t kind of thing. I don't want to take that
girl into the Park. I've made a mistake in having her here, but I mean
to be seen with her as little as I can.'

'Be good-natured, Ju, whatever you are.'

'Oh, bother! I know what I'm about. What is it you mean?'

'They say Melmotte's been found out.'

'Found out!' exclaimed Lady Monogram, stopping her maid in some
arrangement which would not need to be continued in the event of her
not going to the reception. 'What do you mean by found out?'

'I don't know exactly. There are a dozen stories told. It's something
about that place he bought of old Longestaffe.'

'Are the Longestaffes mixed up in it? I won't have her here a day
longer if there is anything against them.'

'Don't be an ass, Ju. There's nothing against him except that the poor
old fellow hasn't got a shilling of his money.'

'Then he's ruined,--and there's an end of them.'

'Perhaps he will get it now. Some say that Melmotte has forged a
receipt, others a letter. Some declare that he has manufactured a
whole set of title-deeds. You remember Dolly?'

'Of course I know Dolly Longestaffe,' said Lady Monogram, who had
thought at one time that an alliance with Dolly might be convenient.

'They say he has found it all out. There was always something about
Dolly more than fellows gave him credit for. At any rate, everybody
says that Melmotte will be in quod before long.'

'Not to-night, Damask!'

'Nobody seems to know. Lupton was saying that the policemen would wait
about in the room like servants till the Emperor and the Princes had
gone away.'

'Is Mr Lupton going?'

'He was to have been at the dinner, but hadn't made up his mind
whether he'd go or not when I saw him. Nobody seems to be quite
certain whether the Emperor will go. Somebody said that a Cabinet
Council was to be called to know what to do.'

'A Cabinet Council!'

'Why, you see it's rather an awkward thing, letting the Prince go to
dine with a man who perhaps may have been arrested and taken to gaol
before dinnertime. That's the worst part of it. Nobody knows.'

Lady Monogram waved her attendant away. She piqued herself upon having
a French maid who could not speak a word of English, and was therefore
quite careless what she said in the woman's presence. But, of course,
everything she did say was repeated downstairs in some language that
had become intelligible to the servants generally. Lady Monogram sat
motionless for some time, while h