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...