"Found out!" exclaimed Lady Monogram, stopping her maid in some arrangement which would not need to be continued in the event of her not going to the reception. "What do you mean by found out?"
"I don't know exactly. There are a dozen stories told. It's something about that place he bought of old Longestaffe."
"Are the Longestaffes mixed up in it? I won't have her here a day longer if there is anything against them."
"Don't be an ass, Ju. There's nothing against him except that the poor old fellow hasn't got a shilling of his money."
"Then he's ruined,—and there's an end of them."
"Perhaps he will get it now. Some say that Melmotte has forged a receipt, others a letter. Some declare that he has manufactured a whole set of title-deeds. You remember Dolly?"
"Of course I know Dolly Longestaffe," said Lady Monogram, who had thought at one time that an alliance with Dolly might be convenient.
"They say he has found it all out. There was always something about Dolly more than fellows gave him credit for. At any rate, everybody says that Melmotte will be in quod before long."
"Not to-night, Damask!"
"Nobody seems to know. Lupton was saying that the policemen would wait about in the room like servants till the Emperor and the Princes had gone away."