’I suppose it will make no difference to you whether your chairman be in Parliament or not?’ Paul said that Melmotte was no longer a chairman of his.  ‘Are you out of it altogether, Mr Montague?’ Yes;—­as far as it lay within his power to be out of it, he was out of it.  He did not like Mr Melmotte, nor believe in him.  Then with considerable warmth he repudiated all connection with the Melmotte party, expressing deep regret that circumstances had driven him for a time into that alliance.  ‘Then you think that Mr Melmotte is—?’

‘Just a scoundrel;—­that’s all.’

‘You heard about Felix?’

’Of course I heard that he was to marry the girl, and that he tried to run off with...