When Mr Melmotte made his promise to Mr Longestaffe and to Dolly, in the presence of Mr Bideawhile, that he would, on the next day but one, pay to them a sum of fifty thousand pounds, thereby completing, satisfactorily as far as they were concerned, the purchase of the Pickering property, he intended to be as good as his word.  The reader knows that he had resolved to face the Longestaffe difficulty,—­that he had resolved that at any rate he would not get out of it by sacrificing the property to which he had looked forward as a safe haven when storms should come.  But, day by day, every resolution that he made was forced to undergo some change.  Latterly he had been intent on purchasing a noble son-in-law with this money,—­still trusting to the chapter of chances for...