city recommended itself to him,
and this was the boldest stroke. Marie had now said that she would
accept Nidderdale,--or the sweep at the crossing.

On Monday morning,--it was on the preceding Thursday that he had made
his famous speech in Parliament,--one of the Bideawhiles had come to
him in the City. He had told Mr Bideawhile that all the world knew that
just at the present moment money was very 'tight' in the City. 'We are
not asking for payment of a commercial debt,' said Mr Bideawhile, 'but
for the price of a considerable property which you have purchased.' Mr
Melmotte had suggested that the characteristics of the money were the
same, let the sum in question have become due how it might. Then he
offered to make the payment in two bills at three and six months'
date, with proper interest allowed. But this offer Mr Bideawhile
scouted with indignation, demanding that the title-deeds might be
restored to them.

'You have no right whatever to demand the title-deeds,' said Melmotte.
'You can only claim the sum due, and I have already told you how I
propose to pay it.'

Mr Bideawhile was nearly beside himself with dismay. In the whole
course of his business, in all the records of the very respectable
firm to which he belonged, there had never been such a thing as this.
Of course Mr Longestaffe had been the person to blame,--so at least
all the Bideawhiles declared among themselves. He had been so anxious
to have dealings with the man of money that he had insisted that the
title-deeds should be given up. But then the title-deeds had not been
his to surrender. The Pickering estate had been the joint property of
him and his son. The house had been already pulled down, and now the
purchaser offered bills in lieu of the purchase money! 'Do you mean to
tell me, Mr Melmotte, that you have not got the money to pay for what
you have bought, and that nevertheless the title-deeds have already
gone out of your hands?'

'I have property to ten times the value, twenty times the value,
thirty times the value,' said Melmotte proudly; 'but you must know I
should think by this time that a man engaged in large affairs cannot
always realise such a sum as eighty thousand pounds at a day's notice.'
Mr Bideawhile without using language that was absolutely vituperative
gave Mr Melmotte to understand that he thought that he and his client
had been robbed, and that he should at once take whatever severest
steps the law put in his power. As