give this up for the good of his family. He would be contented to
drag through long listless days at Caversham, and endeavour to nurse
his property, if only his daughter would allow it. By assuming a
certain pomp in his living, which had been altogether unserviceable to
himself and family, by besmearing his footmen's heads, and bewigging
his coachmen, by aping, though never achieving, the grand ways of
grander men than himself, he had run himself into debt. His own
ambition had been a peerage, and he had thought that this was the way
to get it. A separate property had come to his son from his wife's
mother,--some L2,000 or L3,000 a year, magnified by the world into
double its amount,--and the knowledge of this had for a time reconciled
him to increasing the burdens on the family estates. He had been sure
that Adolphus, when of age, would have consented to sell the Sussex
property in order that the Suffolk property might be relieved. But
Dolly was now in debt himself, and though in other respects the most
careless of men, was always on his guard in any dealings with his
father. He would not consent to the sale of the Sussex property unless
half of the proceeds were to be at once handed to himself. The father
could not bring himself to consent to this, but, while refusing it,
found the troubles of the world very hard upon him. Melmotte had done
something for him,--but in doing this Melmotte was very hard and
tyrannical. Melmotte, when at Caversham, had looked into his affairs,
and had told him very plainly that with such an establishment in the
country he was not entitled to keep a house in town. Mr Longestaffe
had then said something about his daughters,--something especially about
Georgiana,--and Mr Melmotte had made a suggestion.

Mr Longestaffe, when he read his daughter's appeal, did feel for her,
in spite of his anger. But if there was one man he hated more than
another, it was his neighbour Mr Primero; and if one woman, it was Mrs
Primero. Primero, whom Mr Longestaffe regarded as quite an upstart,
and anything but a gentleman, owed no man anything. He paid his
tradesmen punctually, and never met the squire of Caversham without
seeming to make a parade of his virtue in that direction. He had spent
many thousands for his party in county elections and borough
elections, and was now himself member for a metropolitan district. He
was a radical, of course, or, according to Mr Longestaffe's view of
his political conduct,