ng
too of his triumphs;--how he had had this fellow bowled over in
punishment for some contradiction, and that man snuffed out for daring
to be an enemy. And he expatiated on his own virtues, his justice and
clemency. Ah,--if men and women only knew his good nature and his
patriotism;--how he had spared the rod here, how he had made the fortune
of a man there, how he had saved the country millions by the
steadiness of his adherence to some grand truth! Lady Carbury
delighted in all this and repaid him by flattery, and little
confidences of her own. Under his teaching she had almost made up her
mind to give up Mr Alf. Of nothing was Mr Broune more certain than
that Mr Alf was making a fool of himself in regard to the Westminster
election and those attacks on Melmotte. 'The world of London generally
knows what it is about,' said Mr Broune, 'and the London world
believes Mr Melmotte to be sound. I don't pretend to say that he has
never done anything that he ought not to do. I am not going into his
antecedents. But he is a man of wealth, power, and genius, and Alf will
get the worst of it.' Under such teaching as this, Lady Carbury was
almost obliged to give up Mr Alf.

Sometimes they would sit in the front room with Hetta, to whom also Mr
Broune had become attached; but sometimes Lady Carbury would be in her
own sanctum. On this evening she received him there, and at once
poured forth all her troubles about Felix. On this occasion she told
him everything, and almost told him everything truly. He had already
heard the story. 'The young lady went down to Liverpool, and Sir Felix
was not there.'

'He could not have been there. He has been in bed in this house all
day. Did she go?'

'So I am told;--and was met at the station by the senior officer of the
police at Liverpool, who brought her back to London without letting
her go down to the ship at all. She must have thought that her lover
was on board;--probably thinks so now. I pity her.'

'How much worse it would have been, had she been allowed to start,'
said Lady Carbury.

'Yes; that would have been bad. She would have had a sad journey to
New York, and a sadder journey back. Has your son told you anything
about money?'

'What money?'

'They say that the girl entrusted him with a large sum which she had
taken from her father. If that be so he certainly ought to lose no
time in restoring it. It might be done through some friend. I would do
it, for that matter. If