still was, a widow, one Mrs Hurtle, whom he had been
desperately anxious to marry before his second journey to California;--
but the marriage had been prevented by the interference of Roger
Carbury.

CHAPTER VII - MENTOR

Lady Carbury's desire for a union between Roger and her daughter was
greatly increased by her solicitude in respect to her son. Since
Roger's offer had first been made, Felix had gone on from bad to
worse, till his condition had become one of hopeless embarrassment. If
her daughter could but be settled in the world, Lady Carbury said to
herself, she could then devote herself to the interests of her son.
She had no very clear idea of what that devotion would be. But she did
know that she had paid so much money for him, and would have so much
more extracted from her, that it might well come to pass that she
would be unable to keep a home for her daughter. In all these troubles
she constantly appealed to Roger Carbury for advice,--which, however,
she never followed. He recommended her to give up her house in town,
to find a home for her daughter elsewhere, and also for Felix if he
would consent to follow her. Should he not so consent, then let the
young man bear the brunt of his own misdoings. Doubtless, when he
could no longer get bread in London he would find her out. Roger was
always severe when he spoke of the baronet,--or seemed to Lady Carbury
to be severe.

But, in truth, she did not ask for advice in order that she might
follow it. She had plans in her head with which she knew that Roger
would not sympathise. She still thought that Sir Felix might bloom and
burst out into grandeur, wealth, and fashion, as the husband of a
great heiress, and in spite of her son's vices, was proud of him in
that anticipation. When he succeeded in obtaining from her money, as
in the case of that L20,--when, with brazen-faced indifference to her
remonstrances, he started off to his club at two in the morning, when
with impudent drollery he almost boasted of the hopelessness of his
debts, a sickness of heart would come upon her, and she would weep
hysterically, and lie the whole night without sleeping. But could he
marry Miss Melmotte, and thus conquer all his troubles by means of his
own personal beauty,--then she would be proud of all that had passed.
With such a condition of mind Roger Carbury could have no sympathy. To
him it seemed that a gentleman was disgraced who owed money to a
tradesman which he