ll declared that he knew nothing
about the matter, and settled himself down to his work.

In little more than two hours he was followed by Melmotte, who thus
reached the City late in the afternoon. It was he knew too late to
raise the money on that day, but he hoped that he might pave the way
for getting it on the next day, which would be Thursday. Of course the
first news which he heard was of the defection of Mr Cohenlupe. It was
Croll who told him. He turned back, and his jaw fell, but at first he
said nothing.

'It's a bad thing,' said Mr Croll.

'Yes;--it is bad. He had a vast amount of my property in his hands.
Where has he gone?' Croll shook his head. 'It never rains but it
pours,' said Melmotte. 'Well; I'll weather it all yet. I've been worse
than I am now, Croll, as you know, and have had a hundred thousand
pounds at my banker's,--loose cash,--before the month was out.'

'Yes, indeed,' said Croll.

'But the worst of it is that every one around me is so damnably
jealous. It isn't what I've lost that will crush me, but what men will
say that I've lost. Ever since I began to stand for Westminster there
has been a dead set against me in the City. The whole of that affair
of the dinner was planned,--planned, by G----, that it might ruin me.
It was all laid out just as you would lay the foundation of a building.
It is hard for one man to stand against all that when he has dealings
so large as mine.'

'Very hard, Mr Melmotte.'

'But they'll find they're mistaken yet. There's too much of the real
stuff, Croll, for them to crush me. Property's a kind of thing that
comes out right at last. It's cut and come again, you know, if the
stuff is really there. But I mustn't stop talking here. I suppose I
shall find Brehgert in Cuthbert's Court.'

'I should say so, Mr Melmotte. Mr Brehgert never leaves much before
six.'

Then Mr Melmotte took his hat and gloves, and the stick that he
usually carried, and went out with his face carefully dressed in its
usually jaunty air. But Croll as he went heard him mutter the name of
Cohenlupe between his teeth. The part which he had to act is one very
difficult to any actor. The carrying an external look of indifference
when the heart is sinking within,--or has sunk almost to the very
ground,--is more than difficult; it is an agonizing task. In all mental
suffering the sufferer longs for solitude,--for permission to cast
himself loose along the ground, so that every limb and ever