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It was certainly true that Squercum himself had seen the letter in Mr Bideawhile's office which conveyed to the father's lawyer the son's sanction for the surrender of the title-deeds, and that that letter, prepared in Mr Bideawhile's office, purported to have Dolly's signature Squercu that his client was not always clear in theBut the signature, though it was scrawled as Dolly always scrawled it, was not like the scrawl of a drunken man

The letter was said to have been sent to Mr Bideawhile's office with other letters and papers, direct froestaffe Such was the statement made at first to Mr Squercum by the Bideawhile party, who at that enuineness of the letter or of the accuracy of their stateain, and returned to the charge at Bideawhile's office, with the positive assurance that the signature was a forgery Dolly, when questioned by Squercuht' He had no reticence, no feeling of disgrace on such ht 'Never did such a thing incould ht except at the club, and the letter couldn't have been there I'll be drawn and quartered if I ever signed it That's flat' Dolly was intent on going to his father at once, on going to Mel there 'no end of a row,'--but Squercu out quietly,' said Squercuh honour in discovering the peccadillos of so great a estaffe, the father, had heard nothing of the matter till the Saturday after his last intervieith Melmotte in the City He had then called at Bideawhile's office in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and had been shown the letter He declared at once that he had never sent the letter to Mr Bideawhile He had begged his son to sign the letter and his son had refused He did not at that moment distinctly rened He believed he had left it with the other papers; but it was possible that his son ed that at the tiry and unhappy He didn't think that he could have sent the letter back unsigned,--but he was not sure He had more than once been in his own study in Bruton Street since Mr Melentle left various papers there under his own lock and key Indeed it had been reement that he should have access to his own study when he let the house He thought it probable that he would have kept back the unsigned letter, and have kept it under lock and key, when he sent away the other papers Then reference was estaffe's own letter to the lawyer, and it was found that he had not even alluded to that which his son had been asked to sign; but that he had said, in his own usually poestaffe, junior, was still prone to create unsubstantial difficulties Mr Bideawhile was obliged to confess that there had been a want of caution a his own people This allusion to the creation of difficulties by Dolly, accompanied, as it was supposed to have been, by Dolly's letter doing aith all difficulties, should have attracted notice Dolly's letter must have come in a separate envelope; but such envelope could not be found, and the circumstance was not remembered by the clerk The clerk who had prepared the letter for Dolly's signature represented hiain beneath his notice with Dolly's well-known signature