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'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.
'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 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.
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.
'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.
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.
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.
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.
Perhaps it was well that he should inwardly suffer when injured. But it could not be well that he should declare to such men as Nidderdale, and Dolly Longstaff, and Popplecourt that he didn't mean to put up with that sort of thing. He certainly should not have spoken in this strain before Tregear. Of all men living he hated and feared him the most.
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.
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