derbolt was not yet to fall.

'Mr Brehgert came to me,' continued Croll, 'because one signature was
wanting. It was very late, so I took them home with me. I said I'd
bring them to you in the morning.'

They both knew that he had forged the documents, Brehgert and Croll;
but how would that concern him, Melmotte, if these two friends had
resolved together that they would not expose him? He had desired to
get the documents back into his own hands, and here they were!
Melmotte's immediate trouble arose from the difficulty of speaking in
a proper manner to his own servant who had just detected him in
forgery. He couldn't speak. There were no words appropriate to such an
occasion. 'It vas a strong order, Mr Melmotte,' said Croll. Melmotte
tried to smile but only grinned. 'I vill not be back in the Lane, Mr
Melmotte.'

'Not back at the office, Croll?'

'I tink not;--no. De leetle money coming to me, you will send it.
Adieu.' And so Mr Croll took his final leave of his old master after
an intercourse which had lasted twenty years. We may imagine that Herr
Croll found his spirits to be oppressed and his capacity for business
to be obliterated by his patron's misfortunes rather than by his
patron's guilt. But he had not behaved unkindly. He had merely
remarked that the forgery of his own name half-a-dozen times over was
a 'strong order.'

Melmotte opened the bag, and examined the documents one by one. It had
been necessary that Marie should sign her name some half-dozen times,
and Marie's father had made all the necessary forgeries. It had been
of course necessary that each name should be witnessed;--but here the
forger had scamped his work. Croll's name he had written five times;
but one forged signature he had left unattested! Again he had himself
been at fault. Again he had aided his own ruin by his own
carelessness. One seems inclined to think sometimes that any fool
might do an honest business. But fraud requires a man to be alive and
wide awake at every turn!

Melmotte had desired to have the documents back in his own hands, and
now he had them. Did it matter much that Brehgert and Croll both knew
the crime which he had committed? Had they meant to take legal steps
against him they would not have returned the forgeries to his own
hands. Brehgert, he thought, would never tell the tale;--unless there
should arise some most improbable emergency in which he might make
money by telling it; but he was by no means so sure