I don't
earn the money.' Then he sat down and poured himself out a cup of tea,
and looked at the kidneys and looked at the fish.

'I suppose you were drinking last night,' said the old lord.

'Not particular.' The old man turned round and gnashed his teeth at
him. 'The fact is, sir, I don't drink. Everybody knows that.'

'I know when you're in the country you can't live without champagne.
Well;--what have you got to say about all this?'

'What have you got to say?'

'You've made a pretty kettle of fish of it.'

'I've been guided by you in everything. Come, now; you ought to own
that. I suppose the whole thing is over?'

'I don't see why it should be over. I'm told she has got her own
money.' Then Nidderdale described to his father Melmotte's behaviour
in the House on the preceding evening. 'What the devil does that
matter?' said the old man. 'You're not going to marry the man
himself.'

'I shouldn't wonder if he's in gaol now.'

'And what does that matter? She's not in gaol. And if the money is
hers, she can't lose it because he goes to prison. Beggars mustn't be
choosers. How do you mean to live if you don't marry this girl?'

'I shall scrape on, I suppose. I must look for somebody else.' The
Marquis showed very plainly by his demeanour that he did not give his
son much credit either for diligence or for ingenuity in making such a
search. 'At any rate, sir, I can't marry the daughter of a man who is
to be put upon his trial for forgery.'

'I can't see what that has to do with you.'

'I couldn't do it, sir. I'd do anything else to oblige you, but I
couldn't do that. And, moreover, I don't believe in the money.'

'Then you may just go to the devil,' said the old Marquis turning
himself round in his chair, and lighting a cigar as he took up the
newspaper. Nidderdale went on with his breakfast with perfect
equanimity, and when he had finished lighted his cigar. 'They tell
me,' said the old man, 'that one of those Goldsheiner girls will have
a lot of money.'

'A Jewess,' suggested Nidderdale.

'What difference does that make?'

'Oh no;--not in the least if the money's really there. Have you heard
any sum named, sir?'

The old man only grunted. 'There are two sisters and two brothers. I
don't suppose the girls would have a hundred thousand each.'

'They say the widow of that brewer who died the other day has about
twenty thousand a year.'

'It's only for her life, sir.'

'She could insure her life