alterations had been confided to another contractor, and
his foreman was waiting to see the place locked up. A confidential
clerk, who had been with Melmotte for years, and who knew his ways,
was there also to guard the property. 'Good night, Croll,' he said to
the man in German. Croll touched his hat and bade him good night.
Melmotte listened anxiously to the tone of the man's voice, trying to
catch from it some indication of the mind within. Did Croll know of
these rumours, and if so, what did he think of them? Croll had known
him in some perilous circumstances before, and had helped him through
them. He paused a moment as though he would ask a question, but
resolved at last that silence would be safest. 'You'll see everything
safe, eh, Croll?' Croll said that he would see everything safe, and
Melmotte passed out into the Square.

He had not far to go, round through Berkeley Square into Bruton
Street, but he stood for a few moments looking up at the bright stars.
If he could be there, in one of those unknown distant worlds, with all
his present intellect and none of his present burdens, he would, he
thought, do better than he had done here on earth. If he could even
now put himself down nameless, fameless, and without possessions in
some distant corner of the world, he could, he thought, do better. But
he was Augustus Melmotte, and he must bear his burdens, whatever they
were, to the end. He could reach no place so distant but that he would
be known and traced.

CHAPTER LXIII - MR MELMOTTE ON THE DAY OF THE ELECTION

No election of a Member of Parliament by ballot in a borough so large
as that of Westminster had as yet been achieved in England since the
ballot had been established by law. Men who heretofore had known, or
thought that they knew, how elections would go, who counted up
promises, told off professed enemies, and weighed the doubtful ones,
now confessed themselves to be in the dark. Three days since the odds
had been considerably in Melmotte's favour; but this had come from the
reputation attached to his name, rather than from any calculation as
to the politics of the voters. Then Sunday had intervened. On the
Monday Melmotte's name had continued to go down in the betting from
morning to evening. Early in the day his supporters had thought little
of this, attributing the fall to that vacillation which is customary
in such matters; but towards the latter part of the afternoon the
tidings from the