no remedy. The blow had come upon
him too suddenly, and he had faltered. But he would not falter again.
Nothing should cow him,--no touch from a policeman, no warrant from a
magistrate, no defalcation of friends, no scorn in the City, no
solitude in the West End. He would go down among the electors to-morrow
and would stand his ground, as though all with him were right. Men
should know at any rate that he had a heart within his bosom. And he
confessed also to himself that he had sinned in that matter of
arrogance. He could see it now,--as so many of us do see the faults
which we have committed, which we strive, but in vain, to discontinue,
and which we never confess except to our own bosoms. The task which he
had imposed on himself, and to which circumstances had added weight,
had been very hard to bear. He should have been good-humoured to
these great ones whose society he had gained. He should have bound
these people to him by a feeling of kindness as well as by his money.
He could see it all now. And he could see too that there was no help
for spilt milk. I think he took some pride in his own confidence as to
his own courage, as he stood there turning it all over in his mind.
Very much might be suspected. Something might be found out. But the
task of unravelling it all would not be easy. It is the small vermin
and the little birds that are trapped at once. But wolves and vultures
can fight hard before they are caught. With the means which would
still be at his command, let the worst come to the worst, he could
make a strong fight. When a man's frauds have been enormous there is a
certain safety in their very diversity and proportions. Might it not
be that the fact that these great ones of the earth had been his
guests should speak in his favour? A man who had in very truth had the
real brother of the Sun dining at his table could hardly be sent into
the dock and then sent out of it like a common felon.

Madame Melmotte during the evening stood at the top of her own stairs
with a chair behind her on which she could rest herself for a moment
when any pause took place in the arrivals. She had of course dined at
the table,--or rather sat there;--but had been so placed that no duty
had devolved upon her. She had heard no word of the rumours, and would
probably be the last person in that house to hear them. It never
occurred to her to see whether the places down the table were full or
empty. She sat with her large eyes fix