‘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...