CHAPTER LXI.

LADY MONOGRAM PREPARES FOR THE PARTY.

When the little conversation took place between Lady Monogram and

Miss Longestaffe, as recorded in the last chapter, Mr. Melmotte

was in all his glory, and tickets for the entertainment were very

precious. Gradually their value subsided. Lady Monogram had paid very

dear for hers,--especially as the reception of Mr. Brehgert must be

considered. But high prices were then being paid. A lady offered to

take Marie Melmotte into the country with her for a week; but this

was before the elopement. Mr. Cohenlupe was asked out to dinner to

meet two peers and a countess. Lord Alfred received various presents.

A young lady gave a lock of her hair to Lord Nidderdale, although it

was known that he was to marry Marie Melmotte. And Miles Grendall got

back an I. O. U. of considerable nominal value from Lord Grasslough,

who was anxious to accommodate two country cousins who were in

London. Gradually the prices fell;--not at first from any doubt in

Melmotte, but through that customary reaction which may be expected

on such occasions. But at eight or nine o'clock on the evening of

the party the tickets were worth nothing. The rumour had then spread

itself through the whole town from Pimlico to Marylebone. Men coming

home from clubs had told their wives. Ladies who had been in the park

had heard it. Even the hairdressers had it, and ladies' maids had

been instructed by the footmen and grooms who had been holding horses

and seated on the coach-boxes. It had got into the air, and had

floated round dining-rooms and over toilet-tables.

I doubt whether Sir Damask would have said a word about it to his

wife as he was dressing for dinner, had he calculated what might

be the result to himself. But he came home open-mouthed, and made

no calculation. "Have you heard what's up, Ju?" he said, rushing

half-dressed into his wife's room.

[Illustration: "Have you heard what's up, Ju?"]

"What is up?"

"Haven't you been out?"

"I was shopping, and that kind of thing. I don't want to take that

girl into the Park. I've made a mistake in having her here, but I

mean to be seen with her as little as I can."

"Be good-natured, Ju, whatever you are."

"Oh, bother! I know what I'm about. What is it you mean?"

"They say Melmotte's been found out."

"Found out!" exclaimed Lady Monogram, stopping her maid in some

arrangement which would not need to be continued in the event of her

not going to the reception. "What do you mean by found out?"

"I don't know exactly. There are a dozen stories told. It's something

about that place he bought of old Longestaffe."

"Are the Longestaffes mixed up in it? I won't have her here a day

longer if there is anything against them."

"Don't be an ass, Ju. There's nothing against him except that the

poor old fellow hasn't got a shilling of his money."

"Then he's ruined,--and there's an end of them."

"Perhaps he will get it now. Some say that Melmotte has forged a

receipt, others a letter. Some declare that he has manufactured a

whole set of title-deeds. You remember Dolly?"

"Of course I know Dolly Longestaffe," said Lady Monogram, who had

thought at one time that an alliance with Dolly might be convenient.

"They say he has found it all out. There was always something about

Dolly more than fellows gave him credit for. At any rate, everybody

says that Melmotte will be in quod before long."

"Not to-night, Damask!"

"Nobody seems to know. Lupton was saying that the policemen would

wait about in the room like servants till the Emperor and the Princes

had gone away."

"Is Mr. Lupton going?"

"He was to have been at the dinner, but hadn't made up his mind

whether he'd go or not when I saw him. Nobody seems to be quite

certain whether the Emperor will go. Somebody said that a Cabinet

Council was to be called to know what to do."

"A Cabinet Council!"

"Why, you see it's rather an awkward thing, letting the Prince go to

dine with a man who perhaps may have been arrested and taken to gaol

before dinner-time. That's the worst part of it. Nobody knows."

Lady Monogram waved her attendant away. She piqued herself upon

having a French maid who could not speak a word of English, and was

therefore quite careless what she said in the woman's presence. But,

of course, everything she did say was repeated down-stairs in some

language that had become intelligible to the servants generally. Lady

Monogram sat motionless for some time, while her husband, retreating

to his own domain, finished his operations. "Damask," she said, when

he reappeared, "one thing is certain;--we can't go."

"After you've made such a fuss about it!"

"It is a pity,--having that girl here in the house. You know, don't

you, she's going to marry one of these people?"

"I heard about her marriage yesterday. But Brehgert isn't one of

Melmotte's set. They tell me that Brehgert isn't a bad fellow. A

vulgar cad, and all that, but nothing wrong about him."

"He's a Jew,--and he's seventy years old, and makes up horribly."

"What does it matter to you if he's eighty? You are determined, then,

you won't go?"

But Lady Monogram had by no means determined that she wouldn't go.

She had paid her price, and with that economy which sticks to a woman

always in the midst of her extravagances, she could not bear to lose

the thing that she had bought. She cared nothing for Melmotte's

villainy, as regarded herself. That he was enriching himself by the

daily plunder of the innocent she had taken for granted since she had

first heard of him. She had but a confused idea of any difference

between commerce and fraud. But it would grieve her greatly to

become known as one of an awkward squad of people who had driven to

the door, and perhaps been admitted to some wretched gathering of

wretched people,--and not, after all, to have met the Emperor and

the Prince. But then, should she hear on the next morning that the

Emperor and the Princes, that the Princesses, and the Duchesses,

with the Ambassadors, Cabinet Ministers, and proper sort of world

generally, had all been there,--that the world, in short, had ignored

Melmotte's villainy,--then would her grief be still greater. She sat

down to dinner with her husband and Miss Longestaffe, and could not

talk freely on the matter. Miss Longestaffe was still a guest of the

Melmottes, although she had transferred herself to the Monograms

for a day or two. And a horrible idea crossed Lady Monogram's mind.

What should she do with her friend Georgiana if the whole Melmotte

establishment were suddenly broken up? Of course, Madame Melmotte

would refuse to take the girl back if her husband were sent to gaol.

"I suppose you'll go," said Sir Damask as the ladies left the room.

"Of course we shall,--in about an hour," said Lady Monogram as

she left the room, looking round at him and rebuking him for his

imprudence.

"Because, you know--" and then he called her back. "If you want me

I'll stay, of course; but if you don't, I'll go down to the club."

"How can I say, yet? You needn't mind the club to-night."

"All right;--only it's a bore being here alone."

Then Miss Longestaffe asked what "was up." "Is there any doubt about

our going to-night?"

"I can't say. I'm so harassed that I don't know what I'm about. There

seems to be a report that the Emperor won't be there."

"Impossible!"

"It's all very well to say impossible, my dear," said Lady Monogram;

"but still that's what people are saying. You see Mr. Melmotte is a

very great man, but perhaps--something else has turned up, so that

he may be thrown over. Things of that kind do happen. You had better

finish dressing. I shall. But I shan't make sure of going till I hear

that the Emperor is there." Then she descended to her husband, whom

she found forlornly consoling himself with a cigar. "Damask," she

said, "you must find out."

"Find out what?"

"Whether the Prince and the Emperor are there."

"Send John to ask," suggested the husband.

"He would be sure to make a blunder about it. If you'd go yourself

you'd learn the truth in a minute. Have a cab,--just go into the hall

and you'll soon know how it all is;--I'd do it in a minute if I were

you." Sir Damask was the most good-natured man in the world, but he

did not like the job. "What can be the objection?" asked his wife.

"Go to a man's house and find out whether a man's guests are come

before you go yourself! I don't just see it, Ju."

"Guests! What nonsense! The Emperor and all the Royal Family! As if

it were like any other party. Such a thing, probably, never happened

before, and never will happen again. If you don't go, Damask, I

must; and I will." Sir Damask, after groaning and smoking for half

a minute, said that he would go. He made many remonstrances. It was

a confounded bore. He hated emperors and he hated princes. He hated

the whole box and dice of that sort of thing! He "wished to goodness"

that he had dined at his club and sent word up home that the affair

was to be off. But at last he submitted, and allowed his wife to

leave the room with the intention of sending for a cab. The cab was

sent for and announced, but Sir Damask would not stir till he had

finished his big cigar.

It was past ten when he left his own house. On arriving in Grosvenor

Square he could at once see that the party was going on. The house

was illuminated. There was a concourse of servants round the door,

and half the square was already blocked up with carriages. It was

not without delay that he got to the door, and when there he saw the

royal liveries. There was no doubt about the party. The Emperor and

the Princes and the Princesses were all there. As far as Sir Damask

could then perceive, the dinner had been quite a success. But again

there was a delay in getting away, and it was nearly eleven before

he could reach home. "It's all right," said he to his wife. "They're

there, safe enough."

"You are sure that the Emperor is there."

"As sure as a man can be without having seen him."

Miss Longestaffe was present at this moment, and could not but resent

what appeared to be a most unseemly slur cast upon her friends. "I

don't understand it at all," she said. "Of course the Emperor is

there. Everybody has known for the last month that he was coming.

What is the meaning of it, Julia?"

"My dear, you must allow me to manage my own little affairs my own

way. I dare say I am absurd. But I have my reason. Now, Damask, if

the carriage is there we had better start." The carriage was there,

and they did start, and with a delay which seemed unprecedented, even

to Lady Monogram, who was accustomed to these things, they reached

the door. There was a great crush in the hall, and people were coming

down-stairs. But at last they made their way into the room above,

and found that the Emperor of China and all the Royalties had been

there,--but had taken their departure.

Sir Damask put the ladies into the carriage and went at once to his

club.