Could it be possible that he and John Crumb were of the same order of human beings?  But how was this to go on?  Even Mrs Pipkin made disagreeable allusions, and she could not live always with Mrs Pipkin, coming out at nights to drink brandy and water and hear music with Sir Felix Carbury.  She was glad therefore to take the first opportunity of telling her lover that something was going to happen.  ‘Who do you suppose was at our place yesterday?’

Sir Felix changed colour, thinking of Marie Melmotte, thinking that perhaps some emissary from Marie Melmotte had been there; perhaps Didon herself.  He was amusing himself during these last evenings of his in London; but the business of his life was about to take him to New York.  That project was still being elaborated.  He had...