Miles Grendall and to Melmotte. To the
former he said he was going out of town,--probably for some time, and
he must really ask for a cheque for the amount due. He went on to
remark that he could hardly suppose that a nephew of the Duke of Albury
was unable to pay debts of honour to the amount of L200;--but that if
such was the case he would have no alternative but to apply to the
Duke himself. The reader need hardly be told that to this letter Mr
Grendall vouchsafed no answer whatever. In his letter to Mr Melmotte
he confined himself to one matter of business in hand. He made no
allusion whatever to Marie, or to the great man's anger, or to his
seat at the board. He simply reminded Mr Melmotte that there was a sum
of L600 still due to him, and requested that a cheque might be sent to
him for that amount. Melmotte's answer to this was not altogether
unsatisfactory, though it was not exactly what Sir Felix had wished. A
clerk from Mr Melmotte's office called at the house in Welbeck Street,
and handed to Felix railway scrip in the South Central Pacific and
Mexican Railway to the amount of the sum claimed,--insisting on a full
receipt for the money before he parted with the scrip. The clerk went
on to explain, on behalf of his employer, that the money had been left
in Mr Melmotte's hands for the purpose of buying these shares. Sir
Felix, who was glad to get anything, signed the receipt and took the
scrip. This took place on the day after the balloting at Westminster,
when the result was not yet known,--and when the shares in the railway
were very low indeed. Sir Felix had asked as to the value of the
shares at the time. The clerk professed himself unable to quote the
price,--but there were the shares if Sir Felix liked to take them. Of
course he took them;--and hurrying off into the City found that they
might perhaps be worth about half the money due to him. The broker to
whom he showed them could not quite answer for anything. Yes;--the
scrip had been very high; but there was a panic. They might recover,--
or, more probably, they might go to nothing. Sir Felix cursed the Great
Financier aloud, and left the scrip for sale. That was the first time
that he had been out of the house before dark since his little
accident.

But he was chiefly tormented in these days by the want of amusement.
He had so spent his life hitherto that he did not know how to get
through a day in which no excitement was provided for him. He never
rea