be any
more compromising.'

Squercum made one or two further remarks to his client, not at all
flattering to Dolly's vanity,--which might have caused offence had not
there been such perfectly good feeling between the attorney and the
young man. As it was, Dolly replied to everything that was said with
increased flattery. 'If I was a sharp fellow like you, you know,' said
Dolly, 'of course I should get along better; but I ain't, you know.'
It was then settled that they should meet each other, and also meet Mr
Longestaffe senior, Bideawhile, and Melmotte, at twelve o'clock on
Friday morning in Bruton Street.

Squercum was by no means satisfied. He had busied himself in this
matter, and had ferreted things out, till he had pretty nearly got to
the bottom of that affair about the houses in the East, and had
managed to induce the heirs of the old man who had died to employ him.
As to the Pickering property he had not a doubt on the subject. Old
Longestaffe had been induced by promises of wonderful aid and by the
bribe of a seat at the Board of the South Central Pacific and Mexican
Railway to give up the title-deeds of the property,--as far as it was
in his power to give them up; and had endeavoured to induce Dolly to
do so also. As he had failed, Melmotte had supplemented his work by
ingenuity, with which the reader is acquainted. All this was perfectly
clear to Squercum, who thought that he saw before him a most
attractive course of proceeding against the Great Financier. It was
pure ambition rather than any hope of lucre that urged him on. He
regarded Melmotte as a grand swindler,--perhaps the grandest that the
world had ever known,--and he could conceive no greater honour than the
detection, successful prosecution, and ultimate destroying of so great
a man. To have hunted down Melmotte would make Squercum as great
almost as Melmotte himself. But he felt himself to have been unfairly
hampered by his own client. He did not believe that the money would be
paid; but delay might rob him of his Melmotte. He had heard a good
many things in the City, and believed it to be quite out of the
question that Melmotte should raise the money,--but there were various
ways in which a man might escape.

It may be remembered that Croll, the German clerk, preceded
Melmotte into the City on Wednesday after Marie's refusal to sign
the deeds. He, too, had his eyes open, and had perceived that
things were not looking as well as they used to