Lord Nidderdale answered this question by another.  ’I suppose all this about Miss Melmotte is true?’

‘She did go off yesterday morning,’ said Miles, in a whisper.

‘But Carbury wasn’t with her.’

’Well, no;—­I suppose not.  He seems to have mulled it.  He’s such a d——­ brute, he’d be sure to go wrong whatever he had in hand.’

’You don’t like him, of course, Miles.  For that matter I’ve no reason to love him.  He couldn’t have gone.  He staggered out of the club yesterday morning at four o’clock as drunk as Cloe.  He’d lost a pot of money, and had been kicking up a row about you for the...