adillos of so great a man as Mr Melmotte. Mr
Longestaffe, the father, had heard nothing of the matter till the
Saturday after his last interview with 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 remember
what he had done with the letter unsigned. He believed he had left it
with the other papers; but it was possible that his son might have
taken it away. He acknowledged that at the time he had been both angry
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 Melmotte had occupied the house,--by
that gentleman's leave,--having left various papers there under his own
lock and key. Indeed it had been matter of agreement 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 made to Mr Longestaffe'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 pompous
style, that Mr Longestaffe, junior, was still prone to create
unsubstantial difficulties. Mr Bideawhile was obliged to confess that
there had been a want of caution among 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 away with 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 himself as
having been quite satisfied when the letter came again beneath his
notice with Dolly's well-known signature.

Such were the facts as far as they were known at Messrs. Slow and
Bideawhile's office,--from whom no slightest rumour emanated; and as
they had been in part collected by Squercum, who was probably less
prudent. The Bideawhiles were still perfectly sure that Dolly had
signed the letter, believing the young man to be quite incapable o