But there would still be that ample fortune on which
to retire and eat and drink and make merry for the rest of his days.

Then there came annoying complications in his affairs. What had been
so easy in reference to that letter which Dolly Longestaffe never
would have signed, was less easy but still feasible in another matter.
Under the joint pressure of immediate need, growing ambition, and
increasing audacity it had been done. Then the rumours that were
spread abroad,--which to Melmotte were serious indeed,--they named, at
any rate in reference to Dolly Longestaffe, the very thing that had
been done. Now if that, or the like of that, were brought actually home
to him, if twelve jurymen could be got to say that he had done that
thing, of what use then would be all that money? When that fear arose,
then there arose also the question whether it might not be well to use
the money to save him from such ruin, if it might be so used. No doubt
all danger in that Longestaffe affair might be bought off by payment
of the price stipulated for the Pickering property. Neither would
Dolly Longestaffe nor Squercum, of whom Mr Melmotte had already heard,
concern himself in this matter if the money claimed were paid. But
then the money would be as good as wasted by such a payment, if, as he
firmly believed, no sufficient evidence could be produced to prove the
thing which he had done.

But the complications were so many! Perhaps in his admiration for the
country of his adoption Mr Melmotte had allowed himself to attach
higher privileges to the British aristocracy than do in truth belong
to them. He did in his heart believe that could he be known to all the
world as the father-in-law of the eldest son of the Marquis of Auld
Reekie he would become, not really free of the law, but almost safe
from its fangs in regard to such an affair as this. He thought he
could so use the family with which he would be connected as to force
from it that protection which he would need. And then again, if he
could tide over this bad time, how glorious would it be to have a
British Marquis for his son-in-law! Like many others he had failed
altogether to inquire when the pleasure to himself would come, or what
would be its nature. But he did believe that such a marriage would add
a charm to his life. Now he knew that Lord Nidderdale could not be got
to marry his daughter without the positive assurance of absolute
property, but he did think that the income w