‘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...