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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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