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Others had tried and had broken down soirl as an encureat price But as affairs prospered with the Melmottes, as princes and duchesses were obtained by other means,--costly no doubt, but not so ruinously costly,--the immediate disposition of Marie becairl herself, too, began to have an opinion It was said that she had absolutely rejected Lord Grasslough, whose father indeed was in a state of bankruptcy, who had no incoly, vicious, ill-teirl She had had experience since Lord Nidderdale, with a half laugh, had told her that he ht just as well take her for his wife, and was now tempted from time to time to contemplate her own happiness and her own condition People around were beginning to say that if Sir Felix Carbury ht be the happy man

There was a considerable doubt whether Marie was the daughter of that Jewish-looking woman Enquiries had been made, but not successfully, as to the date of the Melot his first o Then other people said that Marie was not his daughter at all Altogether the mystery was rather pleasant as the money was certain Of the certainty of the money in daily use there could be no doubt There was the house There was the furniture There were the carriages, the horses, the servants with the livery coats and powdered heads, and the servants with the black coats and unpowdered heads There were the ges that money can buy There were two dinner parties every day, one at two o'clock called lunch, and the other at eight The tradesh to be quite free of doubt, and in the City Mr Melh his character was perhaps worth but little

The large house on the south side of Grosvenor Square was all ablaze by ten o'clock The broad verandah had been turned into a conservatory, had been covered with boards contrived to look like trellis-work, was heated with hot air and filled with exotics at some fabulous price A covered way had been made from the door, down across the pathway, to the road, and the police had, I fear, been bribed to frighten foot passengers into a belief that they were bound to go round The house had been so arranged that it was impossible to knohere you were, when once in it The hall was a paradise The staircase was fairyland The lobbies were grottoes rich with ferns