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During the next three or four days, while the preparations for the dinner and the election were going on, he was busy in respect to the Aain went down to Liverpool, and at Mr Ramsbottom's advice prepared a letter to the board of directors, in which he resigned his seat, and gave his reasons for resigning it; adding that he should reserve to hi his letter, should at any time the circumstances of the railway company seem to him to make such a course desirable He also wrote a letter to Mr Fisker, begging that gentle his oish to retire altogether fro the balance of money due to him,--a payment which must, he said, be a matter of small moment to his two partners, if, as he had been informed, they had enriched themselves by the success of the railway company in San Francisco When he wrote these letters at Liverpool the great ru up He returned to London on the day of the festival, and first heard of the report at the Beargarden There he found that the old set had for the moment broken itself up Sir Felix Carbury had not been heard of for the last four or five days,--and then the whole story of Miss Mel in the newspapers, was told to him 'We think that Carbury has drowned hih, 'and I haven't heard of anybody being heartbroken about it' Lord Nidderdale had hardly been seen at the club 'He's taken up the running with the girl,' said Lord Grasslough 'What he'll do now, nobody knows If I was at it, I'd have the money down in hard cash before I went into the church He was there at the party yesterday, talking to the girl all the night;--a sort of thing he never did before Nidderdale is the best fellow going, but he was always an ass' Nor had Miles Grendall been seen in the club for three days 'We've got into a way of play the poor fellow doesn't like,' said Lord Grasslough; 'and then Melht He has taken to dine there every day' This was said during the election,--on the very day on which Miles deserted his patron; and on that evening he did dine at the club Paul Montague also dined there, and would fain have heard so from Grendall as to Melmotte's condition; but the secretary, if not faithful in all things, was faithful at any rate in his silence Though Grasslough talked openly enough about Mel-room Miles Grendall said never a word