ook his head and tried to look very grave.

'There's Brown,' said Sir Orlando Drought, hurrying up to the
commercial gentleman whose mistakes about finance Mr Melmotte on a
previous occasion had been anxious to correct. 'He'll be able to tell
us where he is. It was rumoured, you know, an hour ago, that he was
off to the continent after Cohenlupe.' But Mr Brown shook his head. Mr
Brown didn't know anything. But Mr Brown was very strongly of opinion
that the police would know all that there was to be known about Mr
Melmotte before this time on the following day. Mr Brown had been very
bitter against Melmotte since that memorable attack made upon him in
the House.

Even ministers as they sat to be badgered by the ordinary
question-mongers of the day were more intent upon Melmotte than upon
their own defence. 'Do you know anything about it?' asked the
Chancellor of the Exchequer of the Secretary of State for the Home
Department.

'I understand that no order has been given for his arrest. There is a
general opinion that he has committed forgery; but I doubt whether
they've got their evidence together.'

'He's a ruined man, I suppose,' said the Chancellor. 'I doubt whether
he ever was a rich man. But I'll tell you what;--he has been about
the grandest rogue we've seen yet. He must have spent over a hundred
thousand pounds during the last twelve months on his personal
expenses. I wonder how the Emperor will like it when he learns the
truth.' Another minister sitting close to the Secretary of State was
of opinion that the Emperor of China would not care half so much about
it as our own First Lord of the Treasury.

At this moment there came a silence over the House which was almost
audible. They who know the sensation which arises from the continued
hum of many suppressed voices will know also how plain to the ear is
the feeling caused by the discontinuance of the sound. Everybody
looked up, but everybody looked up in perfect silence. An
Under-Secretary of State had just got upon his legs to answer a most
indignant question as to an alteration of the colour of the facings of
a certain regiment, his prepared answer to which, however, was so
happy as to allow him to anticipate quite a little triumph. It is not
often that such a Godsend comes in the way of an under-secretary; and
he was intent upon his performance. But even he was startled into
momentary oblivion of his well-arranged point. Augustus Melmotte, the
member for