of course you will write to me again, and I
+   hope you will say something satisfactory about the house in
+   London.
+
+   Yours always sincerely,
+
+   GEORGIANA LONGESTAFFE.
+
+
+It probably never occurred to Georgey that Mr Brehgert would under any
+circumstances be anxious to go back from his engagement. She so fully
+recognised her own value as a Christian lady of high birth and
+position giving herself to a commercial Jew, that she thought that
+under any circumstances Mr Brehgert would be only too anxious to stick
+to his bargain. Nor had she any idea that there was anything in her
+letter which could probably offend him. She thought that she might at
+any rate make good her claim to the house in London; and that as there
+were other difficulties on his side, he would yield to her on this
+point. But as yet she hardly knew Mr Brehgert. He did not lose a day
+in sending to her a second letter. He took her letter with him to his
+office in the city, and there he answered it without a moment's delay.
+
+
+   No. 7, St. Cuthbert's Court, London,
+   Tuesday, July 16, 18--.
+
+   MY DEAR MISS LONGESTAFFE,
+
+   You say it would be very disagreeable to you to quarrel with
+   your papa and mamma; and as I agree with you, I will take your
+   letter as concluding our intimacy. I should not, however, be
+   dealing quite fairly with you or with myself if I gave you to
+   understand that I felt myself to be coerced to this conclusion
+   simply by your qualified assent to your parents' views. It is
+   evident to me from your letter that you would not wish to be my
+   wife unless I can supply you with a house in town as well as
+   with one in the country. But this for the present is out of my
+   power. I would not have allowed my losses to interfere with your
+   settlement because I had stated a certain income; and must
+   therefore to a certain extent have compromised my children. But
+   I should not have been altogether happy till I had replaced them
+   in their former position, and must therefore have abstained from
+   increased expenditure till I had done so. But of course I have
+   no right to ask you to share with me the discomfort of a single
+   home. I may perhaps add that I had hoped that you would have
+   looked to your happiness to another source, and that I will bear
+   my disappointment as best I may.
+
+   As you may perhaps under these circumstances be unwilling that I
+   should wear the ring you gave me, I return it by post. I trust
+   you will be good enough to keep the trifle you were pleased to
+   accept from me, in remembrance of one who will always wish you
+   well.
+
+   Yours sincerely,
+
+   EZEKIEL BREHGERT.
+
+
+And so it was all over! Georgey, when she read this letter, was very
+indignant at her lover's conduct. She did not believe that her own
+letter had at all been of a nature to warrant it. She had regarded
+herself as being quite sure of him, and only so far doubting herself,
+as to be able to make her own terms because of such doubts. And now
+the Jew had rejected her! She read this last letter over and over
+again, and the more she read it the more she felt that in her heart of
+hearts she had intended to marry him. There would have been
+inconveniences no doubt, but they would have been less than the sorrow
+on the other side. Now she saw nothing before her but a long vista of
+Caversham dullness, in which she would be trampled upon by her father
+and mother, and scorned by Mr and Mrs George Whitstable.
+
+She got up and walked about the room thinking of vengeance. But what
+vengeance was possible to her? Everybody belonging to her would take
+the part of the Jew in that which he had now done. She could not ask
+Dolly to beat him; nor could she ask her father to visit him with a
+stern frown of paternal indignation. There could be no revenge. For a
+time,--only a few seconds,--she thought that she would write to Mr
+Brehgert and tell him that she had not intended to bring about this
+termination of their engagement. This, no doubt, would have been an
+appeal to the Jew for mercy;--and she could not quite descend to that.
+But she would keep the watch and chain he had given her, and which
+somebody had told her had not cost less than a hundred and fifty
+guineas. She could not wear them, as people would know whence they had
+come; but she might exchange them for jewels which she could wear.
+
+At lunch she said nothing to her sister, but in the course of the
+afternoon she thought it best to inform her mother. 'Mamma,' she said,
+'as you and papa take it so much to heart, I have broken off
+everything with Mr Brehgert.'
+
+'Of course it must be broken off,' said Lady Pomona. This was very
+ungracious,--so much so that Georgey almost flounced out of the room.
+'Have you heard from the man?' asked her ladyship.
+
+'I have written to him, and he has answered me; and it is all settled.
+I thought that you would have said something kind to me.' And the
+unfortunate young woman burst out into tears.
+
+'It was so dreadful,' said Lady Pomona;--'so very dreadful. I never
+heard of anything so bad. When young what's-his-name married the
+tallow-chandler's daughter I thought it would have killed me if it had
+been Dolly; but this was worse than that. Her father was a methodist.'
+
+'They had neither of them a shilling of money,' said Georgey through
+her tears.
+
+'And your papa says this man was next door to a bankrupt. But it's all
+over?'
+
+'Yes, mamma.'
+
+'And now we must all remain here at Caversham till people forget it.
+It has been very hard upon George Whitstable, because of course
+everybody has known it through the county. I once thought he would
+have been off, and I really don't know that we could have said
+anything.' At that moment Sophy entered the room. 'It's all over
+between Georgiana and the--man,' said Lady Pomona, who hardly saved
+herself from stigmatising him by a further reference to his religion.
+
+'I knew it would be,' said Sophia.
+
+'Of course it could never have really taken place,' said their mother.
+
+'And now I beg that nothing more may be said about it,' said
+Georgiana. 'I suppose, mamma, you will write to papa?'
+
+'You must send him back his watch and chain, Georgey,' said Sophia.
+
+'What business is that of yours?'
+
+'Of course she must. Her papa would not let her keep it.'
+
+To such a miserable depth of humility had the younger Miss Longestaffe
+been brought by her ill-considered intimacy with the Melmottes!
+Georgiana, when she looked back on this miserable episode in her life,
+always attributed her grief to the scandalous breach of compact of
+which her father had been guilty.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXX - RUBY PREPARES FOR SERVICE
+
+
+Our poor old honest friend John Crumb was taken away to durance vile
+after his performance in the street with Sir Felix, and was locked up
+for the remainder of the night. This indignity did not sit so heavily
+on his spirits as it might have done on those of a quicker nature.
+He was aware that he had not killed the baronet, and that he had
+therefore enjoyed his revenge without the necessity of 'swinging for
+it at Bury.' That in itself was a comfort to him. Then it was a great
+satisfaction to think that he had 'served the young man out' in the
+actual presence of his Ruby. He was not prone to give himself undue
+credit for his capability and willingness to knock his enemies about;
+but he did think that Ruby must have observed on this occasion that
+he was the better man of the two. And, to John, a night in the
+station-house was no great personal inconvenience. Though he was
+very proud of his four-post bed at home, he did not care very much
+for such luxuries as far as he himself was concerned. Nor did he
+feel any disgrace from being locked up for the night. He was very
+good-humoured with the policeman, who seemed perfectly to understand
+his nature, and was as meek as a child when the lock was turned upon
+him. As he lay down on the hard bench, he comforted himself with
+thinking that Ruby would surely never care any more for the 'baronite'
+since she had seen him go down like a cur without striking a blow. He
+thought a good deal about Ruby, but never attributed any blame to her
+for her share in the evils that had befallen him.
+
+The next morning he was taken before the magistrates, but was told at
+an early hour of the day that he was again free. Sir Felix was not
+much the worse for what had happened to him, and had refused to make
+any complaint against the man who had beaten him. John Crumb shook
+hands cordially with the policeman who had had him in charge, and
+suggested beer. The constable, with regrets, was forced to decline,
+and bade adieu to his late prisoner with the expression of a hope that
+they might meet again before long. 'You come down to Bungay,' said
+John, 'and I'll show you how we live there.'
+
+From the police-office he went direct to Mrs Pipkin's house, and at
+once asked for Ruby. He was told that Ruby was out with the children,
+and was advised both by Mrs Pipkin and Mrs Hurtle not to present
+himself before Ruby quite yet. 'You see,' said Mrs Pipkin, 'she's a
+thinking how heavy you were upon that young gentleman.'
+
+'But I wasn't;--not particular. Lord love you, he ain't a hair the
+wuss.'
+
+'You let her alone for a time,' said Mrs Hurtle. 'A little neglect
+will do her good.'
+
+'Maybe,' said John,--'only I wouldn't like her to have it bad. You'll
+let her have her wittles regular, Mrs Pipkin.'
+
+It was then explained to him that the neglect proposed should not
+extend to any deprivation of food, and he took his leave, receiving an
+assurance from Mrs Hurtle that he should be summoned to town as soon
+as it was thought that his presence there would serve his purposes;
+and with loud promises repeated to each of the friendly women that as
+soon as ever a 'line should be dropped' he would appear again upon the
+scene, he took Mrs Pipkin aside, and suggested that if there were 'any
+hextras,' he was ready to pay for them. Then he took his leave without
+seeing Ruby, and went back to Bungay.
+
+When Ruby returned with the children she was told that John Crumb had
+called. 'I thought as he was in prison,' said Ruby.
+
+'What should they keep him in prison for?' said Mrs Pipkin. 'He hasn't
+done nothing as he oughtn't to have done. That young man was dragging
+you about as far as I can make out, and Mr Crumb just did as anybody
+ought to have done to prevent it. Of course they weren't going to keep
+him in prison for that. Prison indeed! It isn't him as ought to be in
+prison.'
+
+'And where is he now, aunt?'
+
+'Gone down to Bungay to mind his business, and won't be coming here
+any more of a fool's errand. He must have seen now pretty well what's
+worth having, and what ain't. Beauty is but skin deep, Ruby.'
+
+'John Crumb'd be after me again to-morrow, if I'd give him
+encouragement,' said Ruby. 'If I'd hold up my finger he'd come.'
+
+'Then John Crumb's a fool for his pains, that's all; and now do you go
+about your work.' Ruby didn't like to be told to go about her work,
+and tossed her head, and slammed the kitchen door, and scolded the
+servant girl, and then sat down to cry. What was she to do with
+herself now? She had an idea that Felix would not come back to her
+after the treatment he had received;--and a further idea that if he did
+come he was not, as she phrased it to herself, 'of much account.' She
+certainly did not like him the better for having been beaten, though,
+at the time, she had been disposed to take his part. She did not
+believe that she would ever dance with him again. That had been the
+charm of her life in London, and that was now all over. And as for
+marrying her,--she began to feel certain that he did not intend it.
+John Crumb was a big, awkward, dull, uncouth lump of a man, with whom
+Ruby thought it impossible that a girl should be in love. Love and
+John Crumb were poles asunder. But--! Ruby did not like wheeling the
+perambulator about Islington, and being told by her aunt Pipkin to go
+about her work. What Ruby did like was being in love and dancing; but
+if all that must come to an end, then there would be a question
+whether she could not do better for herself, than by staying with her
+aunt and wheeling the perambulator about Islington.
+
+Mrs Hurtle was still living in solitude in the lodgings, and having
+but little to do on her own behalf, had devoted herself to the
+interest of John Crumb. A man more unlike one of her own countrymen
+she had never seen. 'I wonder whether he has any ideas at all in his
+head,' she had said to Mrs Pipkin. Mrs Pipkin had replied that Mr
+Crumb had certainly a very strong idea of marrying Ruby Ruggles. Mrs
+Hurtle had smiled, thinking that Mrs Pipkin was also very unlike her
+own countrywomen. But she was very kind to Mrs Pipkin, ordering
+rice-puddings on purpose that the children might eat them, and she was
+quite determined to give John Crumb all the aid in her power.
+
+In order that she might give effectual aid she took Mrs Pipkin into
+confidence, and prepared a plan of action in reference to Ruby. Mrs
+Pipkin was to appear as chief actor on the scene, but the plan was
+altogether Mrs Hurtle's plan. On the day following John's return to
+Bungay Mrs Pipkin summoned Ruby into the back parlour, and thus
+addressed her. 'Ruby, you know, this must come to an end now.'
+
+'What must come to an end?'
+
+'You can't stay here always, you know.'
+
+'I'm sure I work hard, Aunt Pipkin, and I don't get no wages.'
+
+'I can't do with more than one girl,--and there's the keep if there
+isn't wages. Besides, there's other reasons. Your grandfather won't
+have you back there; that's certain.'
+
+'I wouldn't go back to grandfather, if it was ever so.'
+
+'But you must go somewheres. You didn't come to stay here always,--nor
+I couldn't have you. You must go into service.'
+
+'I don't know anybody as'd have me,' said Ruby.
+
+'You must put a 'vertisement into the paper. You'd better say as
+nursemaid, as you seems to take kindly to children. And I must give
+you a character;--only I shall say just the truth. You mustn't ask
+much wages just at first.' Ruby looked very sorrowful, and the tears
+were near her eyes. The change from the glories of the music hall was
+so startling and so oppressive! 'It has got to be done sooner or later,
+so you may as well put the 'vertisement in this afternoon.'
+
+'You'r going to turn me out, Aunt Pipkin.'
+
+'Well;--if that's turning out, I am. You see you never would be said
+by me as though I was your mistress. You would go out with that
+rapscallion when I bid you not. Now when you're in a regular place
+like, you must mind when you're spoke to, and it will be best for you.
+You've had your swing, and now you see you've got to pay for it. You
+must earn your bread, Ruby, as you've quarrelled both with your lover
+and your grandfather.'
+
+There was no possible answer to this, and therefore the necessary
+notice was put into the paper,--Mrs Hurtle paying for its insertion.
+'Because, you know,' said Mrs Hurtle, 'she must stay here really, till
+Mr Crumb comes and takes her away.' Mrs Pipkin expressed her opinion
+that Ruby was a 'baggage' and John Crumb a 'soft.' Mrs Pipkin was
+perhaps a little jealous at the interest which her lodger took in her
+niece, thinking perhaps that all Mrs Hurtle's sympathies were due to
+herself.
+
+Ruby went hither and thither for a day or two, calling upon the
+mothers of children who wanted nursemaids. The answers which she had
+received had not come from the highest members of the aristocracy,
+and the houses which she visited did not appal her by their splendour.
+Many objections were made to her. A character from an aunt was
+objectionable. Her ringlets were objectionable. She was a deal too
+flighty-looking. She spoke up much too free. At last one happy mother
+of five children offered to take her on approval for a month, at £12
+a year, Ruby to find her own tea and wash for herself. This was
+slavery;--abject slavery. And she too, who had been the beloved of a
+baronet, and who might even now be the mistress of a better house than
+that into which she was to go as a servant,--if she would only hold
+up her finger! But the place was accepted, and with broken-hearted
+sobbings Ruby prepared herself for her departure from Aunt Pipkin's
+roof.
+
+'I hope you like your place, Ruby,' Mrs Hurtle said on the afternoon
+of her last day.
+
+'Indeed then I don't like it at all. They're the ugliest children you
+ever see, Mrs Hurtle.'
+
+'Ugly children must be minded as well as pretty ones.'
+
+'And the mother of 'em is as cross as cross.'
+
+'It's your own fault, Ruby; isn't it?'
+
+'I don't know as I've done anything out of the way.'
+
+'Don't you think it's anything out of the way to be engaged to a young
+man and then to throw him over? All this has come because you wouldn't
+keep your word to Mr Crumb. Only for that your grandfather wouldn't
+have turned you out of his house.'
+
+'He didn't turn me out. I ran away. And it wasn't along of John Crumb,
+but because grandfather hauled me about by the hair of my head.'
+
+'But he was angry with you about Mr Crumb. When a young woman becomes
+engaged to a young man, she ought not to go back from her word.' No
+doubt Mrs Hurtle, when preaching this doctrine, thought that the same
+law might be laid down with propriety for the conduct of young men.
+'Of course you have brought trouble on yourself. I am sorry you don't
+like the place. I'm afraid you must go to it now.'
+
+'I am agoing,--I suppose,' said Ruby, probably feeling that if she
+could but bring herself to condescend so far there might yet be open
+for her a way of escape.
+
+'I shall write and tell Mr Crumb where you are placed.'
+
+'Oh, Mrs Hurtle, don't. What should you write to him for? It ain't
+nothing to him.'
+
+'I told him I'd let him know if any steps were taken.'
+
+'You can forget that, Mrs Hurtle. Pray don't write. I don't want him
+to know as I'm in service.'
+
+'I must keep my promise. Why shouldn't he know? I don't suppose you
+care much now what he hears about you.'
+
+'Yes I do. I wasn't never in service before, and I don't want him to
+know.'
+
+'What harm can it do you?'
+
+'Well, I don't want him to know. It's such a come down, Mrs Hurtle.'
+
+'There is nothing to be ashamed of in that. What you have to be
+ashamed of is jilting him. It was a bad thing to do;--wasn't it,
+Ruby?'
+
+'I didn't mean nothing bad, Mrs Hurtle; only why couldn't he say what
+he had to say himself, instead of bringing another to say it for him?
+What would you feel, Mrs Hurtle, if a man was to come and say it all
+out of another man's mouth?'
+
+'I don't think I should much care if the thing was well said at last.
+You know he meant it.'
+
+'Yes;--I did know that.'
+
+'And you know he means it now?'
+
+'I'm not so sure about that. He's gone back to Bungay, and he isn't no
+good at writing letters no more than at speaking. Oh,--he'll go and get
+somebody else now.'
+
+'Of course he will if he hears nothing about you. I think I'd better
+tell him. I know what would happen.'
+
+'What would happen, Mrs Hurtle?'
+
+'He'd be up in town again in half a jiffey to see what sort of a place
+you'd got. Now, Ruby, I'll tell you what I'll do, if you'll say the
+word. I'll have him up here at once and you shan't go to Mrs
+Buggins'.' Ruby dropped her hands and stood still, staring at Mrs
+Hurtle. 'I will. But if he comes you mustn't behave this time as you
+did before.'
+
+'But I'm to go to Mrs Buggins' to-morrow.'
+
+'We'll send to Mrs Buggins and tell her to get somebody else. You're
+breaking your heart about going there;--are you not?'
+
+'I don't like it, Mrs Hurtle.'
+
+'And this man will make you mistress of his house. You say he isn't
+good at speaking; but I tell you I never came across an honester man
+in the whole course of my life, or one who I think would treat a woman
+better. What's the use of a glib tongue if there isn't a heart with
+it? What's the use of a lot of tinsel and lacker, if the real metal
+isn't there? Sir Felix Carbury could talk, I dare say, but you don't
+think now he was a very fine fellow.'
+
+'He was so beautiful, Mrs Hurtle!'
+
+'But he hadn't the spirit of a mouse in his bosom. Well, Ruby, you
+have one more choice left you. Shall it be John Crumb or Mrs Buggins?'
+
+'He wouldn't come, Mrs Hurtle.'
+
+'Leave that to me, Ruby. May I bring him if I can?' Then Ruby in a
+very low whisper told Mrs Hurtle, that if she thought proper she might
+bring John Crumb back again. 'And there shall be no more nonsense?'
+
+'No,' whispered Ruby.
+
+On that same night a letter was sent to Mrs Buggins, which Mrs Hurtle
+also composed, informing that lady that unforeseen circumstances
+prevented Ruby Ruggles from keeping the engagement she had made; to
+which a verbal answer was returned that Ruby Ruggles was an impudent
+hussey. And then Mrs Hurtle in her own name wrote a short note to Mr
+John Crumb.
+
+
+   DEAR MR CRUMB,
+
+   If you will come back to London I think you will find Miss Ruby
+   Ruggles all that you desire.
+
+   Yours faithfully,
+
+   WINIFRED HURTLE.
+
+
+'She's had a deal more done for her than I ever knew to be done for
+young women in my time,' said Mrs Pipkin, 'and I'm not at all so sure
+that she has deserved it.'
+
+'John Crumb will think she has.'
+
+'John Crumb's a fool;--and as to Ruby; well, I haven't got no patience
+with girls like them. Yes; it is for the best; and as for you, Mrs
+Hurtle, there's no words to say how good you've been. I hope, Mrs
+Hurtle, you ain't thinking of going away because this is all done.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXI - MR COHENLUPE LEAVES LONDON
+
+
+Dolly Longestaffe had found himself compelled to go to Fetter Lane
+immediately after that meeting in Bruton Street at which he had
+consented to wait two days longer for the payment of his money. This
+was on a Wednesday, the day appointed for the payment being Friday. He
+had undertaken that, on his part, Squercum should be made to desist
+from further immediate proceedings, and he could only carry out his
+word by visiting Squercum. The trouble to him was very great, but he
+began to feel that he almost liked it. The excitement was nearly as
+good as that of loo. Of course it was a 'horrid bore,'--this having
+to go about in cabs under the sweltering sun of a London July day. Of
+course it was a 'horrid bore,'--this doubt about his money. And it went
+altogether against the grain with him that he should be engaged in any
+matter respecting the family property in agreement with his father and
+Mr Bideawhile. But there was an importance in it that sustained him
+amidst his troubles. It is said that if you were to take a man of
+moderate parts and make him Prime Minister out of hand, he might
+probably do as well as other Prime Ministers, the greatness of the
+work elevating the man to its own level. In that way Dolly was
+elevated to the level of a man of business, and felt and enjoyed his
+own capacity. 'By George!' It depended chiefly upon him whether such a
+man as Melmotte should or should not be charged before the Lord Mayor.
+'Perhaps I oughtn't to have promised,' he said to Squercum, sitting in
+the lawyer's office on a high-legged stool with a cigar in his mouth.
+He preferred Squercum to any other lawyer he had met because
+Squercum's room was untidy and homely, because there was nothing awful
+about it, and because he could sit in what position he pleased, and
+smoke all the time.
+
+'Well; I don't think you ought, if you ask me,' said Squercum.
+
+'You weren't there to be asked, old fellow.'
+
+'Bideawhile shouldn't have asked you to agree to anything in my
+absence,' said Squercum indignantly. 'It was a very unprofessional
+thing on his part, and so I shall take an opportunity of telling him.'
+
+'It was you told me to go.'
+
+'Well;--yes. I wanted you to see what they were at in that room; but
+I told you to look on and say nothing.'
+
+'I didn't speak half-a-dozen words.'
+
+'You shouldn't have spoken those words. Your father then is quite
+clear that you did not sign the letter?'
+
+'Oh, yes;--the governor is pig-headed, you know, but he's honest.'
+
+'That's a matter of course,' said the lawyer. 'All men are honest; but
+they are generally specially honest to their own side. Bideawhile's
+honest; but you've got to fight him deuced close to prevent his
+getting the better of you. Melmotte has promised to pay the money on
+Friday, has he?'
+
+'He's to bring it with him to Bruton Street.'
+
+'I don't believe a word of it;--and I'm sure Bideawhile doesn't. In
+what shape will he bring it? He'll give you a cheque dated on Monday,
+and that'll give him two days more, and then on Monday there'll be a
+note to say the money can't be lodged till Wednesday. There should be
+no compromising with such a man. You only get from one mess into
+another. I told you neither to do anything or to say anything.'
+
+'I suppose we can't help ourselves now. You're to be there on Friday.
+I particularly bargained for that. It you're there, there won't be any
+more compromising.'
+
+Squercum made one or two further remarks to his client, not at all
+flattering to Dolly's vanity,--which might have caused offence had not
+there been such perfectly good feeling between the attorney and the
+young man. As it was, Dolly replied to everything that was said with
+increased flattery. 'If I was a sharp fellow like you, you know,' said
+Dolly, 'of course I should get along better; but I ain't, you know.'
+It was then settled that they should meet each other, and also meet Mr
+Longestaffe senior, Bideawhile, and Melmotte, at twelve o'clock on
+Friday morning in Bruton Street.
+
+Squercum was by no means satisfied. He had busied himself in this
+matter, and had ferreted things out, till he had pretty nearly got to
+the bottom of that affair about the houses in the East, and had
+managed to induce the heirs of the old man who had died to employ him.
+As to the Pickering property he had not a doubt on the subject. Old
+Longestaffe had been induced by promises of wonderful aid and by the
+bribe of a seat at the Board of the South Central Pacific and Mexican
+Railway to give up the title-deeds of the property,--as far as it was
+in his power to give them up; and had endeavoured to induce Dolly to
+do so also. As he had failed, Melmotte had supplemented his work by
+ingenuity, with which the reader is acquainted. All this was perfectly
+clear to Squercum, who thought that he saw before him a most
+attractive course of proceeding against the Great Financier. It was
+pure ambition rather than any hope of lucre that urged him on. He
+regarded Melmotte as a grand swindler,--perhaps the grandest that the
+world had ever known,--and he could conceive no greater honour than the
+detection, successful prosecution, and ultimate destroying of so great
+a man. To have hunted down Melmotte would make Squercum as great
+almost as Melmotte himself. But he felt himself to have been unfairly
+hampered by his own client. He did not believe that the money would be
+paid; but delay might rob him of his Melmotte. He had heard a good
+many things in the City, and believed it to be quite out of the
+question that Melmotte should raise the money,--but there were various
+ways in which a man might escape.
+
+It may be remembered that Croll, the German clerk, preceded
+Melmotte into the City on Wednesday after Marie's refusal to sign
+the deeds. He, too, had his eyes open, and had perceived that
+things were not looking as well as they used to look. Croll had for
+many years been true to his patron, having been, upon the whole,
+very well paid for such truth. There had been times when things had
+gone badly with him, but he had believed in Melmotte, and, when
+Melmotte rose, had been rewarded for his faith. Mr Croll at the
+present time had little investments of his own, not made under his
+employer's auspices, which would leave him not absolutely without
+bread for his family should the Melmotte affairs at any time take
+an awkward turn. Melmotte had never required from him service that
+was actually fraudulent,--had at any rate never required it by spoken
+words. Mr Croll had not been over-scrupulous, and had occasionally
+been very useful to Mr Melmotte. But there must be a limit to all
+things; and why should any man sacrifice himself beneath the ruins
+of a falling house,--when convinced that nothing he can do can
+prevent the fall? Mr Croll would have been of course happy to
+witness Miss Melmotte's signature; but as for that other kind of
+witnessing,--this clearly to his thinking was not the time for such
+good-nature on his part.
+
+'You know what's up now;--don't you?' said one of the junior clerks to
+Mr Croll when he entered the office in Abchurch Lane.
+
+'A good deal will be up soon,' said the German.
+
+'Cohenlupe has gone!'
+
+'And to vere has Mr Cohenlupe gone?'
+
+'He hasn't been civil enough to leave his address. I fancy he don't
+want his friends to have to trouble themselves by writing to him.
+Nobody seems to know what's become of him.'
+
+'New York,' suggested Mr Croll.
+
+'They seem to think not. They're too hospitable in New York for Mr
+Cohenlupe just at present. He's travelling private. He's on the
+continent somewhere,--half across France by this time; but nobody knows
+what route he has taken. That'll be a poke in the ribs for the old
+boy;--eh, Croll?' Croll merely shook his head. 'I wonder what has
+become of Miles Grendall,' continued the clerk.
+
+'Ven de rats is going avay it is bad for de house. I like de rats to
+stay.'
+
+'There seems to have been a regular manufactory of Mexican Railway
+scrip.'
+
+'Our governor knew noding about dat,' said Croll.
+
+'He has a hat full of them at any rate. If they could have been kept
+up another fortnight they say Cohenlupe would have been worth nearly a
+million of money, and the governor would have been as good as the
+bank. Is it true they are going to have him before the Lord Mayor
+about the Pickering title-deeds?' Croll declared that he knew nothing
+about the matter, and settled himself down to his work.
+
+In little more than two hours he was followed by Melmotte, who thus
+reached the City late in the afternoon. It was he knew too late to
+raise the money on that day, but he hoped that he might pave the way
+for getting it on the next day, which would be Thursday. Of course the
+first news which he heard was of the defection of Mr Cohenlupe. It was
+Croll who told him. He turned back, and his jaw fell, but at first he
+said nothing.
+
+'It's a bad thing,' said Mr Croll.
+
+'Yes;--it is bad. He had a vast amount of my property in his hands.
+Where has he gone?' Croll shook his head. 'It never rains but it
+pours,' said Melmotte. 'Well; I'll weather it all yet. I've been worse
+than I am now, Croll, as you know, and have had a hundred thousand
+pounds at my banker's,--loose cash,--before the month was out.'
+
+'Yes, indeed,' said Croll.
+
+'But the worst of it is that every one around me is so damnably
+jealous. It isn't what I've lost that will crush me, but what men will
+say that I've lost. Ever since I began to stand for Westminster there
+has been a dead set against me in the City. The whole of that affair
+of the dinner was planned,--planned, by G----, that it might ruin me.
+It was all laid out just as you would lay the foundation of a building.
+It is hard for one man to stand against all that when he has dealings
+so large as mine.'
+
+'Very hard, Mr Melmotte.'
+
+'But they'll find they're mistaken yet. There's too much of the real
+stuff, Croll, for them to crush me. Property's a kind of thing that
+comes out right at last. It's cut and come again, you know, if the
+stuff is really there. But I mustn't stop talking here. I suppose I
+shall find Brehgert in Cuthbert's Court.'
+
+'I should say so, Mr Melmotte. Mr Brehgert never leaves much before
+six.'
+
+Then Mr Melmotte took his hat and gloves, and the stick that he
+usually carried, and went out with his face carefully dressed in its
+usually jaunty air. But Croll as he went heard him mutter the name of
+Cohenlupe between his teeth. The part which he had to act is one very
+difficult to any actor. The carrying an external look of indifference
+when the heart is sinking within,--or has sunk almost to the very
+ground,--is more than difficult; it is an agonizing task. In all mental
+suffering the sufferer longs for solitude,--for permission to cast
+himself loose along the ground, so that every limb and every feature
+of his person may faint in sympathy with his heart. A grandly urbane
+deportment over a crushed spirit and ruined hopes is beyond the
+physical strength of most men;--but there have been men so strong.
+Melmotte very nearly accomplished it. It was only to the eyes of such
+a one as Herr Croll that the failure was perceptible.
+
+Melmotte did find Mr Brehgert. At this time Mr Brehgert had completed
+his correspondence with Miss Longestaffe, in which he had mentioned
+the probability of great losses from the anticipated commercial
+failure in Mr Melmotte's affairs. He had now heard that Mr Cohenlupe
+had gone upon his travels, and was therefore nearly sure that his
+anticipation would be correct. Nevertheless, he received his old
+friend with a smile. When large sums of money are concerned there is
+seldom much of personal indignation between man and man. The loss of
+fifty pounds or of a few hundreds may create personal wrath;--but fifty
+thousand require equanimity. 'So Cohenlupe hasn't been seen in the City
+to-day,' said Brehgert.
+
+'He has gone,' said Melmotte hoarsely.
+
+'I think I once told you that Cohenlupe was not the man for large
+dealings.'
+
+'Yes, you did,' said Melmotte.
+
+'Well;--it can't be helped; can it? And what is it now?' Then Melmotte
+explained to Mr Brehgert what it was that he wanted then, taking the
+various documents out of the bag which throughout the afternoon he had
+carried in his hand. Mr Brehgert understood enough of his friend's
+affairs, and enough of affairs in general, to understand readily all
+that was required. He examined the documents, declaring, as he did so,
+that he did not know how the thing could be arranged by Friday.
+Melmotte replied that £50,000 was not a very large sum of money, that
+the security offered was worth twice as much as that. 'You will leave
+them with me this evening,' said Brehgert. Melmotte paused for a
+moment, and said that he would of course do so. He would have given
+much, very much, to have been sufficiently master of himself to have
+assented without hesitation;--but then the weight within was so very
+heavy!
+
+Having left the papers and the bag with Mr Brehgert, he walked
+westwards to the House of Commons. He was accustomed to remain in the
+City later than this, often not leaving it till seven,--though during
+the last week or ten days he had occasionally gone down to the House
+in the afternoon. It was now Wednesday, and there was no evening
+sitting;--but his mind was too full of other things to allow him to
+remember this. As he walked along the Embankment, his thoughts were
+very heavy. How would things go with him?--What would be the end of
+it? Ruin;--yes, but there were worse things than ruin. And a short time
+since he had been so fortunate;--had made himself so safe! As he looked
+back at it, he could hardly say how it had come to pass that he had
+been driven out of the track that he had laid down for himself. He had
+known that ruin would come, and had made himself so comfortably safe,
+so brilliantly safe, in spite of ruin. But insane ambition had driven
+him away from his anchorage. He told himself over and over again that
+the fault had been not in circumstances,--not in that which men call
+Fortune,--but in his own incapacity to bear his position. He saw it
+now. He felt it now. If he could only begin again, how different
+would his conduct be!
+
+But of what avail were such regrets as these? He must take things as
+they were now, and see that, in dealing with them, he allowed himself
+to be carried away neither by pride nor cowardice. And if the worst
+should come to the worst, then let him face it like a man! There was a
+certain manliness about him which showed itself perhaps as strongly in
+his own self-condemnation as in any other part of his conduct at this
+time. Judging of himself, as though he were standing outside himself
+and looking on to another man's work, he pointed out to himself his
+own shortcomings. If it were all to be done again he thought that he
+could avoid this bump against the rocks on one side, and that terribly
+shattering blow on the other. There was much that he was ashamed of,--
+many a little act which recurred to him vividly in this solitary hour
+as a thing to be repented of with inner sackcloth and ashes. But never
+once, not for a moment, did it occur to him that he should repent of
+the fraud in which his whole life had been passed. No idea ever
+crossed his mind of what might have been the result had he lived the
+life of an honest man. Though he was inquiring into himself as closely
+as he could, he never even told himself that he had been dishonest.
+Fraud and dishonesty had been the very principle of his life, and had
+so become a part of his blood and bones that even in this extremity of
+his misery he made no question within himself as to his right judgment
+in regard to them. Not to cheat, not to be a scoundrel, not to live
+more luxuriously than others by cheating more brilliantly, was a
+condition of things to which his mind had never turned itself. In that
+respect he accused himself of no want of judgment. But why had he, so
+unrighteous himself, not made friends to himself of the Mammon of
+unrighteousness? Why had he not conciliated Lord Mayors? Why had he
+trod upon all the corns of all his neighbours? Why had he been
+insolent at the India Office? Why had he trusted any man as he had
+trusted Cohenlupe? Why had he not stuck to Abchurch Lane instead of
+going into Parliament? Why had he called down unnecessary notice on
+his head by entertaining the Emperor of China? It was too late now,
+and he must bear it; but these were the things that had ruined him.
+
+He walked into Palace Yard and across it, to the door of Westminster
+Abbey, before he found out that Parliament was not sitting. 'Oh,
+Wednesday! Of course it is,' he said, turning round and directing his
+steps towards Grosvenor Square. Then he remembered that in the morning
+he had declared his purpose of dining at home, and now he did not know
+what better use to make of the present evening. His house could hardly
+be very comfortable to him. Marie no doubt would keep out of his way,
+and he did not habitually receive much pleasure from his wife's
+company. But in his own house he could at least be alone. Then, as he
+walked slowly across the park, thinking so intently on matters as
+hardly to observe whether he himself were observed or no, he asked
+himself whether it still might not be best for him to keep the money
+which was settled on his daughter, to tell the Longestaffes that he
+could make no payment, and to face the worst that Mr Squercum could do
+to him,--for he knew already how busy Mr Squercum was in the matter.
+Though they should put him on his trial for forgery, what of that? He
+had heard of trials in which the accused criminals had been heroes to
+the multitude while their cases were in progress,--who had been fêted
+from the beginning to the end though no one had doubted their guilt,--
+and who had come out unscathed at the last. What evidence had they
+against him? It might be that the Longestaffes and Bideawhiles and
+Squercums should know that he was a forger, but their knowledge would
+not produce a verdict. He, as member for Westminster, as the man who
+had entertained the Emperor, as the owner of one of the most gorgeous
+houses in London, as the great Melmotte, could certainly command the
+best half of the bar. He already felt what popular support might do
+for him. Surely there need be no despondency while so good a hope
+remained to him! He did tremble as he remembered Dolly Longestaffe's
+letter, and the letter of the old man who was dead. And he knew that
+it was possible that other things might be adduced; but would it not
+be better to face it all than surrender his money and become a pauper,
+seeing, as he did very clearly, that even by such surrender he could
+not cleanse his character?
+
+But he had given those forged documents into the hands of Mr Brehgert!
+Again he had acted in a hurry,--without giving sufficient thought to
+the matter in hand. He was angry with himself for that also. But how
+is a man to give sufficient thought to his affairs when no step that
+he takes can be other than ruinous? Yes;--he had certainly put into
+Brehgert's hands means of proving him to have been absolutely guilty
+of forgery. He did not think that Marie would disclaim the signatures,
+even though she had refused to sign the deeds, when she should
+understand that her father had written her name; nor did he think that
+his clerk would be urgent against him, as the forgery of Croll's name
+could not injure Croll. But Brehgert, should he discover what had been
+done, would certainly not permit him to escape. And now he had put
+these forgeries without any guard into Brehgert's hands.
+
+He would tell Brehgert in the morning that he had changed his mind. He
+would see Brehgert before any action could have been taken on the
+documents, and Brehgert would no doubt restore them to him. Then he
+would instruct his daughter to hold the money fast, to sign no paper
+that should be put before her, and to draw the income herself. Having
+done that, he would let his foes do their worst. They might drag him
+to gaol. They probably would do so. He had an idea that he could not
+be admitted to bail if accused of forgery. But he would bear all that.
+If convicted he would bear the punishment, still hoping that an end
+might come. But how great was the chance that they might fail to
+convict him! As to the dead man's letter, and as to Dolly
+Longestaffe's letter, he did not think that any sufficient evidence
+could be found. The evidence as to the deeds by which Marie was to
+have released the property was indeed conclusive; but he believed that
+he might still recover those documents. For the present it must be his
+duty to do nothing,--when he should have recovered and destroyed those
+documents,--and to live before the eyes of men as though he feared
+nothing.
+
+He dined at home alone, in the study, and after dinner carefully went
+through various bundles of papers, preparing them for the eyes of
+those ministers of the law who would probably before long have the
+privilege of searching them. At dinner, and while he was thus
+employed, he drank a bottle of champagne,--feeling himself greatly
+comforted by the process. If he could only hold up his head and look
+men in the face, he thought that he might still live through it all.
+How much had he done by his own unassisted powers! He had once been
+imprisoned for fraud at Hamburg, and had come out of gaol a pauper;
+friendless, with all his wretched antecedents against him. Now he was
+a member of the British House of Parliament, the undoubted owner of
+perhaps the most gorgeously furnished house in London, a man with an
+established character for high finance,--a commercial giant whose name
+was a familiar word on all the exchanges of the two hemispheres. Even
+though he should be condemned to penal servitude for life, he would
+not all die. He rang the bell and desired that Madame Melmotte might
+be sent to him, and bade the servant bring him brandy.
+
+In ten minutes his poor wife came crawling into the room. Every one
+connected with Melmotte regarded the man with a certain amount of
+awe,--every one except Marie, to whom alone he had at times been
+himself almost gentle. The servants all feared him, and his wife obeyed
+him implicitly when she could not keep away from him. She came in now
+and stood opposite him, while he spoke to her. She never sat in his
+presence in that room. He asked her where she and Marie kept their
+jewelry;--for during the last twelve months rich trinkets had been
+supplied to both of them. Of course she answered by another question.
+'Is anything going to happen, Melmotte?'
+
+'A good deal is going to happen. Are they here in this house, or in
+Grosvenor Square?'
+
+'They are here.'
+
+'Then have them all packed up,--as small as you can; never mind about
+wool and cases and all that. Have them close to your hand so that if
+you have to move you can take them with you. Do you understand?'
+
+'Yes; I understand.'
+
+'Why don't you speak, then?'
+
+'What is going to happen, Melmotte?'
+
+'How can I tell? You ought to know by this time that when a man's work
+is such as mine, things will happen. You'll be safe enough. Nothing
+can hurt you.'
+
+'Can they hurt you, Melmotte?'
+
+'Hurt me! I don't know what you call hurting. Whatever there is to be
+borne, I suppose it is I must bear it. I have not had it very soft all
+my life hitherto, and I don't think it's going to be very soft now.'
+
+'Shall we have to move?'
+
+'Very likely. Move! What's the harm of moving? You talk of moving as
+though that were the worst thing that could happen. How would you like
+to be in some place where they wouldn't let you move?'
+
+'Are they going to send you to prison?'
+
+'Hold your tongue.'
+
+'Tell me, Melmotte;--are they going to?' Then the poor woman did
+sit down, overcome by her feelings.
+
+'I didn't ask you to come here for a scene,' said Melmotte. 'Do as I
+bid you about your own jewels, and Marie's. The thing is to have them
+in small compass, and that you should not have it to do at the last
+moment, when you will be flurried and incapable. Now you needn't stay
+any longer, and it's no good asking any questions because I shan't
+answer them.' So dismissed, the poor woman crept out again, and
+immediately, after her own slow fashion, went to work with her
+ornaments.
+
+Melmotte sat up during the greater part of the night, sometimes sipping
+brandy and water, and sometimes smoking. But he did no work, and
+hardly touched a paper after his wife left him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXII - MARIE'S PERSEVERANCE
+
+
+Very early the next morning, very early that is for London life,
+Melmotte was told by a servant that Mr Croll had called and wanted to
+see him. Then it immediately became a question with him whether he
+wanted to see Croll. 'Is it anything special?' he asked. The man
+thought that it was something special, as Croll had declared his
+purpose of waiting when told that Mr Melmotte was not as yet dressed.
+This happened at about nine o'clock in the morning. Melmotte longed to
+know every detail of Croll's manner,--to know even the servant's
+opinion of the clerk's manner,--but he did not dare to ask a question.
+Melmotte thought that it might be well to be gracious. 'Ask him if he
+has breakfasted, and if not give him something in the study.' But Mr
+Croll had breakfasted and declined any further refreshment.
+
+Nevertheless Melmotte had not as yet made up his mind that he would
+meet his clerk. His clerk was his clerk. It might perhaps be well that
+he should first go into the City and send word to Croll, bidding him
+wait for his return. Over and over again, against his will, the
+question of flying would present itself to him; but, though he
+discussed it within his own bosom in every form, he knew that he could
+not fly. And if he stood his ground,--as most assuredly he would do,--
+then must he not be afraid to meet any man, let the man come with what
+thunderbolts in his hand he might. Of course sooner or later some man
+must come with a thunderbolt,--and why not Croll as well as another?
+He stood against a press in his chamber, with a razor in his hand, and
+steadied himself. How easily might he put an end to it all! Then he
+rang his bell and desired that Croll might be shown up into his room.
+
+The three or four minutes which intervened seemed to him to be very
+long. He had absolutely forgotten in his anxiety that the lather was
+still upon his face. But he could not smother his anxiety. He was
+fighting with it at every turn, but he could not conquer it. When the
+knock came at his door, he grasped at his own breast as though to
+support himself. With a hoarse voice he told the man to come in, and
+Croll himself appeared, opening the door gently and very slowly.
+Melmotte had left the bag which contained the papers in possession of
+Mr Brehgert, and he now saw, at a glance, that Croll had got the bag
+in his hand and could see also by the shape of the bag that the bag
+contained the papers. The man therefore had in his own hands, in his
+own keeping, the very documents to which his own name had been forged!
+There was no longer a hope, no longer a chance that Croll should be
+ignorant of what had been done. 'Well, Croll,' he said with an attempt
+at a smile, 'what brings you here so early?' He was pale as death, and
+let him struggle as he would, could not restrain himself from
+trembling.
+
+'Herr Brehgert vas vid me last night,' said Croll.
+
+'Eh!'
+
+'And he thought I had better bring these back to you. That's all.'
+Croll spoke in a very low voice, with his eyes fixed on his master's
+face, but with nothing of a threat in his attitude or manner.
+
+'Eh!' repeated Melmotte. Even though he might have saved himself from
+all coming evils by a bold demeanour at that moment, he could not
+assume it. But it all flashed upon him at a moment. Brehgert had seen
+Croll after he, Melmotte, had left the City, had then discovered the
+forgery, and had taken this way of sending back all the forged
+documents. He had known Brehgert to be of all men who ever lived the
+most good-natured, but he could hardly believe in pure good-nature
+such as this. It seemed that the thunderbolt was not yet to fall.
+
+'Mr Brehgert came to me,' continued Croll, 'because one signature was
+wanting. It was very late, so I took them home with me. I said I'd
+bring them to you in the morning.'
+
+They both knew that he had forged the documents, Brehgert and Croll;
+but how would that concern him, Melmotte, if these two friends had
+resolved together that they would not expose him? He had desired to
+get the documents back into his own hands, and here they were!
+Melmotte's immediate trouble arose from the difficulty of speaking in
+a proper manner to his own servant who had just detected him in
+forgery. He couldn't speak. There were no words appropriate to such an
+occasion. 'It vas a strong order, Mr Melmotte,' said Croll. Melmotte
+tried to smile but only grinned. 'I vill not be back in the Lane, Mr
+Melmotte.'
+
+'Not back at the office, Croll?'
+
+'I tink not;--no. De leetle money coming to me, you will send it.
+Adieu.' And so Mr Croll took his final leave of his old master after
+an intercourse which had lasted twenty years. We may imagine that Herr
+Croll found his spirits to be oppressed and his capacity for business
+to be obliterated by his patron's misfortunes rather than by his
+patron's guilt. But he had not behaved unkindly. He had merely
+remarked that the forgery of his own name half-a-dozen times over was
+a 'strong order.'
+
+Melmotte opened the bag, and examined the documents one by one. It had
+been necessary that Marie should sign her name some half-dozen times,
+and Marie's father had made all the necessary forgeries. It had been
+of course necessary that each name should be witnessed;--but here the
+forger had scamped his work. Croll's name he had written five times;
+but one forged signature he had left unattested! Again he had himself
+been at fault. Again he had aided his own ruin by his own
+carelessness. One seems inclined to think sometimes that any fool
+might do an honest business. But fraud requires a man to be alive and
+wide awake at every turn!
+
+Melmotte had desired to have the documents back in his own hands, and
+now he had them. Did it matter much that Brehgert and Croll both knew
+the crime which he had committed? Had they meant to take legal steps
+against him they would not have returned the forgeries to his own
+hands. Brehgert, he thought, would never tell the tale;--unless there
+should arise some most improbable emergency in which he might make
+money by telling it; but he was by no means so sure of Croll. Croll
+had signified his intention of leaving Melmotte's service, and would
+therefore probably enter some rival service, and thus become an enemy
+to his late master. There could be no reason why Croll should keep the
+secret. Even if he got no direct profit by telling it, he would curry
+favour by making it known. Of course Croll would tell it.
+
+But what harm could the telling of such a secret do him? The girl was
+his own daughter! The money had been his own money! The man had been
+his own servant! There had been no fraud; no robbery; no purpose of
+peculation. Melmotte, as he thought of this, became almost proud of
+what he had done, thinking that if the evidence were suppressed the
+knowledge of the facts could do him no harm. But the evidence must be
+suppressed, and with the view of suppressing it he took the little bag
+and all the papers down with him to the study. Then he ate his
+breakfast,--and suppressed the evidence by the aid of his gas lamp.
+
+When this was accomplished he hesitated as to the manner in which he
+would pass his day. He had now given up all idea of raising the money
+for Longestaffe. He had even considered the language in which he would
+explain to the assembled gentlemen on the morrow the fact that a
+little difficulty still presented itself, and that as he could not
+exactly name a day, he must leave the matter in their hands. For he
+had resolved that he would not evade the meeting. Cohenlupe had gone
+since he had made his promise, and he would throw all the blame on
+Cohenlupe. Everybody knows that when panics arise the breaking of one
+merchant causes the downfall of another. Cohenlupe should bear the
+burden. But as that must be so, he could do no good by going into the
+City. His pecuniary downfall had now become too much a matter of
+certainty to be staved off by his presence; and his personal security
+could hardly be assisted by it. There would be nothing for him to do.
+Cohenlupe had gone. Miles Grendall had gone. Croll had gone. He could
+hardly go to Cuthbert's Court and face Mr Brehgert! He would stay at
+home till it was time for him to go down to the House, and then he
+would face the world there. He would dine down at the House, and stand
+about in the smoking-room with his hat on, and be visible in the
+lobbies, and take his seat among his brother legislators,--and, if it
+were possible, rise on his legs and make a speech to them. He was
+about to have a crushing fall,--but the world should say that he had
+fallen like a man.
+
+About eleven his daughter came to him as he sat in the study. It can
+hardly be said that he had ever been kind to Marie, but perhaps she
+was the only person who in the whole course of his career had received
+indulgence at his hands. He had often beaten her; but he had also
+often made her presents and smiled on her, and in the periods of his
+opulence, had allowed her pocket-money almost without limit. Now she
+had not only disobeyed him, but by most perverse obstinacy on her part
+had driven him to acts of forgery which had already been detected. He
+had cause to be angry now with Marie if he had ever had cause for
+anger. But he had almost forgotten the transaction. He had at any rate
+forgotten the violence of his own feelings at the time of its
+occurrence. He was no longer anxious that the release should be made,
+and therefore no longer angry with her for her refusal.
+
+'Papa,' she said, coming very gently into the room, 'I think that
+perhaps I was wrong yesterday.'
+
+'Of course you were wrong;--but it doesn't matter now.'
+
+'If you wish it I'll sign those papers. I don't suppose Lord
+Nidderdale means to come any more;--and I'm sure I don't care whether
+he does or not.'
+
+'What makes you think that, Marie?'
+
+'I was out last night at Lady Julia Goldsheiner's, and he was there.
+I'm sure he doesn't mean to come here any more.'
+
+'Was he uncivil to you?'
+
+'Oh dear no. He's never uncivil. But I'm sure of it. Never mind how. I
+never told him that I cared for him and I never did care for him.
+Papa, is there something going to happen?'
+
+'What do you mean?'
+
+'Some misfortune! Oh, papa, why didn't you let me marry that other
+man?'
+
+'He is a penniless adventurer.'
+
+'But he would have had this money that I call my money, and then there
+would have been enough for us all. Papa, he would marry me still if
+you would let him.'
+
+'Have you seen him since you went to Liverpool?'
+
+'Never, papa.'
+
+'Or heard from him?'
+
+'Not a line.'
+
+'Then what makes you think he would marry you?'
+
+'He would if I got hold of him and told him. And he is a baronet. And
+there would be plenty of money for us all. And we could go and live in
+Germany.'
+
+'We could do that just as well without your marrying.'
+
+'But I suppose, papa, I am to be considered as somebody. I don't want
+after all to run away from London, just as if everybody had turned up
+their noses at me. I like him, and I don't like anybody else.'
+
+'He wouldn't take the trouble to go to Liverpool with you.'
+
+'He got tipsy. I know all about that. I don't mean to say that he's
+anything particularly grand. I don't know that anybody is very grand.
+He's as good as anybody else.'
+
+'It can't be done, Marie.'
+
+'Why can't it be done?'
+
+'There are a dozen reasons. Why should my money be given up to him?
+And it is too late. There are other things to be thought of now than
+marriage.'
+
+'You don't want me to sign the papers?'
+
+'No;--I haven't got the papers. But I want you to remember that the
+money is mine and not yours. It may be that much may depend on you,
+and that I shall have to trust to you for nearly everything. Do not
+let me find myself deceived by my daughter.'
+
+'I won't,--if you'll let me see Sir Felix Carbury once more.'
+
+Then the father's pride again reasserted itself and he became angry.
+'I tell you, you little fool, that it is out of the question. Why
+cannot you believe me? Has your mother spoken to you about your
+jewels? Get them packed up, so that you can carry them away in your
+hand if we have to leave this suddenly. You are an idiot to think of
+that young man. As you say, I don't know that any of them are very
+good, but among them all he is about the worst. Go away and do as I
+bid you.'
+
+That afternoon the page in Welbeck Street came up to Lady Carbury and
+told her that there was a young lady downstairs who wanted to see Sir
+Felix. At this time the dominion of Sir Felix in his mother's house
+had been much curtailed. His latch-key had been surreptitiously taken
+away from him, and all messages brought for him reached his hands
+through those of his mother. The plasters were not removed from his
+face, so that he was still subject to that loss of self-assertion with
+which we are told that hitherto dominant cocks become afflicted when
+they have been daubed with mud. Lady Carbury asked sundry questions
+about the lady, suspecting that Ruby Ruggles, of whom she had heard,
+had come to seek her lover. The page could give no special
+description, merely saying that the young lady wore a black veil. Lady
+Carbury directed that the young lady should be shown into her own
+presence,--and Marie Melmotte was ushered into the room. 'I dare say
+you don't remember me, Lady Carbury,' Marie said. 'I am Marie
+Melmotte.'
+
+At first Lady Carbury had not recognized her visitor;--but she did so
+before she replied. 'Yes, Miss Melmotte, I remember you.'
+
+'Yes;--I am Mr Melmotte's daughter. How is your son? I hope he is
+better. They told me he had been horribly used by a dreadful man in
+the street.'
+
+'Sit down, Miss Melmotte. He is getting better.' Now Lady Carbury had
+heard within the last two days from Mr Broune that 'it was all over'
+with Melmotte. Broune had declared his very strong belief, his
+thorough conviction, that Melmotte had committed various forgeries,
+that his speculations had gone so much against him as to leave him a
+ruined man, and, in short, that the great Melmotte bubble was on the
+very point of bursting. 'Everybody says that he'll be in gaol before a
+week is over.' That was the information which had reached Lady Carbury
+about the Melmottes only on the previous evening.
+
+'I want to see him,' said Marie. Lady Carbury, hardly knowing what
+answer to make, was silent for a while. 'I suppose he told you
+everything;--didn't he? You know that we were to have been married? I
+loved him very much, and so I do still. I am not ashamed of coming and
+telling you.'
+
+'I thought it was all off,' said Lady Carbury.
+
+'I never said so. Does he say so? Your daughter came to me and was
+very good to me. I do so love her. She said that it was all over; but
+perhaps she was wrong. It shan't be all over if he will be true.'
+
+Lady Carbury was taken greatly by surprise. It seemed to her at the
+moment that this young lady, knowing that her own father was ruined,
+was looking out for another home, and was doing so with a considerable
+amount of audacity. She gave Marie little credit either for affection
+or for generosity; but yet she was unwilling to answer her roughly. 'I
+am afraid,' she said, 'that it would not be suitable.'
+
+'Why should it not be suitable? They can't take my money away. There
+is enough for all of us even if papa wanted to live with us;--but it is
+mine. It is ever so much;--I don't know how much, but a great deal. We
+should be quite rich enough. I ain't a bit ashamed to come and tell
+you, because we were engaged. I know he isn't rich, and I should have
+thought it would be suitable.'
+
+It then occurred to Lady Carbury that if this were true the marriage
+after all might be suitable. But how was she to find out whether it
+was true? 'I understand that your papa is opposed to it,' she said.
+
+'Yes, he is;--but papa can't prevent me, and papa can't make me give up
+the money. It's ever so many thousands a year, I know. If I can dare
+to do it, why can't he?'
+
+Lady Carbury was so beside herself with doubts, that she found it
+impossible to form any decision. It would be necessary that she should
+see Mr Broune. What to do with her son, how to bestow him, in what way
+to get rid of him so that in ridding herself of him she might not aid
+in destroying him,--this was the great trouble of her life, the burden
+that was breaking her back. Now this girl was not only willing but
+persistently anxious to take her black sheep and to endow him,--as she
+declared,--with ever so many thousands a year. If the thousands were
+there,--or even an income of a single thousand a year,--then what a
+blessing would such a marriage be! Sir Felix had already fallen so low
+that his mother on his behalf would not be justified in declining a
+connection with the Melmottes because the Melmottes had fallen. To get
+any niche in the world for him in which he might live with comparative
+safety would now be to her a heaven-sent comfort. 'My son is
+upstairs,' she said. 'I will go up and speak to him.'
+
+'Tell him I am here and that I have said that I will forgive him
+everything, and that I love him still, and that if he will be true to
+me, I will be true to him.'
+
+'I couldn't go down to her,' said Sir Felix, 'with my face all in this
+way.'
+
+'I don't think she would mind that.'
+
+'I couldn't do it. Besides, I don't believe about her money. I never
+did believe it. That was the real reason why I didn't go to
+Liverpool.'
+
+'I think I would see her if I were you, Felix. We could find out to a
+certainty about her fortune. It is evident at any rate that she is
+very fond of you.'
+
+'What's the use of that, if he is ruined?' He would not go down to see
+the girl,--because he could not endure to expose his face, and was
+ashamed of the wounds which he had received in the street. As regarded
+the money he half-believed and half-disbelieved Marie's story. But the
+fruition of the money, if it were within his reach, would be far off
+and to be attained with much trouble; whereas the nuisance of a scene
+with Marie would be immediate. How could he kiss his future bride,
+with his nose bound up with a bandage?
+
+'What shall I say to her?' asked his mother.
+
+'She oughtn't to have come. I should tell her just that. You might
+send the maid to her to tell her that you couldn't see her again.'
+
+But Lady Carbury could not treat the girl after that fashion. She
+returned to the drawing-room, descending the stairs very slowly, and
+thinking what answer she would make. 'Miss Melmotte,' she said, 'my
+son feels that everything has been so changed since he and you last
+met, that nothing can be gained by a renewal of your acquaintance.'
+
+'That is his message;--is it?' Lady Carbury remained silent. 'Then he
+is indeed all that they have told me; and I am ashamed that I should
+have loved him. I am ashamed;--not of coming here, although you will
+think that I have run after him. I don't see why a girl should not run
+after a man if they have been engaged together. But I'm ashamed of
+thinking so much of so mean a person. Goodbye, Lady Carbury.'
+
+'Good-bye, Miss Melmotte. I don't think you should be angry with me.'
+
+'No;--no. I am not angry with you. You can forget me now as soon as you
+please, and I will try to forget him.'
+
+Then with a rapid step she walked back to Bruton Street, going round
+by Grosvenor Square and in front of her old house on the way. What
+should she now do with herself? What sort of life should she endeavour
+to prepare for herself? The life that she had led for the last year
+had been thoroughly wretched. The poverty and hardship which she
+remembered in her early days had been more endurable. The servitude to
+which she had been subjected before she had learned by intercourse
+with the world to assert herself, had been preferable. In these days
+of her grandeur, in which she had danced with princes, and seen an
+emperor in her father's house, and been affianced to lords, she had
+encountered degradation which had been abominable to her. She had
+really loved;--but had found out that her golden idol was made of the
+basest clay. She had then declared to herself that bad as the clay was
+she would still love it;--but even the clay had turned away from her
+and had refused her love!
+
+She was well aware that some catastrophe was about to happen to her
+father. Catastrophes had happened before, and she had been conscious
+of their coming. But now the blow would be a very heavy blow. They
+would again be driven to pack up and move and seek some other city,--
+probably in some very distant part. But go where she might, she would
+now be her own mistress. That was the one resolution she succeeded in
+forming before she re-entered the house in Bruton Street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXIII - MELMOTTE AGAIN AT THE HOUSE
+
+
+On that Thursday afternoon it was known everywhere that there was to
+be a general ruin of all the Melmotte affairs. As soon as Cohenlupe
+had gone, no man doubted. The City men who had not gone to the dinner
+prided themselves on their foresight, as did also the politicians who
+had declined to meet the Emperor of China at the table of the
+suspected Financier. They who had got up the dinner and had been
+instrumental in taking the Emperor to the house in Grosvenor Square,
+and they also who had brought him forward at Westminster and had
+fought his battle for him, were aware that they would have to defend
+themselves against heavy attacks. No one now had a word to say in his
+favour, or a doubt as to his guilt. The Grendalls had retired
+altogether out of town, and were no longer even heard of. Lord Alfred
+had not been seen since the day of the dinner. The Duchess of Albury,
+too, went into the country some weeks earlier than usual, quelled, as
+the world said, by the general Melmotte failure. But this departure
+had not as yet taken place at the time at which we have now arrived.
+
+When the Speaker took his seat in the House, soon after four o'clock,
+there were a great many members present, and a general feeling
+prevailed that the world was more than ordinarily alive because of
+Melmotte and his failures. It had been confidently asserted throughout
+the morning that he would be put upon his trial for forgery in
+reference to the purchase of the Pickering property from Mr
+Longestaffe, and it was known that he had not as yet shown himself
+anywhere on this day. People had gone to look at the house in
+Grosvenor Square,--not knowing that he was still living in Mr
+Longestaffe's house in Bruton Street, and had come away with the
+impression that the desolation of ruin and crime was already plainly
+to be seen upon it. 'I wonder where he is,' said Mr Lupton to Mr
+Beauchamp Beauclerk in one of the lobbies of the House.
+
+'They say he hasn't been in the City all day. I suppose he's in
+Longestaffe's house. That poor fellow has got it heavy all round. The
+man has got his place in the country and his house in town. There's
+Nidderdale. I wonder what he thinks about it all.'
+
+'This is awful;--ain't it?' said Nidderdale.
+
+'It might have been worse, I should say, as far as you are concerned,'
+replied Mr Lupton.
+
+'Well, yes. But I'll tell you what, Lupton. I don't quite understand
+it all yet. Our lawyer said three days ago that the money was
+certainly there.'
+
+'And Cohenlupe was certainly here three days ago,' said Lupton,--'but
+he isn't here now. It seems to me that it has just happened in time
+for you.' Lord Nidderdale shook his head and tried to look very grave.
+
+'There's Brown,' said Sir Orlando Drought, hurrying up to the
+commercial gentleman whose mistakes about finance Mr Melmotte on a
+previous occasion had been anxious to correct. 'He'll be able to tell
+us where he is. It was rumoured, you know, an hour ago, that he was
+off to the continent after Cohenlupe.' But Mr Brown shook his head. Mr
+Brown didn't know anything. But Mr Brown was very strongly of opinion
+that the police would know all that there was to be known about Mr
+Melmotte before this time on the following day. Mr Brown had been very
+bitter against Melmotte since that memorable attack made upon him in
+the House.
+
+Even ministers as they sat to be badgered by the ordinary
+question-mongers of the day were more intent upon Melmotte than upon
+their own defence. 'Do you know anything about it?' asked the
+Chancellor of the Exchequer of the Secretary of State for the Home
+Department.
+
+'I understand that no order has been given for his arrest. There is a
+general opinion that he has committed forgery; but I doubt whether
+they've got their evidence together.'
+
+'He's a ruined man, I suppose,' said the Chancellor. 'I doubt whether
+he ever was a rich man. But I'll tell you what;--he has been about
+the grandest rogue we've seen yet. He must have spent over a hundred
+thousand pounds during the last twelve months on his personal
+expenses. I wonder how the Emperor will like it when he learns the
+truth.' Another minister sitting close to the Secretary of State was
+of opinion that the Emperor of China would not care half so much about
+it as our own First Lord of the Treasury.
+
+At this moment there came a silence over the House which was almost
+audible. They who know the sensation which arises from the continued
+hum of many suppressed voices will know also how plain to the ear is
+the feeling caused by the discontinuance of the sound. Everybody
+looked up, but everybody looked up in perfect silence. An
+Under-Secretary of State had just got upon his legs to answer a most
+indignant question as to an alteration of the colour of the facings of
+a certain regiment, his prepared answer to which, however, was so
+happy as to allow him to anticipate quite a little triumph. It is not
+often that such a Godsend comes in the way of an under-secretary; and
+he was intent upon his performance. But even he was startled into
+momentary oblivion of his well-arranged point. Augustus Melmotte, the
+member for Westminster, was walking up the centre of the House.
+
+He had succeeded by this time in learning so much of the forms of the
+House as to know what to do with his hat,--when to wear it, and when to
+take it off,--and how to sit down. As he entered by the door facing the
+Speaker, he wore his hat on the side of his head, as was his custom.
+Much of the arrogance of his appearance had come from this habit,
+which had been adopted probably from a conviction that it added
+something to his powers of self-assertion. At this moment he was more
+determined than ever that no one should trace in his outer gait or in
+any feature of his face any sign of that ruin which, as he well knew,
+all men were anticipating. Therefore, perhaps, his hat was a little
+more cocked than usual, and the lapels of his coat were thrown back a
+little wider, displaying the large jewelled studs which he wore in his
+shirt; and the arrogance conveyed by his mouth and chin was specially
+conspicuous. He had come down in his brougham, and as he had walked up
+Westminster Hall and entered the House by the private door of the
+members, and then made his way in across the great lobby and between
+the doorkeepers,--no one had spoken a word to him. He had of course
+seen many whom he had known. He had indeed known nearly all whom he had
+seen;--but he had been aware, from the beginning of this enterprise of
+the day, that men would shun him, and that he must bear their cold
+looks and colder silence without seeming to notice them. He had
+schooled himself to the task, and he was now performing it. It was not
+only that he would have to move among men without being noticed, but
+that he must endure to pass the whole evening in the same plight. But
+he was resolved, and he was now doing it. He bowed to the Speaker with
+more than usual courtesy, raising his hat with more than usual care,
+and seated himself, as usual, on the third opposition-bench, but with
+more than his usual fling. He was a big man, who always endeavoured to
+make an effect by deportment, and was therefore customarily
+conspicuous in his movements. He was desirous now of being as he was
+always, neither more nor less demonstrative;--but, as a matter of
+course, he exceeded; and it seemed to those who looked at him that
+there was a special impudence in the manner in which he walked up the
+House and took his seat. The Under-Secretary of State, who was on his
+legs, was struck almost dumb, and his morsel of wit about the facings
+was lost to Parliament for ever.
+
+That unfortunate young man, Lord Nidderdale, occupied the seat next to
+that on which Melmotte had placed himself. It had so happened three or
+four times since Melmotte had been in the House, as the young lord,
+fully intending to marry the Financier's daughter, had resolved that
+he would not be ashamed of his father-in-law. He understood that
+countenance of the sort which he as a young aristocrat could give to
+the man of millions who had risen no one knew whence, was part of the
+bargain in reference to the marriage, and he was gifted with a mingled
+honesty and courage which together made him willing and able to carry
+out his idea. He had given Melmotte little lessons as to ordinary
+forms of the House, and had done what in him lay to earn the money
+which was to be forthcoming. But it had become manifest both to him
+and to his father during the last two days,--very painfully manifest to
+his father,--that the thing must be abandoned. And if so,--then why
+should he be any longer gracious to Melmotte? And, moreover, though he
+had been ready to be courteous to a very vulgar and a very disagreeable
+man, he was not anxious to extend his civilities to one who, as he was
+now assured, had been certainly guilty of forgery. But to get up at
+once and leave his seat because Melmotte had placed himself by his
+side, did not suit the turn of his mind. He looked round to his
+neighbour on the right with a half-comic look of misery, and then
+prepared himself to bear his punishment, whatever it might be.
+
+'Have you been up with Marie to-day?' said Melmotte.
+
+'No;--I've not,' replied the lord.
+
+'Why don't you go? She's always asking about you now. I hope we shall
+be in our own house again next week, and then we shall be able to make
+you comfortable.'
+
+Could it be possible that the man did not know that all the world was
+united in accusing him of forgery? 'I'll tell you what it is,' said
+Nidderdale. 'I think you had better see my governor again, Mr
+Melmotte.'
+
+'There's nothing wrong, I hope.'
+
+'Well;--I don't know. You'd better see him. I'm going now. I only just
+came down to enter an appearance.' He had to cross Melmotte on his way
+out, and as he did so Melmotte grasped him by the hand. 'Good night,
+my boy,' said Melmotte quite aloud,--in a voice much louder than that
+which members generally allow themselves for conversation. Nidderdale
+was confused and unhappy; but there was probably not a man in the
+House who did not understand the whole thing. He rushed down through
+the gangway and out through the doors with a hurried step, and as he
+escaped into the lobby he met Lionel Lupton, who, since his little
+conversation with Mr Beauclerk, had heard further news.
+
+'You know what has happened, Nidderdale?'
+
+'About Melmotte, you mean?'
+
+'Yes, about Melmotte,' continued Lupton. 'He has been arrested in his
+own house within the last half-hour on a charge of forgery.'
+
+'I wish he had,' said Nidderdale, 'with all my heart. If you go in
+you'll find him sitting there as large as life. He has been talking to
+me as though everything were all right.'
+
+'Compton was here not a moment ago, and said that he had been taken
+under a warrant from the Lord Mayor.'
+
+'The Lord Mayor is a member and had better come and fetch his prisoner
+himself. At any rate he's there. I shouldn't wonder if he wasn't on
+his legs before long.'
+
+Melmotte kept his seat steadily till seven, at which hour the House
+adjourned till nine. He was one of the last to leave, and then with a
+slow step,--with almost majestic steps,--he descended to the dining-room
+and ordered his dinner. There were many men there, and some little
+difficulty about a seat. No one was very willing to make room for him.
+But at last he secured a place, almost jostling some unfortunate who
+was there before him. It was impossible to expel him,--almost as
+impossible to sit next him. Even the waiters were unwilling to serve
+him;--but with patience and endurance he did at last get his dinner. He
+was there in his right, as a member of the House of Commons, and there
+was no ground on which such service as he required could be refused to
+him. It was not long before he had the table all to himself. But of
+this he took no apparent notice. He spoke loudly to the waiters and
+drank his bottle of champagne with much apparent enjoyment. Since his
+friendly intercourse with Nidderdale no one had spoken to him, nor had
+he spoken to any man. They who watched him declared among themselves
+that he was happy in his own audacity;--but in truth he was probably
+at that moment the most utterly wretched man in London. He would have
+better studied his personal comfort had he gone to his bed, and spent
+his evening in groans and wailings. But even he, with all the world
+now gone from him, with nothing before him but the extremest misery
+which the indignation of offended laws could inflict, was able to
+spend the last moments of his freedom in making a reputation at any
+rate for audacity. It was thus that Augustus Melmotte wrapped his toga
+around him before his death!
+
+He went from the dining-room to the smoking-room, and there, taking
+from his pocket a huge case which he always carried, proceeded to
+light a cigar about eight inches long. Mr Brown, from the City, was in
+the room, and Melmotte, with a smile and a bow, offered Mr Brown one
+of the same. Mr Brown was a short, fat, round little man, over sixty,
+who was always endeavouring to give to a somewhat commonplace set of
+features an air of importance by the contraction of his lips and the
+knitting of his brows. It was as good as a play to see Mr Brown
+jumping back from any contact with the wicked one, and putting on a
+double frown as he looked at the impudent sinner. 'You needn't think
+so much, you know, of what I said the other night. I didn't mean any
+offence.' So spoke Melmotte, and then laughed with a loud, hoarse
+laugh, looking round upon the assembled crowd as though he were
+enjoying his triumph.
+
+He sat after that and smoked in silence. Once again he burst out into
+a laugh, as though peculiarly amused with his own thoughts;--as though
+he were declaring to himself with much inward humour that all these
+men around him were fools for believing the stories which they had
+heard; but he made no further attempt to speak to any one. Soon after
+nine he went back again into the House, and again took his old place.
+At this time he had swallowed three glasses of brandy and water, as
+well as the champagne, and was brave enough almost for anything. There
+was some debate going on in reference to the game laws,--a subject on
+which Melmotte was as ignorant as one of his housemaids,--but, as some
+speaker sat down, he jumped up to his legs. Another gentleman had also
+risen, and when the House called to that other gentleman Melmotte gave
+way. The other gentleman had not much to say, and in a few minutes
+Melmotte was again on his legs. Who shall dare to describe the
+thoughts which would cross the august mind of a Speaker of the House
+of Commons at such a moment? Of Melmotte's villainy he had no official
+knowledge. And even could he have had such knowledge it was not for
+him to act upon it. The man was a member of the House, and as much
+entitled to speak as another. But it seemed on that occasion that the
+Speaker was anxious to save the House from disgrace;--for twice and
+thrice he refused to have his 'eye caught' by the member for
+Westminster. As long as any other member would rise he would not have
+his eye caught. But Melmotte was persistent, and determined not to be
+put down. At last no one else would speak, and the House was about to
+negative the motion without a division,--when Melmotte was again on his
+legs, still persisting. The Speaker scowled at him and leaned back in
+his chair. Melmotte standing erect, turning his head round from one
+side of the House to another, as though determined that all should see
+his audacity, propping himself with his knees against the seat before
+him, remained for half a minute perfectly silent. He was drunk,--but
+better able than most drunken men to steady himself, and showing in
+his face none of those outward signs of intoxication by which
+drunkenness is generally made apparent. But he had forgotten in his
+audacity that words are needed for the making of a speech, and now he
+had not a word at his command. He stumbled forward, recovered himself,
+then looked once more round the House with a glance of anger, and
+after that toppled headlong over the shoulders of Mr Beauchamp
+Beauclerk, who was sitting in front of him.
+
+He might have wrapped his toga around him better perhaps had he
+remained at home, but if to have himself talked about was his only
+object, he could hardly have taken a surer course. The scene, as it
+occurred, was one very likely to be remembered when the performer
+should have been carried away into enforced obscurity. There was much
+commotion in the House. Mr Beauclerk, a man of natural good nature,
+though at the moment put to considerable personal inconvenience,
+hastened, when he recovered his own equilibrium, to assist the drunken
+man. But Melmotte had by no means lost the power of helping himself.
+He quickly recovered his legs, and then reseating himself, put his hat
+on, and endeavoured to look as though nothing special had occurred.
+The House resumed its business, taking no further notice of Melmotte,
+and having no special rule of its own as to the treatment to be
+adopted with drunken members. But the member for Westminster caused no
+further inconvenience. He remained in his seat for perhaps ten
+minutes, and then, not with a very steady step, but still with
+capacity sufficient for his own guidance, he made his way down to the
+doors. His exit was watched in silence, and the moment was an anxious
+one for the Speaker, the clerks, and all who were near him. Had he
+fallen some one,--or rather some two or three,--must have picked him
+up and carried him out. But he did not fall either there or in the
+lobbies, or on his way down to Palace Yard. Many were looking at him,
+but none touched him. When he had got through the gates, leaning
+against the wall he hallooed for his brougham, and the servant who was
+waiting for him soon took him home to Bruton Street. That was the last
+which the British Parliament saw of its new member for Westminster.
+
+Melmotte as soon as he reached home got into his own sitting-room
+without difficulty, and called for more brandy and water. Between
+eleven and twelve he was left there by his servant with a bottle of
+brandy, three or four bottles of soda-water, and his cigar-case.
+Neither of the ladies of the family came to him, nor did he speak of
+them. Nor was he so drunk then as to give rise to any suspicion in the
+mind of the servant. He was habitually left there at night, and the
+servant as usual went to his bed. But at nine o'clock on the following
+morning the maid-servant found him dead upon the floor. Drunk as he
+had been,--more drunk as he probably became during the night,--still
+he was able to deliver himself from the indignities and penalties to
+which the law might have subjected him by a dose of prussic acid.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXIV - PAUL MONTAGUE'S VINDICATION
+
+
+It is hoped that the reader need hardly be informed that Hetta Carbury
+was a very miserable young woman as soon as she decided that duty
+compelled her to divide herself altogether from Paul Montague. I think
+that she was irrational; but to her it seemed that the offence against
+herself,--the offence against her own dignity as a woman,--was too
+great to be forgiven. There can be no doubt that it would all have been
+forgiven with the greatest ease had Paul told the story before it had
+reached her ears from any other source. Had he said to her,--when her
+heart was softest towards him,--I once loved another woman, and that
+woman is here now in London, a trouble to me, persecuting me, and her
+history is so and so, and the history of my love for her was after
+this fashion, and the history of my declining love is after that
+fashion, and of this at any rate you may be sure, that this woman has
+never been near my heart from the first moment in which I saw you;--had
+he told it to her thus, there would not have been an opening for
+anger. And he doubtless would have so told it, had not Hetta's brother
+interfered too quickly. He was then forced to exculpate himself, to
+confess rather than to tell his own story,--and to admit facts which
+wore the air of having been concealed, and which had already been
+conceived to be altogether damning if true. It was that journey to
+Lowestoft, not yet a month old, which did the mischief,--a journey as
+to which Hetta was not slow in understanding all that Roger Carbury
+had thought about it, though Roger would say nothing of it to herself.
+Paul had been staying at the seaside with this woman in amicable
+intimacy,--this horrid woman,--in intimacy worse than amicable, and had
+been visiting her daily at Islington! Hetta felt quite sure that he
+had never passed a day without going there since the arrival of the
+woman; and everybody would know what that meant. And during this very
+hour he had been,--well, perhaps not exactly making love to herself,
+but looking at her and talking to her, and behaving to her in a manner
+such as could not but make her understand that he intended to make
+love to her. Of course they had really understood it, since they had
+met at Madame Melmotte's first ball, when she had made a plea that she
+could not allow herself to dance with him more than,--say half-a-dozen
+times. Of course she had not intended him then to know that she would
+receive his love with favour, but equally of course she had known that
+he must so feel it. She had not only told herself, but had told her
+mother, that her heart was given away to this man; and yet the man
+during this very time was spending his hours with a--woman, with a
+strange American woman, to whom he acknowledged that he had been once
+engaged. How could she not quarrel with him? How could she refrain
+from telling him that everything must be over between them? Everybody
+was against him,--her mother, her brother, and her cousin: and she
+felt that she had not a word to say in his defence. A horrid woman! A
+wretched, bad, bold American intriguing woman! It was terrible to her
+that a friend of hers should ever have attached himself to such a
+creature;--but that he should have come to her with a second tale of
+love long, long before he had cleared himself from the first;--perhaps
+with no intention of clearing himself from the first! Of course she
+could not forgive him! No;--she would never forgive him. She would
+break her heart for him. That was a matter of course; but she would
+never forgive him. She knew well what it was that her mother wanted.
+Her mother thought that by forcing her into a quarrel with Montague
+she would force her also into a marriage with Roger Carbury. But her
+mother would find out that in that she was mistaken. She would never
+marry her cousin, though she would be always ready to acknowledge his
+worth. She was sure now that she would never marry any man. As she
+made this resolve she had a wicked satisfaction in feeling that it
+would be a trouble to her mother;--for though she was altogether in
+accord with Lady Carbury as to the iniquities of Paul Montague she was
+not the less angry with her mother for being so ready to expose those
+iniquities.
+
+Oh, with what slow, cautious fingers, with what heartbroken tenderness
+did she take out from its guardian case the brooch which Paul had
+given her! It had as yet been an only present, and in thanking him for
+it, which she had done with full, free-spoken words of love, she had
+begged him to send her no other, so that that might ever be to her,--to
+her dying day,--the one precious thing that had been given to her by
+her lover while she was yet a girl. Now it must be sent back;--and, no
+doubt, it would go to that abominable woman! But her fingers lingered
+over it as she touched it, and she would fain have kissed it, had she
+not told herself that she would have been disgraced, even in her
+solitude, by such a demonstration of affection. She had given her
+answer to Paul Montague; and, as she would have no further personal
+correspondence with him, she took the brooch to her mother with a
+request that it might be returned.
+
+'Of course, my dear, I will send it back to him. Is there nothing
+else?'
+
+'No, mamma;--nothing else. I have no letters, and no other present.
+You always knew everything that took place. If you will just send that
+back to him,--without a word. You won't say anything, will you, mamma?'
+
+'There is nothing for me to say if you have really made him understand
+you.'
+
+'I think he understood me, mamma. You need not doubt about that.'
+
+'He has behaved very, very badly,--from the beginning,' said Lady
+Carbury.
+
+But Hetta did not really think that the young man had behaved very
+badly from the beginning, and certainly did not wish to be told of his
+misbehaviour. No doubt she thought that the young man had behaved very
+well in falling in love with her directly he saw her;--only that he had
+behaved so badly in taking Mrs Hurtle to Lowestoft afterwards! 'It's
+no good talking about that, mamma. I hope you will never talk of him
+any more.'
+
+'He is quite unworthy,' said Lady Carbury.
+
+'I can't bear to--have him--abused,' said Hetta sobbing.
+
+'My dear Hetta, I have no doubt this has made you for the time
+unhappy. Such little accidents do make people unhappy--for the time.
+But it will be much for the best that you should endeavour not to be
+so sensitive about it. The world is too rough and too hard for people
+to allow their feelings full play. You have to look out for the
+future, and you can best do so by resolving that Paul Montague shall
+be forgotten at once.'
+
+'Oh, mamma, don't. How is a person to resolve? Oh, mamma, don't say
+any more.'
+
+'But, my dear, there is more that I must say. Your future life is
+before you, and I must think of it, and you must think of it. Of
+course you must be married.'
+
+'There is no of course at all.'
+
+'Of course you must be married,' continued Lady Carbury, 'and of
+course it is your duty to think of the way in which this may be best
+done. My income is becoming less and less every day. I already owe
+money to your cousin, and I owe money to Mr Broune.'
+
+'Money to Mr Broune!'
+
+'Yes,--to Mr Broune. I had to pay a sum for Felix which Mr Broune told
+me ought to be paid. And I owe money to tradesmen. I fear that I shall
+not be able to keep on this house. And they tell me,--your cousin and
+Mr Broune,--that it is my duty to take Felix out of London probably
+abroad.'
+
+'Of course I shall go with you.'
+
+'It may be so at first; but, perhaps, even that may not be necessary.
+Why should you? What pleasure could you have in it? Think what my life
+must be with Felix in some French or German town!'
+
+'Mamma, why don't you let me be a comfort to you? Why do you speak of
+me always as though I were a burden?'
+
+'Everybody is a burden to other people. It is the way of life. But
+you,--if you will only yield in ever so little,--you may go where you
+will be no burden, where you will be accepted simply as a blessing. You
+have the opportunity of securing comfort for your whole life, and of
+making a friend, not only for yourself, but for me and your brother,
+of one whose friendship we cannot fail to want.'
+
+'Mamma, you cannot really mean to talk about that now?'
+
+'Why should I not mean it? What is the use of indulging in high-flown
+nonsense? Make up your mind to be the wife of your cousin Roger.'
+
+'This is horrid,' said Hetta, bursting out in her agony. 'Cannot you
+understand that I am broken-hearted about Paul, that I love him from
+my very soul, that parting from him is like tearing my heart in
+pieces? I know that I must, because he has behaved so very badly,--and
+because of that wicked woman! And so I have. But I did not think that
+in the very next hour you would bid me give myself to somebody else! I
+will never marry Roger Carbury. You may be quite--quite sure that I
+shall never marry any one. If you won't take me with you when you go
+away with Felix, I must stay behind and try and earn my bread. I
+suppose I could go out as a nurse.' Then, without waiting for a reply,
+she left the room and betook herself to her own apartment.
+
+Lady Carbury did not even understand her daughter. She could not
+conceive that she had in any way acted unkindly in taking the
+opportunity of Montague's rejection for pressing the suit of the other
+lover. She was simply anxious to get a husband for her daughter,--as
+she had been anxious to get a wife for her son,--in order that her
+child might live comfortably. But she felt that whenever she spoke
+common sense to Hetta, her daughter took it as an offence, and flew
+into tantrums, being altogether unable to accommodate herself to the
+hard truths of the world. Deep as was the sorrow which her son brought
+upon her, and great as was the disgrace, she could feel more sympathy
+for him than for the girl. If there was anything that she could not
+forgive in life it was romance. And yet she, at any rate, believed
+that she delighted in romantic poetry! At the present moment she was
+very wretched; and was certainly unselfish in her wish to see her
+daughter comfortably settled before she commenced those miserable
+roamings with her son which seemed to be her coming destiny.
+
+In these days she thought a good deal of Mr Broune's offer, and of her
+own refusal. It was odd that since that refusal she had seen more of
+him, and had certainly known much more of him than she had ever seen
+or known before. Previous to that little episode their intimacy had
+been very fictitious, as are many intimacies. They had played at
+being friends, knowing but very little of each other. But now,
+during the last five or six weeks,--since she had refused his offer,--
+they had really learned to know each other. In the exquisite misery
+of her troubles, she had told him the truth about herself and her
+son, and he had responded, not by compliments, but by real aid and
+true counsel. His whole tone was altered to her, as was hers to
+him. There was no longer any egregious flattery between them,--and
+he, in speaking to her, would be almost rough to her. Once he had
+told her that she would be a fool if she did not do so and so. The
+consequence was that she almost regretted that she had allowed him
+to escape. But she certainly made no effort to recover the lost
+prize, for she told him all her troubles. It was on that afternoon,
+after her disagreement with her daughter, that Marie Melmotte came
+to her. And, on the same evening, closeted with Mr Broune in her
+back room, she told him of both occurrences. 'If the girl has got
+the money--,' she began, regretting her son's obstinacy.
+
+'I don't believe a bit of it,' said Broune. 'From all that I can hear,
+I don't think that there is any money. And if there is, you may be
+sure that Melmotte would not let it slip through his fingers in that
+way. I would not have anything to do with it.'
+
+'You think it is all over with the Melmottes?'
+
+'A rumour reached me just now that he had been already arrested.' It
+was now between nine and ten in the evening. 'But as I came away from
+my room, I heard that he was down at the House. That he will have to
+stand a trial for forgery, I think there cannot be a doubt, and I
+imagine that it will be found that not a shilling will be saved out of
+the property.'
+
+'What a wonderful career it has been!'
+
+'Yes;--the strangest thing that has come up in our days. I am inclined
+to think that the utter ruin at this moment has been brought about by
+his reckless personal expenditure.'
+
+'Why did he spend such a lot of money?'
+
+'Because he thought he could conquer the world by it, and obtain
+universal credit. He very nearly succeeded too. Only he had forgotten
+to calculate the force of the envy of his competitors.'
+
+'You think he has committed forgery?'
+
+'Certainly, I think so. Of course we know nothing as yet.'
+
+'Then I suppose it is better that Felix should not have married her.'
+
+'Certainly better. No redemption was to have been had on that side,
+and I don't think you should regret the loss of such money as his.'
+Lady Carbury shook her head, meaning probably to imply that even
+Melmotte's money would have had no bad odour to one so dreadfully in
+want of assistance as her son. 'At any rate do not think of it any
+more.' Then she told him her grief about Hetta. 'Ah, there,' said he,
+'I feel myself less able to express an authoritative opinion.'
+
+'He doesn't owe a shilling,' said Lady Carbury, 'and he is really a
+fine gentleman.'
+
+'But if she doesn't like him?'
+
+'Oh, but she does. She thinks him to be the finest person in the
+world. She would obey him a great deal sooner than she would me. But
+she has her mind stuffed with nonsense about love.'
+
+'A great many people, Lady Carbury, have their minds stuffed with that
+nonsense.'
+
+'Yes;--and ruin themselves with it, as she will do. Love is like any
+other luxury. You have no right to it unless you can afford it. And
+those who will have it when they can't afford it, will come to the
+ground like this Mr Melmotte. How odd it seems! It isn't a fortnight
+since we all thought him the greatest man in London.' Mr Broune only
+smiled, not thinking it worth his while to declare that he had never
+held that opinion about the late idol of Abchurch Lane.
+
+On the following morning, very early, while Melmotte was still lying,
+as yet undiscovered, on the floor of Mr Longestaffe's room, a letter
+was brought up to Hetta by the maid-servant, who told her that Mr
+Montague had delivered it with his own hands. She took it greedily,
+and then repressing herself, put it with an assumed gesture of
+indifference beneath her pillow. But as soon as the girl had left the
+room she at once seized her treasure. It never occurred to her as yet
+to think whether she would or would not receive a letter from her
+dismissed lover. She had told him that he must go, and go for ever,
+and had taken it for granted that he would do so,--probably willingly.
+No doubt he would be delighted to return to the American woman. But
+now that she had the letter, she allowed no doubt to come between her
+and the reading of it. As soon as she was alone she opened it, and she
+ran through its contents without allowing herself a moment for
+thinking, as she went on, whether the excuses made by her lover were
+or were not such as she ought to accept.
+
+
+   DEAREST HETTA,
+
+   I think you have been most unjust to me, and if you have ever
+   loved me I cannot understand your injustice. I have never
+   deceived you in anything, not by a word, or for a moment. Unless
+   you mean to throw me over because I did once love another woman,
+   I do not know what cause of anger you have. I could not tell you
+   about Mrs Hurtle till you had accepted me, and, as you yourself
+   must know, I had had no opportunity to tell you anything
+   afterwards till the story had reached your ears. I hardly know
+   what I said the other day, I was so miserable at your
+   accusation. But I suppose I said then, and I again declare now,
+   that I had made up my mind that circumstances would not admit of
+   her becoming my wife before I had ever seen you, and that I have
+   certainly never wavered in my determination since I saw you. I
+   can with safety refer to Roger as to this, because I was with
+   him when I so determined, and made up my mind very much at his
+   instance. This was before I had ever even met you.
+
+   If I understand it all right you are angry because I have
+   associated with Mrs Hurtle since I so determined. I am not going
+   back to my first acquaintance with her now. You may blame me for
+   that if you please,--though it cannot have been a fault against
+   you. But, after what had occurred, was I to refuse to see her
+   when she came to England to see me? I think that would have been
+   cowardly. Of course I went to her. And when she was all alone
+   here, without a single other friend and telling me that she was
+   unwell, and asking me to take her down to the seaside, was I to
+   refuse? I think that that would have been unkind. It was a
+   dreadful trouble to me. But of course I did it.
+
+   She asked me to renew my engagement. I am bound to tell you
+   that, but I know in telling you that it will go no farther. I
+   declined, telling her that it was my purpose to ask another
+   woman to be my wife. Of course there has been anger and
+   sorrow,--anger on her part and sorrow on mine. But there has
+   been no doubt. And at last she yielded. As far as she was
+   concerned my trouble was over except in so far that her
+   unhappiness has been a great trouble to me,--when, on a sudden,
+   I found that the story had reached you in such a form as to make
+   you determined to quarrel with me!
+
+   Of course you do not know it all, for I cannot tell you all
+   without telling her history. But you know everything that in the
+   least concerns yourself, and I do say that you have no cause
+   whatever for anger. I am writing at night. This evening your
+   brooch was brought to me with three or four cutting words from
+   your mother. But I cannot understand that if you really love me,
+   you should wish to separate yourself from me,--or that, if you
+   ever loved me, you should cease to love me now because of Mrs
+   Hurtle.
+
+   I am so absolutely confused by the blow that I hardly know what
+   I am writing, and take first one outrageous idea into my head
+   and then another. My love for you is so thorough and so intense
+   that I cannot bring myself to look forward to living without
+   you, now that you have once owned that you have loved me. I
+   cannot think it possible that love, such as I suppose yours must
+   have been, could be made to cease all at a moment. Mine can't. I
+   don't think it is natural that we should be parted.
+
+   If you want corroboration of my story go yourself to Mrs Hurtle.
+   Anything is better than that we both should be broken-hearted.
+
+   Yours most affectionately,
+
+   PAUL MONTAGUE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXV - BREAKFAST IN BERKELEY SQUARE
+
+
+Lord Nidderdale was greatly disgusted with his own part of the
+performance when he left the House of Commons, and was, we may say,
+disgusted with his own position generally, when he considered all its
+circumstances. That had been at the commencement of the evening, and
+Melmotte had not then been tipsy; but he had behaved with
+unsurpassable arrogance and vulgarity, and had made the young lord
+drink the cup of his own disgrace to the very dregs. Everybody now
+knew it as a positive fact that the charges made against the man were
+to become matter of investigation before the chief magistrate for the
+City, everybody knew that he had committed forgery upon forgery,
+everybody knew that he could not pay for the property which he had
+pretended to buy, and that actually he was a ruined man;--and yet he
+had seized Nidderdale by the hand, and called the young lord 'his
+dear boy' before the whole House.
+
+And then he had made himself conspicuous as this man's advocate. If he
+had not himself spoken openly of his coming marriage with the girl, he
+had allowed other men to speak to him about it. He had quarrelled with
+one man for saying that Melmotte was a rogue, and had confidentially
+told his most intimate friends that in spite of a little vulgarity of
+manner, Melmotte at bottom was a very good fellow. How was he now to
+back out of his intimacy with the Melmottes generally? He was engaged
+to marry the girl, and there was nothing of which he could accuse her.
+He acknowledged to himself that she deserved well at his hands. Though
+at this moment he hated the father most bitterly, as those odious
+words, and the tone in which they had been pronounced, rang in his
+ears, nevertheless he had some kindly feeling for the girl. Of course
+he could not marry her now. That was manifestly out of the question.
+She herself, as well as all others, had known that she was to be
+married for her money, and now that bubble had been burst. But he felt
+that he owed it to her, as to a comrade who had on the whole been
+loyal to him, to have some personal explanation with herself. He
+arranged in his own mind the sort of speech that he would make to her.
+'Of course you know it can't be. It was all arranged because you were
+to have a lot of money, and now it turns out that you haven't got any.
+And I haven't got any, and we should have nothing to live upon. It's
+out of the question. But, upon my word, I'm very sorry, for I like you
+very much, and I really think we should have got on uncommon well
+together.' That was the kind of speech that he suggested to himself,
+but he did not know how to find for himself the opportunity of making
+it. He thought that he must put it all into a letter. But then that
+would be tantamount to a written confession that he had made her an
+offer of marriage, and he feared that Melmotte,--or Madame Melmotte on
+his behalf, if the great man himself were absent, in prison,--might
+make an ungenerous use of such an admission.
+
+Between seven and eight he went into the Beargarden, and there he saw
+Dolly Longestaffe and others. Everybody was talking about Melmotte,
+the prevailing belief being that he was at this moment in custody.
+Dolly was full of his own griefs; but consoled amidst them by a sense
+of his own importance. 'I wonder whether it's true,' he was saying to
+Lord Grasslough. 'He has an appointment to meet me and my governor at
+twelve o'clock to-morrow, and to pay us what he owes us. He swore
+yesterday that he would have the money to-morrow. But he can't keep his
+appointment, you know, if he's in prison.'
+
+'You won't see the money, Dolly, you may swear to that,' said
+Grasslough.
+
+'I don't suppose I shall. By George, what an ass my governor has been.
+He had no more right than you have to give up the property. Here's
+Nidderdale. He could tell us where he is; but I'm afraid to speak to
+him since he cut up so rough the other night.'
+
+In a moment the conversation was stopped; but when Lord Grasslough
+asked Nidderdale in a whisper whether he knew anything about Melmotte,
+the latter answered out loud, 'Yes I left him in the House half an
+hour ago.'
+
+'People are saying that he has been arrested.'
+
+'I heard that also; but he certainly had not been arrested when I left
+the House.' Then he went up and put his hand on Dolly Longestaffe's
+shoulder, and spoke to him. 'I suppose you were about right the other
+night and I was about wrong; but you could understand what it was that
+I meant. I'm afraid this is a bad look out for both of us.'
+
+'Yes;--I understand. It's deuced bad for me,' said Dolly. 'I think
+you're very well out of it. But I'm glad there's not to be a quarrel.
+Suppose we have a rubber of whist.'
+
+Later on in the night news was brought to the club that Melmotte had
+tried to make a speech in the House, that he had been very drunk, and
+that he had tumbled over, upsetting Beauchamp Beauclerk in his fall.
+'By George, I should like to have seen that!' said Dolly.
+
+'I am very glad I was not there,' said Nidderdale. It was three
+o'clock before they left the card table, at which time Melmotte was
+lying dead upon the floor in Mr Longestaffe's house.
+
+On the following morning, at ten o'clock, Lord Nidderdale sat at
+breakfast with his father in the old lord's house in Berkeley Square.
+From thence the house which Melmotte had hired was not above a few
+hundred yards distant. At this time the young lord was living with his
+father, and the two had now met by appointment in order that something
+might be settled between them as to the proposed marriage. The Marquis
+was not a very pleasant companion when the affairs in which he was
+interested did not go exactly as he would have them. He could be very
+cross and say most disagreeable words,--so that the ladies of the
+family, and others connected with him, for the most part, found it
+impossible to live with him. But his eldest son had endured him;--
+partly perhaps because, being the eldest, he had been treated with a
+nearer approach to courtesy, but chiefly by means of his own extreme
+good humour. What did a few hard words matter? If his father was
+ungracious to him, of course he knew what all that meant. As long as
+his father would make fair allowance for his own peccadilloes,--he
+also would make allowances for his father's roughness. All this was
+based on his grand theory of live and let live. He expected his father
+to be a little cross on this occasion, and he acknowledged to himself
+that there was cause for it.
+
+He was a little late himself, and he found his father already
+buttering his toast. 'I don't believe you'd get out of bed a moment
+sooner than you liked if you could save the whole property by it.'
+
+'You show me how I can make a guinea by it, sir, and see if I don't
+earn the money.' Then he sat down and poured himself out a cup of tea,
+and looked at the kidneys and looked at the fish.
+
+'I suppose you were drinking last night,' said the old lord.
+
+'Not particular.' The old man turned round and gnashed his teeth at
+him. 'The fact is, sir, I don't drink. Everybody knows that.'
+
+'I know when you're in the country you can't live without champagne.
+Well;--what have you got to say about all this?'
+
+'What have you got to say?'
+
+'You've made a pretty kettle of fish of it.'
+
+'I've been guided by you in everything. Come, now; you ought to own
+that. I suppose the whole thing is over?'
+
+'I don't see why it should be over. I'm told she has got her own
+money.' Then Nidderdale described to his father Melmotte's behaviour
+in the House on the preceding evening. 'What the devil does that
+matter?' said the old man. 'You're not going to marry the man
+himself.'
+
+'I shouldn't wonder if he's in gaol now.'
+
+'And what does that matter? She's not in gaol. And if the money is
+hers, she can't lose it because he goes to prison. Beggars mustn't be
+choosers. How do you mean to live if you don't marry this girl?'
+
+'I shall scrape on, I suppose. I must look for somebody else.' The
+Marquis showed very plainly by his demeanour that he did not give his
+son much credit either for diligence or for ingenuity in making such a
+search. 'At any rate, sir, I can't marry the daughter of a man who is
+to be put upon his trial for forgery.'
+
+'I can't see what that has to do with you.'
+
+'I couldn't do it, sir. I'd do anything else to oblige you, but I
+couldn't do that. And, moreover, I don't believe in the money.'
+
+'Then you may just go to the devil,' said the old Marquis turning
+himself round in his chair, and lighting a cigar as he took up the
+newspaper. Nidderdale went on with his breakfast with perfect
+equanimity, and when he had finished lighted his cigar. 'They tell
+me,' said the old man, 'that one of those Goldsheiner girls will have
+a lot of money.'
+
+'A Jewess,' suggested Nidderdale.
+
+'What difference does that make?'
+
+'Oh no;--not in the least if the money's really there. Have you heard
+any sum named, sir?'
+
+The old man only grunted. 'There are two sisters and two brothers. I
+don't suppose the girls would have a hundred thousand each.'
+
+'They say the widow of that brewer who died the other day has about
+twenty thousand a year.'
+
+'It's only for her life, sir.'
+
+'She could insure her life. D--- me, sir, we must do something. If you
+turn up your nose at one woman after another how do you mean to live?'
+
+'I don't think that a woman of forty with only a life interest would
+be a good speculation. Of course I'll think of it if you press it.' The
+old man growled again. 'You see, sir, I've been so much in earnest
+about this girl that I haven't thought of inquiring about any one
+else. There always is some one up with a lot of money. It's a pity
+there shouldn't be a regular statement published with the amount of
+money, and what is expected in return. It'd save a deal of trouble.'
+
+'If you can't talk more seriously than that you'd better go away,'
+said the old Marquis.
+
+At that moment a footman came into the room and told Lord Nidderdale
+that a man particularly wished to see him in the hall. He was not
+always anxious to see those who called on him, and he asked the
+servant whether he knew who the man was. 'I believe, my lord, he's one
+of the domestics from Mr Melmotte's in Bruton Street,' said the
+footman, who was no doubt fully acquainted with all the circumstances
+of Lord Nidderdale's engagement. The son, who was still smoking,
+looked at his father as though in doubt. 'You'd better go and see,'
+said the Marquis. But Nidderdale before he went asked a question as to
+what he had better do if Melmotte had sent for him. 'Go and see
+Melmotte. Why should you be afraid to see him? Tell him you are ready
+to marry the girl if you can see the money down, but that you won't
+stir a step till it has been actually paid over.'
+
+'He knows that already,' said Nidderdale as he left the room.
+
+In the hall he found a man whom he recognized as Melmotte's butler, a
+ponderous, elderly, heavy man who now had a letter in his hand. But
+the lord could tell by the man's face and manner that he himself had
+some story to tell. 'Is there anything the matter?'
+
+'Yes, my lord,--yes. Oh, dear,--oh, dear! I think you'll be sorry to
+hear it. There was none who came there he seemed to take to so much as
+your lordship.'
+
+'They've taken him to prison!' exclaimed Nidderdale. But the man shook
+his head. 'What is it then? He can't be dead.' Then the man nodded his
+head, and, putting his hand up to his face, burst into tears. 'Mr
+Melmotte dead! He was in the House of Commons last night. I saw him
+myself. How did he die?' But the fat, ponderous man was so affected by
+the tragedy he had witnessed, that he could not as yet give any
+account of the scene of his master's death, but simply handed the note
+which he had in his hand to Lord Nidderdale. It was from Marie, and
+had been written within half an hour of the time at which news had
+been brought to her of what had occurred. The note was as follows:
+
+
+   DEAR LORD NIDDERDALE,
+
+   The man will tell you what has happened. I feel as though I was
+   mad. I do not know who to send to. Will you come to me, only for
+   a few minutes?
+
+   MARIE.
+
+
+He read it standing up in the hall, and then again asked the man as to
+the manner of his master's death. And now the Marquis, gathering from
+a word or two that he heard and from his son's delay that something
+special had occurred, hobbled out into the hall. 'Mr Melmotte is--
+dead,' said his son. The old man dropped his stick, and fell back
+against the wall. 'This man says that he is dead, and here is a letter
+from Marie asking me to go there. How was it that he--died?'
+
+'It was--poison,' said the butler solemnly. 'There has been a doctor
+already, and there isn't no doubt of that. He took it all by himself
+last night. He came home, perhaps a little fresh, and he had in brandy
+and soda and cigars;--and sat himself down all to himself. Then in the
+morning, when the young woman went in,--there he was,--poisoned! I see
+him lay on the ground, and I helped to lift him up, and there was that
+smell of prussic acid that I knew what he had been and done just the
+same as when the doctor came and told us.'
+
+Before the man could be allowed to go back, there was a consultation
+between the father and son as to a compliance with the request which
+Marie had made in her first misery. The Marquis thought that his son
+had better not go to Bruton Street. 'What's the use? What good can you
+do? She'll only be falling into your arms, and that's what you've got
+to avoid,--at any rate, till you know how things are.'
+
+But Nidderdale's better feelings would not allow him to submit to this
+advice. He had been engaged to marry the girl, and she in her abject
+misery had turned to him as the friend she knew best. At any rate for
+the time the heartlessness of his usual life deserted him, and he felt
+willing to devote himself to the girl not for what he could get,--but
+because she had so nearly been so near to him. 'I couldn't refuse
+her,' he said over and over again. 'I couldn't bring myself to do it.
+Oh, no;--I shall certainly go.'
+
+'You'll get into a mess if you do.'
+
+'Then I must get into a mess. I shall certainly go. I will go at once.
+It is very disagreeable, but I cannot possibly refuse. It would be
+abominable.' Then going back to the hall, he sent a message by the
+butler to Marie, saying that he would be with her in less than half an
+hour.
+
+'Don't you go and make a fool of yourself,' his father said to him
+when he was alone. 'This is just one of those times when a man may
+ruin himself by being softhearted.' Nidderdale simply shook his head
+as he took his hat and gloves to go across to Bruton Street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXVI - THE MEETING IN BRUTON STREET
+
+
+When the news of her husband's death was in some very rough way
+conveyed to Madame Melmotte, it crushed her for the time altogether.
+Marie first heard that she no longer had a living parent as she stood
+by the poor woman's bedside, and she was enabled, as much perhaps by
+the necessity incumbent upon her of attending to the wretched woman as
+by her own superior strength of character, to save herself from that
+prostration and collapse of power which a great and sudden blow is apt
+to produce. She stared at the woman who first conveyed to her tidings
+of the tragedy, and then for a moment seated herself at the bedside.
+But the violent sobbings and hysterical screams of Madame Melmotte
+soon brought her again to her feet, and from that moment she was not
+only active but efficacious. No;--she would not go down to the room;
+she could do no good by going thither. But they must send for a doctor.
+They should send for a doctor immediately. She was then told that a
+doctor and an inspector of police were already in the rooms below. The
+necessity of throwing whatever responsibility there might be on to
+other shoulders had been at once apparent to the servants, and they
+had sent out right and left, so that the house might be filled with
+persons fit to give directions in such an emergency. The officers from
+the police station were already there when the woman who now filled
+Didon's place in the house communicated to Madame Melmotte the fact
+that she was a widow.
+
+It was afterwards said by some of those who had seen her at the time,
+that Marie Melmotte had shown a hard heart on the occasion. But the
+condemnation was wrong. Her feeling for her father was certainly not
+that which we are accustomed to see among our daughters and sisters.
+He had never been to her the petted divinity of the household, whose
+slightest wish had been law, whose little comforts had become matters
+of serious care, whose frowns were horrid clouds, whose smiles were
+glorious sunshine, whose kisses were daily looked for, and if missed
+would be missed with mourning. How should it have been so with her? In
+all the intercourses of her family, since the first rough usage which
+she remembered, there had never been anything sweet or gracious.
+Though she had recognized a certain duty, as due from herself to her
+father, she had found herself bound to measure it, so that more should
+not be exacted from her than duty required. She had long known that
+her father would fain make her a slave for his own purposes, and that
+if she put no limits to her own obedience he certainly would put none.
+She had drawn no comparison between him and other fathers, or between
+herself and other daughters, because she had never become conversant
+with the ways of other families. After a fashion she had loved him,
+because nature creates love in a daughter's heart; but she had never
+respected him, and had spent the best energies of her character on a
+resolve that she would never fear him. 'He may cut me into pieces, but
+he shall not make me do for his advantage that which I do not think he
+has a right to exact from me.' That had been the state of her mind
+towards her father; and now that he had taken himself away with
+terrible suddenness, leaving her to face the difficulties of the world
+with no protector and no assistance, the feeling which dominated her
+was no doubt one of awe rather than of broken-hearted sorrow. Those
+who depart must have earned such sorrow before it can be really felt.
+They who are left may be overwhelmed by the death--even of their most
+cruel tormentors. Madame Melmotte was altogether overwhelmed; but it
+could not probably be said of her with truth that she was crushed by
+pure grief. There was fear of all things, fear of solitude, fear of
+sudden change, fear of terrible revelations, fear of some necessary
+movement she knew not whither, fear that she might be discovered to be
+a poor wretched impostor who never could have been justified in
+standing in the same presence with emperors and princes, with
+duchesses and cabinet ministers. This and the fact that the dead body
+of the man who had so lately been her tyrant was lying near her, so
+that she might hardly dare to leave her room lest she should encounter
+him dead, and thus more dreadful even than when alive, utterly
+conquered her. Feelings of the same kind, the same fears, and the same
+awe were powerful also with Marie;--but they did not conquer her. She
+was strong and conquered them; and she did not care to affect a
+weakness to which she was in truth superior. In such a household the
+death of such a father after such a fashion will hardly produce that
+tender sorrow which comes from real love.
+
+She soon knew it all. Her father had destroyed himself, and had
+doubtless done so because his troubles in regard to money had been
+greater than he could bear. When he had told her that she was to sign
+those deeds because ruin was impending, he must indeed have told her
+the truth. He had so often lied to her that she had had no means of
+knowing whether he was lying then or telling her a true story. But she
+had offered to sign the deeds since that, and he had told her that it
+would be of no avail,--and at that time had not been angry with her
+as he would have been had her refusal been the cause of his ruin. She
+took some comfort in thinking of that.
+
+But what was she to do? What was to be done generally by that
+over-cumbered household? She and her pseudo-mother had been instructed
+to pack up their jewellery, and they had both obeyed the order. But
+she herself at this moment cared but little for any property. How
+ought she to behave herself? Where should she go? On whose arm could
+she lean for some support at this terrible time? As for love, and
+engagements, and marriage,--that was all over. In her difficulty she
+never for a moment thought of Sir Felix Carbury. Though she had been
+silly enough to love the man because he was pleasant to look at, she
+had never been so far gone in silliness as to suppose that he was a
+staff upon which any one might lean. Had that marriage taken place,
+she would have been the staff. But it might be possible that Lord
+Nidderdale would help her. He was good-natured and manly, and would be
+efficacious,--if only he would come to her. He was near, and she
+thought that at any rate she would try. So she had written her note
+and sent it by the butler,--thinking as she did so of the words she
+would use to make the young man understand that all the nonsense they
+had talked as to marrying each other was, of course, to mean nothing
+now.
+
+It was past eleven when he reached the house, and he was shown
+upstairs into one of the sitting-rooms on the first-floor. As he
+passed the door of the study, which was at the moment partly open, he
+saw the dress of a policeman within, and knew that the body of the
+dead man was still lying there. But he went by rapidly without a
+glance within, remembering the look of the man as he had last seen his
+burly figure, and that grasp of his hand, and those odious words. And
+now the man was dead,--having destroyed his own life. Surely the man
+must have known when he uttered those words what it was that he
+intended to do! When he had made that last appeal about Marie,
+conscious as he was that every one was deserting him, he must even
+then have looked his fate in the face and have told himself that it
+was better that he should die! His misfortunes, whatever might be
+their nature, must have been heavy on him then with all their weight;
+and he himself and all the world had known that he was ruined. And yet
+he had pretended to be anxious about the girl's marriage, and had
+spoken of it as though he still believed that it would be
+accomplished!
+
+Nidderdale had hardly put his hat down on the table before Marie was
+with him. He walked up to her, took her by both hands, and looked into
+her face. There was no trace of a tear, but her whole countenance
+seemed to him to be altered. She was the first to speak.
+
+'I thought you would come when I sent for you.'
+
+'Of course I came.'
+
+'I knew you would be a friend, and I knew no one else who would. You
+won't be afraid, Lord Nidderdale, that I shall ever think any more of
+all those things which he was planning?' She paused a moment, but he
+was not ready enough to have a word to say in answer to this. 'You
+know what has happened?'
+
+'Your servant told us.'
+
+'What are we to do? Oh, Lord Nidderdale, it is so dreadful! Poor papa!
+Poor papa! When I think of all that he must have suffered I wish that
+I could be dead too.'
+
+'Has your mother been told?'
+
+'Oh yes. She knows. No one tried to conceal anything for a moment. It
+was better that it should be so;--better at last. But we have no
+friends who would be considerate enough to try to save us from sorrow.
+But I think it was better. Mamma is very bad. She is always nervous and
+timid. Of course this has nearly killed her. What ought we to do? It
+is Mr Longestaffe's house, and we were to have left it to-morrow.'
+
+'He will not mind that now.'
+
+'Where must we go? We can't go back to that big place in Grosvenor
+Square. Who will manage for us? Who will see the doctor and the
+policemen?'
+
+'I will do that.'
+
+'But there will be things that I cannot ask you to do. Why should I
+ask you to do anything?'
+
+'Because we are friends.'
+
+'No,' she said, 'no. You cannot really regard me as a friend. I have
+been an impostor. I know that. I had no business to know a person like
+you at all. Oh, if the next six months could be over! Poor papa,--poor
+papa!' And then for the first time she burst into tears.
+
+'I wish I knew what might comfort you,' he said.
+
+'How can there be any comfort? There never can be comfort again! As
+for comfort, when were we ever comfortable? It has been one trouble
+after another,--one fear after another! And now we are friendless and
+homeless. I suppose they will take everything that we have.'
+
+'Your papa had a lawyer, I suppose?'
+
+'I think he had ever so many,--but I do not know who they were. His
+own clerk, who had lived with him for over twenty years, left him
+yesterday. I suppose they will know something in Abchurch Lane; but
+now that Herr Croll has gone I am not acquainted even with the name of
+one of them. Mr Miles Grendall used to be with him.'
+
+'I do not think that he could be of much service.'
+
+'Nor Lord Alfred? Lord Alfred was always with him till very lately.'
+Nidderdale shook his head. 'I suppose not. They only came because papa
+had a big house.' The young lord could not but feel that he was
+included in the same rebuke. 'Oh, what a life it has been! And now,--
+now it's over.' As she said this it seemed that for the moment her
+strength failed her, for she fell backwards on the corner of the sofa.
+He tried to raise her, but she shook him away, burying her face in her
+hands. He was standing close to her, still holding her arm, when he
+heard a knock at the front door, which was immediately opened, as the
+servants were hanging about in the hall. 'Who are they?' said Marie,
+whose sharp ears caught the sound of various steps. Lord Nidderdale
+went out on to the head of the stairs, and immediately heard the voice
+of Dolly Longestaffe.
+
+Dolly Longestaffe had on that morning put himself early into the care
+of Mr Squercum, and it had happened that he with his lawyer had met
+his father with Mr Bideawhile at the corner of the square. They were
+all coming according to appointment to receive the money which Mr
+Melmotte had promised to pay them at this very hour. Of course they
+had none of them as yet heard of the way in which the Financier had
+made his last grand payment, and as they walked together to the door
+had been intent only in reference to their own money. Squercum, who
+had heard a good deal on the previous day, was very certain that the
+money would not be forthcoming, whereas Bideawhile was sanguine of
+success. 'Don't we wish we may get it?' Dolly had said, and by saying
+so had very much offended his father, who had resented the want of
+reverence implied in the use of that word 'we'. They had all been
+admitted together, and Dolly had at once loudly claimed an old
+acquaintance with some of the articles around him. 'I knew I'd got a
+coat just like that,' said Dolly, 'and I never could make out what my
+fellow had done with it.' This was the speech which Nidderdale had
+heard, standing on the top of the stairs.
+
+The two lawyers had at once seen, from the face of the man who had
+opened the door and from the presence of three or four servants in the
+hall, that things were not going on in their usual course. Before
+Dolly had completed his buffoonery the butler had whispered to Mr
+Bideawhile that Mr Melmotte--'was no more.'
+
+'Dead!' exclaimed Mr Bideawhile. Squercum put his hands into his
+trousers pockets and opened his mouth wide. 'Dead!' muttered Mr
+Longestaffe senior. 'Dead!' said Dolly. 'Who's dead?' The butler shook
+his head. Then Squercum whispered a word into the butler's ear, and
+the butler thereupon nodded his head. 'It's about what I expected,'
+said Squercum. Then the butler whispered the word to Mr Longestaffe,
+and whispered it also to Mr Bideawhile, and they all knew that the
+millionaire had swallowed poison during the night.
+
+It was known to the servants that Mr Longestaffe was the owner of the
+house, and he was therefore, as having authority there, shown into the
+room where the body of Melmotte was lying on a sofa. The two lawyers
+and Dolly of course followed, as did also Lord Nidderdale, who had now
+joined them from the lobby above. There was a policeman in the room
+who seemed to be simply watching the body, and who rose from his seat
+when the gentlemen entered. Two or three of the servants followed
+them, so that there was almost a crowd round the dead man's bier.
+There was no further tale to be told. That Melmotte had been in the
+House on the previous night, and had there disgraced himself by
+intoxication, they had known already. That he had been found dead that
+morning had been already announced. They could only stand round and
+gaze on the square, sullen, livid features of the big-framed man, and
+each lament that he had ever heard the name of Melmotte.
+
+'Are you in the house here?' said Dolly to Lord Nidderdale in a
+whisper.
+
+'She sent for me. We live quite close, you know. She wanted somebody
+to tell her something. I must go up to her again now.'
+
+'Had you seen him before?'
+
+'No indeed. I only came down when I heard your voices. I fear it will
+be rather bad for you;--won't it?'
+
+'He was regularly smashed, I suppose?' asked Dolly.
+
+'I know nothing myself. He talked to me about his affairs once, but he
+was such a liar that not a word that he said was worth anything. I
+believed him then. How it will go, I can't say.'
+
+'That other thing is all over of course,' suggested Dolly. Nidderdale
+intimated by a gesture of his head that the other thing was all over,
+and then returned to Marie. There was nothing further that the four
+gentlemen could do, and they soon departed from the house;--not,
+however, till Mr Bideawhile had given certain short injunctions to the
+butler concerning the property contained in Mr Longestaffe's town
+residence.
+
+'They had come to see him,' said Lord Nidderdale in a whisper. 'There
+was some appointment. He had told them to be all here at this hour.'
+
+'They didn't know, then?' asked Marie.
+
+'Nothing;--till the man told them.'
+
+'And did you go in?'
+
+'Yes; we all went into the room.' Marie shuddered, and again hid her
+face. 'I think the best thing I can do,' said Nidderdale, 'is to go to
+Abchurch Lane, and find out from Smith who is the lawyer whom he
+chiefly trusted. I know Smith had to do with his own affairs, because
+he has told me so at the Board; and if necessary I will find out
+Croll. No doubt I can trace him. Then we had better employ the lawyer
+to arrange everything for you.'
+
+'And where had we better go to?'
+
+'Where would Madame Melmotte wish to go?'
+
+'Anywhere, so that we could hide ourselves. Perhaps Frankfort would be
+the best. But shouldn't we stay till something has been done here? And
+couldn't we have lodgings, so as to get away from Mr Longestaffe's
+house?' Nidderdale promised that he himself would look for lodgings,
+as soon as he had seen the lawyer. 'And now, my lord, I suppose that I
+never shall see you again,' said Marie.
+
+'I don't know why you should say that.'
+
+'Because it will be best. Why should you? All this will be trouble
+enough to you when people begin to say what we are. But I don't think
+it has been my fault.'
+
+'Nothing has ever been your fault.'
+
+'Good-bye, my lord. I shall always think of you as one of the kindest
+people I ever knew. I thought it best to send to you for different
+reasons, but I do not want you to come back.'
+
+'Good-bye, Marie. I shall always remember you.' And so they parted.
+
+After that he did go into the City, and succeeded in finding both Mr
+Smith and Herr Croll. When he reached Abchurch Lane, the news of
+Melmotte's death had already been spread abroad; and more was known or
+said to be known, of his circumstances than Nidderdale had as yet
+heard. The crushing blow to him, so said Herr Croll, had been the
+desertion of Cohenlupe,--that and the sudden fall in the value of the
+South Central Pacific and Mexican Railway shares, consequent on the
+rumours spread about the City respecting the Pickering property. It
+was asserted in Abchurch Lane that had he not at that moment touched
+the Pickering property, or entertained the Emperor, or stood for
+Westminster, he must, by the end of the autumn, have been able to do
+any or all of those things without danger, simply as the result of the
+money which would then have been realized by the railway. But he had
+allowed himself to become hampered by the want of comparatively small
+sums of ready money, and in seeking relief had rushed from one danger
+to another, till at last the waters around him had become too deep
+even for him, and had overwhelmed him. As to his immediate death, Herr
+Croll expressed not the slightest astonishment. It was just the thing,
+Herr Croll said, that he had been sure that Melmotte would do, should
+his difficulties ever become too great for him. 'And dere vas a leetle
+ting he lay himself open by de oder day,' said Croll, 'dat vas nasty,--
+very nasty.' Nidderdale shook his head, but asked no questions. Croll
+had alluded to the use of his own name, but did not on this occasion
+make any further revelation. Then Croll made a further statement to
+Lord Nidderdale, which I think he must have done in pure good-nature.
+'Mylor,' he said, whispering very gravely, 'de money of de yong lady
+is all her own.' Then he nodded his head three times. 'Nobody can toch
+it, not if he vas in debt millions.' Again he nodded his head.
+
+'I am very glad to hear it for her sake,' said Lord Nidderdale as he
+took his leave.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXVII - DOWN AT CARBURY
+
+
+When Roger Carbury returned to Suffolk, after seeing his cousins in
+Welbeck Street, he was by no means contented with himself. That he
+should be discontented generally with the circumstances of his life
+was a matter of course. He knew that he was farther removed than ever
+from the object on which his whole mind was set. Had Hetta Carbury
+learned all the circumstances of Paul's engagement with Mrs Hurtle
+before she had confessed her love to Paul,--so that her heart might
+have been turned against the man before she had made her confession,--
+then, he thought, she might at last have listened to him. Even though
+she had loved the other man, she might have at last done so, as her
+love would have been buried in her own bosom. But the tale had been
+told after the fashion which was most antagonistic to his own
+interests. Hetta had never heard Mrs Hurtle's name till she had given
+herself away, and had declared to all her friends that she had given
+herself away to this man, who was so unworthy of her. The more Roger
+thought of this, the more angry he was with Paul Montague, and the more
+convinced that that man had done him an injury which he could never
+forgive.
+
+But his grief extended even beyond that. Though he was never tired of
+swearing to himself that he would not forgive Paul Montague, yet there
+was present to him a feeling that an injury was being done to the man,
+and that he was in some sort responsible for that injury. He had
+declined to tell Hetta any part of the story about Mrs Hurtle,--actuated
+by a feeling that he ought not to betray the trust put in him by a man
+who was at the time his friend; and he had told nothing. But no one
+knew so well as he did the fact that all the attention latterly given
+by Paul to the American woman had by no means been the effect of love,
+but had come from a feeling on Paul's part that he could not desert
+the woman he had once loved, when she asked him for his kindness. If
+Hetta could know everything exactly,--if she could look back and read
+the state of Paul's mind as he, Roger, could read it,--then she would
+probably forgive the man, or perhaps tell herself that there was
+nothing for her to forgive. Roger was anxious that Hetta's anger
+should burn hot,--because of the injury done to himself. He thought that
+there were ample reasons why Paul Montague should be punished,--why Paul
+should be utterly expelled from among them, and allowed to go his own
+course. But it was not right that the man should be punished on false
+grounds. It seemed to Roger now that he was doing an injustice to his
+enemy by refraining from telling all that he knew.
+
+As to the girl's misery in losing her lover, much as he loved her,
+true as it was that he was willing to devote himself and all that he
+had to her happiness, I do not think that at the present moment he was
+disturbed in that direction. It is hardly natural, perhaps, that a man
+should love a woman with such devotion as to wish to make her happy by
+giving her to another man. Roger told himself that Paul would be an
+unsafe husband, a fickle husband,--one who might be carried hither and
+thither both in his circumstances and his feelings,--and that it would
+be better for Hetta that she should not marry him; but at the same
+time he was unhappy as he reflected that he himself was a party to a
+certain amount of deceit.
+
+And yet he had said not a word. He had referred Hetta to the man
+himself. He thought that he knew, and he did indeed accurately know,
+the state of Hetta's mind. She was wretched because she thought that
+while her lover was winning her love, while she herself was willingly
+allowing him to win her love, he was dallying with another woman, and
+making to that other woman promises the same as those he made to her.
+This was not true. Roger knew that it was not true. But when he tried
+to quiet his conscience by saying that they must fight it out among
+themselves, he felt himself to be uneasy under that assurance.
+
+His life at Carbury, at this time, was very desolate. He had become
+tired of the priest, who, in spite of various repulses, had never for
+a moment relaxed his efforts to convert his friend. Roger had told him
+once that he must beg that religion might not be made the subject of
+further conversation between them. In answer to this, Father Barham
+had declared that he would never consent to remain as an intimate
+associate with any man on those terms. Roger had persisted in his
+stipulation, and the priest had then suggested that it was his host's
+intention to banish him from Carbury Hall. Roger had made no reply,
+and the priest had of course been banished. But even this added to his
+misery. Father Barham was a gentleman, was a good man, and in great
+penury. To ill-treat such a one, to expel such a one from his house,
+seemed to Roger to be an abominable cruelty. He was unhappy with
+himself about the priest, and yet he could not bid the man come back
+to him. It was already being said of him among his neighbours, at
+Eardly, at Caversham, and at the Bishop's palace, that he either had
+become or was becoming a Roman Catholic, under the priest's influence.
+Mrs Yeld had even taken upon herself to write to him a most
+affectionate letter, in which she said very little as to any evidence
+that had reached her as to Roger's defection, but dilated at very
+great length on the abominations of a certain lady who is supposed to
+indulge in gorgeous colours.
+
+He was troubled, too, about old Daniel Ruggles, the farmer at Sheep's
+Acre, who had been so angry because his niece would not marry John
+Crumb. Old Ruggles, when abandoned by Ruby and accused by his
+neighbours of personal cruelty to the girl, had taken freely to that
+source of consolation which he found to be most easily within his
+reach. Since Ruby had gone he had been drunk every day, and was making
+himself generally a scandal and a nuisance. His landlord had
+interfered with his usual kindness, and the old man had always
+declared that his niece and John Crumb were the cause of it all; for
+now, in his maudlin misery, he attributed as much blame to the lover
+as he did to the girl. John Crumb wasn't in earnest. If he had been in
+earnest he would have gone after her to London at once. No;--he wouldn't
+invite Ruby to come back. If Ruby would come back, repentant, full of
+sorrow,--and hadn't been and made a fool of herself in the meantime,--
+then he'd think of taking her back. In the meantime, with circumstances
+in their present condition, he evidently thought that he could best face
+the difficulties of the world by an unfaltering adhesion to gin, early
+in the day and all day long. This, too, was a grievance to Roger
+Carbury.
+
+But he did not neglect his work, the chief of which at the present
+moment was the care of the farm which he kept in his own hands. He was
+making hay at this time in certain meadows down by the river side; and
+was standing by while the men were loading a cart, when he saw John
+Crumb approaching across the field. He had not seen John since the
+eventful journey to London; nor had he seen him in London; but he knew
+well all that had occurred,--how the dealer in pollard had thrashed his
+cousin, Sir Felix, how he had been locked up by the police and then
+liberated,--and how he was now regarded in Bungay as a hero, as far as
+arms were concerned, but as being very 'soft' in the matter of love.
+The reader need hardly be told that Roger was not at all disposed to
+quarrel with Mr Crumb, because the victim of Crumb's heroism had been
+his own cousin. Crumb had acted well, and had never said a word about
+Sir Felix since his return to the country. No doubt he had now come to
+talk about his love,--and in order that his confessions might not be
+made before all the assembled haymakers, Roger Carbury hurried to meet
+him. There was soon evident on Crumb's broad face a whole sunshine of
+delight. As Roger approached him he began to laugh aloud, and to wave
+a bit of paper that he had in his hands. 'She's a coomin; she's a
+coomin,' were the first words he uttered. Roger knew very well that in
+his friend's mind there was but one 'she' in the world, and that the
+name of that she was Ruby Ruggles.
+
+'I am delighted to hear it,' said Roger. 'She has made it up with her
+grandfather?'
+
+'Don't know now't about grandfeyther. She have made it up wi' me.
+Know'd she would when I'd polish'd t'other un off a bit;--know'd she
+would.'
+
+'Has she written to you, then?'
+
+'Well, squoire,--she ain't; not just herself. I do suppose that isn't
+the way they does it. But it's all as one.' And then Mr Crumb thrust
+Mrs Hurtle's note into Roger Carbury's hand.
+
+Roger certainly was not predisposed to think well or kindly of Mrs
+Hurtle. Since he had first known Mrs Hurtle's name, when Paul Montague
+had told the story of his engagement on his return from America, Roger
+had regarded her as a wicked, intriguing, bad woman. It may, perhaps,
+be confessed that he was prejudiced against all Americans, looking
+upon Washington much as he did upon Jack Cade or Wat Tyler; and he
+pictured to himself all American women as being loud, masculine, and
+atheistical. But it certainly did seem that in this instance Mrs
+Hurtle was endeavouring to do a good turn from pure charity. 'She is a
+lady,' Crumb began to explain, 'who do be living with Mrs Pipkin; and
+she is a lady as is a lady.'
+
+Roger could not fully admit the truth of this assertion; but he
+explained that he, too, knew something of Mrs Hurtle, and that he
+thought it probable that what she said of Ruby might be true. 'True,
+squoire,' said Crumb, laughing with his whole face. 'I ha' nae a doubt
+it's true. What's again its being true? When I had dropped into
+t'other fellow, of course she made her choice. It was me as was to
+blame, because I didn't do it before. I ought to ha' dropped into him
+when I first heard as he was arter her. It's that as girls like. So,
+squoire, I'm just going again to Lon'on right away.'
+
+Roger suggested that old Ruggles would, of course, receive his niece;
+but as to this John expressed his supreme indifference. The old man
+was nothing to him. Of course he would like to have the old man's
+money; but the old man couldn't live for ever, and he supposed that
+things would come right in time. But this he knew,--that he wasn't
+going to cringe to the old man about his money. When Roger observed
+that it would be better that Ruby should have some home to which she
+might at once return, John adverted with a renewed grin to all the
+substantial comforts of his own house. It seemed to be his idea, that
+on arriving in London he would at once take Ruby away to church and be
+married to her out of hand. He had thrashed his rival, and what cause
+could there now be for delay?
+
+But before he left the field he made one other speech to the squire.
+'You ain't a'taken it amiss, squoire, 'cause he was coosin to
+yourself?'
+
+'Not in the least, Mr Crumb.'
+
+'That's koind now. I ain't a done the yong man a ha'porth o' harm, and
+I don't feel no grudge again him, and when me and Ruby's once spliced,
+I'm darned if I don't give 'un a bottle of wine the first day as he'll
+come to Bungay.'
+
+Roger did not feel himself justified in accepting this invitation on
+the part of Sir Felix; but he renewed his assurance that he, on his
+own part, thought that Crumb had behaved well in that matter of the
+street encounter, and he expressed a strong wish for the immediate and
+continued happiness of Mr and Mrs John Crumb.
+
+'Oh, ay, we'll be 'appy, squoire,' said Crumb as he went exulting out
+of the field.
+
+On the day after this Roger Carbury received a letter which disturbed
+him very much, and to which he hardly knew whether to return any
+answer, or what answer. It was from Paul Montague, and was written by
+him but a few hours after he had left his letter for Hetta with his
+own hands, at the door of her mother's house. Paul's letter to Roger
+was as follows:--
+
+
+   MY DEAR ROGER,--
+
+   Though I know that you have cast me off from you I cannot write
+   to you in any other way, as any other way would be untrue. You
+   can answer me, of course, as you please, but I do think that you
+   will owe me an answer, as I appeal to you in the name of
+   justice.
+
+   You know what has taken place between Hetta and myself. She had
+   accepted me, and therefore I am justified in feeling sure that
+   she must have loved me. But she has now quarrelled with me
+   altogether, and has told me that I am never to see her again. Of
+   course I don't mean to put up with this. Who would? You will say
+   that it is no business of yours. But I think that you would not
+   wish that she should be left under a false impression, if you
+   could put her right.
+
+   Somebody has told her the story of Mrs Hurtle. I suppose it was
+   Felix, and that he had learned it from those people at
+   Islington. But she has been told that which is untrue. Nobody
+   knows and nobody can know the truth as you do. She supposes that
+   I have willingly been passing my time with Mrs Hurtle during the
+   last two months, although during that very time I have asked for
+   and received the assurance of her love. Now, whether or no I
+   have been to blame about Mrs Hurtle,--as to which nothing at
+   present need be said,--it is certainly the truth that her coming
+   to England was not only not desired by me, but was felt by me to
+   be the greatest possible misfortune. But after all that had
+   passed I certainly owed it to her not to neglect her;--and this
+   duty was the more incumbent on me as she was a foreigner and
+   unknown to any one. I went down to Lowestoft with her at her
+   request, having named the place to her as one known to myself,
+   and because I could not refuse her so small a favour. You know
+   that it was so, and you know also, as no one else does, that
+   whatever courtesy I have shown to Mrs Hurtle in England, I have
+   been constrained to show her.
+
+   I appeal to you to let Hetta know that this is true. She had
+   made me understand that not only her mother and brother, but you
+   also, are well acquainted with the story of my acquaintance with
+   Mrs Hurtle. Neither Lady Carbury nor Sir Felix has ever known
+   anything about it. You, and you only, have known the truth. And
+   now, though at the present you are angry with me, I call upon
+   you to tell Hetta the truth as you know it. You will understand
+   me when I say that I feel that I am being destroyed by a false
+   representation. I think that you, who abhor a falsehood, will
+   see the justice of setting me right, at any rate as far as the
+   truth can do so. I do not want you to say a word for me beyond
+   that.
+
+   Yours always,
+
+   PAUL MONTAGUE.
+
+
+'What business is all that of mine?' This, of course, was the first
+feeling produced in Roger's mind by Montague's letter. If Hetta had
+received any false impression, it had not come from him. He had told
+no stories against his rival, whether true or false. He had been so
+scrupulous that he had refused to say a word at all. And if any false
+impression had been made on Hetta's mind, either by circumstances or
+by untrue words, had not Montague deserved any evil that might fall
+upon him? Though every word in Montague's letter might be true,
+nevertheless, in the end, no more than justice would be done him,
+even should he be robbed at last of his mistress under erroneous
+impressions. The fact that he had once disgraced himself by offering
+to make Mrs Hurtle his wife, rendered him unworthy of Hetta Carbury.
+Such, at least, was Roger Carbury's verdict as he thought over all
+the circumstances. At any rate, it was no business of his to correct
+these wrong impressions.
+
+And yet he was ill at ease as he thought of it all. He did believe
+that every word in Montague's letter was true. Though he had been very
+indignant when he met Roger and Mrs Hurtle together on the sands at
+Lowestoft, he was perfectly convinced that the cause of their coming
+there had been precisely that which Montague had stated. It took him
+two days to think over all this, two days of great discomfort and
+unhappiness. After all, why should he be a dog in the manger? The girl
+did not care for him,--looked upon him as an old man to be regarded
+in a fashion altogether different from that in which she regarded
+Paul Montague. He had let his time for love-making go by, and now it
+behoved him, as a man, to take the world as he found it, and not to
+lose himself in regrets for a kind of happiness which he could never
+attain. In such an emergency as this he should do what was fair and
+honest, without reference to his own feelings. And yet the passion
+which dominated John Crumb altogether, which made the mealman so
+intent on the attainment of his object as to render all other things
+indifferent to him for the time, was equally strong with Roger
+Carbury. Unfortunately for Roger, strong as his passion was, it was
+embarrassed by other feelings. It never occurred to Crumb to think
+whether he was a fit husband for Ruby, or whether Ruby, having a
+decided preference for another man, could be a fit wife for him. But
+with Roger there were a thousand surrounding difficulties to hamper
+him. John Crumb never doubted for a moment what he should do. He had
+to get the girl, if possible, and he meant to get her whatever she
+might cost him. He was always confident though sometimes perplexed.
+But Roger had no confidence. He knew that he should never win the
+game. In his sadder moments he felt that he ought not to win it. The
+people around him, from old fashion, still called him the young
+squire! Why;--he felt himself at times to be eighty years old,--so old
+that he was unfitted for intercourse with such juvenile spirits as
+those of his neighbour the bishop, and of his friend Hepworth. Could
+he, by any training, bring himself to take her happiness in hand,
+altogether sacrificing his own?
+
+In such a mood as this he did at last answer his enemy's letter,--and
+he answered it as follows:--
+
+
+   I do not know that I am concerned to meddle in your affairs at
+   all. I have told no tale against you, and I do not know that I
+   have any that I wish to tell in your favour, or that I could so
+   tell if I did wish. I think that you have behaved badly to me,
+   cruelly to Mrs Hurtle, and disrespectfully to my cousin.
+   Nevertheless, as you appeal to me on a certain point for
+   evidence which I can give, and which you say no one else can
+   give, I do acknowledge that, in my opinion, Mrs Hurtle's
+   presence in England has not been in accordance with your wishes,
+   and that you accompanied her to Lowestoft, not as her lover but
+   as an old friend whom you could not neglect.
+
+   ROGER CARBURY.
+
+   Paul Montague, Esq.
+
+   You are at liberty to show this letter to Miss Carbury, if you
+   please; but if she reads part she should read the whole!
+
+
+There was more perhaps of hostility in this letter than of that spirit
+of self-sacrifice to which Roger intended to train himself; and so he
+himself felt after the letter had been dispatched.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXVIII - THE INQUEST
+
+
+Melmotte had been found dead on Friday morning, and late on the
+evening of the same day Madame Melmotte and Marie were removed to
+lodgings far away from the scene of the tragedy, up at Hampstead. Herr
+Croll had known of the place, and at Lord Nidderdale's instance had
+busied himself in the matter, and had seen that the rooms were made
+instantly ready for the widow of his late employer. Nidderdale himself
+had assisted them in their departure; and the German, with the poor
+woman's maid, with the jewels also, which had been packed according to
+Melmotte's last orders to his wife, followed the carriage which took
+the mother and the daughter. They did not start till nine o'clock in
+the evening, and Madame Melmotte at the moment would fain have been
+allowed to rest one other night in Bruton Street. But Lord Nidderdale,
+with one hardly uttered word, made Marie understand that the inquest
+would be held early on the following morning, and Marie was imperious
+with her mother and carried her point. So the poor woman was taken
+away from Mr Longestaffe's residence, and never again saw the grandeur
+of her own house in Grosvenor Square, which she had not visited since
+the night on which she had helped to entertain the Emperor of China.
+
+On Saturday morning the inquest was held. There was not the slightest
+doubt as to any one of the incidents of the catastrophe. The servants,
+the doctor, and the inspector of police between them, learned that he
+had come home alone, that nobody had been near him during the night,
+that he had been found dead, and that he had undoubtedly been poisoned
+by prussic acid. It was also proved that he had been drunk in the
+House of Commons, a fact to which one of the clerks of the House, very
+much against his will, was called upon to testify. That he had
+destroyed himself there was no doubt,--nor was there any doubt as to
+the cause.
+
+In such cases as this it is for the jury to say whether the
+unfortunate one who has found his life too hard for endurance, and has
+rushed away to see whether he could not find an improved condition of
+things elsewhere, has or has not been mad at the moment. Surviving
+friends are of course anxious for a verdict of insanity, as in that
+case no further punishment is exacted. The body can be buried like any
+other body, and it can always be said afterwards that the poor man was
+mad. Perhaps it would be well that all suicides should be said to have
+been mad, for certainly the jurymen are not generally guided in their
+verdicts by any accurately ascertained facts. If the poor wretch has,
+up to his last days, been apparently living a decent life; if he be
+not hated, or has not in his last moments made himself specially
+obnoxious to the world at large, then he is declared to have been mad.
+Who would be heavy on a poor clergyman who has been at last driven by
+horrid doubts to rid himself of a difficulty from which he saw no
+escape in any other way? Who would not give the benefit of the doubt
+to the poor woman whose lover and lord had deserted her? Who would
+remit to unhallowed earth the body of the once beneficent philosopher
+who has simply thought that he might as well go now, finding himself
+powerless to do further good upon earth? Such, and such like, have of
+course been temporarily insane, though no touch even of strangeness
+may have marked their conduct up to their last known dealings with
+their fellow-mortals. But let a Melmotte be found dead, with a bottle
+of prussic acid by his side--a man who has become horrid to the world
+because of his late iniquities, a man who has so well pretended to be
+rich that he has been able to buy and to sell properties without
+paying for them, a wretch who has made himself odious by his ruin to
+friends who had taken him up as a pillar of strength in regard to
+wealth, a brute who had got into the House of Commons by false
+pretences, and had disgraced the House by being drunk there,--and, of
+course, he will not be saved by a verdict of insanity from the cross
+roads, or whatever scornful grave may be allowed to those who have
+killed themselves with their wits about them. Just at this moment
+there was a very strong feeling against Melmotte, owing perhaps as
+much to his having tumbled over poor Mr Beauchamp in the House of
+Commons as to the stories of the forgeries he had committed, and the
+virtue of the day vindicated itself by declaring him to have been
+responsible for his actions when he took the poison. He was felo de
+se, and therefore carried away to the cross roads--or elsewhere. But it
+may be imagined, I think, that during that night he may have become as
+mad as any other wretch, have been driven as far beyond his powers of
+endurance as any other poor creature who ever at any time felt himself
+constrained to go. He had not been so drunk but that he knew all that
+happened, and could foresee pretty well what would happen. The summons
+to attend upon the Lord Mayor had been served upon him. There were
+some, among them Croll and Mr Brehgert, who absolutely knew that he
+had committed forgery. He had no money for the Longestaffes, and he
+was well aware what Squercum would do at once. He had assured himself
+long ago,--he had assured himself indeed not very long ago,--that he
+would brave it all like a man. But we none of us know what load we can
+bear, and what would break our backs. Melmotte's back had been so
+utterly crushed that I almost think that he was mad enough to have
+justified a verdict of temporary insanity.
+
+But he was carried away, no one knew whither, and for a week his name
+was hateful. But after that, a certain amount of whitewashing took
+place, and, in some degree, a restitution of fame was made to the
+manes of the departed. In Westminster he was always odious.
+Westminster, which had adopted him, never forgave him. But in other
+districts it came to be said of him that he had been more sinned
+against than sinning; and that, but for the jealousy of the old
+stagers in the mercantile world, he would have done very wonderful
+things. Marylebone, which is always merciful, took him up quite with
+affection, and would have returned his ghost to Parliament could his
+ghost have paid for committee rooms. Finsbury delighted for a while to
+talk of the great Financier, and even Chelsea thought that he had been
+done to death by ungenerous tongues. It was, however, Marylebone alone
+that spoke of a monument.
+
+Mr Longestaffe came back to his house, taking formal possession of it
+a few days after the verdict. Of course he was alone. There had been
+no further question of bringing the ladies of the family up to town;
+and Dolly altogether declined to share with his father the honour of
+encountering the dead man's spirit. But there was very much for Mr
+Longestaffe to do, and very much also for his son. It was becoming a
+question with both of them how far they had been ruined by their
+connection with the horrible man. It was clear that they could not get
+back the title-deeds of the Pickering property without paying the
+amount which had been advanced upon them, and it was equally clear
+that they could not pay that sum unless they were enabled to do so by
+funds coming out of the Melmotte estate. Dolly, as he sat smoking upon
+the stool in Mr Squercum's office, where he now passed a considerable
+portion of his time, looked upon himself as a miracle of ill-usage.
+
+'By George, you know, I shall have to go to law with the governor.
+There's nothing else for it; is there, Squercum?'
+
+Squercum suggested that they had better wait till they found what
+pickings there might be out of the Melmotte estate. He had made
+inquiries too about that, and had been assured that there must be
+property, but property so involved and tied up as to make it
+impossible to lay hands upon it suddenly. 'They say that the things in
+the square, and the plate, and the carriages and horses, and all that,
+ought to fetch between twenty and thirty thousand. There were a lot of
+jewels, but the women have taken them,' said Squercum.
+
+'By George, they ought to be made to give up everything. Did you ever
+hear of such a thing;--the very house pulled down,--my house; and all
+done without a word from me in the matter? I don't suppose such a thing
+was ever known before, since properties were properties.' Then he
+uttered sundry threats against the Bideawhiles, in reference to whom
+he declared his intention of 'making it very hot for them.'
+
+It was an annoyance added to the elder Mr Longestaffe that the
+management of Melmotte's affairs fell at last almost exclusively into
+the hands of Mr Brehgert. Now Brehgert, in spite of his many dealings
+with Melmotte, was an honest man, and, which was perhaps of as much
+immediate consequence, both an energetic and a patient man. But then
+he was the man who had wanted to marry Georgiana Longestaffe, and he
+was the man to whom Mr Longestaffe had been particularly uncivil. Then
+there arose necessities for the presence of Mr Brehgert in the house
+in which Melmotte had lately lived and had died. The dead man's papers
+were still there,--deeds, documents, and such letters as he had not
+chosen to destroy;--and these could not be moved quite at once. 'Mr
+Brehgert must of course have access to my private room, as long as it
+is necessary,--absolutely necessary,' said Mr Longestaffe in answer
+to a message which was brought to him; 'but he will of course see the
+expediency of relieving me from such intrusion as soon as possible.'
+But he soon found it preferable to come to terms with the rejected
+suitor, especially as the man was singularly good-natured and
+forbearing after the injuries he had received.
+
+All minor debts were to be paid at once; an arrangement to which Mr
+Longestaffe cordially agreed, as it included a sum of £300 due to him
+for the rent of his house in Bruton Street. Then by degrees it became
+known that there would certainly be a dividend of not less than fifty
+per cent. payable on debts which could be proved to have been owing by
+Melmotte, and perhaps of more;--an arrangement which was very
+comfortable to Dolly, as it had been already agreed between all the
+parties interested that the debt due to him should be satisfied before
+the father took anything. Mr Longestaffe resolved during these weeks
+that he remained in town that, as regarded himself and his own family,
+the house in London should not only not be kept up, but that it should
+be absolutely sold, with all its belongings, and that the servants at
+Caversham should be reduced in number and should cease to wear powder.
+All this was communicated to Lady Pomona in a very long letter, which
+she was instructed to read to her daughters. 'I have suffered great
+wrongs,' said Mr Longestaffe, 'but I must submit to them, and as I
+submit so must my wife and children. If our son were different from
+what he is the sacrifice might probably be made lighter. His nature I
+cannot alter, but from my daughters I expect cheerful obedience.' From
+what incidents of his past life he was led to expect cheerfulness at
+Caversham it might be difficult to say; but the obedience was there.
+Georgey was for the time broken down; Sophia was satisfied with her
+nuptial prospects, and Lady Pomona had certainly no spirits left for a
+combat. I think the loss of the hair-powder afflicted her most; but
+she said not a word even about that.
+
+But in all this the details necessary for the telling of our story are
+anticipated. Mr Longestaffe had remained in London actually over the
+1st of September, which in Suffolk is the one great festival of the
+year, before the letter was written to which allusion has been made.
+In the meantime he saw much of Mr Brehgert, and absolutely formed a
+kind of friendship for that gentleman, in spite of the abomination of
+his religion,--so that on one occasion he even condescended to ask Mr
+Brehgert to dine alone with him in Bruton Street. This, too, was in
+the early days of the arrangement of the Melmotte affairs, when Mr
+Longestaffe's heart had been softened by that arrangement with
+reference to the rent. Mr Brehgert came, and there arose a somewhat
+singular conversation between the two gentlemen as they sat together
+over a bottle of Mr Longestaffe's old port wine. Hitherto not a word
+had passed between them respecting the connection which had once been
+proposed, since the day on which the young lady's father had said so
+many bitter things to the expectant bridegroom. But in this evening Mr
+Brehgert, who was by no means a coward in such matters and whose
+feelings were not perhaps painfully fine, spoke his mind in a way that
+at first startled Mr Longestaffe. The subject was introduced by a
+reference which Brehgert had made to his own affairs. His loss would
+be, at any rate, double that which Mr Longestaffe would have to bear;--
+but he spoke of it in an easy way, as though it did not sit very near
+his heart. 'Of course there's a difference between me and you,' he
+said. Mr Longestaffe bowed his head graciously, as much as to say that
+there was of course a very wide difference. 'In our affairs,'
+continued Brehgert, 'we expect gains, and of course look for
+occasional losses. When a gentleman in your position sells a property
+he expects to get the purchase-money.'
+
+'Of course he does, Mr Brehgert. That's what made it so hard.'
+
+'I can't even yet quite understand how it was with him, or why he took
+upon himself to spend such an enormous deal of money here in London.
+His business was quite irregular, but there was very much of it, and
+some of it immensely profitable. He took us in completely.'
+
+'I suppose so.'
+
+'It was old Mr Todd that first took to him;--but I was deceived as much
+as Todd, and then I ventured on a speculation with him outside of our
+house. The long and short of it is that I shall lose something about
+sixty thousand pounds.'
+
+'That's a large sum of money.'
+
+'Very large;--so large as to affect my daily mode of life. In my
+correspondence with your daughter, I considered it to be my duty to
+point out to her that it would be so. I do not know whether she told
+you.'
+
+This reference to his daughter for the moment altogether upset Mr
+Longestaffe. The reference was certainly most indelicate, most
+deserving of censure; but Mr Longestaffe did not know how to pronounce
+his censure on the spur of the moment, and was moreover at the present
+time so very anxious for Brehgert's assistance in the arrangement of
+his affairs that, so to say, he could not afford to quarrel with the
+man. But he assumed something more than his normal dignity as he
+asserted that his daughter had never mentioned the fact.
+
+'It was so,' said Brehgert
+
+'No doubt;'--and Mr Longestaffe assumed a great deal of dignity.
+
+'Yes; it was so. I had promised your daughter when she was good enough
+to listen to the proposition which I made to her, that I would
+maintain a second house when we should be married.'
+
+'It was impossible,' said Mr Longestaffe,--meaning to assert that such
+hymeneals were altogether unnatural and out of the question.
+
+'It would have been quite possible as things were when that
+proposition was made. But looking forward to the loss which I
+afterwards anticipated from the affairs of our deceased friend, I
+found it to be prudent to relinquish my intention for the present, and
+I thought myself bound to inform Miss Longestaffe.'
+
+'There were other reasons,' muttered Mr Longestaffe, in a suppressed
+voice, almost in a whisper,--in a whisper which was intended to convey
+a sense of present horror and a desire for future reticence.
+
+'There may have been; but in the last letter which Miss Longestaffe
+did me the honour to write to me,--a letter with which I have not the
+slightest right to find any fault,--she seemed to me to confine herself
+almost exclusively to that reason.'
+
+'Why mention this now, Mr Brehgert; why mention this now? The subject
+is painful.'
+
+'Just because it is not painful to me, Mr Longestaffe; and because I
+wish that all they who have heard of the matter should know that it is
+not painful. I think that throughout I behaved like a gentleman.' Mr
+Longestaffe, in an agony, first shook his head twice, and then bowed
+it three times, leaving the Jew to take what answer he could from so
+dubious an oracle. 'I am sure.' continued Brehgert, 'that I behaved
+like an honest man; and I didn't quite like that the matter should be
+passed over as if I was in any way ashamed of myself.'
+
+'Perhaps on so delicate a subject the less said the soonest mended.'
+
+'I've nothing more to say, and I've nothing at all to mend.' Finishing
+the conversation with this little speech Brehgert arose to take his
+leave, making some promise at the time that he would use all the
+expedition in his power to complete the arrangement of the Melmotte
+affairs.
+
+As soon as he was gone Mr Longestaffe opened the door and walked about
+the room and blew out long puffs of breath, as though to cleanse
+himself from the impurities of his late contact. He told himself that
+he could not touch pitch and not be defiled! How vulgar had the man
+been, how indelicate, how regardless of all feeling, how little
+grateful for the honour which Mr Longestaffe had conferred upon him by
+asking him to dinner! Yes;--yes! A horrid Jew! Were not all Jews
+necessarily an abomination? Yet Mr Longestaffe was aware that in the
+present crisis of his fortunes he could not afford to quarrel with Mr
+Brehgert.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LXXXIX - 'THE WHEEL OF FORTUNE'
+
+
+It was a long time now since Lady Carbury's great historical work on
+the Criminal Queens of the World had been completed and given to the
+world. Any reader careful as to dates will remember that it was as far
+back as in February that she had solicited the assistance of certain
+of her literary friends who were connected with the daily and weekly
+press. These gentlemen had responded to her call with more or less
+zealous aid, so that the 'Criminal Queens' had been regarded in the
+trade as one of the successful books of the season. Messrs. Leadham
+and Loiter had published a second, and then, very quickly, a fourth
+and fifth edition; and had been able in their advertisements to give
+testimony from various criticisms showing that Lady Carbury's book was
+about the greatest historical work which had emanated from the press
+in the present century. With this object a passage was extracted even
+from the columns of the 'Evening Pulpit,'--which showed very great
+ingenuity on the part of some young man connected with the
+establishment of Messrs. Leadham and Loiter. Lady Carbury had suffered
+something in the struggle. What efforts can mortals make as to which
+there will not be some disappointment? Paper and print cannot be had
+for nothing, and advertisements are very costly. An edition may be
+sold with startling rapidity, but it may have been but a scanty
+edition. When Lady Carbury received from Messrs. Leadham and Loiter
+their second very moderate cheque, with the expression of a fear on
+their part that there would not probably be a third,--unless some
+unforeseen demand should arise,--she repeated to herself those
+well-known lines from the satirist,--
+
+    'Oh, Amos Cottle, for a moment think
+     What meagre profits spread from pen and ink.'
+
+But not on that account did she for a moment hesitate as to further
+attempts. Indeed she had hardly completed the last chapter of her
+'Criminal Queens' before she was busy on another work; and although
+the last six months had been to her a period of incessant trouble, and
+sometimes of torture, though the conduct of her son had more than once
+forced her to declare to herself that her mind would fail her, still
+she had persevered. From day to day, with all her cares heavy upon
+her, she had sat at her work, with a firm resolve that so many lines
+should be always forthcoming, let the difficulty of making them be
+what it might. Messrs. Leadham and Loiter had thought that they might
+be justified in offering her certain terms for a novel,--terms not very
+high indeed, and those contingent on the approval of the manuscript by
+their reader. The smallness of the sum offered, and the want of
+certainty, and the pain of the work in her present circumstances, had
+all been felt by her to be very hard. But she had persevered, and the
+novel was now complete.
+
+It cannot with truth be said of her that she had had any special tale
+to tell. She had taken to the writing of a novel because Mr Loiter had
+told her that upon the whole novels did better than anything else. She
+would have written a volume of sermons on the same encouragement, and
+have gone about the work exactly after the same fashion. The length of
+her novel had been her first question. It must be in three volumes,
+and each volume must have three hundred pages. But what fewest number
+of words might be supposed sufficient to fill a page? The money
+offered was too trifling to allow of very liberal measure on her part.
+She had to live, and if possible to write another novel,--and, as she
+hoped, upon better terms,--when this should be finished. Then what
+should be the name of her novel; what the name of her hero; and above
+all what the name of her heroine? It must be a love story of course;
+but she thought that she would leave the complications of the plot to
+come by chance,--and they did come. 'Don't let it end unhappily, Lady
+Carbury,' Mr Loiter had said, 'because though people like it in a
+play, they hate it in a book. And whatever you do, Lady Carbury, don't
+be historical. Your historical novel, Lady Carbury, isn't worth a--'
+Mr Loiter stopping himself suddenly, and remembering that he was
+addressing himself to a lady, satisfied his energy at last by the use
+of the word 'straw.' Lady Carbury had followed these instructions with
+accuracy.
+
+The name for the story had been the great thing. It did not occur to
+the authoress that, as the plot was to be allowed to develop itself
+and was, at this moment when she was perplexed as to the title,
+altogether uncreated, she might as well wait to see what appellation
+might best suit her work when its purpose should have declared itself.
+A novel, she knew well, was most unlike a rose, which by any other
+name will smell as sweet. 'The Faultless Father,' 'The Mysterious
+Mother,' 'The Lame Lover,'--such names as that she was aware would be
+useless now. 'Mary Jane Walker,' if she could be very simple, would
+do, or 'Blanche De Veau,' if she were able to maintain throughout a
+somewhat high-stilted style of feminine rapture. But as she considered
+that she could best deal with rapid action and strange coincidences,
+she thought that something more startling and descriptive would better
+suit her purpose. After an hour's thought a name did occur to her, and
+she wrote it down, and with considerable energy of purpose framed her
+work in accordance with her chosen title, 'The Wheel of Fortune!' She
+had no particular fortune in her mind when she chose it, and no
+particular wheel;--but the very idea conveyed by the words gave her the
+plot which she wanted. A young lady was blessed with great wealth, and
+lost it all by an uncle, and got it all back by an honest lawyer, and
+gave it all up to a distressed lover, and found it all again in a
+third volume. And the lady's name was Cordinga, selected by Lady
+Carbury as never having been heard before either in the world of fact
+or in that of fiction.
+
+And now with all her troubles thick about her,--while her son was still
+hanging about the house in a condition that would break any mother's
+heart, while her daughter was so wretched and sore that she regarded
+all those around her as her enemies, Lady Carbury finished her work,
+and having just written the last words in which the final glow of
+enduring happiness was given to the young married heroine whose wheel
+had now come full round, sat with the sheets piled at her right hand.
+She had allowed herself a certain number of weeks for the task, and
+had completed it exactly in the time fixed. As she sat with her hand
+near the pile, she did give herself credit for her diligence. Whether
+the work might have been better done she never asked herself. I do not
+think that she prided herself much on the literary merit of the tale.
+But if she could bring the papers to praise it, if she could induce
+Mudie to circulate it, if she could manage that the air for a month
+should be so loaded with 'The Wheel of Fortune,' as to make it
+necessary for the reading world to have read or to have said that it
+had read the book,--then she would pride herself very much upon her
+work.
+
+As she was so sitting on a Sunday afternoon, in her own room, Mr Alf
+was announced. According to her habit, she expressed warm delight at
+seeing him. Nothing could be kinder than such a visit just at such a
+time,--when there was so very much to occupy such a one as Mr Alf!
+Mr Alf, in his usual mildly satirical way, declared that he was not
+peculiarly occupied just at present. 'The Emperor has left Europe at
+last,' he said. 'Poor Melmotte poisoned himself on Friday, and the
+inquest sat yesterday. I don't know that there is anything of interest
+to-day.' Of course Lady Carbury was intent upon her book, rather even
+than on the exciting death of a man whom she had herself known. Oh, if
+she could only get Mr Alf! She had tried it before, and had failed
+lamentably. She was well aware of that; and she had a deep-seated
+conviction that it would be almost impossible to get Mr Alf. But then
+she had another deep-seated conviction, that that which is almost
+impossible may possibly be done. How great would be the glory, how
+infinite the service! And did it not seem as though Providence had
+blessed her with this special opportunity, sending Mr Alf to her just
+at the one moment at which she might introduce the subject of her
+novel without seeming premeditation?
+
+'I am so tired,' she said, affecting to throw herself back as though
+stretching her arms out for ease.
+
+'I hope I am not adding to your fatigue,' said Mr Alf. 'Oh dear no. It
+is not the fatigue of the moment, but of the last six months. Just as
+you knocked at the door, I had finished the novel at which I have been
+working, oh, with such diligence!'
+
+'Oh;--a novel! When is it to appear, Lady Carbury?'
+
+'You must ask Leadham and Loiter that question. I have done my part of
+the work. I suppose you never wrote a novel, Mr Alf?'
+
+'I? Oh dear no; I never write anything.'
+
+'I have sometimes wondered whether I have hated or loved it the most.
+One becomes so absorbed in one's plot and one's characters! One loves
+the loveable so intensely, and hates with such fixed aversion those
+who are intended to be hated. When the mind is attuned to it, one is
+tempted to think that it is all so good. One cries at one's own
+pathos, laughs at one's own humour, and is lost in admiration at one's
+own sagacity and knowledge.'
+
+'How very nice!'
+
+'But then there comes the reversed picture, the other side of the
+coin. On a sudden everything becomes flat, tedious, and unnatural. The
+heroine who was yesterday alive with the celestial spark is found
+to-day to be a lump of motionless clay. The dialogue that was so cheery
+on the first perusal is utterly uninteresting at a second reading.
+Yesterday I was sure that there was my monument,' and she put her hand
+upon the manuscript; 'to-day I feel it to be only too heavy for a
+gravestone!'
+
+'One's judgement about one's self always does vacillate,' said Mr Alf
+in a tone as phlegmatic as were the words.
+
+'And yet it is so important that one should be able to judge correctly
+of one's own work! I can at any rate trust myself to be honest, which
+is more perhaps than can be said of all the critics.'
+
+'Dishonesty is not the general fault of the critics, Lady Carbury,--at
+least not as far as I have observed the business. It is incapacity. In
+what little I have done in the matter, that is the sin which I have
+striven to conquer. When we want shoes we go to a professed shoemaker;
+but for criticism we have certainly not gone to professed critics. I
+think that when I gave up the "Evening Pulpit," I left upon it a staff
+of writers who are entitled to be regarded as knowing their business.'
+
+'You given up the "Pulpit"?' asked Lady Carbury with astonishment,
+readjusting her mind at once, so that she might perceive whether any
+and if so what advantage might be taken of Mr Alf's new position. He
+was no longer editor, and therefore his heavy sense of responsibility
+would no longer exist;--but he must still have influence. Might he not
+be persuaded to do one act of real friendship? Might she not succeed
+if she would come down from her high seat, sink on the ground before
+him, tell him the plain truth, and beg for a favour as a poor
+struggling woman?
+
+'Yes, Lady Carbury, I have given it up. It was a matter of course that
+I should do so when I stood for Parliament. Now that the new member
+has so suddenly vacated his seat, I shall probably stand again.'
+
+'And you are no longer an editor?'
+
+'I have given it up, and I suppose I have now satisfied the scruples
+of those gentlemen who seemed to think that I was committing a crime
+against the Constitution in attempting to get into Parliament while I
+was managing a newspaper. I never heard such nonsense. Of course I
+know where it came from.'
+
+'Where did it come from?'
+
+'Where should it come from but the "Breakfast Table"? Broune and I
+have been very good friends, but I do think that of all the men I know
+he is the most jealous.'
+
+'That is so little,' said Lady Carbury. She was really very fond of Mr
+Broune, but at the present moment she was obliged to humour Mr Alf.
+
+'It seems to me that no man can be better qualified to sit in
+Parliament than an editor of a newspaper,--that is if he is capable
+as an editor.'
+
+'No one, I think, has ever doubted that of you.'
+
+'The only question is whether he be strong enough for the double work.
+I have doubted about myself, and have therefore given up the paper. I
+almost regret it.'
+
+'I dare say you do,' said Lady Carbury, feeling intensely anxious to
+talk about her own affairs instead of his. 'I suppose you still retain
+an interest in the paper?'
+
+'Some pecuniary interest;--nothing more.'
+
+'Oh, Mr Alf,--you could do me such a favour!'
+
+'Can I? If I can, you may be sure I will.' False-hearted, false-tongued
+man! Of course he knew at the moment what was the favour Lady Carbury
+intended to ask, and of course he had made up his mind that he would
+not do as he was asked.
+
+'Will you?' And Lady Carbury clasped her hands together as she poured
+forth the words of her prayer. 'I never asked you to do anything for
+me as long as you were editing the paper. Did I? I did not think it
+right, and I would not do it. I took my chance like others, and I am
+sure you must own that I bore what was said of me with a good grace. I
+never complained. Did I?'
+
+'Certainly not.'
+
+'But now that you have left it yourself,--if you would have the "Wheel
+of Fortune" done for me,--really well done!'
+
+'The "Wheel of Fortune"!'
+
+'That is the name of my novel,' said Lady Carbury, putting her hand
+softly upon the manuscript. 'Just at this moment it would be the
+making of a fortune for me! And oh, Mr Alf, if you could but know how
+I want such assistance!'
+
+'I have nothing further to do with the editorial management, Lady
+Carbury.'
+
+'Of course you could get it done. A word from you would make it
+certain. A novel is different from an historical work, you know. I
+have taken so much pains with it.'
+
+'Then no doubt it will be praised on its own merits.'
+
+'Don't say that, Mr Alf. The "Evening Pulpit" is like,--oh, it is
+like,--like,--like the throne of heaven! Who can be justified before
+it? Don't talk about its own merits, but say that you will have it
+done. It couldn't do any man any harm, and it would sell five hundred
+copies at once,--that is if it were done really con amore.' Mr Alf
+looked at her almost piteously, and shook his head. 'The paper stands
+so high, it can't hurt it to do that kind of thing once. A woman is
+asking you, Mr Alf. It is for my children that I am struggling. The
+thing is done every day of the week, with much less noble motives.'
+
+'I do not think that it has ever been done by the "Evening Pulpit."'
+
+'I have seen books praised.'
+
+'Of course you have.'
+
+'I think I saw a novel spoken highly of.'
+
+Mr Alf laughed. 'Why not? You do not suppose that it is the object of
+the "Pulpit" to cry down novels?'
+
+'I thought it was; but I thought you might make an exception here. I
+would be so thankful;--so grateful.'
+
+'My dear Lady Carbury, pray believe me when I say that I have nothing
+to do with it. I need not preach to you sermons about literary virtue.'
+
+'Oh, no,' she said, not quite understanding what he meant.
+
+'The sceptre has passed from my hands, and I need not vindicate the
+justice of my successor.'
+
+'I shall never know your successor.'
+
+'But I must assure you that on no account should I think of meddling
+with the literary arrangement of the paper. I would not do it for my
+sister.' Lady Carbury looked greatly pained. 'Send the book out, and
+let it take its chance. How much prouder you will be to have it
+praised because it deserves praise, than to know that it has been
+eulogized as a mark of friendship.'
+
+'No, I shan't,' said Lady Carbury. 'I don't believe that anything like
+real selling praise is ever given to anybody, except to friends. I
+don't know how they manage it, but they do.' Mr Alf shook his head.
+'Oh yes; that is all very well from you. Of course you have been a
+dragon of virtue; but they tell me that the authoress of the "New
+Cleopatra" is a very handsome woman.' Lady Carbury must have been
+worried much beyond her wont, when she allowed herself so far to lose
+her temper as to bring against Mr Alf the double charge of being too
+fond of the authoress in question, and of having sacrificed the
+justice of his columns to that improper affection.
+
+'At this moment I do not remember the name of the lady to whom you
+allude,' said Mr Alf, getting up to take his leave; 'and I am quite
+sure that the gentleman who reviewed the book,--if there be any such
+lady and any such book,--had never seen her!' And so Mr Alf departed.
+
+Lady Carbury was very angry with herself, and very angry also with Mr
+Alf. She had not only meant to be piteous, but had made the attempt
+and then had allowed herself to be carried away into anger. She had
+degraded herself to humility, and had then wasted any possible good
+result by a foolish fit of chagrin. The world in which she had to live
+was almost too hard for her. When left alone she sat weeping over her
+sorrows; but when from time to time she thought of Mr Alf and his
+conduct, she could hardly repress her scorn. What lies he had told
+her! Of course he could have done it had he chosen. But the assumed
+honesty of the man was infinitely worse to her than his lies. No doubt
+the 'Pulpit' had two objects in its criticisms. Other papers probably
+had but one. The object common to all papers, that of helping friends
+and destroying enemies, of course prevailed with the 'Pulpit.' There
+was the second purpose of enticing readers by crushing authors,--as
+crowds used to be enticed to see men hanged when executions were done
+in public. But neither the one object nor the other was compatible
+with that Aristidean justice which Mr Alf arrogated to himself and to
+his paper. She hoped with all her heart that Mr Alf would spend a
+great deal of money at Westminster, and then lose his seat.
+
+On the following morning she herself took the manuscript to Messrs
+Leadham and Loiter, and was hurt again by the small amount of respect
+which seemed to be paid to the collected sheets. There was the work of
+six months; her very blood and brains,--the concentrated essence of
+her mind,--as she would say herself when talking with energy of her own
+performances; and Mr Leadham pitched it across to a clerk, apparently
+perhaps sixteen years of age, and the lad chucked the parcel
+unceremoniously under the counter. An author feels that his work
+should be taken from him with fast-clutching but reverential hands,
+and held thoughtfully, out of harm's way, till it be deposited within
+the very sanctum of an absolutely fireproof safe. Oh, heavens, if it
+should be lost!--or burned!--or stolen! Those scraps of paper, so
+easily destroyed, apparently so little respected, may hereafter be
+acknowledged to have had a value greater, so far greater, than their
+weight in gold! If 'Robinson Crusoe' had been lost! If 'Tom Jones' had
+been consumed by flames! And who knows but that this may be another
+'Robinson Crusoe,'--a better than 'Tom Jones'? 'Will it be safe there?'
+asked Lady Carbury.
+
+'Quite safe,--quite safe,' said Mr Leadham, who was rather busy, and
+perhaps saw Lady Carbury more frequently than the nature and amount of
+her authorship seemed to him to require.
+
+'It seemed to be,--put down there,--under the counter!'
+
+'That's quite right, Lady Carbury. They're left there till they're
+packed.'
+
+'Packed!'
+
+'There are two or three dozen going to our reader this week. He's down
+in Skye, and we keep them till there's enough to fill the sack.'
+
+'Do they go by post, Mr Leadham?'
+
+'Not by post, Lady Carbury. There are not many of them would pay the
+expense. We send them by long sea to Glasgow, because just at this
+time of the year there is not much hurry. We can't publish before the
+winter.' Oh, heavens! If that ship should be lost on its journey by
+long sea to Glasgow!
+
+That evening, as was now almost his daily habit, Mr Browne came to
+her. There was something in the absolute friendship which now existed
+between Lady Carbury and the editor of the 'Morning Breakfast Table,'
+which almost made her scrupulous as to asking from him any further
+literary favour. She fully recognized,--no woman perhaps more fully,--
+the necessity of making use of all aid and furtherance which might come
+within reach. With such a son, with such need for struggling before
+her, would she not be wicked not to catch even at every straw? But
+this man had now become so true to her, that she hardly knew how to
+beg him to do that which she, with all her mistaken feelings, did in
+truth know that he ought not to do. He had asked her to marry him, for
+which,--though she had refused him,--she felt infinitely grateful. And
+though she had refused him, he had lent her money, and had supported
+her in her misery by his continued counsel. If he would offer to do
+this thing for her she would accept his kindness on her knees,--but
+even she could not bring herself to ask to have this added to his other
+favours. Her first word to him was about Mr Alf. 'So he has given up
+the paper?'
+
+'Well, yes;--nominally.'
+
+'Is that all?'
+
+'I don't suppose he'll really let it go out of his own hands. Nobody
+likes to lose power. He'll share the work, and keep the authority. As
+for Westminster, I don't believe he has a chance. If that poor wretch
+Melmotte could beat him when everybody was already talking about the
+forgeries, how is it likely that he should stand against such a
+candidate as they'll get now?'
+
+'He was here yesterday.'
+
+'And full of triumph, I suppose?'
+
+'He never talks to me much of himself. We were speaking of my new
+book,--my novel. He assured me most positively that he had nothing
+further to do with the paper.'
+
+'He did not care to make you a promise, I dare say.'
+
+'That was just it. Of course I did not believe him.'
+
+'Neither will I make a promise, but we'll see what we can do. If we
+can't be good-natured, at any rate we will say nothing ill-natured.
+Let me see,--what is the name?'
+
+'"The Wheel of Fortune."' Lady Carbury as she told the title of her
+new book to her old friend seemed to be almost ashamed of it.
+
+'Let them send it early,--a day or two before it's out, if they can. I
+can't answer, of course, for the opinion of the gentleman it will go
+to, but nothing shall go in that you would dislike. Good-bye. God
+bless you.' And as he took her hand, he looked at her almost as though
+the old susceptibility were returning to him.
+
+As she sat alone after he had gone, thinking over it all,--thinking of
+her own circumstances and of his kindness,--it did not occur to her to
+call him an old goose again. She felt now that she had mistaken her
+man when she had so regarded him. That first and only kiss which he
+had given her, which she had treated with so much derision, for which
+she had rebuked him so mildly and yet so haughtily, had now a somewhat
+sacred spot in her memory. Through it all the man must have really
+loved her! Was it not marvellous that such a thing should be? And how
+had it come to pass that she in all her tenderness had rejected him
+when he had given her the chance of becoming his wife?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XC - HETTA'S SORROW
+
+
+When Hetta Carbury received that letter from her lover which was given
+to the reader some chapters back, it certainly did not tend in any way
+to alleviate her misery. Even when she had read it over half-a-dozen
+times, she could not bring herself to think it possible that she could
+be reconciled to the man. It was not only that he had sinned against
+her by giving his society to another woman to whom he had at any rate
+been engaged not long since, at the very time at which he was becoming
+engaged to her,--but also that he had done this in such a manner as to
+make his offence known to all her friends. Perhaps she had been too
+quick;--but there was the fact that with her own consent she had acceded
+to her mother's demand that the man should be rejected. The man had
+been rejected, and even Roger Carbury knew that it was so. After this
+it was, she thought, impossible that she should recall him. But they
+should all know that her heart was unchanged. Roger Carbury should
+certainly know that, if he ever asked her further question on the
+matter. She would never deny it; and though she knew that the man had
+behaved badly,--having entangled himself with a nasty American woman,--
+yet she would be true to him as far as her own heart was concerned.
+
+And now he told her that she had been most unjust to him. He said that
+he could not understand her injustice. He did not fill his letter with
+entreaties, but with reproaches. And certainly his reproaches moved her
+more than any prayer would have done. It was too late now to remedy
+the evil; but she was not quite sure within her own bosom that she had
+not been unjust to him. The more she thought of it the more puzzled
+her mind became. Had she quarrelled with him because he had once been
+in love with Mrs Hurtle, or because she had grounds for regarding Mrs
+Hurtle as her present rival? She hated Mrs Hurtle, and she was very
+angry with him in that he had ever been on affectionate terms with a
+woman she hated;--but that had not been the reason put forward by her
+for quarrelling with him. Perhaps it was true that he, too, had of
+late loved Mrs Hurtle hardly better than she did herself. It might be
+that he had been indeed constrained by hard circumstances to go with
+the woman to Lowestoft. Having so gone with her, it was no doubt right
+that he should be rejected;--for how can it be that a man who is
+engaged shall be allowed to travel about the country with another woman
+to whom also he was engaged a few months back? But still there might be
+hardship in it. To her, to Hetta herself, the circumstances were very
+hard. She loved the man with all her heart. She could look forward to
+no happiness in life without him. But yet it must be so.
+
+At the end of his letter he had told her to go to Mrs Hurtle herself
+if she wanted corroboration of the story as told by him. Of course he
+had known when he wrote it that she could not and would not go to Mrs
+Hurtle. But when the letter had been in her possession three or four
+days,--unanswered, for, as a matter of course, no answer to it from
+herself was possible,--and had been read and re-read till she knew
+every word of it by heart, she began to think that if she could hear
+the story as it might be told by Mrs Hurtle, a good deal that was now
+dark might become light to her. As she continued to read the letter,
+and to brood over it all, by degrees her anger was turned from her
+lover to her mother, her brother, and to her cousin Roger. Paul had of
+course behaved badly, very badly,--but had it not been for them she
+might have had an opportunity of forgiving him. They had driven her on
+to the declaration of a purpose from which she could now see no escape.
+There had been a plot against her, and she was a victim. In the first
+dismay and agony occasioned by that awful story of the American
+woman,--which had, at the moment, struck her with a horror which was now
+becoming less and less every hour,--she had fallen head foremost into
+the trap laid for her. She acknowledged to herself that it was too late
+to recover her ground. She was, at any rate, almost sure that it must
+be too late. But yet she was disposed to do battle with her mother and
+her cousin in the matter--if only with the object of showing that she
+would not submit her own feelings to their control. She was savage to
+the point of rebellion against all authority. Roger Carbury would of
+course think that any communication between herself and Mrs Hurtle
+must be improper,--altogether indelicate. Two or three days ago she
+thought so herself. But the world was going so hard with her, that she
+was beginning to feel herself capable of throwing propriety and
+delicacy to the winds. This man whom she had once accepted, whom she
+altogether loved, and who, in spite of all his faults, certainly still
+loved her,--of that she was beginning to have no further doubt,--accused
+her of dishonesty, and referred her to her rival for a corroboration
+of his story. She would appeal to Mrs Hurtle. The woman was odious,
+abominable, a nasty intriguing American female. But her lover desired
+that she should hear the woman's story; and she would hear the story,--
+if the woman would tell it.
+
+So resolving, she wrote as follows to Mrs Hurtle, finding great
+difficulty in the composition of a letter which should tell neither
+too little nor too much, and determined that she would be restrained
+by no mock modesty, by no girlish fear of declaring the truth about
+herself. The letter at last was stiff and hard, but it sufficed for
+its purpose.
+
+
+   Madam,--
+
+   Mr Paul Montague has referred me to you as to certain
+   circumstances which have taken place between him and you. It is
+   right that I should tell you that I was a short time since
+   engaged to marry him, but that I have found myself obliged to
+   break off that engagement in consequence of what I have been
+   told as to his acquaintance with you. I make this proposition to
+   you, not thinking that anything you will say to me can change my
+   mind, but because he has asked me to do so, and has, at the same
+   time, accused me of injustice towards him. I do not wish to rest
+   under an accusation of injustice from one to whom I was once
+   warmly attached. If you will receive me, I will make it my
+   business to call any afternoon you may name.
+
+   Yours truly,
+
+   HENRIETTA CARBURY.
+
+
+When the letter was written she was not only ashamed of it, but very
+much afraid of it also. What if the American woman should put it in a
+newspaper! She had heard that everything was put into newspapers in
+America. What if this Mrs Hurtle should send back to her some horribly
+insolent answer;--or should send such answer to her mother, instead of
+herself! And then, again, if the American woman consented to receive
+her, would not the American woman, as a matter of course, trample upon
+her with rough words? Once or twice she put the letter aside, and
+almost determined that it should not be sent;--but at last, with
+desperate fortitude, she took it out with her and posted it herself.
+She told no word of it to any one. Her mother, she thought, had been
+cruel to her, had disregarded her feelings, and made her wretched for
+ever. She could not ask her mother for sympathy in her present
+distress. There was no friend who would sympathize with her. She must
+do everything alone.
+
+Mrs Hurtle, it will be remembered, had at last determined that she
+would retire from the contest and own herself to have been worsted. It
+is, I fear, impossible to describe adequately the various half
+resolutions which she formed, and the changing phases of her mind
+before she brought herself to this conclusion. And soon after she had
+assured herself that this should be the conclusion,--after she had told
+Paul Montague that it should be so,--there came back upon her at times
+other half resolutions to a contrary effect. She had written a letter
+to the man threatening desperate revenge, and had then abstained from
+sending it, and had then shown it to the man,--not intending to give it
+to him as a letter upon which he would have to act, but only that she
+might ask him whether, had he received it, he would have said that he
+had not deserved it. Then she had parted with him, refusing either to
+hear or to say a word of farewell, and had told Mrs Pipkin that she
+was no longer engaged to be married. At that moment everything was done
+that could be done. The game had been played and the stakes lost,--
+and she had schooled herself into such restraint as to have abandoned
+all idea of vengeance. But from time to time there arose in her heart
+a feeling that such softness was unworthy of her. Who had ever been
+soft to her? Who had spared her? Had she not long since found out that
+she must fight with her very nails and teeth for every inch of ground,
+if she did not mean to be trodden into the dust? Had she not held her
+own among rough people after a very rough fashion, and should she now
+simply retire that she might weep in a corner like a love-sick
+schoolgirl? And she had been so stoutly determined that she would at
+any rate avenge her own wrongs, if she could not turn those wrongs
+into triumph! There were moments in which she thought that she could
+still seize the man by the throat, where all the world might see her,
+and dare him to deny that he was false, perjured, and mean.
+
+Then she received a long passionate letter from Paul Montague, written
+at the same time as those other letters to Roger Carbury and Hetta, in
+which he told her all the circumstances of his engagement to Hetta
+Carbury, and implored her to substantiate the truth of his own story.
+It was certainly marvellous to her that the man who had so long been
+her own lover and who had parted with her after such a fashion should
+write such a letter to her. But it had no tendency to increase either
+her anger or her sorrow. Of course she had known that it was so, and
+at certain times she had told herself that it was only natural,--had
+almost told herself that it was right. She and this young Englishman
+were not fit to be mated. He was to her thinking a tame, sleek
+household animal, whereas she knew herself to be wild,--fitter for the
+woods than for polished cities. It had been one of the faults of her
+life that she had allowed herself to be bound by tenderness of feeling
+to this soft over-civilised man. The result had been disastrous, as
+might have been expected. She was angry with him,--almost to the extent
+of tearing him to pieces,--but she did not become more angry because he
+wrote to her of her rival.
+
+Her only present friend was Mrs Pipkin, who treated her with the
+greatest deference, but who was never tired of asking questions about
+the lost lover. 'That letter was from Mr Montague?' said Mrs Pipkin on
+the morning after it had been received.
+
+'How can you know that?'
+
+'I'm sure it was. One does get to know handwritings when letters come
+frequent.'
+
+'It was from him. And why not?'
+
+'Oh dear no;--why not certainly? I wish he'd write every day of his
+life, so that things would come round again. Nothing ever troubles me
+so much as broken love. Why don't he come again himself, Mrs Hurtle?'
+
+'It is not at all likely that he should come again. It is all over, and
+there is no good in talking of it. I shall return to New York on
+Saturday week.'
+
+'Oh, Mrs Hurtle!'
+
+'I can't remain here, you know, all my life doing nothing. I came over
+here for a certain purpose and that has--gone by. Now I may just go
+back again.'
+
+'I know he has ill-treated you.  I know he has.'
+
+'I am not disposed to talk about it, Mrs Pipkin.'
+
+'I should have thought it would have done you good to speak your mind
+out free. I knew it would me if I'd been served in that way.'
+
+'If I had anything to say at all after that fashion it would be to the
+gentleman, and not to any other else. As it is I shall never speak of
+it again to any one. You have been very kind to me, Mrs Pipkin, and I
+shall be sorry to leave you.'
+
+'Oh, Mrs Hurtle, you can't understand what it is to me. It isn't only
+my feelings. The likes of me can't stand by their feelings only, as
+their betters do. I've never been above telling you what a godsend
+you've been to me this summer;--have I? I've paid everything, butcher,
+baker, rates and all, just like clockwork. And now you're going away!'
+Then Mrs Pipkin began to sob.
+
+'I suppose I shall see Mr Crumb before I go,' said Mrs Hurtle.
+
+'She don't deserve it; do she? And even now she never says a word
+about him that I call respectful. She looks on him as just being
+better than Mrs Buggins's children. That's all.'
+
+'She'll be all right when he has once got her home.'
+
+'And I shall be all alone by myself,' said Mrs Pipkin, with her apron
+up to her eyes.
+
+It was after this that Mrs Hurtle received Hetta's letter. She had as
+yet returned no answer to Paul Montague,--nor had she intended to send
+any written answer. Were she to comply with his request she could do
+so best by writing to the girl who was concerned rather than to him.
+And though she wrote no such letter she thought of it,--of the words
+she would use were she to write it, and of the tale which she would
+have to tell. She sat for hours thinking of it, trying to resolve
+whether she would tell the tale,--if she told it at all,--in a manner
+to suit Paul's purpose, or so as to bring that purpose utterly to
+shipwreck. She did not doubt that she could cause the shipwreck were
+she so minded. She could certainly have her revenge after that fashion.
+But it was a woman's fashion, and, as such, did not recommend itself to
+Mrs Hurdle's feelings. A pistol or a horsewhip, a violent seizing by
+the neck, with sharp taunts and bitter-ringing words, would have made
+the fitting revenge. If she abandoned that she could do herself no
+good by telling a story of her wrongs to another woman.
+
+Then came Hetta's note, so stiff, so cold, so true,--so like the letter
+of an Englishwoman, as Mrs Hurtle said to herself. Mrs Hurtle smiled
+as she read the letter. 'I make this proposition not thinking that
+anything you can say to me can change my mind.' Of course the girl's
+mind would be changed. The girl's mind, indeed, required no change.
+Mrs Hurtle could see well enough that the girl's heart was set upon
+the man. Nevertheless she did not doubt but that she could tell the
+story after such a fashion as to make it impossible that the girl
+should marry him,--if she chose to do so.
+
+At first she thought that she would not answer the letter at all. What
+was it to her? Let them fight their own lovers' battles out after
+their own childish fashion. If the man meant at last to be honest,
+there could be no doubt, Mrs Hurtle thought, that the girl would go to
+him. It would require no interference of hers. But after a while she
+thought that she might as well see this English chit who had
+superseded herself in the affections of the Englishman she had
+condescended to love. And if it were the case that all revenge was to
+be abandoned, that no punishment was to be exacted in return for all
+the injury that had been done, why should she not say a kind word so
+as to smooth away the existing difficulties? Wild cat as she was,
+kindness was more congenial to her nature than cruelty. So she wrote
+to Hetta making an appointment.
+
+
+   DEAR MISS CARBURY
+
+   If you could make it convenient to yourself to call here either
+   Thursday or Friday at any hour between two and four, I shall be very
+   happy to see you.
+
+   Yours sincerely,
+
+   WINIFRED HURTLE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCI - THE RIVALS
+
+
+During these days the intercourse between Lady Carbury and her
+daughter was constrained and far from pleasant. Hetta, thinking that
+she was ill-used, kept herself aloof, and would not speak to her
+mother of herself or of her troubles. Lady Carbury watching her, but
+not daring to say much, was at last almost frightened at her girl's
+silence. She had assured herself, when she found that Hetta was
+disposed to quarrel with her lover and to send him back his brooch,
+that 'things would come round,' that Paul would be forgotten quickly,--
+or laid aside as though he were forgotten,--and that Hetta would soon
+perceive it to be her interest to marry her cousin. With such a
+prospect before her, Lady Carbury thought it to be her duty as a
+mother to show no tendency to sympathize with her girl's sorrow. Such
+heart-breakings were occurring daily in the world around them. Who
+were the happy people that were driven neither by ambition, nor
+poverty, nor greed, nor the cross purposes of unhappy love, to stifle
+and trample upon their feelings? She had known no one so blessed. She
+had never been happy after that fashion. She herself had within the
+last few weeks refused to join her lot with that of a man she really
+liked, because her wicked son was so grievous a burden on her
+shoulders. A woman, she thought, if she were unfortunate enough to be
+a lady without wealth of her own, must give up everything, her body,
+her heart,--her very soul if she were that way troubled,--to the
+procuring of a fitting maintenance for herself. Why should Hetta hope
+to be more fortunate than others? And then the position which chance
+now offered to her was fortunate. This cousin of hers, who was so
+devoted to her, was in all respects good. He would not torture her by
+harsh restraint and cruel temper. He would not drink. He would not
+spend his money foolishly. He would allow her all the belongings of a
+fair, free life. Lady Carbury reiterated to herself the assertion that
+she was manifestly doing a mother's duty by her endeavours to constrain
+her girl to marry such a man. With a settled purpose she was severe and
+hard. But when she found how harsh her daughter could be in response
+to this,--how gloomy, how silent, and how severe in retaliation,--she
+was almost frightened at what she herself was doing. She had not known
+how stern and how enduring her daughter could be. 'Hetta,' she said,
+'why don't you speak to me?' On this very day it was Hetta's purpose to
+visit Mrs Hurtle at Islington. She had said no word of her intention
+to any one. She had chosen the Friday because on that day she knew her
+mother would go in the afternoon to her publisher. There should be no
+deceit. Immediately on her return she would tell her mother what she
+had done. But she considered herself to be emancipated from control.
+Among them they had robbed her of her lover. She had submitted to the
+robbery, but she would submit to nothing else. 'Hetta, why don't you
+speak to me?' said Lady Carbury.
+
+'Because, mamma, there is nothing we can talk about without making
+each other unhappy.'
+
+'What a dreadful thing to say! Is there no subject in the world to
+interest you except that wretched young man?'
+
+'None other at all,' said Hetta obstinately.
+
+'What folly it is,--I will not say only to speak like that, but to
+allow yourself to entertain such thoughts!'
+
+'How am I to control my thoughts? Do you think, mamma, that after I
+had owned to you that I loved a man,--after I had owned it to him and,
+worst of all, to myself,--I could have myself separated from him, and
+then not think about it? It is a cloud upon everything. It is as
+though I had lost my eyesight and my speech. It is as it would be to
+you if Felix were to die. It crushes me.'
+
+There was an accusation in this allusion to her brother which the
+mother felt,--as she was intended to feel it,--but to which she could
+make no reply. It accused her of being too much concerned for her son
+to feel any real affection for her daughter. 'You are ignorant of the
+world, Hetta,' she said.
+
+'I am having a lesson in it now, at any rate,'
+
+'Do you think it is worse than others have suffered before you? In
+what little you see around you do you think that girls are generally
+able to marry the men upon whom they set their hearts?' She paused,
+but Hetta made no answer to this. 'Marie Melmotte was as warmly
+attached to your brother as you can be to Mr Montague.'
+
+'Marie Melmotte!'
+
+'She thinks as much of her feelings as you do of yours. The truth is
+you are indulging a dream. You must wake from it, and shake yourself,
+and find out that you, like others, have got to do the best you can for
+yourself in order that you may live. The world at large has to eat dry
+bread, and cannot get cakes and sweetmeats. A girl, when she thinks of
+giving herself to a husband, has to remember this. If she has a
+fortune of her own she can pick and choose, but if she have none she
+must allow herself to be chosen.'
+
+'Then a girl is to marry without stopping even to think whether she
+likes the man or not?'
+
+'She should teach herself to like the man, if the marriage be
+suitable. I would not have you take a vicious man because he was rich,
+or one known to be cruel and imperious. Your cousin Roger, you know--'
+
+'Mamma,' said Hetta, getting up from her seat, 'you may as well believe
+me. No earthly inducement shall ever make me marry my cousin Roger. It
+is to me horrible that you should propose it to me when you know that
+I love that other man with my whole heart.'
+
+'How can you speak so of one who has treated you with the utmost
+contumely?'
+
+'I know nothing of any contumely. What reasons have I to be offended
+because he has liked a woman whom he knew before he ever saw me? It
+has been unfortunate, wretched, miserable; but I do not know that I
+have any right whatever to be angry with Mr Paul Montague.' Having so
+spoken she walked out of the room without waiting for a further reply.
+
+It was all very sad to Lady Carbury. She perceived now that she had
+driven her daughter to pronounce an absolution of Paul Montague's
+sins, and that in this way she had lessened and loosened the barrier
+which she had striven to construct between them. But that which pained
+her most was the unrealistic, romantic view of life which pervaded all
+Hetta's thoughts. How was any girl to live in this world who could not
+be taught the folly of such idle dreams?
+
+That afternoon Hetta trusted herself all alone to the mysteries of the
+Marylebone underground railway, and emerged with accuracy at King's
+Cross. She had studied her geography, and she walked from thence to
+Islington. She knew well the name of the street and the number at
+which Mrs Hurtle lived. But when she reached the door she did not at
+first dare to stand and raise the knocker. She passed on to the end of
+the silent, vacant street, endeavouring to collect her thoughts,
+striving to find and to arrange the words with which she would
+commence her strange petition. And she endeavoured to dictate to
+herself some defined conduct should the woman be insolent to her.
+Personally she was not a coward, but she doubted her power of replying
+to a rough speech. She could at any rate escape. Should the worst come
+to the worst, the woman would hardly venture to impede her departure.
+Having gone to the end of the street, she returned with a very quick
+step and knocked at the door. It was opened almost immediately by Ruby
+Ruggles, to whom she gave her name.
+
+'Oh laws,--Miss Carbury!' said Ruby, looking up into the stranger's
+face. Yes,--sure enough she must be Felix's sister. But Ruby did not
+dare to ask any question. She had admitted to all around her that Sir
+Felix should not be her lover any more, and that John Crumb should be
+allowed to return. But, nevertheless, her heart twittered as she
+showed Miss Carbury up to the lodger's sitting-room.
+
+Though it was midsummer Hetta entered the room with her veil down. She
+adjusted it as she followed Ruby up the stairs, moved by a sudden fear
+of her rival's scrutiny. Mrs Hurtle rose from her chair and came
+forward to greet her visitor, putting out both her hands to do so. She
+was dressed with the most scrupulous care,--simply, and in black,
+without an ornament of any kind, without a ribbon or a chain or a
+flower. But with some woman's purpose at her heart she had so attired
+herself as to look her very best. Was it that she thought that she
+would vindicate to her rival their joint lover's first choice, or that
+she was minded to teach the English girl that an American woman might
+have graces of her own? As she came forward she was gentle and soft in
+her movements, and a pleasant smile played round her mouth. Hetta, at
+the first moment, was almost dumbfounded by her beauty,--by that and by
+her ease and exquisite self-possession. 'Miss Carbury,' she said with
+that low, rich voice which in old days had charmed Paul almost as much
+as her loveliness, 'I need not tell you how interested I am in seeing
+you. May I not ask you to lay aside your veil, so that we may look at
+each other fairly?' Hetta, dumbfounded, not knowing how to speak a
+word, stood gazing at the woman when she had removed her veil. She had
+had no personal description of Mrs Hurtle, but had expected something
+very different from this! She had thought that the woman would be
+coarse and big, with fine eyes and a bright colour. As it was they
+were both of the same complexion, both dark, with hair nearly black,
+with eyes of the same colour. Hetta thought of all that at the
+moment,--but acknowledged to herself that she had no pretension to
+beauty such as that which this woman owned. 'And so you have come to
+see me,' said Mrs Hurtle. 'Sit down so that I may look at you. I am
+glad that you have come to see me, Miss Carbury.'
+
+'I am glad at any rate that you are not angry.'
+
+'Why should I be angry? Had the idea been distasteful to me I should
+have declined. I know not why, but it is a sort of pleasure to me to
+see you. It is a poor time we women have,--is it not,--in becoming
+playthings to men? So this Lothario that was once mine, is behaving
+badly to you also. Is it so? He is no longer mine, and you may ask me
+freely for aid, if there be any that I can give you. If he were an
+American I should say that he had behaved badly to me;--but as he is an
+Englishman perhaps it is different. Now tell me;--what can I do, or
+what can I say?'
+
+'He told me that you could tell me the truth.'
+
+'What truth? I will certainly tell you nothing that is not true. You
+have quarrelled with him too. It is not so?'
+
+'Certainly I have quarrelled with him.'
+
+'I am not curious;--but perhaps you had better tell me of that. I know
+him so well that I can guess that he should give offence. He can be
+full of youthful ardour one day, and cautious as old age itself the
+next. But I do not suppose that there has been need for such caution
+with you. What is it, Miss Carbury?'
+
+Hetta found the telling of her story to be very difficult.
+
+'Mrs Hurtle,' she said, 'I had never heard your name when he first
+asked me to be his wife.'
+
+'I dare say not. Why should he have told you anything of me?'
+
+'Because,--oh, because--. Surely he ought, if it is true that he had
+once promised to marry you.'
+
+'That is certainly true.'
+
+'And you were here, and I knew nothing of it. Of course I should have
+been very different to him had I known that,--that,--that--'
+
+'That there was such a woman as Winifred Hurtle interfering with him.
+Then you heard it by chance, and you were offended. Was it not so?'
+
+'And now he tells me that I have been unjust to him and he bids me ask
+you. I have not been unjust.'
+
+'I am not so sure of that. Shall I tell you what I think? I think that
+he has been unjust to me, and that therefore your injustice to him is
+no more than his due. I cannot plead for him, Miss Carbury. To me he
+has been the last and worst of a long series of, I think, undeserved
+misfortune. But whether you will avenge my wrongs must be for you to
+decide.'
+
+'Why did he go with you to Lowestoft?'
+
+'Because I asked him,--and because, like many men, he cannot be
+ill-natured although he can be cruel. He would have given a hand not
+to have gone, but he could not say me nay. As you have come here, Miss
+Carbury, you may as well know the truth. He did love me, but he had
+been talked out of his love by my enemies and his own friends long
+before he had ever seen you. I am almost ashamed to tell you my own
+part of the story, and yet I know not why I should be ashamed. I
+followed him here to England--because I loved him. I came after him,
+as perhaps a woman should not do, because I was true of heart. He had
+told me that he did not want me;--but I wanted to be wanted, and I
+hoped that I might lure him back to his troth. I have utterly failed,
+and I must return to my own country,--I will not say a broken-hearted
+woman, for I will not admit of such a condition,--but a creature with
+a broken spirit. He has misused me foully, and I have simply forgiven
+him; not because I am a Christian, but because I am not strong enough
+to punish one that I still love. I could not put a dagger into him,--or
+I would; or a bullet,--or I would. He has reduced me to a nothing by
+his falseness, and yet I cannot injure him! I, who have sworn to myself
+that no man should ever lay a finger on me in scorn without feeling my
+wrath in return, I cannot punish him. But if you choose to do so it is
+not for me to set you against such an act of justice.' Then she paused
+and looked up to Hetta as though expecting a reply.
+
+But Hetta had no reply to make. All had been said that she had come to
+hear. Every word that the woman had spoken had in truth been a comfort
+to her. She had told herself that her visit was to be made in order
+that she might be justified in her condemnation of her lover. She had
+believed that it was her intention to arm herself with proof that she
+had done right in rejecting him. Now she was told that however false
+her lover might have been to this other woman he had been absolutely
+true to her. The woman had not spoken kindly of Paul,--had seemed to
+intend to speak of him with the utmost severity; but she had so spoken
+as to acquit him of all sin against Hetta. What was it to Hetta that her
+lover had been false to this American stranger? It did not seem to her
+to be at all necessary that she should be angry with her lover on that
+bead. Mrs Hurtle had told her that she herself must decide whether she
+would take upon herself to avenge her rival's wrongs. In saying that,
+Mrs Hurtle had taught her to feel that there were no other wrongs
+which she need avenge. It was all done now. If she could only thank
+the woman for the pleasantness of her demeanour, and then go, she
+could, when alone, make up her mind as to what she would do next. She
+had not yet told herself she would submit herself again to Paul
+Montague. She had only told herself that, within her own breast, she
+was bound to forgive him. 'You have been very kind,' she said at
+last,--speaking only because it was necessary that she should say
+something.
+
+'It is well that there should be some kindness where there has been so
+much that is unkind. Forgive me, Miss Carbury, if I speak plainly to
+you. Of course you will go back to him. Of course you will be his
+wife. You have told me that you love him dearly, as plainly as I have
+told you the same story of myself. Your coming here would of itself
+have declared it, even if I did not see your satisfaction at my
+account of his treachery to me.'
+
+'Oh, Mrs Hurtle, do not say that of me!'
+
+'But it is true, and I do not in the least quarrel with you on that
+account. He has preferred you to me, and as far as I am concerned
+there is an end of it. You are a girl, whereas I am a woman,--and he
+likes your youth. I have undergone the cruel roughness of the world,
+which has not as yet touched you; and therefore you are softer to the
+touch. I do not know that you are very superior in other attractions;
+but that has sufficed, and you are the victor. I am strong enough to
+acknowledge that I have nothing to forgive in you;--and am weak enough
+to forgive all his treachery.' Hetta was now holding the woman by the
+hand, and was weeping, she knew not why. 'I am so glad to have seen
+you,' continued Mrs Hurtle, 'so that I may know what his wife was like.
+In a few days I shall return to the States, and then neither of you
+will ever be troubled further by Winifred Hurtle. Tell him that if he
+will come and see me once before I go, I will not be more unkind to
+him than I can help.'
+
+When Hetta did not decline to be the bearer of this message she must
+have at any rate resolved that she would see Paul Montague again,--and
+to see him would be to tell him that she was again his own. She now
+got herself quickly out of the room, absolutely kissing the woman whom
+she had both dreaded and despised. As soon as she was alone in the
+street she tried to think of it all. How full of beauty was the face
+of that American female,--how rich and glorious her voice in spite of a
+slight taint of the well-known nasal twang;--and above all how powerful
+and at the same time how easy and how gracious was her manner! That
+she would be an unfit wife for Paul Montague was certain to Hetta, but
+that he or any man should have loved her and have been loved by her,
+and then have been willing to part from her, was wonderful. And yet
+Paul Montague had preferred herself, Hetta Carbury, to this woman! Paul
+had certainly done well for his own cause when he had referred the
+younger lady to the elder.
+
+Of her own quarrel of course there must be an end. She had been unjust
+to the man, and injustice must of course be remedied by repentance and
+confession. As she walked quickly back to the railway station she
+brought herself to love her lover more fondly than she had ever done.
+He had been true to her from the first hour of their acquaintance.
+What truth higher than that has any woman a right to desire? No doubt
+she gave to him a virgin heart. No other man had ever touched her
+lips, or been allowed to press her hand, or to look into her eyes with
+unrebuked admiration. It was her pride to give herself to the man she
+loved after this fashion, pure and white as snow on which no foot has
+trodden. But, in taking him, all that she wanted was that he should be
+true to her now and henceforward. The future must be her own work. As
+to the 'now,' she felt that Mrs Hurtle had given her sufficient
+assurance.
+
+She must at once let her mother know this change in her mind. When she
+re-entered the house she was no longer sullen, no longer anxious to be
+silent, very willing to be gracious if she might be received with
+favour,--but quite determined that nothing should shake her purpose.
+She went at once into her mother's room, having heard from the boy at
+the door that Lady Carbury had returned.
+
+'Hetta, wherever have you been?' asked Lady Carbury.
+
+'Mamma,' she said, 'I mean to write to Mr Montague and tell him that I
+have been unjust to him.'
+
+'Hetta, you must do nothing of the kind,' said Lady Carbury, rising
+from her seat.
+
+'Yes, mamma. I have been unjust, and I must do so.'
+
+'It will be asking him to come back to you.'
+
+'Yes, mamma:--that is what I mean. I shall tell him that if he will
+come, I will receive him. I know he will come. Oh, mamma, let us be
+friends, and I will tell you everything. Why should you grudge me my
+love?'
+
+'You have sent him back his brooch,' said Lady Carbury hoarsely.
+
+'He shall give it me again. Hear what I have done. I have seen that
+American lady.'
+
+'Mrs Hurtle!'
+
+'Yes;--I have been to her. She is a wonderful woman.'
+
+'And she has told you wonderful lies.'
+
+'Why should she lie to me? She has told me no lies. She said nothing
+in his favour.'
+
+'I can well believe that. What can any one say in his favour?'
+
+'But she told me that which has assured me that Mr Montague has never
+behaved badly to me. I shall write to him at once. If you like I will
+show you the letter.'
+
+'Any letter to him, I will tear,' said Lady Carbury, full of anger.
+
+'Mamma, I have told you everything, but in this I must judge for
+myself.' Then Hetta, seeing that her mother would not relent, left the
+room without further speech, and immediately opened her desk that the
+letter might be written.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCII - HAMILTON K. FISKER AGAIN
+
+
+Ten days had passed since the meeting narrated in the last chapter,--
+ten days, during which Hetta's letter had been sent to her lover, but
+in which she had received no reply,--when two gentlemen met each other
+in a certain room in Liverpool, who were seen together in the same room
+in the early part of this chronicle. These were our young friend Paul
+Montague, and our not much older friend Hamilton K. Fisker. Melmotte
+had died on the 18th of July, and tidings of the event had been at
+once sent by telegraph to San Francisco. Some weeks before this
+Montague had written to his partner, giving his account of the South
+Central Pacific and Mexican Railway Company,--describing its condition
+in England as he then believed it to be,--and urging Fisker to come
+over to London. On receipt of a message from his American correspondent
+he had gone down to Liverpool, and had there awaited Fisker's arrival,
+taking counsel with his friend Mr Ramsbottom. In the meantime Hetta's
+letter was lying at the Beargarden, Paul having written from his club
+and having omitted to desire that the answer should be sent to his
+lodgings. Just at this moment things at the Beargarden were not well
+managed. They were indeed so ill managed that Paul never received that
+letter,--which would have had for him charms greater than those of any
+letter ever before written.
+
+'This is a terrible business,' said Fisker, immediately on entering
+the room in which Montague was waiting him. 'He was the last man I'd
+have thought would be cut up in that way.'
+
+'He was utterly ruined.'
+
+'He wouldn't have been ruined,--and couldn't have thought so if he'd
+known all be ought to have known. The South Central would have pulled
+him through almost anything if he'd have understood how to play it.'
+
+'We don't think much of the South Central here now,' said Paul.
+
+'Ah;--that's because you've never above half spirit enough for a big
+thing. You nibble at it instead of swallowing it whole,--and then, of
+course, folks see that you're only nibbling. I thought that Melmotte
+would have had spirit.'
+
+'There is, I fear, no doubt that he had committed forgery. It was the
+dread of detection as to that which drove him to destroy himself.'
+
+'I call it dam clumsy from beginning to end;--dam clumsy. I took him
+to be a different man, and I feel more than half ashamed of myself
+because I trusted such a fellow. That chap Cohenlupe has got off with
+a lot of swag. Only think of Melmotte allowing Cohenlupe to get the
+better of him!'
+
+'I suppose the thing will be broken up now at San Francisco,'
+suggested Paul.
+
+'Bu'st up at Frisco! Not if I know it. Why should it be bu'st up?
+D'you think we're all going to smash there because a fool like
+Melmotte blows his brains out in London?'
+
+'He took poison.'
+
+'Or p'ison either. That's not just our way. I'll tell you what I'm
+going to do; and why I'm over here so uncommon sharp. These shares are
+at a'most nothing now in London. I'll buy every share in the market. I
+wired for as many as I dar'd, so as not to spoil our own game, and
+I'll make a clean sweep of every one of them. Bu'st up! I'm sorry for
+him because I thought him a biggish man;--but what he's done'll just be
+the making of us over there. Will you get out of it, or will you come
+back to Frisco with me?'
+
+In answer to this Paul asserted most strenuously that he would not
+return to San Francisco, and, perhaps too ingenuously, gave his
+partner to understand that he was altogether sick of the great
+railway, and would under no circumstances have anything more to do
+with it. Fisker shrugged his shoulders, and was not displeased at the
+proposed rupture. He was prepared to deal fairly,--nay, generously,--by
+his partner, having recognized the wisdom of that great commercial
+rule which teaches us that honour should prevail among associates of a
+certain class; but he had fully convinced himself that Paul Montague
+was not a fit partner for Hamilton K. Fisker. Fisker was not only
+unscrupulous himself, but he had a thorough contempt for scruples in
+others. According to his theory of life, nine hundred and ninety-nine
+men were obscure because of their scruples, whilst the thousandth man
+predominated and cropped up into the splendour of commercial wealth
+because he was free from such bondage. He had his own theories, too,
+as to commercial honesty. That which he had promised to do he would
+do, if it was within his power. He was anxious that his bond should be
+good, and his word equally so. But the work of robbing mankind in
+gross by magnificently false representations, was not only the duty,
+but also the delight and the ambition of his life. How could a man so
+great endure a partnership with one so small as Paul Montague? 'And
+now what about Winifred Hurtle?' asked Fisker.
+
+'What makes you ask? She's in London.'
+
+'Oh yes, I know she's in London, and Hurdle's at Frisco, swearing that
+he'll come after her. He would, only he hasn't got the dollars.'
+
+'He's not dead then?' muttered Paul.
+
+'Dead!--no, nor likely to die. She'll have a bad time of it with him
+yet.'
+
+'But she divorced him.'
+
+'She got a Kansas lawyer to say so, and he's got a Frisco lawyer to
+say that there's nothing of the kind. She hasn't played her game badly
+neither, for she's had the handling of her own money, and has put it
+so that he can't get hold of a dollar. Even if it suited other ways,
+you know, I wouldn't marry her myself till I saw my way clearer out of
+the wood.'
+
+'I'm not thinking of marrying her,--if you mean that.'
+
+'There was a talk about it in Frisco;--that's all. And I have heard
+Hurtle say when he was a little farther gone than usual that she was
+here with you, and that he meant to drop in on you some of these
+days.' To this Paul made no answer, thinking that he had now both
+heard enough and said enough about Mrs Hurtle.
+
+On the following day the two men, who were still partners, went
+together to London, and Fisker immediately became immersed in the
+arrangement of Melmotte's affairs. He put himself into communication
+with Mr Brehgert, went in and out of the offices in Abchurch Lane and
+the rooms which had belonged to the Railway Company, cross-examined
+Croll, mastered the books of the Company as far as they were to be
+mastered, and actually summoned both the Grendalls, father and son, up
+to London. Lord Alfred, and Miles with him, had left London a day or
+two before Melmotte's death,--having probably perceived that there was
+no further occasion for their services. To Fisker's appeal Lord Alfred
+was proudly indifferent. Who was this American that he should call
+upon a director of the London Company to appear? Does not every one
+know that a director of a company need not direct unless he pleases?
+Lord Alfred, therefore, did not even condescend to answer Fisker's
+letter;--but he advised his son to run up to town. 'I should just go,
+because I'd taken a salary from the d---- Company,' said the careful
+father, 'but when there I wouldn't say a word.' So Miles Grendall,
+obeying his parent, reappeared upon the scene.
+
+But Fisker's attention was perhaps most usefully and most sedulously
+paid to Madame Melmotte and her daughter. Till Fisker arrived no one
+had visited them in their solitude at Hampstead, except Croll, the
+clerk. Mr Brehgert had abstained, thinking that a widow, who had
+become a widow under such terrible circumstances, would prefer to be
+alone. Lord Nidderdale had made his adieux, and felt that he could do
+no more. It need hardly be said that Lord Alfred had too much good
+taste to interfere at such a time, although for some months he had
+been domestically intimate with the poor woman, or that Sir Felix
+would not be prompted by the father's death to renew his suit to the
+daughter. But Fisker had not been two days in London before he went
+out to Hampstead, and was admitted to Madame Melmotte's presence,--and
+he had not been there four days before he was aware that in spite of
+all misfortunes, Marie Melmotte was still the undoubted possessor of a
+large fortune.
+
+In regard to Melmotte's effects generally the Crown had been induced
+to abstain from interfering,--giving up the right to all the man's
+plate and chairs and tables which it had acquired by the finding of the
+coroner's verdict,--not from tenderness to Madame Melmotte, for whom no
+great commiseration was felt, but on behalf of such creditors as poor
+Mr Longestaffe and his son. But Marie's money was quite distinct from
+this. She had been right in her own belief as to this property, and
+had been right, too, in refusing to sign those papers,--unless it may
+be that that refusal led to her father's act. She herself was sure that
+it was not so, because she had withdrawn her refusal, and had offered
+to sign the papers before her father's death. What might have been the
+ultimate result had she done so when he first made the request, no one
+could now say. That the money would have gone there could be no doubt.
+The money was now hers,--a fact which Fisker soon learned with that
+peculiar cleverness which belonged to him.
+
+Poor Madame Melmotte felt the visits of the American to be a relief to
+her in her misery. The world makes great mistakes as to that which is
+and is not beneficial to those whom Death has bereaved of a companion.
+It may be, no doubt sometimes it is the case, that grief shall be so
+heavy, so absolutely crushing, as to make any interference with it an
+additional trouble, and this is felt also in acute bodily pain, and in
+periods of terrible mental suffering. It may also be, and, no doubt,
+often is the case, that the bereaved one chooses to affect such
+overbearing sorrow, and that friends abstain, because even such
+affectation has its own rights and privileges. But Madame Melmotte was
+neither crushed by grief nor did she affect to be so crushed. She had
+been numbed by the suddenness and by the awe of the catastrophe. The
+man who had been her merciless tyrant for years, who had seemed to
+her to be a very incarnation of cruel power, had succumbed, and shown
+himself to be powerless against his own misfortunes. She was a woman
+of very few words, and had spoken almost none on this occasion even
+to her own daughter; but when Fisker came to her, and told her more
+than she had ever known before of her husband's affairs, and spoke
+to her of her future life, and mixed for her a small glass of
+brandy-and-water warm, and told her that Frisco would be the fittest
+place for her future residence, she certainly did not find him to be
+intrusive.
+
+And even Marie liked Fisker, though she had been wooed and almost won
+both by a lord and a baronet, and had understood, if not much, at
+least more than her mother, of the life to which she had been
+introduced. There was something of real sorrow in her heart for her
+father. She was prone to love,--though, perhaps, not prone to deep
+affection. Melmotte had certainly been often cruel to her, but he had
+also been very indulgent. And as she had never been specially grateful
+for the one, so neither had she ever specially resented the other.
+Tenderness, care, real solicitude for her well-being, she had never
+known, and had come to regard the unevenness of her life, vacillating
+between knocks and knick-knacks, with a blow one day and a jewel the
+next, as the condition of things which was natural to her. When her
+father was dead she remembered for a while the jewels and the
+knickknacks, and forgot the knocks and blows. But she was not beyond
+consolation, and she also found consolation in Mr Fisker's visits.
+
+'I used to sign a paper every quarter,' she said to Fisker, as they
+were walking together one evening in the lanes round Hampstead.
+
+'You'll have to do the same now, only instead of giving the paper to
+any one you'll have to leave it in a banker's hands to draw the money
+for yourself.'
+
+'And can that be done over in California?'
+
+'Just the same as here. Your bankers will manage it all for you
+without the slightest trouble. For the matter of that I'll do it, if
+you'll trust me. There's only one thing against it all, Miss
+Melmotte.'
+
+'And what's that?'
+
+'After the sort of society you've been used to here, I don't know how
+you'll get on among us Americans. We're a pretty rough lot, I guess.
+Though, perhaps, what you lose in the look of the fruit, you'll make
+up in the flavour.' This Fisker said in a somewhat plaintive tone, as
+though fearing that the manifest substantial advantages of Frisco
+would not suffice to atone for the loss of that fashion to which Miss
+Melmotte had been used.
+
+'I hate swells,' said Marie, flashing round upon him.
+
+'Do you now?'
+
+'Like poison. What's the use of 'em? They never mean a word that they
+say,--and they don't say so many words either. They're never more than
+half awake, and don't care the least about anybody. I hate London.'
+
+'Do you now?'
+
+'Oh, don't I?'
+
+'I wonder whether you'd hate Frisco?'
+
+'I rather think it would be a jolly sort of place.'
+
+'Very jolly I find it. And I wonder whether you'd hate--me?'
+
+'Mr Fisker, that's nonsense. Why should I hate anybody?'
+
+'But you do. I've found out one or two that you don't love. If you do
+come to Frisco, I hope you won't just hate me, you know.' Then he took
+her gently by the arm;--but she, whisking herself away rapidly, bade
+him behave himself. Then they returned to their lodgings, and Mr
+Fisker, before he went back to London, mixed a little warm
+brandy-and-water for Madame Melmotte. I think that upon the whole
+Madame Melmotte was more comfortable at Hampstead than she had been
+either in Grosvenor Square or Bruton Street, although she was certainly
+not a thing beautiful to look at in her widow's weeds.
+
+'I don't think much of you as a book-keeper, you know,' Fisker said to
+Miles Grendall in the now almost deserted Board-room of the South
+Central Pacific and Mexican Railway. Miles, remembering his father's
+advice, answered not a word, but merely looked with assumed amazement
+at the impertinent stranger who dared thus to censure his
+performances. Fisker had made three or four remarks previous to this,
+and had appealed both to Paul Montague and to Croll, who were present.
+He had invited also the attendance of Sir Felix Carbury, Lord
+Nidderdale, and Mr Longestaffe, who were all Directors;--but none of
+them had come. Sir Felix had paid no attention to Fisker's letter.
+Lord Nidderdale had written a short but characteristic reply. 'Dear Mr
+Fisker,--I really don't know anything about it. Yours, Nidderdale.' Mr
+Longestaffe, with laborious zeal, had closely covered four pages with
+his reasons for non-attendance, with which the reader shall not be
+troubled, and which it may be doubted whether even Fisker perused to
+the end. 'Upon my word,' continued Fisker, 'it's astonishing to me
+that Melmotte should have put up with this kind of thing. I suppose
+you understand something of business, Mr Croll?'
+
+'It vas not my department, Mr Fisker,' said the German.
+
+'Nor anybody else's either,' said the domineering American. 'Of course
+it's on the cards, Mr Grendall, that we shall have to put you into a
+witness-box, because there are certain things we must get at.' Miles
+was silent as the grave, but at once made up his mind that he would
+pass his autumn at some pleasant but economical German retreat, and
+that his autumnal retirement should be commenced within a very few
+days;--or perhaps hours might suffice.
+
+But Fisker was not in earnest in his threat. In truth the greater the
+confusion in the London office, the better, he thought, were the
+prospects of the Company at San Francisco. Miles underwent purgatory
+on this occasion for three or four hours, and when dismissed had
+certainly revealed none of Melmotte's secrets. He did, however, go to
+Germany, finding that a temporary absence from England would be
+comfortable to him in more respects than one,--and need not be heard
+of again in these pages.
+
+When Melmotte's affairs were ultimately wound up there was found to be
+nearly enough of property to satisfy all his proved liabilities. Very
+many men started up with huge claims, asserting that they had been
+robbed, and in the confusion it was hard to ascertain who had been
+robbed, or who had simply been unsuccessful in their attempts to rob
+others. Some, no doubt, as was the case with poor Mr Brehgert, had
+speculated in dependence on Melmotte's sagacity, and had lost heavily
+without dishonesty. But of those who, like the Longestaffes, were able
+to prove direct debts, the condition at last was not very sad. Our
+excellent friend Dolly got his money early in the day, and was able,
+under Mr Squercum's guidance, to start himself on a new career. Having
+paid his debts, and with still a large balance at his bankers, he
+assured his friend Nidderdale that he meant to turn over an entirely
+new leaf. 'I shall just make Squercum allow me so much a month, and I
+shall have all the bills and that kind of thing sent to him, and he
+will do everything, and pull me up if I'm getting wrong. I like
+Squercum.'
+
+'Won't he rob you, old fellow?' suggested Nidderdale,
+
+'Of course he will;--but be won't let any one else do it. One has to
+be plucked, but it's everything to have it done on a system. If he'll
+only let me have ten shillings out of every sovereign I think I can
+get along.' Let us hope that Mr Squercum was merciful, and that Dolly
+was enabled to live in accordance with his virtuous resolutions,
+
+But these things did not arrange themselves till late in the winter,--
+long after Mr Fisker's departure for California. That, however, was
+protracted till a day much later than he anticipated before he had
+become intimate with Madame Melmotte and Marie. Madame Melmotte's
+affairs occupied him for a while almost exclusively. The furniture and
+plate were of course sold for the creditors, but Madame Melmotte was
+allowed to take whatever she declared to be specially her own
+property;--and, though much was said about the jewels, no attempt was
+made to recover them. Marie advised Madame Melmotte to give them up,
+assuring the old woman that she should have whatever she wanted for
+her maintenance. But it was not likely that Melmotte's widow would
+willingly abandon any property, and she did not abandon her jewels. It
+was agreed between her and Fisker that they were to be taken to New
+York. 'You'll get as much there as in London, if you like to part with
+them; and nobody'll say anything about it there. You couldn't sell a
+locket or chain here without all the world talking about it.'
+
+In all these things Madame Melmotte put herself into Fisker's hands
+with the most absolute confidence,--and, indeed, with a confidence that
+was justified by its results. It was not by robbing an old woman that
+Fisker intended to make himself great. To Madame Melmotte's thinking,
+Fisker was the finest gentleman she had ever met,--so infinitely
+pleasanter in his manner than Lord Alfred even when Lord Alfred had
+been most gracious, with so much more to say for himself than Miles
+Grendall, understanding her so much better than any man had ever
+done,--especially when he supplied her with those small warm beakers of
+sweet brandy-and-water. 'I shall do whatever he tells me,' she said to
+Marie. 'I'm sure I've nothing to keep me here in this country.'
+
+'I'm willing to go,' said Marie. 'I don't want to stay in London.'
+
+'I suppose you'll take him if he asks you?'
+
+'I don't know anything about that,' said Marie. 'A man may be very
+well without one's wanting to marry him. I don't think I'll marry
+anybody. What's the use? It's only money. Nobody cares for anything
+else. Fisker's all very well; but he only wants the money. Do you
+think Fisker'd ask me to marry him if I hadn't got anything? Not he!
+He ain't slow enough for that.'
+
+'I think he's a very nice young man,' said Madame Melmotte.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCIII - A TRUE LOVER
+
+
+Hetta Carbury, out of the fullness of her heart, having made up her
+mind that she had been unjust to her lover, wrote to him a letter full
+of penitence, full of love, telling him at great length all the
+details of her meeting with Mrs Hurtle, and bidding him come back to
+her, and bring the brooch with him. But this letter she had
+unfortunately addressed to the Beargarden, as he had written to her
+from that club; and partly through his own fault, and partly through
+the demoralization of that once perfect establishment, the letter
+never reached his hands. When, therefore, he returned to London he was
+justified in supposing that she had refused even to notice his appeal.
+He was, however, determined that he would still make further
+struggles. He had, he felt, to contend with many difficulties. Mrs
+Hurtle, Roger Carbury, and Hetta's mother were, he thought, all
+inimical to him. Mrs Hurtle, though she had declared that she would
+not rage as a lioness, could hardly be his friend in the matter. Roger
+had repeatedly declared his determination to regard him as a traitor.
+And Lady Carbury, as he well knew, had always been and always would be
+opposed to the match. But Hetta had owned that she loved him, had
+submitted to his caresses, and had been proud of his admiration. And
+Paul, though he did not probably analyse very carefully the character
+of his beloved, still felt instinctively that, having so far prevailed
+with such a girl, his prospects could not be altogether hopeless. And
+yet how should he continue the struggle? With what weapons should he
+carry on the fight? The writing of letters is but a one-sided,
+troublesome proceeding, when the person to whom they are written will
+not answer them; and the calling at a door at which the servant has
+been instructed to refuse a visitor admission, becomes disagreeable,--
+if not degrading,--after a time.
+
+But Hetta had written a second epistle,--not to her lover, but to one
+who received his letters with more regularity. When she rashly and
+with precipitate wrath quarrelled with Paul Montague, she at once
+communicated the fact to her mother, and through her mother to her
+cousin Roger. Though she would not recognize Roger as a lover, she did
+acknowledge him to be the head of her family, and her own special
+friend, and entitled in some special way to know all that she herself
+did, and all that was done in regard to her. She therefore wrote to
+her cousin, telling him that she had made a mistake about Paul, that
+she was convinced that Paul had always behaved to her with absolute
+sincerity, and, in short, that Paul was the best, and dearest, and
+most ill-used of human beings. In her enthusiasm she went on to
+declare that there could be no other chance of happiness for her in
+this world than that of becoming Paul's wife, and to beseech her
+dearest friend and cousin Roger not to turn against her, but to lend
+her an aiding hand. There are those whom strong words in letters never
+affect at all,--who, perhaps, hardly read them, and take what they do
+read as meaning no more than half what is said. But Roger Carbury was
+certainly not one of these. As he sat on the garden wall at Carbury,
+with his cousin's letter in his hand, her words had their full weight
+with him. He did not try to convince himself that all this was the
+verbiage of an enthusiastic girl, who might soon be turned and trained
+to another mode of thinking by fitting admonitions. To him now, as
+he read and re-read Hetta's letter sitting on the wall, there was not
+at any rate further hope for himself. Though he was altogether
+unchanged himself, though he was altogether incapable of change,--
+though he could not rally himself sufficiently to look forward to even
+a passive enjoyment of life without the girl whom he had loved,--yet
+he told himself what he believed to be the truth. At last he owned
+directly and plainly that, whether happy or unhappy, he must do
+without her. He had let time slip by with him too fast and too far
+before he had ventured to love. He must now stomach his
+disappointment, and make the best he could of such a broken,
+ill-conditioned life as was left to him. But, if he acknowledged
+this,--and he did acknowledge it,--in what fashion should he in future
+treat the man and woman who had reduced him so low?
+
+At this moment his mind was tuned to high thoughts. If it were
+possible he would be unselfish. He could not, indeed, bring himself to
+think with kindness of Paul Montague. He could not say to himself that
+the man had not been treacherous to him, nor could he forgive the
+man's supposed treason. But he did tell himself very plainly that in
+comparison with Hetta the man was nothing to him. It could hardly be
+worth his while to maintain a quarrel with the man if he were once
+able to assure Hetta that she, as the wife of another man, should
+still be dear to him as a friend might be dear. He was well aware that
+such assurance, such forgiveness, must contain very much. If it were
+to be so, Hetta's child must take the name of Carbury, and must be to
+him as his heir,--as near as possible his own child. In her favour he
+must throw aside that law of primogeniture which to him was so sacred
+that he had been hitherto minded to make Sir Felix his heir in spite
+of the absolute unfitness of the wretched young man. All this must be
+changed, should he be able to persuade himself to give his consent to
+the marriage. In such case Carbury must be the home of the married
+couple, as far as he could induce them to make it so. There must be
+born the future infant to whose existence he was already looking
+forward with some idea that in his old age he might there find
+comfort. In such case, though he should never again be able to love
+Paul Montague in his heart of hearts, he must live with him for her
+sake on affectionate terms. He must forgive Hetta altogether,--as
+though there had been no fault; and he must strive to forgive the
+man's fault as best he might. Struggling as he was to be generous,
+passionately fond as he was of justice, yet he did not know how to be
+just himself. He could not see that he in truth had been to no extent
+ill-used. And ever and again, as he thought of the great prayer as to
+the forgiveness of trespasses, he could not refrain from asking himself
+whether it could really be intended that he should forgive such
+trespass as that committed against him by Paul Montague! Nevertheless,
+when he rose from the wall he had resolved that Hetta should be
+pardoned entirely, and that Paul Montague should be treated as though
+he were pardoned. As for himself,--the chances of the world had been
+unkind to him, and he would submit to them!
+
+Nevertheless he wrote no answer to Hetta's letter. Perhaps he felt,
+with some undefined but still existing hope, that the writing of such
+a letter would deprive him of his last chance. Hetta's letter to
+himself hardly required an immediate answer,--did not, indeed, demand
+any answer. She had simply told him that, whereas she had for certain
+reasons quarrelled with the man she had loved, she had now come to the
+conclusion that she would quarrel with him no longer. She had asked
+for her cousin's assent to her own views, but that, as Roger felt, was
+to be given rather by the discontinuance of opposition than by any
+positive action, Roger's influence with her mother was the assistance
+which Hetta really wanted from him, and that influence could hardly be
+given by the writing of any letter. Thinking of all this, Roger
+determined that he would again go up to London. He would have the
+vacant hours of the journey in which to think of it all again, and
+tell himself whether it was possible for him to bring his heart to
+agree to the marriage;--and then he would see the people, and perhaps
+learn something further from their manner and their words, before he
+finally committed himself to the abandonment of his own hopes and the
+completion of theirs.
+
+He went up to town, and I do not know that those vacant hours served
+him much. To a man not accustomed to thinking there is nothing in the
+world so difficult as to think. After some loose fashion we turn over
+things in our mind and ultimately reach some decision, guided probably
+by our feelings at the last moment rather than by any process of
+ratiocination;--and then we think that we have thought. But to follow
+out one argument to an end, and then to found on the base so reached
+the commencement of another, is not common to us. Such a process was
+hardly within the compass of Roger's mind,--who when he was made
+wretched by the dust, and by a female who had a basket of
+objectionable provisions opposite to him, almost forswore his
+charitable resolutions of the day before; but who again, as he walked
+lonely at night round the square which was near to his hotel, looking
+up at the bright moon with a full appreciation of the beauty of the
+heavens, asked himself what was he that he should wish to interfere
+with the happiness of two human beings much younger than himself and
+much fitter to enjoy the world. But he had had a bath, and had got rid
+of the dust, and had eaten his dinner.
+
+The next morning he was in Welbeck Street at an early hour. When he
+knocked he had not made up his mind whether he would ask for Lady
+Carbury or her daughter, and did at last inquire whether 'the ladies'
+were at home. The ladies were reported as being at home, and he was at
+once shown into the drawing-room, where Hetta was sitting. She hurried
+up to him, and he at once took her in his arms and kissed her. He had
+never done such a thing before. He had never even kissed her hand.
+Though they were cousins and dear friends, he had never treated her
+after that fashion. Her instinct told her immediately that such a
+greeting from him was a sign of affectionate compliance with her
+wishes. That this man should kiss her as her best and dearest
+relation, as her most trusted friend, as almost her brother, was
+certainly to her no offence. She could cling to him in fondest love,--
+if he would only consent not to be her lover. 'Oh, Roger, I am so glad
+to see you,' she said, escaping gently from his arms.
+
+'I could not write an answer, and so I came.'
+
+'You always do the kindest thing that can be done.'
+
+'I don't know. I don't know that I can do anything now,--kind or
+unkind. It is all done without any aid from me. Hetta, you have been
+all the world to me.'
+
+'Do not reproach me,' she said.
+
+'No;--no. Why should I reproach you? You have committed no fault. I
+should not have come had I intended to reproach any one.'
+
+'I love you so much for saying that.'
+
+'Let it be as you wish it,--if it must. I have made up my mind to bear
+it, and there shall be an end of it.' As he said this he took her by
+the hand, and she put her head upon his shoulder and began to weep.
+'And still you will be all the world to me,' he continued, with his
+arm round her waist. 'As you will not be my wife, you shall be my
+daughter.'
+
+'I will be your sister, Roger.'
+
+'My daughter rather. You shall be all that I have in the world. I will
+hurry to grow old that I may feel for you as the old feel for the
+young. And if you have a child, Hetta, he must be my child.' As he
+thus spoke her tears were renewed. 'I have planned it all out in my
+mind, dear. There! If there be anything that I can do to add to your
+happiness, I will do it. You must believe this of me,--that to make
+you happy shall be the only enjoyment of my life.'
+
+It had been hardly possible for her to tell him as yet that the man to
+whom he was thus consenting to surrender her had not even condescended
+to answer the letter in which she had told him to come back to her.
+And now, sobbing as she was, overcome by the tenderness of her
+cousin's affection, anxious to express her intense gratitude, she did
+not know how first to mention the name of Paul Montague. 'Have you
+seen him?' she said in a whisper.
+
+'Seen whom?'
+
+'Mr Montague.'
+
+'No;--why should I have seen him? It is not for his sake that I am
+here.'
+
+'But you will be his friend?'
+
+'Your husband shall certainly be my friend;--or, if not, the fault
+shall not be mine. It shall all be forgotten, Hetta,--as nearly as such
+things may be forgotten. But I had nothing to say to him till I had
+seen you.' At that moment the door was opened and Lady Carbury entered
+the room, and, after her greeting with her cousin, looked first at her
+daughter and then at Roger. 'I have come up,' said he, 'to signify my
+adhesion to this marriage.' Lady Carbury's face fell very low. 'I need
+not speak again of what were my own wishes. I have learned at last
+that it could not have been so.'
+
+'Why should you say so?' exclaimed Lady Carbury.
+
+'Pray, pray, mamma--,' Hetta began, but was unable to find words with
+which to go on with her prayer.
+
+'I do not know that it need be so at all,' continued Lady Carbury. 'I
+think it is very much in your own hands. Of course it is not for me to
+press such an arrangement, if it be not in accord with your own
+wishes.'
+
+'I look upon her as engaged to marry Paul Montague,' said Roger.
+
+'Not at all,' said Lady Carbury.
+
+'Yes; mamma,--yes,' cried Hetta boldly. 'It is so. I am engaged to
+him.'
+
+'I beg to let your cousin know that it is not so with my consent,--nor,
+as far as I can understand at present, with the consent of Mr Montague
+himself.'
+
+'Mamma!'
+
+'Paul Montague!' ejaculated Roger Carbury. 'The consent of Paul
+Montague! I think I may take upon myself to say that there can be no
+doubt as to that.'
+
+'There has been a quarrel,' said Lady Carbury.
+
+'Surely he has not quarrelled with you, Hetta?'
+
+'I wrote to him,--and he has not answered me,' said Hetta piteously.
+
+Then Lady Carbury gave a full and somewhat coloured account of what
+had taken place, while Roger listened with admirable patience. 'The
+marriage is on every account objectionable,' she said at last, 'His
+means are precarious. His conduct with regard to that woman has been
+very bad. He has been sadly mixed up with that wretched man who
+destroyed himself. And now, when Henrietta has written to him without
+my sanction,--in opposition to my express commands,--he takes no notice
+of her. She, very properly, sent him back a present that he made her,
+and no doubt he has resented her doing so. I trust that his resentment
+may be continued.'
+
+Hetta was now seated on a sofa hiding her face and weeping. Roger
+stood perfectly still, listening with respectful silence till Lady
+Carbury had spoken her last word. And even then he was slow to answer,
+considering what he might best say. 'I think I had better see him,' he
+replied. 'If, as I imagine, he has not received my cousin's letter,
+that matter will be set at rest. We must not take advantage of such an
+accident as that. As to his income,--that I think may be managed. His
+connection with Mr Melmotte was unfortunate, but was due to no fault
+of his.' At this moment he could not but remember Lady Carbury's great
+anxiety to be closely connected with Melmotte, but he was too generous
+to say a word on that head. 'I will see him, Lady Carbury, and then I
+will come to you again.'
+
+Lady Carbury did not dare to tell him that she did not wish him to see
+Paul Montague. She knew that if he really threw himself into the scale
+against her, her opposition would weigh nothing. He was too powerful
+in his honesty and greatness of character,--and had been too often
+admitted by herself to be the guardian angel of the family,--for her to
+stand against him. But she still thought that had he persevered, Hetta
+would have become his wife.
+
+It was late that evening before Roger found Paul Montague, who had
+only then returned from Liverpool with Fisker,--whose subsequent doings
+have been recorded somewhat out of their turn.
+
+'I don't know what letter you mean,' said Paul.
+
+'You wrote to her?'
+
+'Certainly I wrote to her. I wrote to her twice. My last letter was
+one which I think she ought to have answered. She had accepted me, and
+had given me a right to tell my own story when she unfortunately heard
+from other sources the story of my journey to Lowestoft with Mrs
+Hurtle.' Paul pleaded his own case with indignant heat, not
+understanding at first that Roger had come to him on a friendly
+mission.
+
+'She did answer your letter.'
+
+'I have not had a line from her;--not a word!'
+
+'She did answer your letter.'
+
+'What did she say to me?'
+
+'Nay,--you must ask her that.'
+
+'But if she will not see me?'
+
+'She will see you. I can tell you that. And I will tell you this
+also;--that she wrote to you as a girl writes to the lover whom she
+does wish to see.'
+
+'Is that true?' exclaimed Paul, jumping up.
+
+'I am here especially to tell you that it is true. I should hardly
+come on such a message if there were a doubt. You may go to her, and
+need have nothing to fear,--unless, indeed, it be the opposition of
+her mother.'
+
+'She is stronger than her mother,' said Paul.
+
+'I think she is. And now I wish you to hear what I have to say.'
+
+'Of course,' said Paul, sitting down suddenly. Up to this moment Roger
+Carbury, though he had certainly brought glad tidings, had not
+communicated them as a joyous, sympathetic messenger. His face had
+been severe, and the tone of his voice almost harsh; and Paul,
+remembering well the words of the last letter which his old friend had
+written him, did not expect personal kindness. Roger would probably
+say very disagreeable things to him, which he must bear with all the
+patience which he could summon to his assistance.
+
+'You know my what feelings have been,' Roger began, 'and how deeply I
+have resented what I thought to be an interference with my affections.
+But no quarrel between you and me, whatever the rights of it may be--'
+
+'I have never quarrelled with you,' Paul began.
+
+'If you will listen to me for a moment it will be better. No anger
+between you and me, let it arise as it might, should be allowed to
+interfere with the happiness of her whom I suppose we both love better
+than all the rest of the world put together.'
+
+'I do,' said Paul.
+
+'And so do I;--and so I always shall. But she is to be your wife. She
+shall be my daughter. She shall have my property,--or her child shall
+be my heir. My house shall be her house,--if you and she will consent
+to make it so. You will not be afraid of me. You know me, I think, too
+well for that. You may now count on any assistance you could have from
+me were I a father giving you a daughter in marriage. I do this
+because I will make the happiness of her life the chief object of
+mine. Now good night. Don't say anything about it at present.
+By-and-by we shall be able to talk about these things with more
+equable temper.' Having so spoken he hurried out of the room, leaving
+Paul Montague bewildered by the tidings which had been announced to
+him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCIV - JOHN CRUMB'S VICTORY
+
+
+In the meantime great preparations were going on down in Suffolk for
+the marriage of that happiest of lovers, John Crumb. John Crumb had
+been up to London, had been formally reconciled to Ruby,--who had
+submitted to his floury embraces, not with the best grace in the
+world, but still with a submission that had satisfied her future
+husband,--had been intensely grateful to Mrs Hurtle, and almost
+munificent in liberality to Mrs Pipkin, to whom he presented a purple
+silk dress, in addition to the cloak which he had given on a former
+occasion. During this visit he had expressed no anger against Ruby,
+and no indignation in reference to the baronite. When informed by Mrs
+Pipkin, who hoped thereby to please him, that Sir Felix was supposed
+to be still 'all one mash of gore,' he blandly smiled, remarking that
+no man could be much worse for a 'few sich taps as them.' He only
+stayed a few hours in London, but during these few hours he settled
+everything. When Mrs Pipkin suggested that Ruby should be married from
+her house, he winked his eye as he declined the suggestion with
+thanks. Daniel Ruggles was old, and, under the influence of continued
+gin and water, was becoming feeble. John Crumb was of opinion that the
+old man should not be neglected, and hinted that with a little care
+the five hundred pounds which had originally been promised as Ruby's
+fortune, might at any rate be secured. He was of opinion that the
+marriage should be celebrated in Suffolk,--the feast being spread at
+Sheep's Acre farm, if Dan Ruggles could be talked into giving it,--and
+if not, at his own house. When both the ladies explained to him that
+this last proposition was not in strict accordance with the habits of
+the fashionable world, John expressed an opinion that, under the
+peculiar circumstances of his marriage, the ordinary laws of the world
+might be suspended. 'It ain't jist like other folks, after all as
+we've been through,' said,--he meaning probably to imply that having
+had to fight for his wife, he was entitled to give a breakfast on the
+occasion if he pleased. But whether the banquet was to be given by the
+bride's grandfather or by himself he was determined that there should
+be a banquet, and that he would bid the guests. He invited both Mrs
+Pipkin and Mrs Hurtle, and at last succeeded in inducing Mrs Hurtle to
+promise that she would bring Mrs Pipkin down to Bungay, for the
+occasion.
+
+Then it was necessary to fix the day, and for this purpose it was of
+course essential that Ruby should be consulted. During the discussion
+as to the feast and the bridegroom's entreaties that the two ladies
+would be present, she had taken no part in the matter in hand. She
+was brought up to be kissed, and having been duly kissed she retired
+again among the children, having only expressed one wish of her own,--
+namely, that Joe Mixet might not have anything to do with the affair.
+But the day could not be fixed without her, and she was summoned.
+Crumb had been absurdly impatient, proposing next Tuesday,--making his
+proposition on a Friday. They could cook enough meat for all Bungay to
+eat by Tuesday, and he was aware of no other cause for delay. 'That's
+out of the question,' Ruby had said decisively, and as the two elder
+ladies had supported her Mr Crumb yielded with a good grace. He did
+not himself appreciate the reasons given because, as he remarked,
+gowns can be bought ready made at any shop. But Mrs Pipkin told him
+with a laugh that he didn't know anything about it, and when the 14th
+of August was named he only scratched his head and, muttering
+something about Thetford fair, agreed that he would, yet once again,
+allow love to take precedence of business. If Tuesday would have
+suited the ladies as well he thought that he might have managed to
+combine the marriage and the fair, but when Mrs Pipkin told him that
+he must not interfere any further, he yielded with a good grace. He
+merely remained in London long enough to pay a friendly visit to the
+policeman who had locked him up, and then returned to Suffolk,
+revolving in his mind how glorious should be the matrimonial triumph
+which he had at last achieved.
+
+Before the day arrived, old Ruggles had been constrained to forgive
+his granddaughter, and to give a general assent to the marriage. When
+John Crumb, with a sound of many trumpets, informed all Bungay that he
+had returned victorious from London, and that after all the ups and
+downs of his courtship Ruby was to become his wife on a fixed day, all
+Bungay took his part, and joined in a general attack upon Mr Daniel
+Ruggles. The cross-grained old man held out for a long time, alleging
+that the girl was no better than she should be, and that she had run
+away with the baronite. But this assertion was met by so strong a
+torrent of contradiction, that the farmer was absolutely driven out of
+his own convictions. It is to be feared that many lies were told on
+Ruby's behalf by lips which had been quite ready a fortnight since to
+take away her character. But it had become an acknowledged fact in
+Bungay that John Crumb was ready at any hour to punch the head of any
+man who should hint that Ruby Ruggles had, at any period of her life,
+done any act or spoken any word unbecoming a young lady; and so strong
+was the general belief in John Crumb, that Ruby became the subject of
+general eulogy from all male lips in the town. And though perhaps some
+slight suspicion of irregular behaviour up in London might be
+whispered by the Bungay ladies among themselves, still the feeling in
+favour of Mr Crumb was so general, and his constancy was so popular,
+that the grandfather could not stand against it. 'I don't see why I
+ain't to do as I likes with my own,' he said to Joe Mixet, the baker,
+who went out to Sheep's Acre Farm as one of many deputations sent by
+the municipality of Bungay.
+
+'She's your own flesh and blood, Mr Ruggles,' said the baker.
+
+'No; she ain't;--no more than she's a Pipkin. She's taken up with Mrs
+Pipkin jist because I hate the Pipkinses. Let Mrs Pipkin give 'em a
+breakfast.'
+
+'She is your own flesh and blood,--and your name, too, Mr Ruggles.
+And she's going to be the respectable wife of a respectable man, Mr
+Ruggles.'
+
+'I won't give 'em no breakfast;--that's flat,' said the farmer.
+
+But he had yielded in the main when he allowed himself to base his
+opposition on one immaterial detail. The breakfast was to be given at
+the King's Head, and, though it was acknowledged on all sides that no
+authority could be found for such a practice, it was known that the
+bill was to be paid by the bridegroom. Nor would Mr Ruggles pay the
+five hundred pounds down as in early days he had promised to do. He
+was very clear in his mind that his undertaking on that head was
+altogether cancelled by Ruby's departure from Sheep's Acre. When he
+was reminded that he had nearly pulled his granddaughter's hair out of
+her head, and had thus justified her act of rebellion, he did not
+contradict the assertion, but implied that if Ruby did not choose to
+earn her fortune on such terms as those, that was her fault. It was
+not to be supposed that he was to give a girl, who was after all as
+much a Pipkin as a Ruggles, five hundred pounds for nothing. But, in
+return for that night's somewhat harsh treatment of Ruby, he did at
+last consent to have the money settled upon John Crumb at his death,--
+an arrangement which both the lawyer and Joe Mixet thought to be almost
+as good as a free gift, being both of them aware that the consumption
+of gin and water was on the increase. And he, moreover, was persuaded
+to receive Mrs Pipkin and Ruby at the farm for the night previous to
+the marriage. This very necessary arrangement was made by Mr Mixet's
+mother, a most respectable old lady, who went out in a fly from the
+inn attired in her best black silk gown and an overpowering bonnet, an
+old lady from whom her son had inherited his eloquence, who absolutely
+shamed the old man into compliance,--not, however, till she had
+promised to send out the tea and white sugar and box of biscuits which
+were thought to be necessary for Mrs Pipkin on the evening preceding
+the marriage. A private sitting-room at the inn was secured for the
+special accommodation of Mrs Hurtle,--who was supposed to be a lady
+of too high standing to be properly entertained at Sheep's Acre Farm.
+
+On the day preceding the wedding one trouble for a moment clouded the
+bridegroom's brow. Ruby had demanded that Joe Mixet should not be
+among the performers, and John Crumb, with the urbanity of a lover,
+had assented to her demand,--as far, at least, as silence can give
+consent. And yet he felt himself unable to answer such interrogatories
+as the parson might put to him without the assistance of his friend,
+although he devoted much study to the matter. 'You could come in
+behind like, Joe, just as if I knew nothin' about it,' suggested
+Crumb.
+
+'Don't you say a word of me, and she won't say nothing, you may be
+sure. You ain't going to give in to all her cantraps that way, John?'
+John shook his head and rubbed the meal about on his forehead. 'It was
+only just something for her to say. What have I done that she should
+object to me?'
+
+'You didn't ever go for to--kiss her,--did you, Joe?'
+
+'What a one'er you are! That wouldn't 'a set her again me. It is just
+because I stood up and spoke for you like a man that night at Sheep's
+Acre, when her mind was turned the other way. Don't you notice nothing
+about it. When we're all in the church she won't go back because Joe
+Mixet's there. I'll bet you a gallon, old fellow, she and I are the
+best friends in Bungay before six months are gone.'
+
+'Nay, nay; she must have a better friend than thee, Joe, or I must
+know the reason why.' But John Crumb's heart was too big for jealousy,
+and he agreed at last that Joe Mixet should be his best man,
+undertaking to 'square it all' with Ruby, after the ceremony.
+
+He met the ladies at the station and,--for him,--was quite eloquent in
+his welcome to Mrs Hurtle and Mrs Pipkin. To Ruby he said but little.
+But he looked at her in her new hat, and generally bright in subsidiary
+wedding garments, with great delight. 'Ain't she bootiful now?' he
+said aloud to Mrs Hurtle on the platform, to the great delight of half
+Bungay, who had accompanied him on the occasion. Ruby, hearing her
+praises thus sung, made a fearful grimace as she turned round to Mrs
+Pipkin, and whispered to her aunt, so that those only who were within
+a yard or two could hear her: 'He is such a fool!' Then he conducted
+Mrs Hurtle in an omnibus up to the Inn, and afterwards himself drove
+Mrs Pipkin and Ruby out to Sheep's Acre; in the performance of all
+which duties he was dressed in the green cutaway coat with brass
+buttons which had been expressly made for his marriage. 'Thou'rt come
+back then, Ruby,' said the old man.
+
+'I ain't going to trouble you long, grandfather,' said the girl.
+
+'So best;--so best. And this is Mrs Pipkin?'
+
+'Yes, Mr Ruggles; that's my name.'
+
+'I've heard your name. I've heard your name, and I don't know as I
+ever want to hear it again. But they say as you've been kind to that
+girl as 'd 'a been on the town only for that.'
+
+'Grandfather, that ain't true,' said Ruby with energy. The old man
+made no rejoinder, and Ruby was allowed to take her aunt up into the
+bedroom which they were both to occupy. 'Now, Mrs Pipkin, just you
+say,' pleaded Ruby, 'how was it possible for any girl to live with an
+old man like that?'
+
+'But, Ruby, you might always have gone to live with the young man
+instead when you pleased.'
+
+'You mean John Crumb.'
+
+'Of course I mean John Crumb, Ruby.'
+
+'There ain't much to choose between 'em. What one says is all spite;
+and the other man says nothing at all.'
+
+'Oh Ruby, Ruby,' said Mrs Pipkin, with solemnly persuasive voice, 'I
+hope you'll come to learn some day, that a loving heart is better nor
+a fickle tongue,--specially with vittels certain.'
+
+On the following morning the Bungay church bells rang merrily, and
+half its population was present to see John Crumb made a happy man. He
+himself went out to the farm and drove the bride and Mrs Pipkin into
+the town, expressing an opinion that no hired charioteer would bring
+them so safely as he would do himself; nor did he think it any
+disgrace to be seen performing this task before his marriage. He
+smiled and nodded at every one, now and then pointing back with his
+whip to Ruby when he met any of his specially intimate friends, as
+though he would have said, 'see, I've got her at last in spite of all
+difficulties.' Poor Ruby, in her misery under this treatment, would
+have escaped out of the cart had it been possible. But now she was
+altogether in the man's hands and no escape was within her reach.
+'What's the odds?' said Mrs Pipkin as they settled their bonnets in a
+room at the Inn just before they entered the church. 'Drat it,--you
+make me that angry I'm half minded to cuff you. Ain't he fond o' you?
+Ain't he got a house of his own? Ain't he well to do all round?
+Manners! What's manners? I don't see nothing amiss in his manners. He
+means what he says, and I call that the best of good manners.'
+
+Ruby, when she reached the church, had been too completely quelled by
+outward circumstances to take any notice of Joe Mixet, who was
+standing there, quite unabashed, with a splendid nosegay in his
+button-hole. She certainly had no right on this occasion to complain
+of her husband's silence. Whereas she could hardly bring herself to
+utter the responses in a voice loud enough for the clergyman to catch
+the familiar words, he made his assertions so vehemently that they
+were heard throughout the whole building. 'I, John,--take thee Ruby,--
+to my wedded wife,--to 'ave and to 'old,--from this day forrard,--for
+better nor worser,--for richer nor poorer'; and so on to the end. And
+when he came to the 'worldly goods' with which he endowed his Ruby, he
+was very emphatic indeed. Since the day had been fixed he had employed
+all his leisure-hours in learning the words by heart, and would now
+hardly allow the clergyman to say them before him. He thoroughly
+enjoyed the ceremony, and would have liked to be married over and over
+again, every day for a week, had it been possible.
+
+And then there came the breakfast, to which he marshalled the way up
+the broad stairs of the inn at Bungay, with Mrs Hurtle on one arm and
+Mrs Pipkin on the other. He had been told that he ought to take his
+wife's arm on this occasion, but he remarked that he meant to see a
+good deal of her in future, and that his opportunities of being civil
+to Mrs Hurtle and Mrs Pipkin would be rare. Thus it came to pass that,
+in spite of all that poor Ruby had said, she was conducted to the
+marriage-feast by Joe Mixet himself. Ruby, I think, had forgotten the
+order which she had given in reference to the baker. When desiring
+that she might see nothing more of Joe Mixet, she had been in her
+pride;--but now she was so tamed and quelled by the outward
+circumstances of her position, that she was glad to have some one near
+her who knew how to behave himself. 'Mrs Crumb, you have my best
+wishes for your continued 'ealth and 'appiness,' said Joe Mixet in a
+whisper.
+
+'It's very good of you to say so, Mr Mixet.'
+
+'He's a good 'un; is he.'
+
+'Oh, I dare say.'
+
+'You just be fond of him and stroke him down, and make much of him,
+and I'm blessed if you mayn't do a'most anything with him,--all's one
+as a babby.'
+
+'A man shouldn't be all's one as a babby, Mr Mixet.'
+
+'And he don't drink hard, but he works hard, and go where he will he
+can hold his own.' Ruby said no more, and soon found herself seated by
+her husband's side. It certainly was wonderful to her that so many
+people should pay John Crumb so much respect, and should seem to think
+so little of the meal and flour which pervaded his countenance.
+
+After the breakfast, or 'bit of dinner,' as John Crumb would call it,
+Mr Mixet of course made a speech. 'He had had the pleasure of knowing
+John Crumb for a great many years, and the honour of being acquainted
+with Miss Ruby Ruggles,--he begged all their pardons, and should have
+said Mrs John Crumb,--ever since she was a child.' 'That's a downright
+story,' said Ruby in a whisper to Mrs Hurtle. 'And he'd never known
+two young people more fitted by the gifts of nature to contribute to
+one another's 'appinesses. He had understood that Mars and Wenus
+always lived on the best of terms, and perhaps the present company
+would excuse him if he likened this 'appy young couple to them two
+'eathen gods and goddesses. For Miss Ruby,--Mrs Crumb he should say,--
+was certainly lovely as ere a Wenus as ever was; and as for John Crumb,
+he didn't believe that ever a Mars among 'em could stand again him. He
+didn't remember just at present whether Mars and Wenus had any young
+family, but he hoped that before long there would be any number of
+young Crumbs for the Bungay birds to pick up. 'Appy is the man as 'as
+his quiver full of 'em,--and the woman too, if you'll allow me to say
+so, Mrs Crumb.' The speech, of which only a small sample can be given
+here, was very much admired by the ladies and gentlemen present,--with
+the single exception of poor Ruby, who would have run away and locked
+herself in an inner chamber had she not been certain that she would be
+brought back again.
+
+In the afternoon John took his bride to Lowestoft, and brought her
+back to all the glories of his own house on the following day. His
+honeymoon was short, but its influence on Ruby was beneficent. When
+she was alone with the man, knowing that he was her husband, and
+thinking something of all that he had done to win her to be his wife,
+she did learn to respect him. 'Now, Ruby, give a fellow a buss,--as
+though you meant it,' he said, when the first fitting occasion
+presented itself.
+
+'Oh, John,--what nonsense!'
+
+'It ain't nonsense to me, I can tell you. I'd sooner have a kiss from
+you than all the wine as ever was swallowed.' Then she did kiss him,
+'as though she meant it;' and when she returned with him to Bungay the
+next day, she had made up her mind that she would endeavour to do her
+duty by him as his wife.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCV - THE LONGESTAFFE MARRIAGES
+
+
+In another part of Suffolk, not very far from Bungay, there was a lady
+whose friends had not managed her affairs as well as Ruby's friends
+had done for Ruby. Miss Georgiana Longestaffe in the early days of
+August was in a very miserable plight. Her sister's marriage with Mr
+George Whitstable was fixed for the first of September, a day which in
+Suffolk is of all days the most sacred; and the combined energies of
+the houses of Caversham and Toodlam were being devoted to that happy
+event. Poor Georgey's position was in every respect wretched, but its
+misery was infinitely increased by the triumph of those hymeneals. It
+was but the other day that she had looked down from a very great
+height on her elder sister, and had utterly despised the squire of
+Toodlam. And at that time, still so recent, this contempt from her had
+been accepted as being almost reasonable. Sophia had hardly ventured
+to rebel against it, and Mr Whitstable himself had been always afraid
+to encounter the shafts of irony with which his fashionable future
+sister-in-law attacked him. But all that was now changed. Sophia in
+her pride of place had become a tyrant, and George Whitstable, petted
+in the house with those sweetmeats which are always showered on embryo
+bridegrooms, absolutely gave himself airs. At this time Mr Longestaffe
+was never at home. Having assured himself that there was no longer any
+danger of the Brehgert alliance he had remained in London, thinking
+his presence to be necessary for the winding up of Melmotte's affairs,
+and leaving poor Lady Pomona to bear her daughter's ill humour. The
+family at Caversham consisted therefore of the three ladies, and was
+enlivened by daily visits from Toodlam. It will be owned that in this
+state of things there was very little consolation for Georgiana.
+
+It was not long before she quarrelled altogether with her sister,--to
+the point of absolutely refusing to act as bridesmaid. The reader may
+remember that there had been a watch and chain, and that two of the
+ladies of the family had expressed an opinion that these trinkets
+should be returned to Mr Brehgert who had bestowed them. But Georgiana
+had not sent them back when a week had elapsed since the receipt of Mr
+Brehgert's last letter. The matter had perhaps escaped Lady Pomona's
+memory, but Sophia was happily alive to the honour of her family.
+'Georgey,' she said one morning in their mother's presence, 'don't you
+think Mr Brehgert's watch ought to go back to him without any more
+delay?'
+
+'What have you got to do with anybody's watch? The watch wasn't given
+to you.'
+
+'I think it ought to go back. When papa finds that it has been kept
+I'm sure he'll be very angry.'
+
+'It's no business of yours whether he's angry or not.'
+
+'If it isn't sent, George will tell Dolly. You know what would happen
+then.'
+
+This was unbearable! That George Whitstable should interfere in her
+affairs,--that he should talk about her watch and chain. 'I never will
+speak to George Whitstable again the longest day that ever I live,'
+she said, getting up from her chair.
+
+'My dear, don't say anything so horrible as that,' exclaimed the
+unhappy mother.
+
+'I do say it. What has George Whitstable to do with me? A miserably
+stupid fellow! Because you've landed him, you think he's to ride over
+the whole family.'
+
+'I think Mr Brehgert ought to have his watch and chain back,' said
+Sophia.
+
+'Certainly he ought,' said Lady Pomona. 'Georgiana, it must be sent
+back. It really must,--or I shall tell your papa.'
+
+Subsequently, on the same day, Georgiana brought the watch and chain
+to her mother, protesting that she had never thought of keeping them,
+and explaining that she had intended to hand them over to her papa as
+soon as he should have returned to Caversham. Lady Pomona was now
+empowered to return them, and they were absolutely confided to the
+hands of the odious George Whitstable, who about this time made a
+journey to London in reference to certain garments which he required.
+But Georgiana, though she was so far beaten, kept up her quarrel with
+her sister. She would not be bridesmaid. She would never speak to
+George Whitstable. And she would shut herself up on the day of the
+marriage.
+
+She did think herself to be very hardly used. What was there left in
+the world that she could do in furtherance of her future cause? And
+what did her father and mother expect would become of her? Marriage
+had ever been so clearly placed before her eyes as a condition of
+things to be achieved by her own efforts, that she could not endure
+the idea of remaining tranquil in her father's house and waiting till
+some fitting suitor might find her out. She had struggled and
+struggled, struggling still in vain,--till every effort of her mind,
+every thought of her daily life, was pervaded by a conviction that as
+she grew older from year to year, the struggle should be more intense.
+The swimmer when first he finds himself in the water, conscious of his
+skill and confident in his strength, can make his way through the
+water with the full command of all his powers. But when he begins to
+feel that the shore is receding from him, that his strength is going,
+that the footing for which he pants is still far beneath his feet,--
+that there is peril where before he had contemplated no danger,--then
+he begins to beat the water with strokes rapid but impotent, and to
+waste in anxious gaspings the breath on which his very life must
+depend. So it was with poor Georgey Longestaffe. Something must be done
+at once, or it would be of no avail. Twelve years had been passed by
+her since first she plunged into the stream,--the twelve years of her
+youth,--and she was as far as ever from the bank; nay, farther, if she
+believed her eyes. She too must strike out with rapid efforts, unless,
+indeed, she would abandon herself and let the waters close over her
+head. But immersed as she was here at Caversham, how could she strike
+at all? Even now the waters were closing upon her. The sound of them
+was in her ears. The ripple of the wave was already round her lips;
+robbing her of breath. Ah!--might not there be some last great
+convulsive effort which might dash her on shore, even if it were upon
+a rock!
+
+That ultimate failure in her matrimonial projects would be the same as
+drowning she never for a moment doubted. It had never occurred to her
+to consider with equanimity the prospect of living as an old maid. It
+was beyond the scope of her mind to contemplate the chances of a life
+in which marriage might be well if it came, but in which unmarried
+tranquillity might also be well should that be her lot. Nor could she
+understand that others should contemplate it for her. No doubt the
+battle had been carried on for many years so much under the auspices
+of her father and mother as to justify her in thinking that their
+theory of life was the same as her own. Lady Pomona had been very open
+in her teaching, and Mr Longestaffe had always given a silent
+adherence to the idea that the house in London was to be kept open in
+order that husbands might be caught. And now when they deserted her in
+her real difficulty,--when they first told her to live at Caversham
+all the summer, and then sent her up to the Melmottes, and after that
+forbade her marriage with Mr Brehgert,--it seemed to her that they
+were unnatural parents who gave her a stone when she wanted bread, a
+serpent when she asked for a fish. She had no friend left. There was
+no one living who seemed to care whether she had a husband or not. She
+took to walking in solitude about the park, and thought of many things
+with a grim earnestness which had not hitherto belonged to her
+character.
+
+'Mamma,' she said one morning when all the care of the household was
+being devoted to the future comforts,--chiefly in regard to linen,--of
+Mrs George Whitstable, 'I wonder whether papa has any intention at all
+about me.'
+
+'In what sort of way, my dear?'
+
+'In any way. Does he mean me to live here for ever and ever?'
+
+'I don't think he intends to have a house in town again.'
+
+'And what am I to do?'
+
+'I suppose we shall stay here at Caversham.'
+
+'And I'm to be buried just like a nun in a convent,--only that the nun
+does it by her own consent and I don't! Mamma, I won't stand it. I
+won't indeed.'
+
+'I think, my dear, that that is nonsense. You see company here, just
+as other people do in the country;--and as for not standing it, I don't
+know what you mean. As long as you are one of your papa's family of
+course you must live where he lives.'
+
+'Oh, mamma, to hear you talk like that!--It is horrible--horrible! As
+if you didn't know! As if you couldn't understand! Sometimes I almost
+doubt whether papa does know, and then I think that if he did he would
+not be so cruel. But you understand it all as well as I do myself.
+What is to become of me? Is it not enough to drive me mad to be going
+about here by myself, without any prospect of anything? Should you
+have liked at my age to have felt that you had no chance of having a
+house of your own to live in? Why didn't you, among you, let me marry
+Mr Breghert?' As she said this she was almost eloquent with passion.
+
+'You know, my dear,' said Lady Pomona, 'that your papa wouldn't hear
+of it.'
+
+'I know that if you would have helped me I would have done it in spite
+of papa. What right has he to domineer over me in that way? Why
+shouldn't I have married the man if I chose? I am old enough to know
+surely. You talk now of shutting up girls in convents as being a
+thing quite impossible. This is much worse. Papa won't do anything to
+help me. Why shouldn't he let me do something for myself?'
+
+'You can't regret Mr Brehgert!'
+
+'Why can't I regret him? I do regret him. I'd have him to-morrow if he
+came. Bad as it might be, it couldn't be so bad as Caversham.'
+
+'You couldn't have loved him, Georgiana.'
+
+'Loved him! Who thinks about love nowadays? I don't know any one who
+loves any one else. You won't tell me that Sophy is going to marry
+that idiot because she loves him. Did Julia Triplex love that man with
+the large fortune? When you wanted Dolly to marry Marie Melmotte you
+never thought of his loving her. I had got the better of all that kind
+of thing before I was twenty.'
+
+'I think a young woman should love her husband.'
+
+'It makes me sick, mamma, to hear you talk in that way. It does
+indeed. When one has been going on for a dozen years trying to do
+something,--and I have never had any secrets from you,--then that you
+should turn round upon me and talk about love! Mamma, if you would
+help me I think I could still manage with Mr Brehgert.' Lady Pomona
+shuddered. 'You have not got to marry him.'
+
+'It is too horrid.'
+
+'Who would have to put up with it? Not you, or papa, or Dolly. I
+should have a house of my own at least, and I should know what I had
+to expect for the rest of my life. If I stay here I shall go mad or
+die.'
+
+'It is impossible.'
+
+'If you will stand to me, mamma, I am sure it may be done. I would
+write to him, and say that you would see him.'
+
+'Georgiana, I will never see him.'
+
+'Why not?'
+
+'He is a Jew!'
+
+'What abominable prejudice,--what wicked prejudice! As if you didn't
+know that all that is changed now! What possible difference can it
+make about a man's religion? Of course I know that he is vulgar, and
+old, and has a lot of children. But if I can put up with that, I don't
+think that you and papa have a right to interfere. As to his religion
+it cannot signify.'
+
+'Georgiana, you make me very unhappy. I am wretched to see you so
+discontented. If I could do anything for you, I would. But I will not
+meddle about Mr Brehgert. I shouldn't dare to do so. I don't think you
+know how angry your papa can be.'
+
+'I'm not going to let papa be a bugbear to frighten me. What can he
+do? I don't suppose he'll beat me. And I'd rather he would than shut
+me up here. As for you, mamma, I don't think you care for me a bit.
+Because Sophy is going to be married to that oaf, you are become so
+proud of her that you haven't half a thought for anybody else.'
+
+'That's very unjust, Georgiana.'
+
+'I know what's unjust,--and I know who's ill-treated. I tell you
+fairly, mamma, that I shall write to Mr Brehgert and tell him that I am
+quite ready to marry him. I don't know why he should be afraid of papa.
+I don't mean to be afraid of him any more, and you may tell him just
+what I say.'
+
+All this made Lady Pomona very miserable. She did not communicate her
+daughter's threat to Mr Longestaffe, but she did discuss it with
+Sophia. Sophia was of opinion that Georgiana did not mean it, and gave
+two or three reasons for thinking so. In the first place had she
+intended it she would have written her letter without saying a word
+about it to Lady Pomona. And she certainly would not have declared her
+purpose of writing such letter after Lady Pomona had refused her
+assistance. And moreover,--Lady Pomona had received no former hint of
+the information which was now conveyed to her,--Georgiana was in the
+habit of meeting the curate of the next parish almost every day in the
+park.
+
+'Mr Batherbolt!' exclaimed Lady Pomona.
+
+'She is walking with Mr Batherbolt almost every day.'
+
+'But he is so very strict.'
+
+'It is true, mamma.'
+
+'And he's five years younger than she! And he's got nothing but his
+curacy! And he's a celibate! I heard the bishop laughing at him
+because he called himself a celibate.'
+
+'It doesn't signify, mamma. I know she is with him constantly. Wilson
+has seen them,--and I know it. Perhaps papa could get him a living.
+Dolly has a living of his own that came to him with his property.'
+
+'Dolly would be sure to sell the presentation,' said Lady Pomona.
+
+'Perhaps the bishop would do something,' said the anxious sister,
+'when he found that the man wasn't a celibate. Anything, mamma, would
+be better than the Jew.' To this latter proposition Lady Pomona gave a
+cordial assent. 'Of course it is a come-down to marry a curate,--but a
+clergyman is always considered to be decent.'
+
+The preparations for the Whitstable marriage went on without any
+apparent attention to the intimacy which was growing up between Mr
+Batherbolt and Georgiana. There was no room to apprehend anything
+wrong on that side. Mr Batherbolt was so excellent a young man, and so
+exclusively given to religion, that, even should Sophy's suspicion be
+correct, he might be trusted to walk about the park with Georgiana.
+Should he at any time come forward and ask to be allowed to make the
+lady his wife, there would be no disgrace in the matter. He was a
+clergyman and a gentleman,--and the poverty would be Georgiana's own
+affair.
+
+Mr Longestaffe returned home only on the eve of his eldest daughter's
+marriage, and with him came Dolly. Great trouble had been taken to
+teach him that duty absolutely required his presence at his sister's
+marriage, and he had at last consented to be there. It is not
+generally considered a hardship by a young man that he should have to
+go into a good partridge country on the 1st of September, and Dolly
+was an acknowledged sportsman. Nevertheless, he considered that he had
+made a great sacrifice to his family, and he was received by Lady
+Pomona as though he were a bright example to other sons. He found the
+house not in a very comfortable position, for Georgiana still
+persisted in her refusal either to be a bridesmaid or to speak to Mr
+Whitstable; but still his presence, which was very rare at Caversham,
+gave some assistance: and, as at this moment his money affairs had
+been comfortably arranged, he was not called upon to squabble with his
+father. It was a great thing that one of the girls should be married,
+and Dolly had brought down an enormous china dog, about five feet
+high, as a wedding present, which added materially to the happiness of
+the meeting. Lady Pomona had determined that she would tell her
+husband of those walks in the park, and of other signs of growing
+intimacy which had reached her ears;--but this she would postpone until
+after the Whitstable marriage.
+
+But at nine o'clock on the morning set apart for that marriage, they
+were all astounded by the news that Georgiana had run away with Mr
+Batherbolt. She had been up before six. He had met her at the park
+gate, and had driven her over to catch the early train at Stowmarket.
+Then it appeared, too, that, by degrees, various articles of her
+property had been conveyed to Mr Batherbolt's lodgings in the adjacent
+village, so that Lady Pomona's fear that Georgiana would not have a
+thing to wear was needless. When the fact was first known it was
+almost felt, in the consternation of the moment, that the Whitstable
+marriage must be postponed. But Sophia had a word to say to her mother
+on that head, and she said it. The marriage was not postponed. At
+first Dolly talked of going after his younger sister, and the father
+did dispatch various telegrams. But the fugitives could not be brought
+back, and with some little delay,--which made the marriage perhaps
+uncanonical but not illegal,--Mr George Whitstable was made a happy
+man.
+
+It need only he added that in about a month's time Georgiana returned
+to Caversham as Mrs Batherbolt, and that she resided there with her
+husband in much connubial bliss for the next six months. At the end of
+that time they removed to a small living, for the purchase of which Mr
+Longestaffe had managed to raise the necessary money.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCVI - WHERE 'THE WILD ASSES QUENCH THEIR THIRST'
+
+
+We must now go back a little in our story,--about three weeks,--in
+order that the reader may be told how affairs were progressing at the
+Beargarden. That establishment had received a terrible blow in the
+defection of Herr Vossner. It was not only that he had robbed the
+club, and robbed every member of the club who had ventured to have
+personal dealings with him. Although a bad feeling in regard to him
+was no doubt engendered in the minds of those who had suffered deeply,
+it was not that alone which cast an almost funereal gloom over the
+club. The sorrow was in this,--that with Herr Vossner all their
+comforts had gone. Of course Herr Vossner had been a thief. That no
+doubt had been known to them from the beginning. A man does not consent
+to be called out of bed at all hours in the morning to arrange the
+gambling accounts of young gentlemen without being a thief. No one
+concerned with Herr Vossner had supposed him to be an honest man. But
+then as a thief he had been so comfortable that his absence was
+regretted with a tenderness almost amounting to love even by those who
+had suffered most severely from his rapacity. Dolly Longestaffe had
+been robbed more outrageously than any other member of the club, and
+yet Dolly Longestaffe had said since the departure of the purveyor that
+London was not worth living in now that Herr Vossner was gone. In a
+week the Beargarden collapsed,--as Germany would collapse for a period
+if Herr Vossner's great compatriot were suddenly to remove himself from
+the scene; but as Germany would strive to live even without Bismarck,
+so did the club make its new efforts. But here the parallel must cease.
+Germany no doubt would at last succeed, but the Beargarden had
+received a blow from which it seemed that there was no recovery. At
+first it was proposed that three men should be appointed as trustees,--
+trustees for paying Vossner's debts, trustees for borrowing more
+money, trustees for the satisfaction of the landlord who was beginning
+to be anxious as to his future rent. At a certain very triumphant
+general meeting of the club it was determined that such a plan should
+be arranged, and the members assembled were unanimous. It was at first
+thought that there might be a little jealousy as to the trusteeship.
+The club was so popular and the authority conveyed by the position
+would be so great, that A, B, and C might feel aggrieved at seeing so
+much power conferred on D, E, and F. When at the meeting above
+mentioned one or two names were suggested, the final choice was
+postponed, as a matter of detail to be arranged privately, rather from
+this consideration than with any idea that there might be a difficulty
+in finding adequate persons. But even the leading members of the
+Beargarden hesitated when the proposition was submitted to them with
+all its honours and all its responsibilities. Lord Nidderdale declared
+from the beginning that he would have nothing to do with it,--pleading
+his poverty openly. Beauchamp Beauclerk was of opinion that he himself
+did not frequent the club often enough. Mr Lupton professed his
+inability as a man of business. Lord Grasslough pleaded his father.
+The club from the first had been sure of Dolly Longestaffe's
+services;--for were not Dolly's pecuniary affairs now in process of
+satisfactory arrangement, and was it not known by all men that his
+courage never failed him in regard to money? But even he declined. 'I
+have spoken to Squercum,' he said to the Committee, 'and Squercum won't
+hear of it. Squercum has made inquiries and he thinks the club very
+shaky.' When one of the Committee made a remark as to Mr Squercum which
+was not complimentary,--insinuated indeed that Squercum without
+injustice might be consigned to the infernal deities Dolly took the
+matter up warmly. 'That's all very well for you, Grasslough; but if you
+knew the comfort of having a fellow who could keep you straight without
+preaching sermons at you you wouldn't despise Squercum. I've tried to
+go alone and I find that does not answer. Squercum's my coach, and I
+mean to stick pretty close to him.' Then it came to pass that the
+triumphant project as to the trustees fell to the ground, although
+Squercum himself advised that the difficulty might be lessened if three
+gentlemen could be selected who lived well before the world and yet
+had nothing to lose. Whereupon Dolly suggested Miles Grendall. But the
+committee shook its heads, not thinking it possible that the club
+could be re-established on a basis of three Miles Grendalls.
+
+Then dreadful rumours were heard. The Beargarden must surely be
+abandoned. 'It is such a pity,' said Nidderdale, 'because there never
+has been anything like it.'
+
+'Smoke all over the house!' said Dolly.
+
+'No horrid nonsense about closing,' said Grasslough, 'and no infernal
+old fogies wearing out the carpets and paying for nothing.'
+
+'Not a vestige of propriety, or any beastly rules to be kept! That's
+what I liked,' said Nidderdale.
+
+'It's an old story,' said Mr Lupton, 'that if you put a man into
+Paradise he'll make it too hot to hold him. That's what you've done
+here.'
+
+'What we ought to do,' said Dolly, who was pervaded by a sense of his
+own good fortune in regard to Squercum, 'is to get some fellow like
+Vossner, and make him tell us how much he wants to steal above his
+regular pay. Then we could subscribe that among us. I really think
+that might be done. Squercum would find a fellow, no doubt.' But Mr
+Lupton was of opinion that the new Vossner might perhaps not know,
+when thus consulted, the extent of his own cupidity.
+
+One day, before the Whitstable marriage, when it was understood that
+the club would actually be closed on the 12th August unless some new
+heaven-inspired idea might be forthcoming for its salvation,
+Nidderdale, Grasslough, and Dolly were hanging about the hall and the
+steps, and drinking sherry and bitters preparatory to dinner, when Sir
+Felix Carbury came round the neighbouring corner and, in a creeping,
+hesitating fashion, entered the hall door. He had nearly recovered
+from his wounds, though be still wore a bit of court plaster on his
+upper lip, and had not yet learned to look or to speak as though he
+had not had two of his front teeth knocked out. He had heard little or
+nothing of what had been done at the Beargarden since Vossner's
+defection, It was now a month since he had been seen at the club. His
+thrashing had been the wonder of perhaps half nine days, but latterly
+his existence had been almost forgotten. Now, with difficulty, he had
+summoned courage to go down to his old haunt, so completely had he
+been cowed by the latter circumstances of his life; but he had
+determined that he would pluck up his courage, and talk to his old
+associates as though no evil thing had befallen him. He had still
+money enough to pay for his dinner and to begin a small rubber of
+whist. If fortune should go against him he might glide into I.O.U.'s,--
+as others had done before, so much to his cost. 'By George, here's
+Carbury!' said Dolly. Lord Grasslough whistled, turned his back, and
+walked upstairs; but Nidderdale and Dolly consented to have their
+hands shaken by the stranger.
+
+'Thought you were out of town,' said Nidderdale, 'Haven't seen you for
+the last ever so long.'
+
+'I have been out of town,' said Felix,--lying; 'down in Suffolk. But
+I'm back now. How are things going on here?'
+
+'They're not going at all;--they're gone,' said Dolly. 'Everything is
+smashed,' said Nidderdale.
+
+'We shall all have to pay, I don't know how much.'
+
+'Wasn't Vossner ever caught?' asked the baronet.
+
+'Caught!' ejaculated Dolly. 'No;--but he has caught us. I don't know
+that there has ever been much idea of catching Vossner. We close
+altogether next Monday, and the furniture is to be gone to law for.
+Flatfleece says it belongs to him under what he calls a deed of sale.
+Indeed, everything that everybody has seems to belong to Flatfleece.
+He's always in and out of the club, and has got the key of the
+cellar.'
+
+'That don't matter,' said Nidderdale, 'as Vossner took care that there
+shouldn't be any wine.'
+
+'He's got most of the forks and spoons, and only lets us use what we
+have as a favour.'
+
+'I suppose one can get a dinner here?'
+
+'Yes; to-day you can, and perhaps to-morrow,'
+
+'Isn't there any playing?' asked Felix with dismay.
+
+'I haven't seen a card this fortnight,' said Dolly. 'There hasn't been
+anybody to play. Everything has gone to the dogs. There has been the
+affair of Melmotte, you know;--though, I suppose, you do know all about
+that.'
+
+'Of course I know he poisoned himself.'
+
+'Of course that had effect,' said Dolly, continuing his history.
+'Though why fellows shouldn't play cards because another fellow like
+that takes poison, I can't understand. Last year the only day I
+managed to get down in February, the hounds didn't come because some
+old cove had died. What harm could our hunting have done him? I call
+it rot.'
+
+'Melmotte's death was rather awful,' said Nidderdale.
+
+'Not half so awful as having nothing to amuse one. And now they say
+the girl is going to be married to Fisker. I don't know how you and
+Nidderdale like that. I never went in for her myself. Squercum never
+seemed to see it.'
+
+'Poor dear!' said Nidderdale. 'She's welcome for me, and I dare say she
+couldn't do better with herself. I was very fond of her;--I'll be shot
+if I wasn't.'
+
+'And Carbury too, I suppose,' said Dolly.
+
+'No; I wasn't. If I'd really been fond of her I suppose it would have
+come off. I should have had her safe enough to America, if I'd cared
+about it.' This was Sir Felix's view of the matter.
+
+'Come into the smoking-room, Dolly,' said Nidderdale. 'I can stand
+most things, and I try to stand everything; but, by George, that
+fellow is such a cad that I cannot stand him. You and I are bad
+enough,--but I don't think we're so heartless as Carbury.'
+
+'I don't think I'm heartless at all,' said Dolly. 'I'm good-natured to
+everybody that is good-natured to me,--and to a great many people who
+ain't. I'm going all the way down to Caversham next week to see my
+sister married, though I hate the place and hate marriages, and if I
+was to be hung for it I couldn't say a word to the fellow who is going
+to be my brother-in-law. But I do agree about Carbury. It's very hard
+to be good-natured to him.'
+
+But, in the teeth of these adverse opinions Sir Felix managed to get
+his dinner-table close to theirs and to tell them at dinner something
+of his future prospects. He was going to travel and see the world. He
+had, according to his own account, completely run through London life
+and found that it was all barren.
+
+    'In life I've rung all changes through,
+       Run every pleasure down,
+    'Midst each excess of folly too,
+       And lived with half the town.'
+
+Sir Felix did not exactly quote the old song, probably having never
+heard the words. But that was the burden of his present story. It was
+his determination to seek new scenes, and in search of them to travel
+over the greater part of the known world.
+
+'How jolly for you!' said Dolly.
+
+'It will be a change, you know.'
+
+'No end of a change. Is any one going with you?'
+
+'Well;--yes. I've got a travelling companion;--a very pleasant fellow,
+who knows a lot, and will be able to coach me up in things. There's a
+deal to be learned by going abroad, you know.'
+
+'A sort of a tutor,' said Nidderdale.
+
+'A parson, I suppose,' said Dolly.
+
+'Well;--he is a clergyman. Who told you?'
+
+'It's only my inventive genius. Well;--yes; I should say that would be
+nice,--travelling about Europe with a clergyman. I shouldn't get enough
+advantage out of it to make it pay, but I fancy it will just suit
+you.'
+
+'It's an expensive sort of thing;--isn't it?' asked Nidderdale.
+
+'Well;--it does cost something. But I've got so sick of this kind of
+life;--and then that railway Board coming to an end, and the club
+smashing up, and--'
+
+'Marie Melmotte marrying Fisker,' suggested Dolly.
+
+'That too, if you will. But I want a change, and a change I mean to
+have. I've seen this side of things, and now I'll have a look at the
+other.'
+
+'Didn't you have a row in the street with some one the other day?'
+This question was asked very abruptly by Lord Grasslough, who, though
+he was sitting near them, had not yet joined in the conversation, and
+who had not before addressed a word to Sir Felix. 'We heard something
+about it, but we never got the right story.' Nidderdale glanced across
+the table at Dolly, and Dolly whistled. Grasslough looked at the man
+he addressed as one does look when one expects an answer. Mr Lupton,
+with whom Grasslough was dining, also sat expectant. Dolly and
+Nidderdale were both silent.
+
+It was the fear of this that had kept Sir Felix away from the club.
+Grasslough, as he had told himself, was just the fellow to ask such a
+question,--ill-natured, insolent, and obtrusive. But the question
+demanded an answer of some kind. 'Yes,' said he; 'a fellow attacked me
+in the street, coming behind me when I had a girl with me. He didn't
+get much the best of it though.'
+
+'Oh;--didn't he?' said Grasslough. 'I think, upon the whole, you know,
+you're right about going abroad.'
+
+'What business is it of yours?' asked the baronet.
+
+'Well;--as the club is being broken up, I don't know that it is very
+much the business of any of us.'
+
+'I was speaking to my friends, Lord Nidderdale and Mr Longestaffe, and
+not to you.'
+
+'I quite appreciate the advantage of the distinction,' said Lord
+Grasslough, 'and am sorry for Lord Nidderdale and Mr Longestaffe.'
+
+'What do you mean by that?' said Sir Felix, rising from his chair. His
+present opponent was not horrible to him as had been John Crumb, as
+men in clubs do not now often knock each others' heads or draw swords
+one upon another.
+
+'Don't let's have a quarrel here,' said Mr Lupton. 'I shall leave the
+room if you do.'
+
+'If we must break up, let us break up in peace and quietness,' said
+Nidderdale.
+
+'Of course, if there is to be a fight, I'm good to go out with
+anybody,' said Dolly. 'When there's any beastly thing to be done, I've
+always got to do it. But don't you think that kind of thing is a
+little slow?'
+
+'Who began it?' said Sir Felix, sitting down again. Whereupon Lord
+Grasslough, who had finished his dinner, walked out of the room. 'That
+fellow is always wanting to quarrel.'
+
+'There's one comfort, you know,' said Dolly. 'It wants two men to make
+a quarrel.'
+
+'Yes; it does,' said Sir Felix, taking this as a friendly observation;
+'and I'm not going to be fool enough to be one of them.'
+
+'Oh, yes, I meant it fast enough,' said Grasslough afterwards up in
+the card-room. The other men who had been together had quickly
+followed him, leaving Sir Felix alone, and they had collected
+themselves there not with the hope of play, but thinking that they
+would be less interrupted than in the smoking-room. 'I don't suppose
+we shall ever any of us be here again, and as he did come in I thought
+I would tell him my mind.'
+
+'What's the use of taking such a lot of trouble?' said Dolly. 'Of
+course he's a bad fellow. Most fellows are bad fellows in one way or
+another.'
+
+'But he's bad all round,' said the bitter enemy.
+
+'And so this is to be the end of the Beargarden,' said Lord Nidderdale
+with a peculiar melancholy. 'Dear old place! I always felt it was too
+good to last. I fancy it doesn't do to make things too easy;--one has
+to pay so uncommon dear for them. And then, you know, when you've got
+things easy, then they get rowdy;--and, by George, before you know
+where you are, you find yourself among a lot of blackguards. If one
+wants to keep one's self straight, one has to work hard at it, one way
+or the other. I suppose it all comes from the fall of Adam.'
+
+'If Solomon, Solon, and the Archbishop of Canterbury were rolled into
+one, they couldn't have spoken with more wisdom,' said Mr Lupton.
+
+'Live and learn,' continued the young lord. 'I don't think anybody has
+liked the Beargarden so much as I have, but I shall never try this
+kind of thing again. I shall begin reading blue books to-morrow, and
+shall dine at the Carlton. Next session I shan't miss a day in the
+House, and I'll bet anybody a flyer that I make a speech before
+Easter. I shall take to claret at 20s. a dozen, and shall go about
+London on the top of an omnibus.'
+
+'How about getting married?' asked Dolly.
+
+'Oh;--that must be as it comes. That's the governor's affair. None of
+you fellows will believe me, but, upon my word, I liked that girl; and
+I'd've stuck to her at last,--only there are some things a fellow can't
+do. He was such a thundering scoundrel!'
+
+After a while Sir Felix followed them upstairs, and entered the room
+as though nothing unpleasant had happened below. 'We can make up a
+rubber can't we?' said he.
+
+'I should say not,' said Nidderdale.
+
+'I shall not play,' said Mr Lupton.
+
+'There isn't a pack of cards in the house,' said Dolly. Lord
+Grasslough didn't condescend to say a word. Sir Felix sat down with
+his cigar in his mouth, and the others continued to smoke in silence.
+
+'I wonder what has become of Miles Grendall,' asked Sir Felix. But no
+one made any answer, and they smoked on in silence. 'He hasn't paid me
+a shilling yet of the money he owes me.' Still there was not a word.
+'And I don't suppose he ever will.' There was another pause. 'He is
+the biggest scoundrel I ever met,' said Sir Felix.
+
+'I know one as big,' said Lord Grasslough,--'or, at any rate, as
+little.'
+
+There was another pause of a minute, and then Sir Felix left the room
+muttering something as to the stupidity of having no cards;--and so
+brought to an end his connection with his associates of the
+Beargarden. From that time forth he was never more seen by them,--or,
+if seen, was never known.
+
+The other men remained there till well on into the night, although
+there was not the excitement of any special amusement to attract them.
+It was felt by them all that this was the end of the Beargarden, and,
+with a melancholy seriousness befitting the occasion, they whispered
+sad things in low voices, consoling themselves simply with tobacco. 'I
+never felt so much like crying in my life,' said Dolly, as he asked
+for a glass of brandy-and-water at about midnight. 'Good-night, old
+fellows; good-bye. I'm going down to Caversham, and I shouldn't wonder
+if I didn't drown myself.'
+
+How Mr Flatfleece went to law, and tried to sell the furniture, and
+threatened everybody, and at last singled out poor Dolly Longestaffe
+as his special victim; and how Dolly Longestaffe, by the aid of Mr
+Squercum, utterly confounded Mr Flatfleece, and brought that ingenious
+but unfortunate man, with his wife and small family, to absolute ruin,
+the reader will hardly expect to have told to him in detail in this
+chronicle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCVII - MRS HURTLE'S FATE
+
+
+Mrs Hurtle had consented at the joint request of Mrs Pipkin and John
+Crumb to postpone her journey to New York and to go down to Bungay and
+grace the marriage of Ruby Ruggles, not so much from any love for the
+persons concerned, not so much even from any desire to witness a phase
+of English life, as from an irresistible tenderness towards Paul
+Montague. She not only longed to see him once again, but she could
+with difficulty bring herself to leave the land in which he was
+living. There was no hope for her. She was sure of that. She had
+consented to relinquish him. She had condoned his treachery to her,--
+and for his sake had even been kind to the rival who had taken her
+place. But still she lingered near him. And then, though, in all her
+very restricted intercourse with such English people as she met, she
+never ceased to ridicule things English, yet she dreaded a return to
+her own country. In her heart of hearts she liked the somewhat stupid
+tranquillity of the life she saw, comparing it with the rough tempests
+of her past days. Mrs Pipkin, she thought, was less intellectual than
+any American woman she had ever known; and she was quite sure that no
+human being so heavy, so slow, and so incapable of two concurrent
+ideas as John Crumb had ever been produced in the United States;--but,
+nevertheless, she liked Mrs Pipkin, and almost loved John Crumb. How
+different would her life have been could she have met a man who would
+have been as true to her as John Crumb was to his Ruby!
+
+She loved Paul Montague with all her heart, and she despised herself
+for loving him. How weak he was;--how inefficient; how unable to seize
+glorious opportunities; how swathed and swaddled by scruples and
+prejudices;--how unlike her own countrymen in quickness of apprehension
+and readiness of action! But yet she loved him for his very faults,
+telling herself that there was something sweeter in his English
+manners than in all the smart intelligence of her own land. The man
+had been false to her,--false as hell; had sworn to her and had broken
+his oath; had ruined her whole life; had made everything blank before
+her by his treachery! But then she also had not been quite true with
+him. She had not at first meant to deceive;--nor had he. They had
+played a game against each other; and he, with all the inferiority of
+his intellect to weigh him down, had won,--because he was a man. She
+had much time for thinking, and she thought much about these things. He
+could change his love as often as he pleased, and be as good a lover
+at the end as ever;--whereas she was ruined by his defection. He could
+look about for a fresh flower and boldly seek his honey; whereas she
+could only sit and mourn for the sweets of which she had been rifled.
+She was not quite sure that such mourning would not be more bitter to
+her in California than in Mrs Pipkin's solitary lodgings at Islington.
+
+'So he was Mr Montague's partner,--was he now?' asked Mrs Pipkin a day
+or two after their return from the Crumb marriage. For Mr Fisker had
+called on Mrs Hurtle, and Mrs Hurtle had told Mrs Pipkin so much. 'To
+my thinking now he's a nicer man than Mr Montague.' Mrs Pipkin
+perhaps thought that as her lodger had lost one partner she might be
+anxious to secure the other;--perhaps felt, too, that it might be well
+to praise an American at the expense of an Englishman.
+
+'There's no accounting for tastes, Mrs Pipkin.'
+
+'And that's true, too, Mrs Hurtle.'
+
+'Mr Montague is a gentleman.'
+
+'I always did say that of him, Mrs Hurtle.'
+
+'And Mr Fisker is--an American citizen.' Mrs Hurtle when she said this
+was very far gone in tenderness.
+
+'Indeed now!' said Mrs Pipkin, who did not in the least understand the
+meaning of her friend's last remark.
+
+'Mr Fisker came to me with tidings from San Francisco which I had not
+heard before, and has offered to take me back with him.' Mrs Pipkin's
+apron was immediately at her eyes. 'I must go some day, you knew.'
+
+'I suppose you must. I couldn't hope as you'd stay here always. I wish
+I could. I never shall forget the comfort it's been. There hasn't been
+a week without everything settled; and most ladylike,--most ladylike!
+You seem to me, Mrs Hurtle, just as though you had the bank in your
+pocket.' All this the poor woman said, moved by her sorrow to speak
+the absolute truth.
+
+'Mr Fisker isn't in any way a special friend of mine, but I hear that
+he will be taking other ladies with him, and I fancy I might as well
+join the party. It will be less dull for me, and I shall prefer
+company just at present for many reasons. We shall start on the first
+of September.' As this was said about the middle of August there was
+still some remnant of comfort for poor Mrs Pipkin. A fortnight gained
+was something; and as Mr Fisker had come to England on business, and
+as business is always uncertain, there might possibly be further
+delay. Then Mrs Hurtle made a further communication to Mrs Pipkin,
+which, though not spoken till the latter lady had her hand on the
+door, was, perhaps, the one thing which Mrs Hurtle had desired to say.
+'By-the-bye, Mrs Pipkin I expect Mr Montague to call to-morrow at
+eleven. Just show him up when he comes.' She had feared that unless
+some such instructions were given, there might be a little scene at
+the door when the gentleman came.
+
+'Mr Montague;--oh! Of course, Mrs Hurtle,--of course. I'll see to it
+myself.' Then Mrs Pipkin went away abashed,--feeling that she had made
+a great mistake in preferring any other man to Mr Montague, if, after
+all, recent difficulties were to be adjusted.
+
+On the following morning Mrs Hurtle dressed herself with almost more
+than her usual simplicity, but certainly with not less than her usual
+care, and immediately after breakfast seated herself at her desk,
+nursing an idea that she would work as steadily for the next hour as
+though she expected no special visitor. Of course she did not write a
+word of the task which she had prescribed to herself. Of course she
+was disturbed in her mind, though she had dictated to herself absolute
+quiescence.
+
+She almost knew that she had been wrong even to desire to see him. She
+had forgiven him, and what more was there to be said? She had seen the
+girl, and had in some fashion approved of her. Her curiosity had been
+satisfied, and her love of revenge had been sacrificed. She had no plan
+arranged as to what she would now say to him, nor did she at this
+moment attempt to make a plan. She could tell him that she was about
+to return to San Francisco with Fisker, but she did not know that she
+had anything else to say. Then came the knock at the door. Her heart
+leaped within her, and she made a last great effort to be tranquil.
+She heard the steps on the stairs, and then the door was opened and Mr
+Montague was announced by Mrs Pipkin herself. Mrs Pipkin, however,
+quite conquered by a feeling of gratitude to her lodger, did not once
+look in through the door, nor did she pause a moment to listen at the
+keyhole. 'I thought you would come and see me once again before I
+went,' said Mrs Hurtle, not rising from her sofa, but putting out her
+hand to greet him. 'Sit there opposite, so that we can look at one
+another. I hope it has not been a trouble to you.'
+
+'Of course I came when you left word for me to do so.'
+
+'I certainly should not have expected it from any wish of your own.'
+
+'I should not have dared to come, had you not bade me. You know that.'
+
+'I know nothing of the kind;--but as you are here we will not quarrel
+as to your motives. Has Miss Carbury pardoned you as yet? Has she
+forgiven your sins?'
+
+'We are friends,--if you mean that.'
+
+'Of course you are friends. She only wanted to have somebody to tell
+her that somebody had maligned you. It mattered not much who it was.
+She was ready to believe any one who would say a good word for you.
+Perhaps I wasn't just the person to do it, but I believe even I was
+sufficient to serve the turn.'
+
+'Did you say a good word for me?'
+
+'Well; no;' replied Mrs Hurtle. 'I will not boast that I did. I do not
+want to tell you fibs at our last meeting. I said nothing good of you.
+What could I say of good? But I told her what was quite as serviceable
+to you as though I had sung your virtues by the hour without ceasing.
+I explained to her how very badly you had behaved to me. I let her
+know that from the moment you had seen her, you had thrown me to the
+winds.'
+
+'It was not so, my friend.'
+
+'What did that matter? One does not scruple a lie for a friend, you
+know! I could not go into all the little details of your perfidies. I
+could not make her understand during one short and rather agonizing
+interview how you had allowed yourself to be talked out of your love
+for me by English propriety even before you had seen her beautiful
+eyes. There was no reason why I should tell her all my disgrace,--
+anxious as I was to be of service. Besides, as I put it, she was sure
+to be better pleased. But I did tell her how unwillingly you had
+spared me an hour of your company;--what a trouble I had been to you;--
+how you would have shirked me if you could!'
+
+'Winifred, that is untrue.'
+
+'That wretched journey to Lowestoft was the great crime. Mr Roger
+Carbury, who I own is poison to me--'
+
+'You do not know him.'
+
+'Knowing him or not I choose to have my own opinion, sir. I say that
+he is poison to me, and I say that he had so stuffed her mind with the
+flagrant sin of that journey, with the peculiar wickedness of our
+having lived for two nights under the same roof, with the awful fact
+that we had travelled together in the same carriage, till that had
+become the one stumbling-block on your path to happiness.'
+
+'He never said a word to her of our being there.'
+
+'Who did then? But what matters? She knew it;--and, as the only means
+of whitewashing you in her eyes, I did tell her how cruel and how
+heartless you had been to me. I did explain how the return of
+friendship which you had begun to show me, had been frozen, harder
+than Wenham ice, by the appearance of Mr Carbury on the sands. Perhaps
+I went a little farther and hinted that the meeting had been arranged
+as affording you the easiest means of escape from me.'
+
+'You do not believe that.'
+
+'You see I had your welfare to look after; and the baser your conduct
+had been to me, the truer you were in her eyes. Do I not deserve some
+thanks for what I did? Surely you would not have had me tell her that
+your conduct to me had been that of a loyal, loving gentleman. I
+confessed to her my utter despair;--I abased myself in the dust, as a
+woman is abased who has been treacherously ill-used, and has failed to
+avenge herself. I knew that when she was sure that I was prostrate and
+hopeless she would be triumphant and contented. I told her on your
+behalf how I had been ground to pieces under your chariot wheels. And
+now you have not a word of thanks to give me!'
+
+'Every word you say is a dagger.'
+
+'You know where to go for salve for such skin-deep scratches as I
+make. Where am I to find a surgeon who can put together my crushed
+bones? Daggers, indeed! Do you not suppose that in thinking of you I
+have often thought of daggers? Why have I not thrust one into your
+heart, so that I might rescue you from the arms of this puny,
+spiritless English girl?' All this time she was still seated, looking
+at him, leaning forward towards him with her hands upon her brow.
+'But, Paul, I spit out my words to you, like any common woman, not
+because they will hurt you, but because I know I may take that
+comfort, such as it is, without hurting you. You are uneasy for a
+moment while you are here, and I have a cruel pleasure in thinking
+that you cannot answer me. But you will go from me to her, and then
+will you not be happy? When you are sitting with your arm round her
+waist, and when she is playing with your smiles, will the memory of my
+words interfere with your joy then? Ask yourself whether the prick
+will last longer than the moment. But where am I to go for happiness
+and joy? Can you understand what it is to have to live only on
+retrospects?'
+
+'I wish I could say a word to comfort you.'
+
+'You cannot say a word to comfort me, unless you will unsay all that
+you have said since I have been in England. I never expect comfort
+again. But, Paul, I will not be cruel to the end. I will tell you all
+that I know of my concerns, even though my doing so should justify
+your treatment of me. He is not dead.'
+
+'You mean Mr Hurtle.'
+
+'Whom else should I mean? And he himself says that the divorce which
+was declared between us was no divorce. Mr Fisker came here to me with
+tidings. Though he is not a man whom I specially love,--though I know
+that he has been my enemy with you,--I shall return with him to San
+Francisco.'
+
+'I am told that he is taking Madame Melmotte with him, and Melmotte's
+daughter.'
+
+'So I understand. They are adventurers,--as I am, and I do not see why
+we should not suit each other.'
+
+'They say also that Fisker will marry Miss Melmotte.'
+
+'Why should I object to that? I shall not be jealous of Mr Fisker's
+attentions to the young lady. But it will suit me to have some one to
+whom I can speak on friendly terms when I am back in California. I may
+have a job of work to do there which will require the backing of some
+friends. I shall be hand-and-glove with these people before I have
+travelled half across the ocean with them.'
+
+'I hope they will be kind to you,' said Paul.
+
+'No;--but I will be kind to them. I have conquered others by being
+kind, but I have never had much kindness myself. Did I not conquer you,
+sir, by being gentle and gracious to you? Ah, how kind I was to that
+poor wretch, till he lost himself in drink! And then, Paul, I used to
+think of better people, perhaps of softer people, of things that should
+be clean and sweet and gentle,--of things that should smell of lavender
+instead of wild garlic. I would dream of fair, feminine women,--of
+women who would be scared by seeing what I saw, who would die rather
+than do what I did. And then I met you, Paul, and I said that my dreams
+should come true. I ought to have known that it could not be so. I did
+not dare quite to tell you all the truth. I know I was wrong, and now
+the punishment has come upon me. Well;--I suppose you had better say
+good-bye to me. What is the good of putting it off?' Then she rose
+from her chair and stood before him with her arms hanging listlessly
+by her side.
+
+'God bless you, Winifred!' he said, putting out his hand to her.
+
+'But he won't. Why should he,--if we are right in supposing that they
+who do good will be blessed for their good, and those who do evil
+cursed for their evil? I cannot do good. I cannot bring myself now not
+to wish that you would return to me. If you would come I should care
+nothing for the misery of that girl,--nothing, at least nothing now,
+for the misery I should certainly bring upon you. Look here;--will you
+have this back?' As she asked this she took from out her bosom a small
+miniature portrait of himself which he had given her in New York, and
+held it towards him.
+
+'If you wish it I will,--of course,' he said.
+
+'I would not part with it for all the gold in California. Nothing on
+earth shall ever part me from it. Should I ever marry another man,--as
+I may do,--he must take me and this together. While I live it shall be
+next my heart. As you know, I have little respect for the proprieties
+of life. I do not see why I am to abandon the picture of the man I
+love because he becomes the husband of another woman. Having once said
+that I love you I shall not contradict myself because you have
+deserted me. Paul, I have loved you, and do love you,--oh, with my very
+heart of hearts.' So speaking she threw herself into his arms and
+covered his face with kisses. 'For one moment you shall not banish me.
+For one short minute I will be here. Oh, Paul, my love;--my love!'
+
+All this to him was simply agony--though as she had truly said it was
+an agony he would soon forget. But to be told by a woman of her love,--
+without being able even to promise love in return,--to be so told while
+you are in the very act of acknowledging your love for another woman,--
+carries with it but little of the joy of triumph. He did not want to
+see her raging like a tigress, as he had once thought might be his
+fate; but he would have preferred the continuance of moderate
+resentment to this flood of tenderness. Of course he stood with his
+arm round her waist, and of course he returned her caresses; but he
+did it with such stiff constraint that she at once felt how chill they
+were. 'There,' she said, smiling through her bitter tears,--'there; you
+are released now, and not even my fingers shall ever be laid upon you
+again. If I have annoyed you, at this our last meeting, you must
+forgive me.'
+
+'No;--but you cut me to the heart.'
+
+'That we can hardly help;--can we? When two persons have made fools of
+themselves as we have, there must I suppose be some punishment. Yours
+will never be heavy after I am gone. I do not start till the first of
+next month because that is the day fixed by our friend, Mr Fisker, and
+I shall remain here till then because my presence is convenient to Mrs
+Pipkin; but I need not trouble you to come to me again. Indeed it will
+be better that you should not. Good-bye.'
+
+He took her by the hand, and stood for a moment looking at her, while
+she smiled and gently nodded her head at him. Then he essayed to pull
+her towards him as though he would again kiss her. But she repulsed
+him, still smiling the while. 'No, sir; no; not again; never again,
+never,--never,--never again.' By that time she had recovered her hand
+and stood apart from him. 'Good-bye, Paul;--and now go.' Then he turned
+round and left the room without uttering a word.
+
+She stood still, without moving a limb, as she listened to his step
+down the stairs and to the opening and the closing of the door. Then
+hiding herself at the window with the scanty drapery of the curtain
+she watched him as he went along the street. When he had turned the
+corner she came back to the centre of the room, stood for a moment
+with her arms stretched out towards the walls, and then fell prone
+upon the floor. She had spoken the very truth when she said that she
+had loved him with all her heart.
+
+But that evening she bade Mrs Pipkin drink tea with her and was more
+gracious to the poor woman than ever. When the obsequious but still
+curious landlady asked some question about Mr Montague, Mrs Hurtle
+seemed to speak very freely on the subject of her late lover,--and to
+speak without any great pain. They had put their heads together, she
+said, and had found that the marriage would not be suitable. Each of
+them preferred their own country, and so they had agreed to part. On
+that evening Mrs Hurtle made herself more than usually pleasant,
+having the children up into her room, and giving them jam and
+bread-and-butter. During the whole of the next fortnight she seemed to
+take a delight in doing all in her power for Mrs Pipkin and her
+family. She gave toys to the children, and absolutely bestowed upon
+Mrs Pipkin a new carpet for the drawing-room. Then Mr Fisker came and
+took her away with him to America; and Mrs Pipkin was left,--a desolate
+but grateful woman.
+
+'They do tell bad things about them Americans,' she said to a friend
+in the street, 'and I don't pretend to know. But for a lodger, I only
+wish Providence would send me another just like the one I have lost.
+She had that good nature about her she liked to see the bairns eating
+pudding just as if they was her own.'
+
+I think Mrs Pipkin was right, and that Mrs Hurtle, with all her
+faults, was a good-natured woman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCVIII - MARIE MELMOTTE'S FATE
+
+
+In the meantime Marie Melmotte was living with Madame Melmotte in
+their lodgings up at Hampstead, and was taking quite a new look out
+into the world. Fisker had become her devoted servant,--not with that
+old-fashioned service which meant making love, but with perhaps a
+truer devotion to her material interests. He had ascertained on her
+behalf that she was the undoubted owner of the money which her father
+had made over to her on his first arrival in England,--and she also had
+made herself mistress of that fact with equal precision. It would have
+astonished those who had known her six months since could they now
+have seen how excellent a woman of business she had become, and how
+capable she was of making the fullest use of Mr Fisker's services. In
+doing him justice it must be owned that he kept nothing back from her
+of that which he learned, probably feeling that he might best achieve
+success in his present project by such honesty,--feeling also, no doubt,
+the girl's own strength in discovering truth and falsehood. 'She's her
+father's own daughter,' he said one day to Croll in Abchurch Lane;--for
+Croll, though he had left Melmotte's employment when he found that his
+name had been forged, had now returned to the service of the daughter
+in some undefined position, and had been engaged to go with her and
+Madame Melmotte to New York.
+
+'Ah; yees,' said Croll, 'but bigger. He vas passionate, and did lose
+his 'ead; and vas blow'd up vid bigness.' Whereupon Croll made an
+action as though he were a frog swelling himself to the dimensions of
+an ox. ''E bursted himself, Mr Fisker. 'E vas a great man; but the
+greater he grew he vas always less and less vise. 'E ate so much that
+he became too fat to see to eat his vittels.' It was thus that Herr
+Croll analysed the character of his late master. 'But Ma'me'selle,--
+ah, she is different. She vill never eat too moch, but vill see to eat
+alvays.' Thus too he analysed the character of his young mistress.
+
+At first things did not arrange themselves pleasantly between Madame
+Melmotte and Marie. The reader will perhaps remember that they were in
+no way connected by blood. Madame Melmotte was not Marie's mother,
+nor, in the eye of the law, could Marie claim Melmotte as her father.
+She was alone in the world, absolutely without a relation, not knowing
+even what had been her mother's name,--not even knowing what was her
+father's true name, as in the various biographies of the great man
+which were, as a matter of course, published within a fortnight of his
+death, various accounts were given as to his birth, parentage, and
+early history. The general opinion seemed to be that his father had
+been a noted coiner in New York,--an Irishman of the name of Melmody,--
+and, in one memoir, the probability of the descent was argued from
+Melmotte's skill in forgery. But Marie, though she was thus isolated,
+and now altogether separated from the lords and duchesses who a few
+weeks since had been interested in her career, was the undoubted owner
+of the money,--a fact which was beyond the comprehension of Madame
+Melmotte. She could understand,--and was delighted to understand,--that
+a very large sum of money had been saved from the wreck, and that she
+might therefore look forward to prosperous tranquillity for the rest
+of her life. Though she never acknowledged so much to herself, she
+soon learned to regard the removal of her husband as the end of her
+troubles. But she could not comprehend why Marie should claim all the
+money as her own. She declared herself to be quite willing to divide
+the spoil,--and suggested such an arrangement both to Marie and to
+Croll. Of Fisker she was afraid, thinking that the iniquity of giving
+all the money to Marie originated with him, in order that he might
+obtain it by marrying the girl. Croll, who understood it all
+perfectly, told her the story a dozen times,--but quite in vain. She
+made a timid suggestion of employing a lawyer on her own behalf, and
+was only deterred from doing so by Marie's ready assent to such an
+arrangement. Marie's equally ready surrender of any right she might
+have to a portion of the jewels which had been saved had perhaps some
+effect in softening the elder lady's heart. She thus was in possession
+of a treasure of her own,--though a treasure small in comparison with
+that of the younger woman; and the younger woman had promised that
+in the event of her marriage she would be liberal.
+
+It was distinctly understood that they were both to go to New York
+under Mr Fisker's guidance as soon as things should be sufficiently
+settled to allow of their departure; and Madame Melmotte was told,
+about the middle of August, that their places had been taken for the
+3rd of September. But nothing more was told her. She did not as yet
+know whether Marie was to go out free or as the affianced bride of
+Hamilton Fisker. And she felt herself injured by being left so much in
+the dark. She herself was inimical to Fisker, regarding him as a dark,
+designing man, who would ultimately swallow up all that her husband
+had left behind him,--and trusted herself entirely to Croll, who was
+personally attentive to her. Fisker was, of course, going on to San
+Francisco. Marie also had talked of crossing the American continent.
+But Madame Melmotte was disposed to think that for her, with her
+jewels, and such share of the money as Marie might be induced to give
+her, New York would be the most fitting residence. Why should she drag
+herself across the continent to California? Herr Croll had declared
+his purpose of remaining in New York. Then it occurred to the lady
+that as Melmotte was a name which might be too well known in New York,
+and which it therefore might be wise to change, Croll would do as well
+as any other. She and Herr Croll had known each other for a great many
+years, and were, she thought, of about the same age. Croll had some
+money saved. She had, at any rate, her jewels,--and Croll would probably
+be able to get some portion of all that money, which ought to be hers,
+if his affairs were made to be identical with her own. So she smiled
+upon Croll, and whispered to him; and when she had given Croll two
+glasses of Curaçao,--which comforter she kept in her own hands, as
+safeguarded almost as the jewels,--then Croll understood her.
+
+But it was essential that she should know what Marie intended to do.
+Marie was anything but communicative, and certainly was not in any way
+submissive. 'My dear,' she said one day, asking the question in
+French, without any preface or apology, 'are you going to be married
+to Mr Fisker?'
+
+'What makes you ask that?'
+
+'It is so important I should know. Where am I to live? What am I to
+do? What money shall I have? Who will be a friend to me? A woman ought
+to know. You will marry Fisker if you like him. Why cannot you tell
+me?'
+
+'Because I do not know. When I know I will tell you. If you go on
+asking me till to-morrow morning I can say no more.'
+
+And this was true. She did not know. It certainly was not Fisker's
+fault that she should still be in the dark as to her own destiny, for
+he had asked her often enough, and had pressed his suit with all his
+eloquence. But Marie had now been wooed so often that she felt the
+importance of the step which was suggested to her. The romance of the
+thing was with her a good deal worn, and the material view of
+matrimony had also been damaged in her sight. She had fallen in love
+with Sir Felix Carbury, and had assured herself over and over again
+that she worshipped the very ground on which he stood. But she had
+taught herself this business of falling in love as a lesson, rather
+than felt it. After her father's first attempts to marry her to this
+and that suitor because of her wealth,--attempts which she had hardly
+opposed amidst the consternation and glitter of the world to which she
+was suddenly introduced,--she had learned from novels that it would be
+right that she should be in love, and she had chosen Sir Felix as her
+idol. The reader knows what had been the end of that episode in her
+life. She certainly was not now in love with Sir Felix Carbury. Then
+she had as it were relapsed into the hands of Lord Nidderdale,--one of
+her early suitors,--and had felt that as love was not to prevail, and
+as it would be well that she should marry some one, he might probably
+be as good as any other, and certainly better than many others. She
+had almost learned to like Lord Nidderdale and to believe that he
+liked her, when the tragedy came. Lord Nidderdale had been very
+good-natured,--but he had deserted her at last. She had never allowed
+herself to be angry with him for a moment. It had been a matter of
+course that he should do so. Her fortune was still large, but not
+so large as the sum named in the bargain made. And it was moreover
+weighted with her father's blood. From the moment of her father's death
+she had never dreamed that he would marry her. Why should he? Her
+thoughts in reference to Sir Felix were bitter enough;--but as against
+Nidderdale they were not at all bitter. Should she ever meet him again
+she would shake hands with him and smile,--if not pleasantly as she
+thought of the things which were past,--at any rate with good humour.
+But all this had not made her much in love with matrimony generally. She
+had over a hundred thousand pounds of her own, and, feeling conscious
+of her own power in regard to her own money, knowing that she could do
+as she pleased with her wealth, she began to look out into life
+seriously.
+
+What could she do with her money, and in what way would she shape her
+life, should she determine to remain her own mistress? Were she to
+refuse Fisker how should she begin? He would then be banished, and her
+only remaining friends, the only persons whose names she would even
+know in her own country, would be her father's widow and Herr Croll.
+She already began to see Madame Melmotte's purport in reference to
+Croll, and could not reconcile herself to the idea of opening an
+establishment with them on a scale commensurate with her fortune. Nor
+could she settle in her own mind any pleasant position for herself as
+a single woman, living alone in perfect independence. She had opinions
+of women's rights,--especially in regard to money; and she entertained
+also a vague notion that in America a young woman would not need
+support so essentially as in England. Nevertheless, the idea of a fine
+house for herself in Boston, or Philadelphia,--for in that case she
+would have to avoid New York as the chosen residence of Madame
+Melmotte,--did not recommend itself to her. As to Fisker himself,--she
+certainly liked him. He was not beautiful like Felix Carbury, nor had
+he the easy good-humour of Lord Nidderdale. She had seen enough of
+English gentlemen to know that Fisker was very unlike them. But she
+had not seen enough of English gentlemen to make Fisker distasteful to
+her. He told her that he had a big house at San Francisco, and she
+certainly desired to live in a big house. He represented himself to be
+a thriving man, and she calculated that he certainly would not be
+here, in London, arranging her father's affairs, were he not possessed
+of commercial importance. She had contrived to learn that, in the
+United States, a married woman has greater power over her own money
+than in England, and this information acted strongly in Fisker's
+favour. On consideration of the whole subject she was inclined to
+think that she would do better in the world as Mrs Fisker than as
+Marie Melmotte,--if she could see her way clearly in the matter of
+her own money.
+
+'I have got excellent berths,' Fisker said to her one morning at
+Hampstead. At these interviews, which were devoted first to business
+and then to love, Madame Melmotte was never allowed to be present.
+
+'I am to be alone?'
+
+'Oh, yes. There is a cabin for Madame Melmotte and the maid, and a
+cabin for you. Everything will be comfortable. And there is another
+lady going,--Mrs Hurtle,--whom I think you will like.'
+
+'Has she a husband?'
+
+'Not going with us,' said Mr Fisker evasively.
+
+'But she has one?'
+
+'Well, yes;--but you had better not mention him. He is not exactly all
+that a husband should be.'
+
+'Did she not come over here to marry some one else?'--For Marie in the
+days of her sweet intimacy with Sir Felix Carbury had heard something
+of Mrs Hurtle's story.
+
+'There is a story, and I dare say I shall tell you all about it some
+day. But you may be sure I should not ask you to associate with any
+one you ought not to know.'
+
+'Oh,--I can take care of myself.'
+
+'No doubt, Miss Melmotte,--no doubt. I feel that quite strongly. But
+what I meant to observe was this,--that I certainly should not
+introduce a lady whom I aspire to make my own lady to any lady whom a
+lady oughtn't to know. I hope I make myself understood, Miss Melmotte.'
+
+'Oh, quite.'
+
+'And perhaps I may go on to say that if I could go on board that ship
+as your accepted lover, I could do a deal more to make you
+comfortable, particularly when you land, than just as a mere friend,
+Miss Melmotte. You can't doubt my heart.'
+
+'I don't see why I shouldn't. Gentlemen's hearts are things very much
+to be doubted as far as I've seen 'em. I don't think many of 'em have
+'em at all.'
+
+'Miss Melmotte, you do not know the glorious west. Your past
+experiences have been drawn from this effete and stone-cold country in
+which passion is no longer allowed to sway. On those golden shores
+which the Pacific washes man is still true,--and woman is still
+tender.'
+
+'Perhaps I'd better wait and see, Mr Fisker.'
+
+But this was not Mr Fisker's view of the case. There might be other
+men desirous of being true on those golden shores. 'And then,' said
+he, pleading his cause not without skill, 'the laws regulating woman's
+property there are just the reverse of those which the greediness of
+man has established here. The wife there can claim her share of her
+husband's property, but hers is exclusively her own. America is
+certainly the country for women,--and especially California.'
+
+'Ah;--I shall find out all about it, I suppose, when I've been there a
+few months.'
+
+'But you would enter San Francisco, Miss Melmotte, under such much
+better auspices,--if I may be allowed to say so,--as a married lady or
+as a lady just going to be married.'
+
+'Ain't single ladies much thought of in California?'
+
+'It isn't that. Come, Miss Melmotte, you know what I mean.'
+
+'Yes, I do.'
+
+'Let us go in for life together. We've both done uncommon well. I'm
+spending 30,000 dollars a year,--at that rate,--in my own house. You'll
+see it all. If we put them both together,--what's yours and what's
+mine,--we can put our foot out as far as about any one there, I guess.'
+
+'I don't know that I care about putting my foot out. I've seen
+something of that already, Mr Fisker. You shouldn't put your foot out
+farther than you can draw it in again.'
+
+'You needn't fear me as to that, Miss Melmotte. I shouldn't be able to
+touch a dollar of your money. It would be such a triumph to go into
+Francisco as man and wife.'
+
+'I shouldn't think of being married till I had been there a while and
+looked about me.'
+
+'And seen the house! Well;--there's something in that. The house is all
+there, I can tell you. I'm not a bit afraid but what you'll like the
+house. But if we were engaged, I could do everything for you. Where
+would you be, going into San Francisco all alone? Oh, Miss Melmotte, I
+do admire you so much!'
+
+I doubt whether this last assurance had much efficacy. But the
+arguments with which it was introduced did prevail to a certain
+extent. 'I'll tell you how it must be then,' she said.
+
+'How shall it be?' and as be asked the question he jumped up and put
+his arm round her waist.
+
+'Not like that, Mr Fisker,' she said, withdrawing herself. 'It shall
+be in this way. You may consider yourself engaged to me.'
+
+'I'm the happiest man on this continent,' he said, forgetting in his
+ecstasy that he was not in the United States.
+
+'But if I find when I get to Francisco anything to induce me to change
+my mind, I shall change it. I like you very well, but I'm not going to
+take a leap in the dark, and I'm not going to marry a pig in a poke.'
+
+'There you're quite right,' he said,--'quite right.'
+
+'You may give it out on board the ship that we're engaged, and I'll
+tell Madame Melmotte the same. She and Croll don't mean going any
+farther than New York.'
+
+'We needn't break our hearts about that;--need we?'
+
+'It don't much signify. Well;--I'll go on with Mrs Hurtle, if she'll
+have me.'
+
+'Too much delighted she'll be.'
+
+'And she shall be told we're engaged.'
+
+'My darling!'
+
+'But if I don't like it when I get to Frisco, as you call it, all the
+ropes in California shan't make me do it. Well--yes; you may give me a
+kiss I suppose now if you care about it.' And so,--or rather so far,--
+Mr Fisker and Marie Melmotte became engaged to each other as man and
+wife.
+
+After that Mr Fisker's remaining business in England went very
+smoothly with him. It was understood up at Hampstead that he was
+engaged to Marie Melmotte,--and it soon came to be understood also that
+Madame Melmotte was to be married to Herr Croll. No doubt the father
+of the one lady and the husband of the other had died so recently as
+to make these arrangements subject to certain censorious objections.
+But there was a feeling that Melmotte had been so unlike other men,
+both in his life and in his death, that they who had been concerned
+with him were not to be weighed by ordinary scales. Nor did it much
+matter, for the persons concerned took their departure soon after the
+arrangement was made, and Hampstead knew them no more.
+
+On the 3rd of September Madame Melmotte, Marie, Mrs Hurtle, Hamilton
+K. Fisker, and Herr Croll left Liverpool for New York; and the three
+ladies were determined that they never would revisit a country of
+which their reminiscences certainly were not happy. The writer of the
+present chronicle may so far look forward,--carrying his reader with
+him,--as to declare that Marie Melmotte did become Mrs Fisker very
+soon after her arrival at San Francisco.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XCIX - LADY CARBURY AND MR BROUNE
+
+
+When Sir Felix Carbury declared to his friends at the Beargarden that
+he intended to devote the next few months of his life to foreign
+travel, and that it was his purpose to take with him a Protestant
+divine,--as was much the habit with young men of rank and fortune some
+years since,--he was not altogether lying. There was indeed a sounder
+basis of truth than was usually to be found attached to his
+statements. That he should have intended to produce a false impression
+was a matter of course,--and nearly equally so that he should have made
+his attempt by asserting things which he must have known that no one
+would believe. He was going to Germany, and he was going in company
+with a clergyman, and it had been decided that he should remain there
+for the next twelve months. A representation had lately been made to
+the Bishop of London that the English Protestants settled in a certain
+commercial town in the north-eastern district of Prussia were without
+pastoral aid, and the bishop had stirred himself in the matter. A
+clergyman was found willing to expatriate himself, but the income
+suggested was very small. The Protestant English population of the
+commercial town in question, though pious, was not liberal. It had
+come to pass that the 'Morning Breakfast Table' had interested itself
+in the matter, having appealed for subscriptions after a manner not
+unusual with that paper. The bishop and all those concerned in the
+matter had fully understood that if the 'Morning Breakfast Table'
+could be got to take the matter up heartily, the thing would be done.
+The heartiness had been so complete that it had at last devolved upon
+Mr Broune to appoint the clergyman; and, as with all the aid that
+could be found, the income was still small, the Rev. Septimus Blake,--a
+brand snatched from the burning of Rome,--had been induced to undertake
+the maintenance and total charge of Sir Felix Carbury for a
+consideration. Mr Broune imparted to Mr Blake all that there was to
+know about the baronet, giving much counsel as to the management of
+the young man, and specially enjoining on the clergyman that he should
+on no account give Sir Felix the means of returning home. It was
+evidently Mr Broune's anxious wish that Sir Felix should see as much
+as possible of German life, at a comparatively moderate expenditure,
+and under circumstances that should be externally respectable if not
+absolutely those which a young gentleman might choose for his own
+comfort or profit;--but especially that those circumstances should not
+admit of the speedy return to England of the young gentleman himself.
+
+Lady Carbury had at first opposed the scheme. Terribly difficult as
+was to her the burden of maintaining her son, she could not endure the
+idea of driving him into exile. But Mr Broune was very obstinate, very
+reasonable, and, as she thought, somewhat hard of heart. 'What is to
+be the end of it then?' he said to her, almost in anger. For in those
+days the great editor, when in presence of Lady Carbury, differed very
+much from that Mr Broune who used to squeeze her hand and look into
+her eyes. His manner with her had become so different that she
+regarded him as quite another person. She hardly dared to contradict
+him, and found herself almost compelled to tell him what she really
+felt and thought. 'Do you mean to let him eat up everything you have
+to your last shilling, and then go to the workhouse with him?'
+
+'Oh, my friend, you know how I am struggling! Do not say such horrid
+things.'
+
+'It is because I know how you are struggling that I find myself
+compelled to say anything on the subject. What hardship will there be
+in his living for twelve months with a clergyman in Prussia? What can
+he do better? What better chance can he have of being weaned from the
+life he is leading?'
+
+'If he could only be married!'
+
+'Married! Who is to marry him? Why should any girl with money throw
+herself away upon him?'
+
+'He is so handsome.'
+
+'What has his beauty brought him to? Lady Carbury, you must let me
+tell you that all that is not only foolish but wrong. If you keep him
+here you will help to ruin him, and will certainly ruin yourself. He
+has agreed to go;--let him go.'
+
+She was forced to yield. Indeed, as Sir Felix had himself assented, it
+was almost impossible that she should not do so. Perhaps Mr Broune's
+greatest triumph was due to the talent and firmness with which he
+persuaded Sir Felix to start upon his travels. 'Your mother,' said Mr
+Broune, 'has made up her mind that she will not absolutely beggar your
+sister and herself in order that your indulgence may be prolonged for
+a few months. She cannot make you go to Germany of course. But she can
+turn you out of her house, and, unless you go, she will do so.'
+
+'I don't think she ever said that, Mr Broune.'
+
+'No;--she has not said so. But I have said it for her in her presence;
+and she has acknowledged that it must necessarily be so. You may take
+my word as a gentleman that it will be so. If you take her advice £175
+a year will be paid for your maintenance;--but if you remain in England
+not a shilling further will be paid.' He had no money. His last
+sovereign was all but gone. Not a tradesman would give him credit for
+a coat or a pair of boots. The key of the door had been taken away
+from him. The very page treated him with contumely. His clothes were
+becoming rusty. There was no prospect of amusement for him during the
+coming autumn or winter. He did not anticipate much excitement in
+Eastern Prussia, but he thought that any change must be a change for
+the better.
+
+He assented, therefore, to the proposition made by Mr Broune, was duly
+introduced to the Rev. Septimus Blake, and, as he spent his last
+sovereign on a last dinner at the Beargarden, explained his intentions
+for the immediate future to those friends at his club who would no
+doubt mourn his departure.
+
+Mr Blake and Mr Broune between them did not allow the grass to grow
+under their feet. Before the end of August Sir Felix, with Mr and Mrs
+Blake and the young Blakes, had embarked from Hull for Hamburg,--having
+extracted at the very hour of parting a last five pound note from his
+foolish mother. 'It will be just enough to bring him home,' said Mr
+Broune with angry energy when he was told of this. But Lady Carbury,
+who knew her son well, assured him that Felix would be restrained in
+his expenditure by no such prudence as such a purpose would indicate.
+'It will be gone,' she said, 'long before they reach their
+destination.'
+
+'Then why the deuce should you give it him?' said Mr Broune.
+
+Mr Broune's anxiety had been so intense that he had paid half a year's
+allowance in advance to Mr Blake out of his own pocket. Indeed, he had
+paid various sums for Lady Carbury,--so that that unfortunate woman
+would often tell herself that she was becoming subject to the great
+editor, almost like a slave. He came to her, three or four times a
+week, at about nine o'clock in the evening, and gave her instructions
+as to all that she should do. 'I wouldn't write another novel if I
+were you,' he said. This was hard, as the writing of novels was her
+great ambition, and she had flattered herself that the one novel which
+she had written was good. Mr Broune's own critic had declared it to be
+very good in glowing language. The 'Evening Pulpit' had of course
+abused it,--because it is the nature of the 'Evening Pulpit' to abuse.
+So she had argued with herself, telling herself that the praise was
+all true, whereas the censure had come from malice. After that article
+in the 'Breakfast Table,' it did seem hard that Mr Broune should tell
+her to write no more novels. She looked up at him piteously but said
+nothing. 'I don't think you'd find it answer. Of course you can do it
+as well as a great many others. But then that is saying so little!'
+
+'I thought I could make some money.'
+
+'I don't think Mr Leadham would hold out to you very high hopes;--I
+don't, indeed. I think I would turn to something else.'
+
+'It is so very hard to get paid for what one does.'
+
+To this Mr Broune made no immediate answer; but, after sitting for a
+while, almost in silence, he took his leave. On that very morning Lady
+Carbury had parted from her son. She was soon about to part from her
+daughter, and she was very sad. She felt that she could hardly keep up
+that house in Welbeck Street for herself, even if her means permitted
+it. What should she do with herself? Whither should she take herself?
+Perhaps the bitterest drop in her cup had come from those words of Mr
+Broune forbidding her to write more novels. After all, then, she was
+not a clever woman,--not more clever than other women around her!
+That very morning she had prided herself on her coming success as a
+novelist, basing all her hopes on that review in the 'Breakfast
+Table.' Now, with that reaction of spirits which is so common to all
+of us, she was more than equally despondent. He would not thus have
+crushed her without a reason. Though he was hard to her now,--he who
+used to be so soft,--he was very good. It did not occur to her to rebel
+against him. After what he had said, of course there would be no more
+praise in the 'Breakfast Table,'--and, equally of course, no novel of
+hers could succeed without that. The more she thought of him, the more
+omnipotent he seemed to be. The more she thought of herself, the more
+absolutely prostrate she seemed to have fallen from those high hopes
+with which she had begun her literary career not much more than twelve
+months ago.
+
+On the next day he did not come to her at all, and she sat idle,
+wretched, and alone. She could not interest herself in Hetta's coming
+marriage, as that marriage was in direct opposition to one of her
+broken schemes. She had not ventured to confess so much to Mr Broune,
+but she had in truth written the first pages of the first chapter of a
+second novel. It was impossible now that she should even look at what
+she had written. All this made her very sad. She spent the evening
+quite alone; for Hetta was staying down in Suffolk, with her cousin's
+friend, Mrs Yeld, the bishop's wife; and as she thought of her life
+past and her life to come, she did, perhaps, with a broken light, see
+something of the error of her ways, and did, after a fashion, repent.
+It was all 'leather or prunello,' as she said to herself;--it was all
+vanity,--and vanity,--and vanity! What real enjoyment had she found
+in anything? She had only taught herself to believe that some day
+something would come which she would like;--but she had never as yet
+in truth found anything to like. It had all been in anticipation,--but
+now even her anticipations were at an end. Mr Broune had sent her son
+away, had forbidden her to write any more novels and had been refused
+when he had asked her to marry him!
+
+The next day he came to her as usual, and found her still very
+wretched. 'I shall give up this house,' she said. 'I can't afford to
+keep it; and in truth I shall not want it. I don't in the least know
+where to go, but I don't think that it much signifies. Any place will
+be the same to me now.'
+
+'I don't see why you should say that.'
+
+'What does it matter?'
+
+'You wouldn't think of going out of London.'
+
+'Why not? I suppose I had better go wherever I can live cheapest.'
+
+'I should be sorry that you should be settled where I could not see
+you,' said Mr Broune plaintively.
+
+'So shall I,--very. You have been more kind to me than anybody. But
+what am I to do? If I stay in London I can live only in some miserable
+lodgings. I know you will laugh at me, and tell me that I am wrong;
+but my idea is that I shall follow Felix wherever he goes, so that I
+may be near him and help him when he needs help. Hetta doesn't want
+me. There is nobody else that I can do any good to.'
+
+'I want you,' said Mr Broune, very quietly.
+
+'Ah,--that is so kind of you. There is nothing makes one so good as
+goodness;--nothing binds your friend to you so firmly as the acceptance
+from him of friendly actions. You say you want me, because I have so
+sadly wanted you. When I go you will simply miss an almost daily
+trouble, but where shall I find a friend?'
+
+'When I said I wanted you, I meant more than that, Lady Carbury. Two
+or three months ago I asked you to be my wife. You declined, chiefly,
+if I understood you rightly, because of your son's position. That has
+been altered, and therefore I ask you again. I have quite convinced
+myself,--not without some doubts, for you shall know all; but, still, I
+have quite convinced myself,--that such a marriage will best contribute
+to my own happiness. I do not think, dearest, that it would mar
+yours.'
+
+This was said with so quiet a voice and so placid a demeanour, that
+the words, though they were too plain to be misunderstood, hardly at
+first brought themselves home to her. Of course he had renewed his
+offer of marriage, but he had done so in a tone which almost made her
+feel that the proposition could not be an earnest one. It was not that
+she believed that he was joking with her or paying her a poor insipid
+compliment. When she thought about it at all, she knew that it could
+not be so. But the thing was so improbable! Her opinion of herself was
+so poor, she had become so sick of her own vanities and littlenesses
+and pretences, that she could not understand that such a man as this
+should in truth want to make her his wife. At this moment she thought
+less of herself and more of Mr Broune than either perhaps deserved.
+She sat silent, quite unable to look him in the face, while he kept
+his place in his arm-chair, lounging back, with his eyes intent on her
+countenance. 'Well,' he said; 'what do you think of it? I never loved
+you better than I did for refusing me before, because I thought that
+you did so because it was not right that I should be embarrassed by
+your son.'
+
+'That was the reason,' she said, almost in a whisper.
+
+'But I shall love you better still for accepting me now if you will
+accept me.'
+
+The long vista of her past life appeared before her eyes. The ambition
+of her youth which had been taught to look only to a handsome
+maintenance, the cruelty of her husband which had driven her to run
+from him, the further cruelty of his forgiveness when she returned to
+him; the calumny which had made her miserable, though she had never
+confessed her misery; then her attempts at life in London, her
+literary successes and failures, and the wretchedness of her son's
+career;--there had never been happiness, or even comfort, in any of it.
+Even when her smiles had been sweetest her heart had been heaviest.
+Could it be that now at last real peace should be within her reach,
+and that tranquillity which comes from an anchor holding to a firm
+bottom? Then she remembered that first kiss,--or attempted kiss,--when,
+with a sort of pride in her own superiority, she had told herself that
+the man was a susceptible old goose. She certainly had not thought
+then that his susceptibility was of this nature. Nor could she quite
+understand now whether she had been right then, and that the man's
+feelings, and almost his nature, had since changed,--or whether he had
+really loved her from first to last. As he remained silent it was
+necessary that she should answer him. 'You can hardly have thought of
+it enough,' she said.
+
+'I have thought of it a good deal too. I have been thinking of it for
+six months at least.'
+
+'There is so much against me.'
+
+'What is there against you?'
+
+'They say bad things of me in India.'
+
+'I know all about that,' replied Mr Broune.
+
+'And Felix!'
+
+'I think I may say that I know all about that also.'
+
+'And then I have become so poor!'
+
+'I am not proposing to myself to marry you for your money. Luckily for
+me,--I hope luckily for both of us,--it is not necessary that I should
+do so.'
+
+'And then I seem so to have fallen through in everything. I don't know
+what I've got to give to a man in return for all that you offer to
+give to me.'
+
+'Yourself,' he said, stretching out his right hand to her.
+
+And there he sat with it stretched out,--so that she found herself
+compelled to put her own into it, or to refuse to do so with very
+absolute words. Very slowly she put out her own, and gave it to him
+without looking at him. Then he drew her towards him, and in a moment
+she was kneeling at his feet, with her face buried on his knees.
+Considering their ages perhaps we must say that their attitude was
+awkward. They would certainly have thought so themselves had they
+imagined that any one could have seen them. But how many absurdities
+of the kind are not only held to be pleasant, but almost holy,--as long
+as they remain mysteries inspected by no profane eyes! It is not that
+Age is ashamed of feeling passion and acknowledging it,--but that the
+display of it is without the graces of which Youth is proud, and which
+Age regrets.
+
+On that occasion there was very little more said between them. He had
+certainly been in earnest, and she had now accepted him. As he went
+down to his office he told himself now that he had done the best, not
+only for her but for himself also. And yet I think that she had won
+him more thoroughly by her former refusal than by any other virtue.
+
+She, as she sat alone, late into the night, became subject to a
+thorough reaction of spirit. That morning the world had been a perfect
+blank to her. There was no single object of interest before her. Now
+everything was rose-coloured. This man who had thus bound her to him,
+who had given her such assured proofs of his affection and truth, was
+one of the considerable ones of the world; a man than whom few,--so
+she told herself,--were greater or more powerful. Was it not a career
+enough for any woman to be the wife of such a man, to receive his
+friends, and to shine with his reflected glory?
+
+Whether her hopes were realised, or,--as human hopes never are
+realised,--how far her content was assured, these pages cannot tell;
+but they must tell that, before the coming winter was over, Lady
+Carbury became the wife of Mr Broune and, in furtherance of her own
+resolve, took her husband's name. The house in Welbeck Street was
+kept, and Mrs Broune's Tuesday evenings were much more regarded by
+the literary world than had been those of Lady Carbury.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER C - DOWN IN SUFFOLK
+
+
+It need hardly be said that Paul Montague was not long in adjusting
+his affairs with Hetta after the visit which he received from Roger
+Carbury. Early on the following morning he was once more in Welbeck
+Street, taking the brooch with him; and though at first Lady Carbury
+kept up her opposition, she did it after so weak a fashion as to throw
+in fact very little difficulty in his way. Hetta understood perfectly
+that she was in this matter stronger than her mother and that she need
+fear nothing, now that Roger Carbury was on her side. 'I don't know
+what you mean to live on,' Lady Carbury said, threatening future evils
+in a plaintive tone. Hetta repeated, though in other language, the
+assurance which the young lady made who declared that if her future
+husband would consent to live on potatoes, she would be quite
+satisfied with the potato-peelings; while Paul made some vague
+allusion to the satisfactory nature of his final arrangements with the
+house of Fisker, Montague, and Montague. 'I don't see anything like an
+income,' said Lady Carbury; 'but I suppose Roger will make it right.
+He takes everything upon himself now it seems.' But this was before
+the halcyon day of Mr Broune's second offer.
+
+It was at any rate decided that they were to be married, and the time
+fixed for the marriage was to be the following spring. When this was
+finally arranged Roger Carbury, who had returned to his own home,
+conceived the idea that it would be well that Hetta should pass the
+autumn and if possible the winter also down in Suffolk, so that she
+might get used to him in the capacity which he now aspired to fill;
+and with that object he induced Mrs Yeld, the Bishop's wife, to invite
+her down to the palace. Hetta accepted the invitation and left London
+before she could hear the tidings of her mother's engagement with Mr
+Broune.
+
+Roger Carbury had not yielded in this matter,--had not brought himself
+to determine that he would recognize Paul and Hetta as acknowledged
+lovers,--without a fierce inward contest. Two convictions had been
+strong in his mind, both of which were opposed to this recognition,--
+the first telling him that he would be a fitter husband for the girl
+than Paul Montague, and the second assuring him that Paul had
+ill-treated him in such a fashion that forgiveness would be both
+foolish and unmanly. For Roger, though he was a religious man, and
+one anxious to conform to the spirit of Christianity, would not allow
+himself to think that an injury should be forgiven unless the man who
+did the injury repented of his own injustice. As to giving his coat to
+the thief who had taken his cloak,--he told himself that were he and
+others to be guided by that precept honest industry would go naked in
+order that vice and idleness might be comfortably clothed. If any one
+stole his cloak he would certainly put that man in prison as soon as
+possible and not commence his lenience till the thief should at any
+rate affect to be sorry for his fault. Now, to his thinking, Paul
+Montague had stolen his cloak, and were he, Roger, to give way in this
+matter of his love, he would be giving Paul his coat also. No! He was
+bound after some fashion to have Paul put into prison; to bring him
+before a jury, and to get a verdict against him, so that some sentence
+of punishment might be at least pronounced. How then could he yield?
+
+And Paul Montague had shown himself to be very weak in regard to women.
+It might be,--no doubt it was true,--that Mrs Hurtle's appearance
+in England had been distressing to him. But still he had gone down
+with her to Lowestoft as her lover, and, to Roger's thinking, a man
+who could do that was quite unfit to be the husband of Hetta Carbury.
+He would himself tell no tales against Montague on that head. Even
+when pressed to do so he had told no tale. But not the less was his
+conviction strong that Hetta ought to know the truth, and to be
+induced by that knowledge to reject her younger lover.
+
+But then over these convictions there came a third,--equally strong,--
+which told him that the girl loved the younger man and did not love
+him, and that if he loved the girl it was his duty as a man to prove
+his love by doing what he could to make her happy. As he walked up and
+down the walk by the moat, with his hands clasped behind his back,
+stopping every now and again to sit on the terrace wall,--walking there,
+mile after mile, with his mind intent on the one idea,--he schooled
+himself to feel that that, and that only, could be his duty. What did
+love mean if not that? What could be the devotion which men so often
+affect to feel if it did not tend to self-sacrifice on behalf of the
+beloved one? A man would incur any danger for a woman, would subject
+himself to any toil,--would even die for her! But if this were done
+simply with the object of winning her, where was that real love of
+which sacrifice of self on behalf of another is the truest proof? So,
+by degrees, he resolved that the thing must be done. The man, though
+he had been bad to his friend, was not all bad. He was one who might
+become good in good hands. He, Roger, was too firm of purpose and too
+honest of heart to buoy himself up into new hopes by assurances of the
+man's unfitness. What right had he to think that he could judge of that
+better than the girl herself? And so, when many many miles had been
+walked, he succeeded in conquering his own heart,--though in conquering
+it he crushed it,--and in bringing himself to the resolve that the
+energies of his life should be devoted to the task of making Mrs Paul
+Montague a happy woman. We have seen how he acted up to this resolve
+when last in London, withdrawing at any rate all signs of anger from
+Paul Montague and behaving with the utmost tenderness to Hetta.
+
+When he had accomplished that task of conquering his own heart and of
+assuring himself thoroughly that Hetta was to become his rival's wife,
+he was, I think, more at ease and less troubled in his spirit than he
+had been during these months in which there had still been doubt. The
+sort of happiness which he had once pictured to himself could
+certainly never be his. That he would never marry he was quite sure.
+Indeed he was prepared to settle Carbury on Hetta's eldest boy on
+condition that such boy should take the old name. He would never have
+a child whom he could in truth call his own. But if he could induce
+these people to live at Carbury, or to live there for at least a part
+of the year, so that there should be some life in the place, he
+thought that he could awaken himself again, and again take an interest
+in the property. But as a first step to this he must learn to regard
+himself as an old man,--as one who had let life pass by too far for
+the purposes of his own home, and who must therefore devote himself to
+make happy the homes of others.
+
+So thinking of himself and so resolving, he had told much of his story
+to his friend the Bishop, and as a consequence of those revelations
+Mrs Yeld had invited Hetta down to the palace. Roger felt that he had
+still much to say to his cousin before her marriage which could be
+said in the country much better than in town, and he wished to teach
+her to regard Suffolk as the county to which she should be attached
+and in which she was to find her home. The day before she came he was
+over at the palace with the pretence of asking permission to come and
+see his cousin soon after her arrival, but in truth with the idea of
+talking about Hetta to the only friend to whom he had looked for
+sympathy in his trouble. 'As to settling your property on her or her
+children,' said the Bishop, 'it is quite out of the question. Your
+lawyer would not allow you to do it. Where would you be if after all
+you were to marry?'
+
+'I shall never marry.'
+
+'Very likely not,--but yet you may. How is a man of your age to speak
+with certainty of what he will do or what he will not do in that
+respect? You can make your will, doing as you please with your
+property;--and the will, when made, can be revoked.'
+
+'I think you hardly understand just what I feel,' said Roger, 'and I
+know very well that I am unable to explain it. But I wish to act
+exactly as I would do if she were my daughter, and as if her son, if
+she had a son, would be my natural heir.'
+
+'But, if she were your daughter, her son wouldn't be your natural heir
+as long as there was a probability or even a chance that you might
+have a son of your own. A man should never put the power, which
+properly belongs to him, out of his own hands. If it does properly
+belong to you it must be better with you than elsewhere. I think very
+highly of your cousin, and I have no reason to think otherwise than
+well of the gentleman whom she intends to marry. But it is only human
+nature to suppose that the fact that your property is still at your
+own disposal should have some effect in producing the more complete
+observance of your wishes.'
+
+'I do not believe it in the least, my lord,' said Roger somewhat
+angrily.
+
+'That is because you are so carried away by enthusiasm at the present
+moment as to ignore the ordinary rules of life. There are not,
+perhaps, many fathers who have Regans and Gonerils for their
+daughters;--but there are very many who may take a lesson from the
+folly of the old king. "Thou hadst little wit in thy bald crown," the
+fool said to him, "when thou gav'st thy golden one away." The world, I
+take it, thinks that the fool was right.'
+
+The Bishop did so far succeed that Roger abandoned the idea of
+settling his property on Paul Montague's children. But he was not on
+that account the less resolute in his determination to make himself
+and his own interests subordinate to those of his cousin. When he came
+over, two days afterwards, to see her he found her in the garden, and
+walked there with her for a couple of hours. 'I hope all our troubles
+are over now,' he said smiling.
+
+'You mean about Felix,' said Hetta,--'and mamma?'
+
+'No, indeed. As to Felix I think that Lady Carbury has done the best
+thing in her power. No doubt she has been advised by Mr Broune, and Mr
+Broune seems to be a prudent man. And about your mother herself, I
+hope that she may now be comfortable. But I was not alluding to Felix
+and your mother. I was thinking of you--and of myself.'
+
+'I hope that you will never have any troubles.'
+
+'I have had troubles. I mean to speak very freely to you now, dear. I
+was nearly upset,--what I suppose people call broken-hearted,--when I
+was assured that you certainly would never become my wife. I ought not
+to have allowed myself to get into such a frame of mind. I should have
+known that I was too old to have a chance.'
+
+'Oh, Roger,--it was not that.'
+
+'Well,--that and other things. I should have known it sooner, and
+have got over my misery quicker. I should have been more manly and
+stronger. After all, though love is a wonderful incident in a man's
+life, it is not that only that he is here for. I have duties plainly
+marked out for me; and as I should never allow myself to be withdrawn
+from them by pleasure, so neither should I by sorrow. But it is done
+now. I have conquered my regrets, and I can say with safety that I
+look forward to your presence and Paul's presence at Carbury as the
+source of all my future happiness. I will make him welcome as though
+he were my brother, and you as though you were my daughter. All I ask
+of you is that you will not be chary of your presence there.' She only
+answered him by a close pressure on his arm. 'That is what I wanted to
+say to you. You will teach yourself to regard me as your best and
+closest friend,--as he on whom you have the strongest right to depend,
+of all,--except your husband?'
+
+'There is no teaching necessary for that,' she said.
+
+'As a daughter leans on a father I would have you lean on me, Hetta.
+You will soon come to find that I am very old. I grow old quickly, and
+already feel myself to be removed from everything that is young and
+foolish.'
+
+'You never were foolish.'
+
+'Nor young either, I sometimes think. But now you must promise me
+this. You will do all that you can to induce him to make Carbury his
+residence.'
+
+'We have no plans as yet at all, Roger.'
+
+'Then it will be certainly so much the easier for you to fall into my
+plan. Of course you will be married at Carbury?'
+
+'What will mamma say?'
+
+'She will come here, and I am sure will enjoy it. That I regard as
+settled. Then, after that, let this be your home,--so that you should
+learn really to care about and to love the place. It will be your home
+really, you know, some of these days. You will have to be Squire of
+Carbury yourself when I am gone, till you have a son old enough to
+fill that exalted position.' With all his love to her and his
+good-will to them both, he could not bring himself to say that Paul
+Montague should be Squire of Carbury.
+
+'Oh, Roger, please do not talk like that.'
+
+'But it is necessary, my dear. I want you to know what my wishes are,
+and, if it be possible, I would learn what are yours. My mind is quite
+made up as to my future life. Of course, I do not wish to dictate to
+you,--and if I did, I could not dictate to Mr Montague.'
+
+'Pray,--pray do not call him Mr Montague.'
+
+'Well, I will not;--to Paul then. There goes the last of my anger.' He
+threw his hands up as though he were scattering his indignation to the
+air. 'I would not dictate either to you or to him, but it is right
+that you should know that I hold my property as steward for those who
+are to come after me, and that the satisfaction of my stewardship will
+be infinitely increased if I find that those for whom I act share the
+interest which I shall take in the matter. It is the only payment
+which you and he can make me for my trouble.'
+
+'But Felix, Roger!'
+
+His brow became a little black as he answered her. 'To a sister,' he
+said very solemnly, 'I will not say a word against her brother; but on
+that subject I claim a right to come to a decision on my own judgment.
+It is a matter in which I have thought much, and, I may say, suffered
+much. I have ideas, old-fashioned ideas, on the matter, which I need
+not pause to explain to you now. If we are as much together as I hope
+we shall be, you will, no doubt, come to understand them. The
+disposition of a family property, even though it be one so small as
+mine, is, to my thinking, a matter which a man should not make in
+accordance with his own caprices,--or even with his own affections. He
+owes a duty to those who live on his land, and he owes a duty to his
+country. And, though it may seem fantastic to say so, I think he owes
+a duty to those who have been before him, and who have manifestly
+wished that the property should be continued in the hands of their
+descendants. These things are to me very holy. In what I am doing I am
+in some respects departing from the theory of my life,--but I do so
+under a perfect conviction that by the course I am taking I shall best
+perform the duties to which I have alluded. I do not think, Hetta,
+that we need say any more about that.' He had spoken so seriously,
+that, though she did not quite understand all that he had said, she
+did not venture to dispute his will any further. He did not endeavour
+to exact from her any promise, but having explained his purposes,
+kissed her as he would have kissed a daughter, and then left her and
+rode home without going into the house.
+
+Soon after that, Paul Montague came down to Carbury, and the same
+thing was said to him, though in a much less solemn manner. Paul was
+received quite in the old way. Having declared that he would throw all
+anger behind him, and that Paul should be again Paul, he rigidly kept
+his promise, whatever might be the cost to his own feelings. As to his
+love for Hetta, and his old hopes, and the disappointment which had so
+nearly unmanned him, he said not another word to his fortunate rival.
+Montague knew it all, but there was now no necessity that any allusion
+should be made to past misfortunes. Roger indeed made a solemn
+resolution that to Paul he would never again speak of Hetta as the
+girl whom he himself had loved, though he looked forward to a time,
+probably many years hence, when he might perhaps remind her of his
+fidelity. But he spoke much of the land and of the tenants and the
+labourers, of his own farm, of the amount of the income, and of the
+necessity of so living that the income might always be more than
+sufficient for the wants of the household.
+
+When the spring came round, Hetta and Paul were married by the Bishop
+at the parish church of Carbury, and Roger Carbury gave away the
+bride. All those who saw the ceremony declared that the squire had
+not seemed to be so happy for many a long year. John Crumb, who was
+there with his wife,--himself now one of Roger's tenants, having
+occupied the land which had become vacant by the death of old Daniel
+Ruggles,--declared that the wedding was almost as good fun as his own.
+'John, what a fool you are!' Ruby said to her spouse, when this
+opinion was expressed with rather a loud voice. 'Yes, I be,' said
+John,--'but not such a fool as to a missed a having o' you.' 'No, John;
+it was I was the fool then,' said Ruby. 'We'll see about that when
+the bairn's born,' said John,--equally aloud. Then Ruby held her
+tongue. Mrs Broune, and Mr Broune, were also at Carbury,--thus doing
+great honour to Mr and Mrs Paul Montague, and showing by their
+presence that all family feuds were at an end. Sir Felix was not
+there. Happily up to this time Mr Septimus Blake had continued to
+keep that gentleman as one of his Protestant population in the German
+town,--no doubt not without considerable trouble to himself.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE WAY WE LIVE NOW ***
+
+This file should be named 8wwlv12.txt or 8wwlv12.zip
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8wwlv13.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8wwlv12a.txt
+
+Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we usually do not
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance
+of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing.
+Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections,
+even years after the official publication date.
+
+Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.
+
+Most people start at our Web sites at:
+http://gutenberg.net or
+http://promo.net/pg
+
+These Web sites include award-winning information about Project
+Gutenberg, including how to donate, how to help produce our new
+eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter (free!).
+
+
+Those of you who want to download any eBook before announcement
+can get to them as follows, and just download by date.  This is
+also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the
+indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an
+announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter.
+
+http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext05 or
+ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext05
+
+Or /etext04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92,
+91 or 90
+
+Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want,
+as it appears in our Newsletters.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours
+to get any eBook selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.   Our
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If the value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour in 2002 as we release over 100 new text
+files per month:  1240 more eBooks in 2001 for a total of 4000+
+We are already on our way to trying for 2000 more eBooks in 2002
+If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total
+will reach over half a trillion eBooks given away by year's end.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away 1 Trillion eBooks!
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users.
+
+Here is the briefest record of our progress (* means estimated):
+
+eBooks Year Month
+
+    1  1971 July
+   10  1991 January
+  100  1994 January
+ 1000  1997 August
+ 1500  1998 October
+ 2000  1999 December
+ 2500  2000 December
+ 3000  2001 November
+ 4000  2001 October/November
+ 6000  2002 December*
+ 9000  2003 November*
+10000  2004 January*
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created
+to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+As of February, 2002, contributions are being solicited from people
+and organizations in: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut,
+Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois,
+Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts,
+Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New
+Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
+Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South
+Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West
+Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
+
+We have filed in all 50 states now, but these are the only ones
+that have responded.
+
+As the requirements for other states are met, additions to this list
+will be made and fund raising will begin in the additional states.
+Please feel free to ask to check the status of your state.
+
+In answer to various questions we have received on this:
+
+We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork to legally
+request donations in all 50 states.  If your state is not listed and
+you would like to know if we have added it since the list you have,
+just ask.
+
+While we cannot solicit donations from people in states where we are
+not yet registered, we know of no prohibition against accepting
+donations from donors in these states who approach us with an offer to
+donate.
+
+International donations are accepted, but we don't know ANYTHING about
+how to make them tax-deductible, or even if they CAN be made
+deductible, and don't have the staff to handle it even if there are
+ways.
+
+Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
+
+ PROJECT GUTENBERG LITERARY ARCHIVE FOUNDATION
+ 809 North 1500 West
+ Salt Lake City, UT 84116
+
+Contact us if you want to arrange for a wire transfer or payment
+method other than by check or money order.
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been approved by
+the US Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN
+[Employee Identification Number] 64-622154.  Donations are
+tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law.  As fund-raising
+requirements for other states are met, additions to this list will be
+made and fund-raising will begin in the additional states.
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+You can get up to date donation information online at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.net/donation.html
+
+
+***
+
+If you can't reach Project Gutenberg,
+you can always email directly to:
+
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message.
+
+We would prefer to send you information by email.
+
+
+**The Legal Small Print**
+
+
+(Three Pages)
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this eBook, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how
+you may distribute copies of this eBook if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS EBOOK
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+eBook, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this eBook by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from. If you received this eBook on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM EBOOKS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBooks,
+is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart
+through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project").
+Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this eBook
+under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market
+any commercial products without permission.
+
+To create these eBooks, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works. Despite these efforts, the Project's eBooks and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other eBook medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may
+receive this eBook from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm eBook) disclaims
+all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this eBook within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from. If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy. If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS EBOOK IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE EBOOK OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation,
+and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated
+with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
+texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including
+legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the
+following that you do or cause:  [1] distribution of this eBook,
+[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the eBook,
+or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this eBook electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     eBook or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this eBook in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word
+     processing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The eBook, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The eBook may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the eBook (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          eBook in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the eBook refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the
+     gross profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation"
+     the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were
+     legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent
+     periodic) tax return.  Please contact us beforehand to
+     let us know your plans and to work out the details.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of
+public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed
+in machine readable form.
+
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time,
+public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses.
+Money should be paid to the:
+"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or
+software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at:
+hart@pobox.com
+
+[Portions of this eBook's header and trailer may be reprinted only
+when distributed free of all fees.  Copyright (C) 2001, 2002 by
+Michael S. Hart.  Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be
+used in any sales of Project Gutenberg eBooks or other materials be
+they hardware or software or any other related product without
+express permission.]
+
+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END*
+